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Tutorial: Deploy WordPress app on AKS with Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server

  • Article
  • 8 minutes to read

APPLIES TO: Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server

In this quickstart, you deploy a WordPress application on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster with Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server using the Azure CLI. AKS is a managed Kubernetes service that lets you quickly deploy and manage clusters. Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server is a fully managed database service designed to provide more granular control and flexibility over database management functions and configuration settings.

Note

This quickstart assumes a basic understanding of Kubernetes concepts, WordPress and MySQL.

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create an Azure free account before you begin. With an Azure free account, you can now try Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server for free for 12 months. For more information, see Try Flexible Server for free.

Prerequisites

  • This article requires the latest version of Azure CLI. If using Azure Cloud Shell, the latest version is already installed.

Note

If running the commands in this quickstart locally (instead of Azure Cloud Shell), ensure you run the commands as administrator.

Create a resource group

An Azure resource group is a logical group in which Azure resources are deployed and managed. Let's create a resource group, wordpress-project using the [az group create][az-group-create] command in the eastus location.

az group create --name wordpress-project --location eastus

Note

The location for the resource group is where resource group metadata is stored. It is also where your resources run in Azure if you don't specify another region during resource creation.

The following example output shows the resource group created successfully:

{
  "id": "/subscriptions/<guid>/resourceGroups/wordpress-project",
  "location": "eastus",
  "managedBy": null,
  "name": "wordpress-project",
  "properties": {
    "provisioningState": "Succeeded"
  },
  "tags": null
}

Create AKS cluster

Use the az aks create command to create an AKS cluster. The following example creates a cluster named myAKSCluster with one node. This will take several minutes to complete.

az aks create --resource-group wordpress-project --name myAKSCluster --node-count 1 --generate-ssh-keys

After a few minutes, the command completes and returns JSON-formatted information about the cluster.

Note

When creating an AKS cluster a second resource group is automatically created to store the AKS resources. See Why are two resource groups created with AKS?

Connect to the cluster

To manage a Kubernetes cluster, you use kubectl, the Kubernetes command-line client. If you use Azure Cloud Shell, kubectl is already installed. To install kubectl locally, use the az aks install-cli command:

az aks install-cli

To configure kubectl to connect to your Kubernetes cluster, use the az aks get-credentials command. This command downloads credentials and configures the Kubernetes CLI to use them.

az aks get-credentials --resource-group wordpress-project --name myAKSCluster

Note

The above command uses the default location for the Kubernetes configuration file, which is ~/.kube/config. You can specify a different location for your Kubernetes configuration file using --file.

To verify the connection to your cluster, use the kubectl get command to return a list of the cluster nodes.

kubectl get nodes

The following example output shows the single node created in the previous steps. Make sure that the status of the node is Ready:

NAME                       STATUS   ROLES   AGE     VERSION
aks-nodepool1-31718369-0   Ready    agent   6m44s   v1.12.8

Create an Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server

Create a flexible server with the az mysql flexible-server create command. The following command creates a server using service defaults and values from your Azure CLI's local context:

az mysql flexible-server create --public-access <YOUR-IP-ADDRESS>

The server created has the below attributes:

  • A new empty database, flexibleserverdb is created when the server is first provisioned. In this quickstart we will use this database.
  • Autogenerated server name, admin username, admin password, resource group name (if not already specified in local context), and in the same location as your resource group
  • Service defaults for remaining server configurations: compute tier (Burstable), compute size/SKU (B1MS), backup retention period (7 days), and MySQL version (5.7)
  • Using public-access argument allow you to create a server with public access protected by firewall rules. By providing your IP address to add the firewall rule to allow access from your client machine.
  • Since the command is using Local context it will create the server in the resource group wordpress-project and in the region eastus.

Build your WordPress docker image

Download the latest WordPress version. Create new directory my-wordpress-app for your project and use this simple folder structure

└───my-wordpress-app
    └───public
        ├───wp-admin
        │   ├───css
      	. . . . . . .
        ├───wp-content
        │   ├───plugins
        . . . . . . .
        └───wp-includes
        . . . . . . .
        ├───wp-config-sample.php
        ├───index.php
        . . . . . . .
    └─── Dockerfile

Rename wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php and replace lines from beginingin of // ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** // until the line define( 'DB_COLLATE', '' ); with the code snippet below. The code below is reading the database host, username and password from the Kubernetes manifest file.

