wordpress gcr

Wordpress on Cloud Run

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Wordpress on Cloud Run

Run on Google Cloud

Launch a WordPress container on Google Cloud Run that uses a Cloud SQL (or an external MySQL) database and a Google Cloud Storage (GCS) bucket for media uploads.

Requirements

  • A Cloud SQL database OR external MySQL database that can be accessed remotely via external IP address.

    • A Cloud SQL database can be created quickly by downloading the createCloudSQL.sh script and running it in Cloud Shell.

    • A cheap, dirty, not production recommeded, and probably insecure database option is to deploy Google MySQL VM on GCP with an externally exposed IP & firewall configured to accept traffic on port 3306 from anywhere. This option could even be free (i.e eligible for Google Cloud free tier) if the VM is located in a US region (excluding Northern Virginia [us-east4]) and configured ( or re-configured after deployment) with 1 f1-micro instanc and max 30 GB HDD.

  • A Google Cloud Storage (GCS) Bucket with its object default permission configured for allUsers so that uploaded images are publicly available.

    • The bucket permission can be configures using the command: gsutil defacl ch -u AllUsers:R gs://your-gcs-bucket-name
    • Can also see this plugin support response on how to configure permission on the GCS bucket.

Deployment Parameters

The Run on Google Cloud deployment will prompt for the environment variables “DB_HOST”,“DB_USER”,“DB_PASSWORD”, “DB_NAME” & CLOUDSQL_INSTANCE.

  • "DB_HOST is externally exposed IP address to access the MySQL database or the Cloud SQL host (The default value is “localhost”)
    If you are using Cloud SQL set this to 127.0.0.1

  • “DB_USER” is the MySQL or Cloud SQL database username (The default value is “root”)

  • “DB_PASSWORD” is the MySQL or Cloud SQL database user password (The default value is “password”)

  • “DB_NAME” is the name of the database for WordPress on MySQL or Cloud SQL ( The default value is “wordpress”)

  • “CLOUDSQL_INSTANCE” if you using Cloud SQL, this is the Cloud SQL instance connection name that you get from Cloud SQL Overiew Tab. This should be provided in the format poject.id:region:instance-name

    • CLOUDSQL_INSTANCE is not a required parameter. It can therefore be ignored if you are not using Cloud SQL.

Deploy Manually

If you do not want to use the above “Run on Google Cloud Button”, then you can:

  • Clone the repository ( using the command git clone https://github.com/lans-repos/wordpress-gcr.git)

  • Cd to wordpress-gcr

  • Build the docker image (using the command docker build -t gcr.io/[PROJECT-ID]/wordpress-gcr . )

  • Push the image to Cloud Registry (using the command docker push gcr.io/[PROJECT-ID]/wordpress-gcr)

  • Deploy the image from Cloud Registry to Cloud Run.

    If your are using a Cloud SQL database then deploy using the command after replacing PROJECT-ID, DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD & CLOUDSQL_INSTANCE with the relevant values:

     gcloud beta run deploy wordpress-gcr  --image gcr.io/[PROJECT-ID]/wordpress-gcr --set-env-vars DB_HOST='127.0.0.1',DB_NAME=<dbname>,DB_USER=<dbuser>,DB_PASSWORD=<dbpass>,CLOUDSQL_INSTANCE='poject.id:region:instance-name'

    If you are using an exertnal MysQL database then deploy using the command after replacing PROJECT-ID, DB_HOST, DB_NAME, DB_USER & DB_PASSWORD with the relevant values:

     gcloud beta run deploy wordpress-gcr  --image gcr.io/[PROJECT-ID]/wordpress-gcr --set-env-vars DB_HOST=<dbhost>,DB_NAME=<dbname>,DB_USER=<dbuser>,DB_PASSWORD=<dbpass>

Post Deployment & GCS plugin

After deployment & installionton of Wordpress , sign into WP-ADMIN, go to plugins, activate the GCS plugin , go the GCS plugin settings and input the url of the GCS bucket.

Creating, Editing Wordpress Pages & Site

This is done the same way it is done with any other type of Wordpress depolyment.

Wordpress stores page & site content in the connected database ( on Cloud SQL or external MySQL) and the media files are stored in the GCS bucket configured in the GCS plugin . The site content & media will therefore survive/persist when the Cloud Run container scales down to zero.

Update / Install / Delete WordPress plugins or themes

This has to be done locally in Google Cloud Shell and then pushed (i.e redployed) to Cloud Run and requires the use of the wp-cli utility and the wordpress directory included in this repository.

