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02 / Tutorials · 2.2

Your first site.

Create a WordPress site, check that the page cache serves it, and take its first backup, verified by a restore test.

Type
Tutorial
Level
Basic
Needs
CloudGround installed and your administrator account · A domain whose DNS A record points at the server's address
Version
unreleased
Last verified
Unverified

In this tutorial you put a WordPress site online on <domain>, watch the page cache at work and take the first backup. <domain> is the domain you pointed at the server, for example blog.example.com.

Set the certificate email​

With an email set, the panel requests the site's certificate as soon as it creates the site.

  1. Open Settings.
  2. In the Certificates card, type an address in Let's Encrypt email.
  3. Press Save.

Create the site​

  1. Open Sites and press New site. The New site dialog opens.
  2. In Domain type <domain>.
  3. In Type keep WordPress.
  4. In Performance profile keep Recommended (Balanced).
  5. Fill in Site title and Admin email, and leave Admin username at admin.
  6. In Admin password choose a password of at least 12 characters. You will sign in to WordPress with it.
  7. In the Database part, keep the name, the user and the password the panel proposes.
  8. Press Create site.

The dialog becomes the site's summary. At the top, the creation's steps run by: the panel creates the system user and the database, installs WordPress, writes the nginx and PHP configuration and requests the certificate. Below are the site's and the panel's addresses, the WordPress user and the database's credentials.

  1. Press Download as .txt and keep the file somewhere safe: the database password is shown only here.
  2. Press Close.

The site appears in the list with the status provisioning. When it is done the status becomes active.

Open the site​

In the site list, press the site's name: its page opens. Press Visit ↗. The browser shows the WordPress home page, over HTTPS.

To reach the dashboard, go back to the site's page and press Log in to WordPress: the panel takes you to wp-admin without asking for the password.

Watch the cache at work​

From your computer, request the home page twice and look at the X-CloudGround-Cache header:

bash
curl -sI https://<domain>/ | grep -i x-cloudground-cache
curl -sI https://<domain>/ | grep -i x-cloudground-cache

The first answer says MISS: PHP generated the page and it went into the cache. The second says HIT: nginx served it from disk, without reaching PHP.

Connect the backup repository​

Backups go to a restic repository. For this tutorial you use a folder on the server itself.

  1. Open Settings, card Off-site backups (restic).
  2. In Backup destination pick This server (a local folder).
  3. In Folder type /var/backups/cloudground.
  4. Next to Repository password press Generate, then Download, and keep the file somewhere else: losing the password means losing the backups.
  5. Press Save, then Test connection. The panel answers Repository reachable: 0 snapshots.

Take the first backup​

  1. Open the site's page and go to the Backups tab.
  2. Press Back up now.

The backup appears in the list with Restore test at pending. Right after the backup, the panel restores it to one side and checks that the files and the database really come back. When the restore test finishes, the status becomes passed and Estimated restore time shows how long restoring it would take.

Next step​

You have a cached site with a verified backup. To understand what happens on every request, read the path of a request.

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