Set Up WordPress on Dilmune Cloud Without Touching a Terminal

No terminal. No Nginx config. No "wait, how do I set up MySQL again."

This is a walkthrough for getting WordPress live on a dedicated server.. using only the dashboard. Takes about 5 minutes, most of that is waiting for the server to provision.

By the end you'll have:

• A dedicated server running on Hetzner, DigitalOcean, or Vultr
• MySQL installed and configured
• WordPress installed with SSL
• A free .dilmune.app subdomain.. or your own custom domain if you have one

Let's go.

Step 1: Create Your Server

Log in, click Servers in the sidebar, then Create Server.

You'll see a wizard with three choices: provider, region, and tier.

Provider .. This is where your server actually lives:

• Hetzner .. Best value. European data centers: Frankfurt, Nuremberg, Helsinki. Starts at $0.50/day.
• DigitalOcean .. Good global coverage. NYC, Amsterdam, Singapore, and more. Also $0.50/day.
• Vultr .. 32 locations worldwide. $0.50/day.

All three work fine for WordPress. Pick the one closest to where your audience is.

Region .. Choose the data center nearest to your visitors. Europe? Frankfurt or Amsterdam. North America? NYC or San Francisco. It matters more than people think.. latency adds up.

Tier .. For WordPress, two options make sense:

• Cloud 1 .. 1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 50 GB disk. $0.50/day. Handles a blog or small business site comfortably. Start here. Available on DigitalOcean and Vultr.
• Cloud 2 .. 2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 60 GB disk. $0.73/day. Better if you're running WooCommerce or a lot of plugins. Available on all three providers.

There are bigger tiers too.. Power 4 and Power 8 for heavier workloads.. but you won't need those for WordPress.

Cloud 1 is fine for most sites. Start there. You can upgrade later without losing anything.

Stack .. This is where you tell the server what it's for. You'll see presets: WordPress, Laravel, Node.js, Python, Ruby, Go, Full Stack, or Custom.

Pick WordPress. It pre-selects what you need.

Under the hood, it enables:

• PHP .. Pick your version. 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, or 8.4 are available. Go with 8.3 unless you have a reason not to.
• MySQL .. On by default. WordPress needs it.

You'll also see optional software: Redis, Docker, MongoDB, Memcached, and more. Skip all of it for now. Redis is useful for WordPress object caching later.. but don't overcomplicate the first setup.

Click Create Server.

A live progress screen appears:

This takes 2-3 minutes. The server installs everything, sets up a firewall, and calls back to Dilmune when it's ready. You don't need to keep the page open.. it finishes in the background.

Grab coffee. Come back.

When the status badge turns green and says Active, your server is ready.

Step 2: Create a MySQL Database

WordPress needs somewhere to put your content. Let's do that before touching WordPress.

Go to your server's detail page and click the Databases tab. Click Create Database.

Fill in:

• Name .. Something like wordpress or myblog. This is the database name WordPress will connect to.
• Type .. Select MySQL 8.

Click Create. Done in seconds.

Step 3: Create Your WordPress Site

Now the actual WordPress part. Click the Sites tab on your server page, then New Site.

Choose Site Type

You'll see a grid of project types: WordPress, PHP, React, HTML, and GitHub. A few others like Next.js, Laravel, and Nuxt.js show up but they're greyed out.. coming soon. Click WordPress.

If MySQL isn't installed on your server, you'll see a warning here. That means you missed it in step 1.. go back and reinstall with MySQL checked.

Click Continue.

Configure Your Site

Domain .. Two options:

• Free subdomain (default) .. Type a name like my-blog. You'll get something like my-blog-a3f2-ahmed.dilmune.app — your name, a random string, and a word from your email. SSL included. Good for testing, or if you don't have your own domain yet.
• Custom domain .. Type mybusiness.com. You'll set up the DNS record after the site is created. SSL provisions automatically either way.

The dashboard checks subdomain availability in real-time.. green checkmark means it's free.

Database .. Click Use existing and pick the database you created in step 2. Or click Create new and the wizard will create one for you.. up to you.

Advanced Settings (optional) .. Expand this if you need to change PHP version. Default is 8.3. Some older plugins still need 8.2 or 8.1.. change it here if that's you.

Everything else.. web root, build commands, environment variables.. has sensible defaults for WordPress. Don't touch them unless you have a reason.

Click Continue.

Review and Create

Before it builds, you'll see a summary:

Look right? Click Create Site.

Step 4: Wait for WordPress to Install

30-60 seconds. While you wait, Dilmune is:

• Creating the site directory on your server
• Downloading WordPress core files
• Configuring the database connection
• Setting up a PHP-FPM pool with optimized settings
• Writing an Nginx configuration with WordPress-specific rewrite rules
• Installing SSL certificates
• Enabling the site and reloading Nginx

When the status turns Active, it's done.

Step 5: Open Your Site

Click the domain link on your site detail page, or type it directly:

https://my-blog-xxxx.dilmune.app

You'll land on the WordPress setup wizard:

1. Choose your language
2. Set up your admin account.. username, password, and email. Don't lose these.
3. Give your site a title.

Click Install WordPress.

That's it. Click Log In. Your WordPress dashboard is at /wp-admin.

What You Get Out of the Box

Pre-configured. You don't need to tune any of this.

• SSL/TLS .. HTTPS enabled automatically. Free subdomains use Cloudflare-managed certificates. Custom domains get Let's Encrypt certificates that auto-renew.
• Optimized PHP-FPM .. A dedicated PHP process pool for your site. 256MB memory limit, 64MB upload limit, dynamic worker scaling.
• Nginx .. WordPress-specific config. Pretty permalinks work. Security headers set. Static file caching built in.
• Firewall .. UFW configured during server provisioning. Only ports 22 (SSH), 80 (HTTP), and 443 (HTTPS) are open.
• Monitoring .. CPU, memory, disk, and network metrics pushed every minute. Check them in the Metrics tab on your server page.

Optional: Connect a Custom Domain

Started with a free subdomain and want to switch to your own domain? Easy.

1. Go to Domains in the sidebar
2. Click Add Domain
3. Enter your domain.. mybusiness.com
4. Dilmune gives you a DNS record to add at your registrar.. a CNAME or A record pointing to your server's IP
5. Add the record, then click Verify
6. SSL provisions automatically via Let's Encrypt

After it verifies, go to Settings then General in your WordPress dashboard and update the site URL.

Managing WordPress from the Dashboard

You don't need SSH for most things. The dashboard gives you:

• WordPress tab .. Edit wp-config.php directly in the browser. Useful for enabling debug mode, rotating salts, or adding custom constants.
• Commands tab .. Run WP-CLI commands without touching a terminal. Update plugins with wp plugin update --all, clear cache with wp cache flush, or export your database.
• SSL tab .. Certificate details, force renewal, or switch between Let's Encrypt and custom certificates.
• Activity tab .. A log of every action taken on your site.. deployments, config changes, domain updates.

Pricing

Dedicated server.. not shared hosting. Your resources aren't split with other customers.

You pay for the days the server runs. Shut it down, billing stops.

What's Next

Your site is live. A few things worth doing next:

• Theme .. Appearance then Themes in your WordPress dashboard
• Plugins .. WooCommerce, Yoast SEO, Contact Form 7.. whatever you actually need
• Backups .. Go to your server settings in Dilmune and enable daily backups. Pro plan. Worth it.
• Redis caching .. If you checked Redis during setup, install the Redis Object Cache plugin in WordPress. Faster page loads, less database overhead.
• Performance .. Watch the Metrics tab as traffic picks up. CPU and memory tell you when it's time to move to Cloud 2.

If something doesn't work.. hello@dilmune.com.