How to Install WordPress on Linode

Linode is a popular alternative to DigitalOcean, offering affordable servers from data centers located around the globe. Standard Linodes offer a good balance of performance and cost and are well suited for deploying a web server tuned for hosting WordPress websites.

Let’s go ahead and connect a Linode server to SpinupWP. Before you start this process, you will need to sign up for a Linode account if you don’t already have one (you can sign up right on their homepage).

Once signed in, click Create Linode. When adding a new server via Linode:

  1. Select Ubuntu 22.04 LTS as the linux distribution.
  2. Select a server region where the server will be located.
  3. Select a Linode plan, which will determine how many sites you can host on the server and the amount of traffic it will be able to handle. Check out our Server Size doc if you need more help selecting a Linode plan.
  4. Enter a unique label for the server.
  5. Enter a root password.
  6. Add your SSH key to the server.

All other options can be configured as required, or left as their default values.

Linode options

Once the server has been created copy the server’s IP address. SSH to the server using the root user:

ssh root@178.79.143.178

As you added your SSH key during the instance creation, the connection to the server should succeed. If not, double-check your connection settings.

Head over to SpinupWP and click Spin Up a New Server followed by I’ve already provisioned a fresh server. Enter the server’s public IP address and select Public Key authentication. The remaining options can be left as their default values.

If using password-based approach instead of certificate-based approach, ensure the server is ready to accept connections by clicking the Launch LISH Console button in Linode. Wait to see the login prompt appear before proceeding with the provision. Failing to do so frequently leads to provision timeouts.

SpinupWP provision server

Copy the command provided by SpinupWP into the SSH terminal session. Confirm the connection by clicking Next in SpinupWP. Enter the server’s hostname, desired timezone, and select the database server to install.

Click Provision Server to begin the provisioning process. SpinupWP will take care of installing Nginx, PHP-FPM, MySQL and any other software required for hosting WordPress.

SpinupWP Provisioning

Once the server has finished provisioning, your Linode VPS is ready for WordPress sites or other web apps. Check out our Getting Started doc if you need more information.

Linode and SMTP

To prevent spam email abuse on their instances, Linode restricts outbound connections from ports 25, 465, and 587 for any instances (Linodes) created on new customer accounts.

If you have a legitimate need to send mail from a Linode, you need to configure the appropriate A records and reverse DNS records and then request a manual review by opening a support ticket. The support ticket should include the names of the Linode(s) that will be used for sending emails.