Getting Started With WP Squared

Overview #

WP Squared is a new product from WebPros International, LLC that simplifies your experience with WordPress® and allows even the most novice user to easily create a website. This document will walk through system requirements, installing WP Squared, and setting up your first WordPress website.

System requirements #

Before you begin to install WP Squared, verify that your server meets the hardware, license, and networking requirements.

Hardware requirements #

License requirements #

Obtain a WP Squared license from your hosting provider.

Your license is tied to your IP address, so make sure that you provide a valid, public IP address to your hosting provider or Customer Service.

Networking requirements #

Hostname #

Your hostname must meet the following requirements:

• Be a registered and fully-qualified domain name.
• Does not match any of your server’s domains.
• Be a maximum of 60 characters in length.
• Resolve to a valid IPv4 or IPv6 address.

IP addresses #

Your IP address must meet the following requirements:

• Be a valid IP address.

• Be a 1:1 NAT and NAT loopback configuration if your server resides in a NAT-configured network.

Ethernet device #

You must configure your Ethernet device with a static IP address and a fully-qualified hostname. The system attempts to detect and set the Ethernet device during the installation process.

Firewalls #

The installer will attempt to open the necessary ports during the installation process. We recommend that you disable operating system (OS) firewalls before you run the WP Squared installation.

To deactivate the firewall on an AlmaLinux server, run the following commands, where ~/firewall.rules represents the firewall rules file:

iptables-save > ~/firewall.rules
systemctl stop firewalld.service
systemctl disable firewalld.service

Utilities #

On AlmaLinux 8 systems, the WP Squared installer automatically disables the Network Manager service and enables the network.service service.

Disable SELinux #

You must disable SELinux to make your system compatible with WP Squared.

To disable SELinux, use one of the following methods:

• Use the graphical interface to disable SELinux while you configure your operating system, and then reboot the server.

• Edit the /etc/selinux/config file to set the SELINUX parameter to disabled, and then reboot the server. The contents of the /etc/selinux/config file should resemble the following example:

# This file controls the state of SELinux on the system.
# SELINUX= can take one of these three values:
# enforcing - SELinux security policy is enforced.
# permissive - SELinux prints warnings instead of enforcing.
# disabled - No SELinux policy is loaded.
SELINUX=disabled
# SELINUXTYPE= can take one of these two values:
# targeted - Only targeted network daemons are protected.
# strict - Full SELinux protection.
SELINUXTYPE=targeted

Perl installation #

Perl must exist on your server for WP Squared to successfully install. If Perl does not exist during installation, the WP Squared installer attempts to install Perl via the yum -y install perl command.

Filesystems #

When you install your operating system (OS), we recommend that you use the XFS® or ext4 filesystems.

Installation #

To use WP Squared, you will need to install it on your server. If you have problems with installation, contact your hosting provider. To install WP Squared, run the following commands as the root user:

  yum install -y wget
  wget https://securedownloads.cpanel.net/latest-wp2
  bash latest-wp2

rpm --import https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/RPM-GPG-KEY-AlmaLinux

The server will download and install the latest version of WP Squared. After installation, if your kernel has been updated, the server will automatically reboot to ensure that the correct kernel is running for WP Squared. After the reboot, additional components will install themselves. This generally takes around 30 minutes.

You should only log in to WP Squared when the installation process finishes.

Automatically-issued hostnames #

First-time users who try to log in to WHM on newly installed servers will frequently see a security warning. Newly installed servers without a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) as a hostname will automatically receive one from WebPros International, LLC. The hostname will be a subdomain of wp2.host.

WP Squared attempts to secure your server immediately after installation by installing a self-signed certificate. Then, it requests a free hostname certificate from our Certificate Authority. If there is no resolvable FQDN set, the system cannot issue a certificate. To allow the certificate installation, we will automatically issue wp2.host hostnames to newly installed servers without a valid FQDN. We encourage you to replace the automatically-issued hostname with an existing or new domain. Using your own domain name and hostname will help establish your company’s brand.

Create a WP Squared account #

1. Log in to WHM as the root user. You can get the WHM URL by typing whmlogin in your terminal window. Copy and paste the URL provided in your browser.

2. Navigate to the Create an Account interface and provide the needed information for creating a new account. Click Create once you have provided the required information.

3. Click Go To WP Squared in the top right corner once you have created the account to immediately go into the WP Squared website setup. You can also click on the WP Squared icon () in WHM’s List Accounts interface to launch WP Squared.

The first time you launch WP Squared, the wizard will walk you through setting up your first website.

Virtual environments #

WP Squared supports the following virtual environments with the following restrictions: