Cloud-1: Automated WordPress Deployment on AWS EC2

A fully automated, production-ready WordPress deployment system using Ansible, Docker, and modern DevOps practices.

Live Demo: https://cloud1.dev | phpMyAdmin: https://cloud1.dev/phpmyadmin

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📋 Table of Contents

• Overview
• Architecture
• Features
• Project Structure
• Prerequisites
• Quick Start
• Multi-Server Deployment
• Configuration
• Security
• Maintenance
• Troubleshooting

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🎯 Overview

Cloud-1 automates complete WordPress stack deployment on AWS EC2 using Ansible. Each service runs in an isolated Docker container with automatic SSL/TLS certificates, persistent data storage, and comprehensive security.

Key Features

• ✅ One-Command Deployment: ansible-playbook playbook.yml - from clean server to production
• ✅ Container Isolation: Each service in separate containers (1 process = 1 container)
• ✅ Data Persistence: All data survives container restarts and server reboots
• ✅ Security First: Firewall, SSL/TLS encryption, isolated database
• ✅ Multi-Server: Deploy to multiple servers simultaneously
• ✅ Maintainable: Modular Ansible roles

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🏗️ Architecture

System Overview

                                                                 Internet                                                                                                       
                                                                    │
                                                                    │ HTTPS (443) / HTTP (80)
                                                                    │
                                                               ┌────▼─────┐
                                                               │   EC2    │ UFW: 22, 80, 443
                                                               │ Instance │
                                                               └────┬─────┘
                                                                    │
                                                ┌───────────────────┼───────────────────┐
                                                │    Docker Network: cloud1_network     │
                                                │                                        │
                                                │  ┌────────────┐    ┌──────────────┐  │
                                                │  │   Nginx    │    │   Certbot    │  │
                                                │  │  :80, :443 │    │  (SSL Mgmt)  │  │
                                                │  └─────┬──────┘    └──────────────┘  │
                                                │        │                              │
                                                │  ┌─────▼──────┐    ┌──────────────┐  │
                                                │  │ WordPress  │    │ phpMyAdmin   │  │
                                                │  │ PHP-FPM    │    │   Apache     │  │
                                                │  └─────┬──────┘    └──────┬───────┘  │
                                                │        │                   │          │
                                                │  ┌─────▼───────────────────▼───────┐ │
                                                │  │      MariaDB (Internal)         │ │
                                                │  │         Port 3306               │ │
                                                │  └─────────────────────────────────┘ │
                                                └────────────────────────────────────────┘

Container Stack

Container	Image	Purpose	Ports
nginx	nginx:alpine	Reverse proxy, SSL termination	80, 443
wordpress	wordpress:6.4-php8.1-fpm-alpine	WordPress application	9000 (internal)
mysql	mariadb:10.11	Database	3306 (internal)
phpmyadmin	phpmyadmin:latest	Database GUI	80 (internal)
certbot	certbot/certbot:latest	SSL automation	-

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✨ Features

Automation

• 🤖 One-command deployment
• 🔄 Idempotent (safe to run multiple times)
• 📦 Zero manual configuration
• 🎯 Portable to any Ubuntu 22.04 instance

Security

• 🔒 Automatic Let's Encrypt SSL/TLS with renewal
• 🔥 UFW firewall (only ports 22, 80, 443)
• 🛡️ Database isolated from internet
• 🔑 Encrypted secrets with random passwords

Reliability

• 💾 Data persists across reboots
• 🔄 Auto-restart on failure
• ❤️ Health checks for dependencies
• 📊 Separate volumes for database/files/certificates

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📁 Project Structure

cloud-1/
├── README.md # This file  
├── .gitignore # Git exclusions  
│
├── ansible/ # Ansible automation code  
│ ├── ansible.cfg # Ansible configuration  
│ ├── inventory.ini # Server inventory (single server)  
│ ├── inventory.multi.example # Example multi-server inventory  
│ ├── server_key # SSH private key (DO NOT COMMIT) => (cp downloaded ec2 key)  
│ ├── playbook.yml # Main playbook - orchestrates all roles  
│ │
│ └── roles/ # Modular Ansible roles  
│ │
│ ├── ufw/ # Firewall configuration  
│ │ └── tasks/  
│ │ └── main.yml # UFW installation and rules  
│ │
│ ├── docker/ # Docker installation  
│ │ ├── tasks/  
│ │ │ └── main.yml # Install Docker, Docker Compose, Python libs  
│ │ └── handlers/  
│ │ └── main.yml # Docker service handlers (optional)  
│ │
│ ├── deploy/ # Application deployment  
│ │ ├── tasks/  
│ │ │ └── main.yml # Create directories, copy configs, start containers
│ │ └── templates/  
│ │ ├── docker-compose.yml.j2 # Docker Compose template (Jinja2)  
│ │ └── .env.j2 # Environment variables template  
│ │
│ ├── nginx/ # Web server configuration  
│ │ ├── tasks/  
│ │ │ └── main.yml # Copy Nginx configs  
│ │ └── templates/  
│ │ ├── nginx.conf.j2 # Main Nginx config  
│ │ └── default.conf.j2 # Site-specific config (WordPress + phpMyAdmin)  
│ │
│ └── tls/ # SSL/TLS certificate management  
│ └── tasks/  
│ └── main.yml # Let's Encrypt certificate acquisition  
└── server_key  

