Description

This is a template for deploying a WordPress across multiple servers. By default, this template will create a Cloud Load Balancer, a database server, an admin/master node, and a web node. Content will be kept in sync across the admin/master node and the remaining nodes leveraging lsyncd. This template is leveraging chef-solo to setup the server.

Requirements

• A Heat provider that supports the following:
  • OS::Heat::ChefSolo
  • OS::Heat::RandomString
  • Rackspace::Cloud::LoadBalancer
  • OS::Heat::ResourceGroup
  • Rackspace::Cloud::Server
  • OS::Nova::KeyPair
• An OpenStack username, password, and tenant id.
• python-heatclient >= v0.2.8:

pip install python-heatclient

We recommend installing the client within a Python virtual environment.

Example Usage

Here is an example of how to deploy this template using the python-heatclient:

heat --os-username <OS-USERNAME> --os-password <OS-PASSWORD> --os-tenant-id \
  <TENANT-ID> --os-auth-url https://identity.api.rackspacecloud.com/v2.0/ \
  stack-create WordPress-Multi -f wordpress-multi-server.yaml \
  -P domain=example.org

• For UK customers, use https://lon.identity.api.rackspacecloud.com/v2.0/ as the --os-auth-url.

Optionally, set environmental variables to avoid needing to provide these values every time a call is made:

export OS_USERNAME=<USERNAME>
export OS_PASSWORD=<PASSWORD>
export OS_TENANT_ID=<TENANT-ID>
export OS_AUTH_URL=<AUTH-URL>

Parameters

Parameters can be replaced with your own values when standing up a stack. Use the -P flag to specify a custom parameter.

• username: Username for system, database, and WordPress logins. (Default: wp_user)
• domain: Domain to be used with this WordPress site (Default: example.com)
• wp_web_server_flavor: Cloud Server size to use on all of the additional web nodes. (Default: 2 GB Performance)
• wp_web_server_hostnames: Hostname to use for all additional WordPress web nodes (Default: WordPress-Web%index%)
• image: Required: Server image used for all servers that are created as a part of this deployment. (Default: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin))
• child_template: Location of the child template to use for the WordPress web servers (Default: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rackspace-orchestration-templates/wordpress-multi/master/wordpress-web-server.yaml)
• load_balancer_hostname: Hostname for the Cloud Load Balancer (Default: WordPress-Load-Balancer)
• prefix: Prefix to use for database table names. (Default: wp_)
• database_server_flavor: Cloud Server size to use for the database server. Sizes refer to the amount of RAM allocated to the server. (Default: 4 GB Performance)
• kitchen: URL for the kitchen to use, fetched using git (Default: https://github.com/rackspace-orchestration-templates/wordpress-multi)
• database_server_hostname: Hostname to use for your WordPress Database Server (Default: WordPress-Database)
• database_name: WordPress database name (Default: wordpress)
• wp_master_server_hostname: Hostname to use for your WordPress web-master server. (Default: WordPress-Master)
• wp_web_server_count: Number of web servers to deploy in addition to the web-master (Default: 1)
• version: Version of WordPress to install (Default: 3.9.1)
• wp_master_server_flavor: Cloud Server size to use for the web-master node. The size should be at least one size larger than what you use for the web nodes. This server handles all admin calls and will ensure files are synced across all other nodes. (Default: 2 GB Performance)
• chef_version: Version of chef client to use (Default: 11.12.8)

Outputs

Once a stack comes online, use heat output-list to see all available outputs. Use heat output-show <OUTPUT NAME> to get the value fo a specific output.

• private_key: SSH private that can be used to login as root to the server.
• load_balancer_ip: Public IP address of the Load Balancer
• database_server_ip: Public IP of Database Server
• wordpress_web_master_ip: WordPress web-master server IP
• wordpress_web_ips: List of WordPress web server IPs
• wordpress_user: Username for database, system, and WordPress logins
• wordpress_password: Password for the wordpress_user
• mysql_root_password: Root password for MySQL

For multi-line values, the response will come in an escaped form. To get rid of the escapes, use echo -e '<STRING>' > file.txt. For vim users, a substitution can be done within a file using %s/\\n/\r/g.

Stack Details

If you provided a domain name that is associated with your Rackspace Cloud account and chose to create DNS records, you will be able to navigate to the provided domain name in your browser. If DNS has not been configured yet, please refer to this documentation on how to setup your hosts file to allow your browser to access your deployment via domain name. Please note: some applications like WordPress may not work properly unless accessed via domain name.

A system user of 'wp_user' or the username you provided as a part of your deployment has been created. This user can be used to SCP, SFTP, or FTP content over to your site. We recommend using SCP or any encrypted protocol. Clear text protocols such as FTP could inadvertently expose your user credentials.

WordPress is installed in /var/www/vhosts/wordpress/ and served by Apache. The web site configuration is in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled. The configuration file will be named using the domain name used as a part of this deployment (for example, domain.com.conf).

In order to significantly improve performance, Apache has been moved to run on port 8080, and Varnish is listening on port 80. Varnish will cache content served by WordPress, store it in memory, and then serve it from memory if any subsequent requests are made for the same content. A special configuration file build for WordPress is in place. The configuration can be found in /etc/varnish. Be aware that Varnish can cause issues with certain WordPress plugins. A pass line may need to be added

Lsyncd has been in installed to sync static content across the front end servers. All new content will be published to the master node and then synced across with lsync to the other web nodes. When uploading content while migrating a site, you'll only need to upload the content to the master node. The configuration for lsync can be found in /etc/lsyncd.

vsftpd has been installed to allow you FTP access to the content of your site. As mentioned earlier, you can use the WordPress username and password provided as the credentials for FTP. Only the admin/master node will have vsftpd installed. Lsyncd will handle syncing any new content to web nodes.

MySQL is the database backend used in this deployment. The MySQL root password is included in the outs section of this deployment. If you do lose the password, it is also available in /root/.my.cnf. MySQL backups are performed locally by Holland. The backups will be stored in /var/lib/mysqlbackup.

Updating WordPress

If you'd like to update WordPress to the newest version, you can leverage the One-click Update now available through the web interface. This is the simplest, most pain free way to upgrade your installation. Keeping your installation up to date is important for maintaining site security.

Migrating an Existing Site

If you'd like to move your existing site to this deployment, there are plugins available such as duplicator or WP Migrate DB that can help ease the migration process. This will give you a copy of the database that you can import into this deployment. There are a number of other tools to help with this process. Static content that is stored on the filesystem will need to be moved manually.

Contributing

There are substantial changes still happening within the OpenStack Heat project. Template contribution guidelines will be drafted in the near future.

License

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.