//Using environment variables for DB connection information

// ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //
/** The name of the database for WordPress */

$connectstr_dbhost = getenv('DATABASE_HOST');
$connectstr_dbusername = getenv('DATABASE_USERNAME');
$connectstr_dbpassword = getenv('DATABASE_PASSWORD');
$connectst_dbname = getenv('DATABASE_NAME');

/** MySQL database name */
define('DB_NAME', $connectst_dbname);

/** MySQL database username */
define('DB_USER', $connectstr_dbusername);

/** MySQL database password */
define('DB_PASSWORD',$connectstr_dbpassword);

/** MySQL hostname */
define('DB_HOST', $connectstr_dbhost);

/** Database Charset to use in creating database tables. */
define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8');

/** The Database Collate type. Don't change this if in doubt. */
define('DB_COLLATE', '');


/** SSL*/
define('MYSQL_CLIENT_FLAGS', MYSQLI_CLIENT_SSL);

Create a Dockerfile

Create a new Dockerfile and copy this code snippet. This Dockerfile in setting up Apache web server with PHP and enabling mysqli extension.

FROM php:7.2-apache
COPY public/ /var/www/html/
RUN docker-php-ext-install mysqli
RUN docker-php-ext-enable mysqli

Build your docker image

Make sure you're in the directory my-wordpress-app in a terminal using the cd command. Run the following command to build the image:


docker build --tag myblog:latest .

Deploy your image to Docker hub or Azure Container registry.

Important

If you are using Azure container regdistry (ACR), then run the az aks update command to attach ACR account with the AKS cluster.

az aks update -n myAKSCluster -g wordpress-project --attach-acr <your-acr-name>

Create Kubernetes manifest file

A Kubernetes manifest file defines a desired state for the cluster, such as what container images to run. Let's create a manifest file named mywordpress.yaml and copy in the following YAML definition.

Important

  • Replace [DOCKER-HUB-USER/ACR ACCOUNT]/[YOUR-IMAGE-NAME]:[TAG] with your actual WordPress docker image name and tag, for example docker-hub-user/myblog:latest.
  • Update env section below with your SERVERNAME, YOUR-DATABASE-USERNAME, YOUR-DATABASE-PASSWORD of your MySQL flexible server.
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: wordpress-blog
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: wordpress-blog
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: wordpress-blog
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: wordpress-blog
        image: [DOCKER-HUB-USER-OR-ACR-ACCOUNT]/[YOUR-IMAGE-NAME]:[TAG]
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80
        env:
        - name: DATABASE_HOST
          value: "SERVERNAME.mysql.database.azure.com" #Update here
        - name: DATABASE_USERNAME
          value: "YOUR-DATABASE-USERNAME"  #Update here
        - name: DATABASE_PASSWORD
          value: "YOUR-DATABASE-PASSWORD"  #Update here
        - name: DATABASE_NAME
          value: "flexibleserverdb"
      affinity:
        podAntiAffinity:
          requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
            - labelSelector:
                matchExpressions:
                  - key: "app"
                    operator: In
                    values:
                    - wordpress-blog
              topologyKey: "kubernetes.io/hostname"
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: php-svc
spec:
  type: LoadBalancer
  ports:
    - port: 80
  selector:
    app: wordpress-blog

Deploy WordPress to AKS cluster

Deploy the application using the kubectl apply command and specify the name of your YAML manifest:

kubectl apply -f mywordpress.yaml

The following example output shows the Deployments and Services created successfully:

deployment "wordpress-blog" created
service "php-svc" created

Test the application

When the application runs, a Kubernetes service exposes the application front end to the internet. This process can take a few minutes to complete.

To monitor progress, use the kubectl get service command with the --watch argument.

kubectl get service php-svc --watch

Initially the EXTERNAL-IP for the wordpress-blog service is shown as pending.

NAME               TYPE           CLUSTER-IP   EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)        AGE
php-svc  LoadBalancer   10.0.37.27   <pending>     80:30572/TCP   6s

When the EXTERNAL-IP address changes from pending to an actual public IP address, use CTRL-C to stop the kubectl watch process. The following example output shows a valid public IP address assigned to the service:

  php-svc  LoadBalancer   10.0.37.27   52.179.23.131   80:30572/TCP   2m

Browse WordPress

Open a web browser to the external IP address of your service to see your WordPress installation page.

Wordpress installation success on AKS and MySQL flexible server

Note

Clean up the resources

To avoid Azure charges, you should clean up unneeded resources. When the cluster is no longer needed, use the az group delete command to remove the resource group, container service, and all related resources.

az group delete --name wordpress-project --yes --no-wait

Note

When you delete the cluster, the Azure Active Directory service principal used by the AKS cluster is not removed. For steps on how to remove the service principal, see AKS service principal considerations and deletion. If you used a managed identity, the identity is managed by the platform and does not require removal.

Next steps