Hands-On Linux: Self-Hosted Wordpress For Linux Beginners

A practical, project-based crash course that prepares you for real-life Linux and Cloud work

What you'll learn
Updated for Ubuntu 22.04!
Learn Linux skills by setting up a WordPress hosting platform
Configure a production-grade WordPress install on Linux
Configure your hosting platform on Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Bonus Packer Mini-Course: Dip your toes into the world of modern DevOps
Set up TLS (for free!) with letsencrypt so your users can enjoy the security of HTTPS
Tune webserver performance and set up caching for lightning-fast page loads
Set up and configure the popular MySQL database
Be comfortable working with an nginx web server
Configure monitoring for your web hosting server
Create and manage Linux system users
Manage Linux file permissions
Understand the basics of how HTTP, the Web protocol, works
Understand basic and more advanced Bash shell concepts and skills
Schedule commands to run periodically on Linux with Cron
Manage remote servers using SSH
Automate repetitive tasks with Ansible, a powerful automation and configuration management tool
Create and Restore website backups, both on the filesystem and in the MySQL database
Effectively perform security hardening on Linux servers and services
Requirements
Know what Linux is
Know what servers and web hosting are
Know what an IP address and a domain name are
Have a working Internet connection and a Windows, Macintosh, or Linux computer to follow along on
If you already have a webserver somewhere, great! If not, I'll show you how to set one up for around $5/month.
Be able to download and use a text editor like Sublime Text or vscode (both free)
Description
Learn Linux, Cloud, and DevOps basics in a practical, project-based course designed to get you *using* new skills as soon as you learn them.By the time you finish, you'll be extremely comfortable on the Linux command-line, and you'll have a self-hosted production-grade WordPress hosting platform (on AWS, another cloud host, or a local virtual machine) that you can use to host any number of WordPress sites for friends, family, and clients. It also happens to cost less and be more secure than most WordPress hosting plans :-).Other courses focus on slow memorization of theory and commands, which doesn't produce real-life skills. This course throws you into real-life Linux tasks from the very beginning. Even if you've never worked with Linux before, give me a few hours and you'll be installing and configuring software from the command line, managing system services, working with a remote server, hardening security, scheduling backups and testing your disaster recovery plan, performing basic scripting and automation, and setting up monitoring for your infrastructure.While you're doing this, you'll get a slow drip of theory, giving you just enough background to hang your new practical knowledge on and ensuring that you know what's going on underneath the covers. I've worked in the industry for a long time and this is the only way I've seen theory really 'stick' with people.Over the course of a few afternoons, you'll have completed a serious (and actually useful) project, understand the basics of Linux and system administration, and be comfortable on the Linux terminal; ready to take on larger and more complicated projects or build on the foundation of your WordPress hosting platform.What we build together during this course is also a great resume project to bring up during interviews. Countless students who have taken this course are now Linux, DevOps, and Software engineers in the real world.

Overview

Section 1: Introduction

Lecture 1 How this Course is different from what you're used to

Lecture 2 Course Requirements

Lecture 3 Who is this Instructor Guy, Anyway?

Lecture 4 What This Course Will Give You: Step by Step

Section 2: Let's Get Started

Lecture 5 Option 1: Install Virtualbox

Lecture 6 Install VMWare Player

Lecture 7 Download Ubuntu

Lecture 8 Install Ubuntu on Virtualbox

Lecture 9 Configure Guest Additions on Virtualbox

Lecture 10 ALTERNATIVE: Install Ubuntu on VMWare Player

Section 3: Your First Linux Server

Lecture 11 Hosting Basics – Why You Need a Virtual Private Server

Lecture 12 IMPORTANT: Use Official GitHub Instructions when copy-pasting Commands!

