Migrate an existing WordPress blog to Amazon Lightsail

Want to switch WordPress hosting providers? Amazon Lightsail makes it easy to host a WordPress website on AWS.

Please choose from our monthly pricing plans starting at USD 3.50 and enjoy full control of your WordPress installation, including plugins, theme, and more.

It only takes a couple of minutes to create a Lightsail WordPress installation. This tutorial will show you how to back up your WordPress blog and then import it into a Lightsail instance.

Here is a brief overview of the entire process:

Let’s get started!

Prerequisites

You’ll also need:

1. AWS is required. Register for AWS or Log in to AWS If you already have an account.
2. Check that your account is configured to work with Lightsail. You may need to update your account if it’s been some time since you set up your account or if you don’t have a credit card.

Step 1: Backup your WordPress blog

WordPress can be used to back up your blog. To manage your blog, you’ll need to be able to log in to the WordPress admin console.

1. Manage your blog by clicking on the Manage link.
2. You can sign in by clicking on the Sign In link if the Manage banner does not appear. http:// /wp-login.php . Replace: You can find the public IP of your instance by entering it in the search bar.
3. Log in to the WordPress admin console using your username and password.
4. Choose Tools from the WordPress Dashboard and then select Export.
5. Select All Content on the Export page to export all of your content as an XML file.
6. Click Download Export File to download your blog in XML format.
7. You should save the XML in a place that is easy to locate. It’s needed in Step 4.

Step 2: Create an instance of WordPress in Lightsail

In just a few moments, you can create a brand new WordPress instance using Lightsail. Here’s how:

1. Log in to the Lightsail homepage.
2. Select Create an instance.
3. Choose the AWS Region in which you would like to create your blog.
4. Once you have selected an AWS Region, you can change the default availability zone or choose a different one.
5. WordPress is set as the default application for this page. Double-check to make sure WordPress is selected.
6. Select your instance plan or bundle.
7. You can upgrade your Lightsail plan later if needed. Here’s how.
8. Enter the name of your instance.
9. Resource names

• • Each AWS region in your Lightsail Account must be unique.
  • The characters must be between 2 and 255.
  • The beginning and ending of the sentence must be an alphanumeric number or character.
  • Include alphanumeric, numeric, period, dashes, and underscores.

1. Select one of the options below to add tags to an instance.

• Add key-only Tags or Edit key-only tags (if tags have already been added). Enter the new title in the text box for tag keys. When you are done adding tags, choose Save to save them or Cancel to remove them.
  • img Alt=”Key-only Tags in the Lightsail Console.” src=”https://d9yljz1nd5001.cloudfront.net/en_us/662de23b8fca4b7c66c1554173c09d8e/images/amazon-lightsail-key-only-tags.png”/>
• Enter a key in the Key text field and a value in the Value text field to create a key-value tag. When you are finished entering tags, click Save or Cancel.
• Before saving, you can only add one key-value tag. Repeat the steps to add more than one tag.
  • img Alt=”Key-value Tags in the Lightsail Console.” src=”https://d9yljz1nd5001.cloudfront.net/en_us/662de23b8fca4b7c66c1554173c09d8e/images/amazon-lightsail-key-value-tag.png”/>

1. Note:
2. To learn more about key-only tags and key-value tags, visit Tags on Amazon Lightsail.
3. Select Create an instance.

Log in to your Lightsail WordPress Blog

You’ll now need to log into the WordPress Dashboard in order to import all of your blog data.

1. Find your WordPress blog on the Lightsail homepage.
2. Copy the Public IP Address to the clipboard. This address can be found on the Lightsail homepage or the instance detail page.
3. Enter the IP address in your browser and add the /wplogin.php to the end. For example, 192.0.2.1/wp-login.php. This is what you should see:
4. Use the default username (user).
5. Connect to your instance to get the password.
6. Use the terminal icon located next to your Lightsail installation to connect.
7. Enter the following:
8. cat bitnami_application_password
9. Note:
10. If you’re in a directory other than the user home directory, then type cat $HOME/bitnami_application_password.
11. This is what you should be looking at:
12. Select the clipboard icon after selecting your password on the terminal screen.
13. Press Ctrl+C (or Cmd+C) to copy text from the clipboard.
14. Important
15. You should save your password somewhere at this time. You can always change it later.
16. Enter your password in the WordPress login box and click Log In.
17. You’ll be able to see your WordPress Dashboard if you are successful.

Step 4: Import your XML file into your new Lightsail blog

Follow these steps once you’ve successfully logged in to the WordPress Dashboard of your new Lightsail installation.

1. Choose Tools from the WordPress Dashboard of your Lightsail instance.
2. Select Import and then Install Now to install the WordPress import tool.
3. After the tool has been installed, select Run Importer in order to start the import tool.
4. Choose Browse on the Import WordPress page.
5. Open the XML backup file that you created in Step 1.
6. Select Upload file to Import.
7. Select Submit after accepting the rest of the defaults.

Next Steps

Select your blog (next to the Home icon) and choose Visit Site in the WordPress dashboard to verify everything worked. You can view the blog by typing the IP address in a browser.

The next steps are:

• You can migrate your DNS to point your domain name servers at the new version of your site.
• Install WordPress plugins to customize your blog’s look and feel.
• Enable HTTPS with SSL certificates.