Installing WordPress on Rackspace Cloud Sites : Step by Step Guide

We have published lot of theoretical articles on Cloud Computing and Cloud Hosting. This is a practical guide for installing WordPress on Rackspace Cloud Sites. The Rackspace Cloud uses their own version of Control Panel, which is very elegant looking and easy to use. However, switching from cPanel can create confusion for the initial few hours. There are lot of Knowledgebase articles and articles written by the Rackers has been published on Installing WordPress on Rackspace Cloud Sites, but this step by step guide will be the ultimate guide for installing WordPress on Rackspace Cloud Sites, simply as we will take the person who will read have no knowledge about anything, except the minimum need of knowledge of using a computer.

Preparation before Installing WordPress on Rackspace Cloud Sites

• If you are using Windows OS, you can download WinSCP for accessing SFTP. However, we do not recommend to use Windows OS for huge FTP work like installing WordPress on Rackspace Cloud Sites. Consider using any version of Linux or Mac OS. Yummy FTP can be used for Mac OS X.
• You may or may not have a domain pre-registered.
• Chrome works best for accessing the Rackspace Control Panel.
• Obviously, you need to create an account on The Rackspace Cloud. The style of Rackspace is totally different from the rest. Chat with the support, get an account, get verified by a phone call by a human from Rackspace.
• Download the latest version of WordPress, only from WordPress. Unzip it on a convenient place on your computer like Desktop.

Preparation phase 2 before Installing WordPress on Rackspace Cloud Sites

Now, you need to login to your The Rackspace Cloud Control Panel. Rackspace Control Panel and everything is arranged in a way, so that even a donkey will not face any problem while installing WordPress Rackspace Cloud Sites. However, there is 24 x 7 Live Chat available. Installing WordPress Rackspace Cloud Sites is just a fun, that is why I am saying the things so lightly. There is no existing support in the World for any product who can give Rackspace like support.

Login to the Control panel, click Hosting and then Cloud Sites :

Click Add a Site :

A wizard will come. it does not matter whether the domain you are going to add. simple type it –

• If you already own the domain – Simply check the box saying you purchase it and click next.
• If you are going to buy the domain – Another simple wizard will appear.

Now, you have to choose a plan, select one and go to the next page. If you want to create a custom plan, click Clients > Client Plans and create a new plan. Do not worry, the prices mentioned there will not be charged on your bill. They are for reselling :

In the “Add New Site” wizard which we are talking about, you will get “Add Additional Features” options. Keep it like this as we are Installing WordPress on Rackspace Cloud Sites :

Microsoft SQL Server Storage – Off
Databases – Unlimited Databases
Default Technology – Linux / Apache / PHP 5.2.0

Click next step, your billing will be $ 0.00. Click Finish. You will see “Successfully added website to account” message. Now click the features tab :

Click Add under Databases. (Note : if you scroll down this page, you will see the Cron Jobs)

Now open any Text Editor. Give the database a name, click continue and write the database name in your Text Editor. In the next page, you will have to add a Database Username and password, use anything and write down it in your text editor. Click Finish.

The database will be created and it generally takes 2-5 minutes for proper functioning. You will see the hyperlinked database name under Databases. Simply clicking it will open the Database Information page :

Sorry for the pixalated illustration. Blame the Vaccine Seller.

Copy and paste the ‘Hostname’ in your text editor. Now, go to the Cloud Files under Hosting options. It is actually the Akamai CDN, the person is reading it for Installing WordPress Rackspace Cloud Sites will not mind shelling out $ 1 / month extra for a CDN. That is why CDN part is integrated with this Installing WordPress Rackspace Cloud Sites guide.

Click Cloud Files under Hosting and click ‘Add a Container’ :

At the lower end of the page, there will be details. Check the box “Publish to CDN”. Copy the CDN url :

This part is the only thing I really hate about Rackspace – you can not increase the TTL above 72 hours from Control panel. You need to install cakePHP and use API to increase the TTL. Though the Edge server theoretically should get the TTL increased automatically, but for WordPress even the reverse can happen.

Optional Fancy Stuffs With Installing WordPress Rackspace Cloud Sites Guide

Custom name-servers : like ns1.yourdomain.com -> Go to Cloud Sites -> Click the Domain name you want to add fancy custom name-servers, add A Record named ns1.yourdomain.com -> the ip will be of your Domain -> repeat for ns2, ns3 etc. Ask your domain register to add a glue record with the ip and the name-server you want to use.

Adding Custom name-servers can increase the page loading time for few milliseconds and might not be able to use the full advantage of Rackspace default NS.

Custom CDN : Same, like cdn1.yourdomain.com -> Go to Cloud Sites -> Click the Domain name you want to add fancy custom cdn name, add cname Record named cdn1.yourdomain.com -> the url will be that of the container mentioned above.

Everything done. Nothing left to do on the Rackspace Control Panel. If the domain is newly purchased, it should be live by now. Open the url in browser – it will show the default Rackspace html page. If you are using a domain registered elsewhere, go to that account. Change the name=servers to :

You can check DNS propagation here. For Rackspace propagation takes few minutes.

Installing WordPress on Rackspace Cloud Sites

Now, open yummyftp or WinSCP. Connect to open your :

root/www.yourdomain.com/web/content/

Delete the index.html file and copy all the files from the unzipped WordPress folder to this content folder. Now, rename that wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php

You have to Edit only the lines 19, 22 and 25, namely :

19 define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘database_name_here‘);

22 define(‘DB_USER’, ‘username_here‘);

25 define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘password_here‘);

Change this line localhost to our copied? Hostname ?that is edited with the Vaccine Seller’s image Editor which I said got pixalated :

28 define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘localhost‘);

To something, but not exactly like :

28 define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘mysql55-30.wc1.dfw1.stabletransit.com‘);

It is important to add the unique salt keys. Go to Google Search and search with “WordPress Salt Keys” and click the result “WordPress secret key generator”. It is an unique key. Replace the whole bunch of default salt keys.

Final Step of Installing WordPress Rackspace Cloud Sites

Now, go to : http://example.com/wp-admin/install.php ; where example.com is your domain name, if it is, abcd.org, then you should go to : http://abcd.org/wp-admin/install.php ; when we did install WordPress for this site, we went to https://thecustomizewindows.com/wp-admin/install.php (Do not try ours, there is nothing.)

Just fill the fields to properly Install WordPress.

Now go to your web folder (in WinSCP or YummyFTP) and delete these files :

install.php in wp-admin folder; this is very dangerous to keep as it is. Most forum softwares needs this step as mandatory.

Delete license.txt, license.html files at the root.

Done. Change the permalink from WordPress Admin panel. It will create the .htacess file. Add at the beginning of the .htaccess:

php_value memory_limit 512M

Now, we need to configure CDN. Here is the full guide how to do it. This is a complete post on installing WordPress on Rackspace Cloud Sites. Rackspace should give me ‘Rackspace worst donkey award (RS WDA)’ like the Vaccine Seller gives.

Important : You can get more help on Cloud Sites in Rackspace Knowledge Center, which can help you while installing WordPress on Rackspace Cloud Sites.