Key Files

• playbook.yml: Orchestrates all deployment roles
• inventory.ini: Defines target servers and variables
• roles/deploy/templates/docker-compose.yml.j2: Container definitions
• roles/nginx/templates/default.conf.j2: Nginx site configuration
• roles/tls/tasks/main.yml: Let's Encrypt certificate automation

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🔧 Prerequisites

Local Machine

Tool	Version	Install
Ansible	2.15+	brew install ansible (macOS) pip3 install ansible (other)
Python	3.8+	Pre-installed on most systems
SSH	Any	Pre-installed

AWS EC2 Instance

Requirement	Specification
Instance Type	t2.micro or larger (1GB RAM minimum)
OS	Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Storage	16GB minimum (20GB recommended)
Security Group	Ports 22, 80, 443 open

Security Group Configuration:

Type	Protocol	Port	Source	Description
SSH	TCP	22	0.0.0.0/0	SSH access
HTTP	TCP	80	0.0.0.0/0	HTTP (redirects to HTTPS)
HTTPS	TCP	443	0.0.0.0/0	HTTPS

Domain Configuration

Configure DNS A records pointing to your EC2 IP:

Type	Host	Answer	TTL
A	@	YOUR_EC2_IP	300
A	www	YOUR_EC2_IP	300

Verify:

nslookup camagru.dev
# Should return your EC2 IP

Quick Start

1. Clone Repository

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/cloud-1.git
cd cloud-1
2. Install Ansible

# macOS
brew install ansible

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y ansible

# Using pip
pip3 install ansible

# Verify
ansible --version

3. Configure SSH Key

# Copy your EC2 SSH key
cp /path/to/your-key.pem ansible/server_key

# Set permissions
chmod 400 ansible/server_key

4. Update Inventory

nano ansible/inventory.ini

Update with your details:

[webservers]
cloud1 ansible_host=YOUR_EC2_IP ansible_user=ubuntu ansible_ssh_private_key_file=./server_key

[webservers:vars]
ansible_python_interpreter=/usr/bin/python3
domain_name=your-domain.com

5. Test Connection

cd ansible
ansible all -m ping

Expected output:

cloud1 | SUCCESS => {
    "changed": false,
    "ping": "pong" }

6. Deploy

ansible-playbook playbook.yml

7. Access Your Site

• WordPress: https://your-domain.com
• phpMyAdmin: https://your-domain.com/phpmyadmin

Multi-Server Deployment

Deploy to multiple servers simultaneously for testing, staging, or production environments.

Method 1: Different Domains (Recommended)

Each server gets its own subdomain.

Create ansible/inventory.multi.example:

[webservers]
cloud1 ansible_host=54.167.107.133 ansible_user=ubuntu ansible_ssh_private_key_file=./server_key domain_name=camagru.dev
cloud2 ansible_host=54.167.107.200 ansible_user=ubuntu ansible_ssh_private_key_file=./server_key domain_name=cloud2.camagru.dev
cloud3 ansible_host=54.167.107.250 ansible_user=ubuntu ansible_ssh_private_key_file=./server_key domain_name=cloud3.camagru.dev

[webservers:vars]
ansible_python_interpreter=/usr/bin/python3

DNS Configuration:

Type Host Answer Purpose A @ 54.167.107.133 camagru.dev A cloud2 54.167.107.200 cloud2.camagru.dev A cloud3 54.167.107.250 cloud3.camagru.dev

Deploy:

ansible-playbook -i inventory.multi.example playbook.yml

Result:

✅ https://camagru.dev (Server 1) ✅ https://cloud2.camagru.dev (Server 2) ✅ https://cloud3.camagru.dev (Server 3)

Method 2: Selective Deployment

# Deploy only to cloud1
ansible-playbook playbook.yml --limit cloud1

# Deploy to cloud2 and cloud3
ansible-playbook playbook.yml --limit cloud2,cloud3

# Deploy to all (default)
ansible-playbook playbook.yml

Architecture: Load Balanced Setup

For production with same domain:

                Load Balancer
                  camagru.dev
                      │
         ┌────────────┼────────────┐
         ▼            ▼            ▼
    Server 1      Server 2     Server 3
   (WordPress)   (WordPress)  (WordPress)

Check Status

# SSH to server
ssh -i ansible/server_key ubuntu@YOUR_EC2_IP

# View running containers
docker ps

# Check specific container
docker logs cloud1_nginx
docker logs cloud1_wordpress
docker logs cloud1_mysql

Restart Services

# On server
cd /opt/cloud1

# Restart single service
docker-compose restart nginx

# Restart all
docker-compose restart

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