Lecture 13 Create an SSH Key and Use it on DigitalOcean

Lecture 14 Provisioning and Connecting to Your First Remote Linux Server

Lecture 15 Linux Command-Line: The Absolute Basics

Lecture 16 Connecting to Your Server: Basic SSH

Lecture 17 Updating and Installing Software on Ubuntu

Lecture 18 Installing Required Software for our Hosting Platform

Lecture 19 Linux Services Overview

Lecture 20 Service Management with systemd

Lecture 21 Module 1 Review

Section 4: Setting Up Your Hosting Platform

Lecture 22 Module 2 Introduction

Lecture 23 How to Edit Files with nano

Lecture 24 Advanced Bash Shell Usage

Lecture 25 How Configuration Files Work in Linux

Lecture 26 Creating a System User: Linux Users and Groups

Lecture 27 Changing Ownership and Permissions (and Reading Binary Code!)

Lecture 28 Basic nginx Webserver Configuration

Lecture 29 HTTP Basics: How the Web Works

Lecture 30 Basic php-fpm Configuration

Lecture 31 Interprocess Communication (IPC) and Linux/Unix Filetypes

Lecture 32 How Relational Databases Work

Lecture 33 MySQL Database Setup and Security

Lecture 34 Module 2 Review

Section 5: WordPress Application Setup

Lecture 35 Module 3 Introduction

Lecture 36 Configuring an nginx Virtual Host for your Website

Lecture 37 Removing the Default nginx vhost Configuration

Lecture 38 Configuring the php-fpm Pool for your Website

Lecture 39 Creating a System User for your Website

Lecture 40 Create a Database and DB User in MySQL

Lecture 41 Downloading and Installing the WordPress Application

Lecture 42 Ownership and Permissions on WordPress Files

Lecture 43 WordPress Application Layout and Configuration Tweaks

Lecture 44 Making Your First Website Live

Lecture 45 Module 3 Review

Section 6: Day-to-Day WordPress Administration: Set Up an e-commerce Store!

Lecture 46 Module 4 Introduction

Lecture 47 General WordPress Site Settings

Lecture 48 WordPress User Management

Lecture 49 WordPress Pages, Posts, and Comments

Lecture 50 WordPress Menus

Lecture 51 WordPress Themes and Plugins

Lecture 52 WooCommerce Store Setup and Configuration

Lecture 53 Module 4 Review

Section 7: Professional Grade: Performance, Security, Automation, Monitoring, Backups

Lecture 54 Module 5 Introduction

Lecture 55 Performance Tuning

Lecture 56 Performance Tuning Review for Your WordPress Hosting Platform

Lecture 57 Security Overview

Lecture 58 SSH Hardening: Key-Based Authentication

Lecture 59 Automation Overview

Lecture 60 What is Configuration Management?

Lecture 61 Configuration Management and Automation with Ansible: A Crash Course

Lecture 62 Monitoring with Monit

Lecture 63 Securely View Monitoring Stats with SSH Local Forwarding

Lecture 64 Basic Backup Theory

Lecture 65 Scheduling Commands with Cron

Lecture 66 Filesystem Backups and Restores with tar

Lecture 67 How to Back Up and Restore Your Website Databases

Lecture 68 How to Compile Software: tarsnap

Lecture 69 Getting Started with Tarsnap: Next Steps

Section 8: Conclusion

Lecture 70 Conclusion

Lecture 71 Next Steps

Section 9: Extras, Next Steps, and Bonus Content

Lecture 72 The Entire Course Project, Step by Step in one Video

Lecture 73 Use Amazon Web Services (AWS) to host WordPress on the Cloud

Lecture 74 HTTPS Setup – Setting up TLS with letsencrypt and certbot

Lecture 75 Course Slides

Section 10: Bonus Mini-Course: Automate Your Server Config with Hashicorp Packer

Lecture 76 Install Packer

Lecture 77 Packer Project Structure and Overview

Lecture 78 In-Depth Packer Project Code Tour

Lecture 79 A peek at AWS resources during the Packer build process…

Lecture 80 Using your new Packer-built AMI

People with little to no knowledge of Linux - l'll teach you the basics of Linux, DevOps, and Cloud Infrastructure.,People who learn best in a practical, project-based way,Aspiring Linux, Cloud Infrastructure, or DevOps Engineers,Software Developers who are curious about what happens "behind the scenes" in the infrastructure world,People who want to understand how a professional-grade WordPress hosting platform works, NOT people who just want to get a simple WordPress site set up for blogging.