Guide to Setting Up LEMP on a Bare Metal VPS

Here's a dynamic version of the Bash script that will interactively prompt you to set up multiple WordPress websites on your LEMP bare-metal VPS.

Script: dynamic-wordpress-setup.sh

#!/bin/bash

echo "🔧 WordPress Multi-Site Setup on LEMP Stack"
echo "==========================================="

read -p "📌 How many WordPress sites do you want to set up? " SITE_COUNT

# Install LEMP Stack (once)
echo "🔄 Installing NGINX, MySQL, PHP..."
apt update && apt upgrade -y
apt install -y nginx mysql-server php-fpm php-mysql php-cli php-curl php-gd php-mbstring php-xml php-zip unzip curl wget certbot python3-certbot-nginx

# Secure MySQL (minimal)
echo "🔒 Securing MySQL..."
mysql_secure_installation <<EOF

y
rootpass
rootpass
y
y
y
y
EOF

PHP_VERSION="8.2"
WEB_ROOT="/var/www"
WP_URL="https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz"

# Download WordPress once
wget -q ${WP_URL} -O /tmp/wordpress.tar.gz
tar -xzf /tmp/wordpress.tar.gz -C /tmp/

# Loop through site setup
for (( i=1; i<=SITE_COUNT; i++ ))
do
    echo ""
    echo "🔧 Configuring site #$i"

    read -p "Domain (e.g., example.com): " DOMAIN
    read -p "MySQL Database Name: " DB_NAME
    read -p "MySQL User: " DB_USER
    read -s -p "MySQL Password: " DB_PASS
    echo ""

    SITE_DIR=${WEB_ROOT}/${DOMAIN}

    # Create DB
    mysql -u root <<EOF
CREATE DATABASE ${DB_NAME};
CREATE USER '${DB_USER}'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '${DB_PASS}';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON ${DB_NAME}.* TO '${DB_USER}'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EOF

    # Setup WordPress Files
    mkdir -p ${SITE_DIR}
    cp -r /tmp/wordpress/* ${SITE_DIR}
    cp ${SITE_DIR}/wp-config-sample.php ${SITE_DIR}/wp-config.php

    sed -i "s/database_name_here/${DB_NAME}/" ${SITE_DIR}/wp-config.php
    sed -i "s/username_here/${DB_USER}/" ${SITE_DIR}/wp-config.php
    sed -i "s/password_here/${DB_PASS}/" ${SITE_DIR}/wp-config.php

    chown -R www-data:www-data ${SITE_DIR}

    # NGINX Config
    NGINX_CONF="/etc/nginx/sites-available/${DOMAIN}"
    cat > ${NGINX_CONF} <<EOF
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name ${DOMAIN} www.${DOMAIN};

    root ${SITE_DIR};
    index index.php index.html;

    location / {
        try_files \$uri \$uri/ /index.php?\$args;
    }

    location ~ \.php\$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php${PHP_VERSION}-fpm.sock;
    }

    location ~ /\.ht {
        deny all;
    }
}
EOF

    ln -s ${NGINX_CONF} /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

    echo "✅ ${DOMAIN} configured and enabled in NGINX."
done

# Finalize NGINX
echo "🔁 Reloading NGINX..."
nginx -t && systemctl reload nginx

# SSL
for (( i=1; i<=SITE_COUNT; i++ ))
do
    read -p "🔐 Enter domain #$i again for SSL (or leave blank to skip): " SSL_DOMAIN
    if [ ! -z "$SSL_DOMAIN" ]; then
        certbot --nginx -d ${SSL_DOMAIN} -d www.${SSL_DOMAIN} --non-interactive --agree-tos -m admin@${SSL_DOMAIN}
    fi
done

echo "🚀 Setup complete! Visit each domain in your browser to finish WordPress installation."

How to Use

1. Save the Script:

    nano dynamic-wordpress-setup.sh
   

   Paste the script above and save with CTRL+O, Enter, then CTRL+X.

2. Make it Executable:

    chmod +x dynamic-wordpress-setup.sh
   

3. Run the Script:

    sudo ./dynamic-wordpress-setup.sh
   

Example Interaction

📌 How many WordPress sites do you want to set up? 2

🔧 Configuring site #1
Domain (e.g., example.com): site1.com
MySQL Database Name: site1_db
MySQL User: site1_user
MySQL Password: ********

🔧 Configuring site #2
Domain (e.g., example.com): site2.com
MySQL Database Name: site2_db
MySQL User: site2_user
MySQL Password: ********

🔐 Enter domain #1 again for SSL: site1.com
🔐 Enter domain #2 again for SSL: site2.com

What It Handles

• Fully automated LEMP stack installation

• Dynamic input for unlimited domains

• Individual WordPress + database setup

• NGINX site configs

• Let's Encrypt SSL