Since the Run on Google Cloud deployment uses Cloud Shell “Trusted Environment” it might be advisable to return to Cloud Shell Default enviroment and pull a clone of this repository before you start any of the steps below:

  • Install the wp-cli utility using composer:

    composer require wp-cli/wp-cli-bundle

  • A wp-config.php file , with the correct values for the DB_HOST, DB_NAME, DB_USER , DB_PASSWORD , CLOUDSQL_INSTANCE variables , is required in the wordpress directory before you can use the wp-cli utility.

    • This will be true if image had already be deployed( using the button or mannually) to Cloud Run.

    • If the wp-config.php is not present in the wordpress directory or if the file is present but does not have the correct values for DB_HOST, DB_NAME, DB_USER & DB_PASSWORD, CLOUDSQL_INSTANCE variables then copy wp-config.php from the root directory to the wordpress directory and provide the correct values for DB_HOST, DB_NAME, DB_USER & DB_PASSWORD, CLOUDSQL_INSTANCE variables

  • From inside the wordpress directory ( i.e. cd to wordpress ) you can now update plugins and themes using the commands wp cli commands:

    vendor/bin/wp plugin update --all

    vendor/bin/wp theme update --all

  • You can also use the several wp plugin <command> or wp theme <command> to install , delete, activate, or act upon any individual plugins or themes.

  • You can also, from inside the wordpress directory, run the wp-cli command wp server to locally launch PHP’s built-in web server and then use Cloud Shell Web Preview feature to access the local version of the wordpress site. You can login to wordpress admin and update plugins or themes.

  • After locally updating plugins or themes, you need to rebuild the docker image, push it to Cloud Registry and then push (redeploy) the updated image to Cloud Run by running the following three commands:

      docker build -t gcr.io/[PROJECT-ID]/wordpress-gcr .
  
  docker push gcr.io/[PROJECT-ID]/wordpress-gcr

  gcloud beta run deploy wordpress-gcr  --image gcr.io/[PROJECT-ID]/wordpress-gcr --set-env-vars DB_HOST='127.0.0.1',DB_NAME=<dbname>,DB_USER=<dbuser>,DB_PASSWORD=<dbpass>,CLOUDSQL_INSTANCE='poject.id:region:instance-name'

    In the above commands [PROJECT-ID] is your gcp project-id. It also assumes the use of a Cloud SQL database and that the Cloud Run service name is wordpress-gcr.

    The proccess of rebuilding the docker image and redeploying it to the Cloud Run service could be automated using Cloud Build Triggers.

  • The wordpress core can not be updated using the above steps (as only the content of the local wordpress/wp-contnet/plugins & wordpress/wp-contnet/themes is copied into the new image).

    • The initial deployment however uses latest wordpress image and the Dockerfile always pulls the latest wordpress docker image.
    • The wordpress core is therefore updated each time the image is rebuilt for re-deployment.

Cloud Run Custom Domain Mapping

If you decide to use Cloud Run Custom Domain mapping on the Wordpress deployment then you have to remember that Cloud Run only maps a domain to /, but not to a specific base path.

This means a url path like https://yourcustomdomain.com/contact.php will not be mapped !

To get the custom domain to map to all url paths beyound /, you need to

  • Edit the wp-config.php files to add

     define( 'WP_HOME', 'https://yourcustomdomain.com' ); 
  
 define( 'WP_SITEURL', 'https://yourcustomdomain.com/' );

  • Then rebuild the docker image, push it to Cloud Registry and then push (redeploy) the updated image to Cloud Run by running the following three commands:

     docker build -t gcr.io/[PROJECT-ID]/wordpress-gcr .
 
 docker push gcr.io/[PROJECT-ID]/wordpress-gcr

 gcloud beta run deploy wordpress-gcr  --image gcr.io/[PROJECT-ID]/wordpress-gcr --set-env-vars DB_HOST='127.0.0.1',DB_NAME=<dbname>,DB_USER=<dbuser>,DB_PASSWORD=<dbpass>,CLOUDSQL_INSTANCE='poject.id:region:instance-name'

    In the above commands [PROJECT-ID] is your gcp project-id. It also assumes the use of a Cloud SQL database and that Cloud Run service name is wordpress-gcr.

Access Control

If , for security or cost management purposes, you need to control access to the site you can configure Cloud Run’s access mananging via IAM feature.

Firebase & CDN Integration

Coming Soon 😃

Is Wordpress on Cloud Run a good idea?

That is a great question !

I will agree that Cloud Run’s stateless container model makes Wordpress admin & update cumbersome and time consuming. Hence this might only appeal to an enthustiast or a DevOps that likes over-engineered solutions.

I however think that the fact that Wordpress on AppEngine is also stateless & severless suggests this architecture does have some technically benefits.😄

WordPress on Cloud Run might be perfect & cheap for a site that gets periodic, unpredictable spikes of intense traffic. It will be non-ideal and expensive(due to Cloud Run’s billing model) for a site that gets regular and consistent traffic.