How to Access Files and phpMyAdmin of a WordPress Website in AWS
As a WordPress website owner hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), it's essential to have the ability to access your website's files and manage your database using phpMyAdmin. This can be especially helpful for troubleshooting, making updates, or even migrating your site to a new hosting environment.
In this article, we'll walk you through the step-by-step process of accessing your WordPress files and phpMyAdmin in AWS using the popular SFTP client, FileZilla.
Accessing WordPress Files in AWS
To access your WordPress files in AWS, you'll need to use an SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) client like FileZilla. Here's how you can set it up:
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Download and Install FileZilla: If you haven't already, download and install the latest version of FileZilla from the official website: https://filezilla-project.org/download.php.
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Configure FileZilla: Once FileZilla is installed, follow these steps to set it up:
- Go to "Edit" > "Settings" > "Connection" > "SFTP".
- Click on "Add key file" and browse to the location of your AWS .pem file (the private key file used to connect to your EC2 instance). If the file is not in the correct format, you'll be prompted to convert it to a .ppk file.
- Give the converted file a name and store it somewhere for future use.
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Create a New Site Connection: In FileZilla, go to "File" > "Site Manager" and click on "New Site". Here, you'll need to enter the following information:
- Host: Your public DNS name of the EC2 instance or the public IP address of the server.
- Protocol: SFTP (22)
- Logon Type: Normal
- User: The default user name for your EC2 instance. This can be "ec2-user" for Amazon Linux, "ubuntu" for Ubuntu, "root" for SUSE Linux, or "admin" for Debian. If you're unsure, check with your AMI provider.
- Password: Leave this field blank. FileZilla will automatically use the private key file you configured earlier.
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Connect to Your Site: Click the "Connect" button to establish the SFTP connection to your WordPress site. If you're prompted to change the logon type to "Ask for password," simply click "OK" without entering a password, and FileZilla will use the private key file you configured.
Once connected, you'll be able to browse and access your WordPress files in the remote site directory. From here, you can perform various tasks, such as uploading, downloading, or editing your website's files.
Accessing phpMyAdmin in AWS
To access the phpMyAdmin interface for your WordPress website's database, you'll need to set up an SSH tunnel. This will allow you to securely connect to your EC2 instance and access phpMyAdmin from your local machine.
Here's how you can do it:
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Set up an SSH Tunnel: Open a terminal or command prompt on your local machine and run the following command, replacing your-ec2-instance-public-dns
with the public DNS name of your EC2 instance:
ssh -i path/to/your/key.pem ec2-user@your-ec2-instance-public-dns -L 8080:localhost:80
This command will create an SSH tunnel, forwarding traffic from your local machine's port 8080 to the EC2 instance's port 80 (the default port for web servers).
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Access phpMyAdmin: Once the SSH tunnel is established, open your web browser and go to http://localhost:8080/phpmyadmin/
. You should now be able to access the phpMyAdmin interface for your WordPress website's database.
Note: If you don't have phpMyAdmin installed on your EC2 instance, you'll need to install it first. You can do this by connecting to your EC2 instance via SSH and following the instructions for your specific Linux distribution.
By following these steps, you can now easily access your WordPress files and manage your database using phpMyAdmin while your website is hosted on AWS. This can be invaluable for troubleshooting, making updates, or even migrating your site to a new hosting environment.
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