Configure your WordPress instance to work with a content delivery network distribution in Lightsail

To create a distribution for your WordPress instance

1. On the Lightsail home page, choose Networking.

2. Choose Create distribution.

3. For Choose your origin, choose the Region where you're running your WordPress instance and then choose your WordPress instance. We automatically use the static IP address that you attached to the instance.

4. For Caching behavior, choose Best for WordPress.

5. (Optional) To configure end-to-end encryption, change the origin protocol policy to HTTPS only. For more information, see Origin protocol policy.

6. Configure the remaining options and then choose Create distribution.

7. On the Custom domains tab, choose Create certificate. Enter a unique name for the certificate, enter the names of your domain and subdomains, and then choose Create certificate.

8. Choose Attach certificate.

9. For Update DNS records, choose I understand.

To update the DNS records for your distribution

1. On the Lightsail home page, choose Domains & DNS.

2. Choose your DNS zone and then choose the DNS records tab.

3. Delete the A and AAAA records for the domain that you specified in your certificate.

4. Choose Add record and create a CNAME record that resolves your domain to the domain for your distribution (for example, d2vbec9EXAMPLE.cloudfront.net).

5. Choose Save.

1. Sign in to the Lightsail console.

2. On the Lightsail home page, choose the browser-based SSH client icon that is displayed next to your WordPress instance.

3. After you're connected to your instance, enter the following command to create a backup of the wp-config.php file. If something goes wrong, you can restore the file using the backup.

   sudo cp /opt/bitnami/wordpress/wp-config.php /opt/bitnami/wordpress/wp-config.php.backup

4. Enter the following command to open the wp-config.php file using Vim.

   sudo vim /opt/bitnami/wordpress/wp-config.php

5. Press I to enter insert mode in Vim.

6. Delete the following lines of code in the file.

   define('WP_SITEURL', 'http://' . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . '/');
   define('WP_HOME', 'http://' . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . '/');

7. Add one of the following lines of code to the file depending on the version of WordPress that you're using:

   • If you're using version 3.3 or lower, add the following lines of code where you previously deleted the code.

     define('WP_SITEURL', 'https://' . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . '/');
     define('WP_HOME', 'https://' . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . '/');
     if (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_CLOUDFRONT_FORWARDED_PROTO'])
     && $_SERVER['HTTP_CLOUDFRONT_FORWARDED_PROTO'] === 'https') {
     $_SERVER['HTTPS'] = 'on';
     }

   • If you're using version 3.3.1-5 or higher, add the following lines of code where you previously deleted the code.

     define('WP_SITEURL', 'http://DOMAIN/');
     define('WP_HOME', 'http://DOMAIN/');
     if (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_CLOUDFRONT_FORWARDED_PROTO'])
     && $_SERVER['HTTP_CLOUDFRONT_FORWARDED_PROTO'] === 'https') {
     $_SERVER['HTTPS'] = 'on';
     }

8. Press the Esc key to exit insert mode in Vim, then type :wq! and press Enter to save your edits (write) and quit Vim.

9. Enter the following command to restart the Apache service on your instance.

   sudo /opt/bitnami/ctlscript.sh restart apache

10. Wait a few moments for your the Apache service to restart, then test that your distribution is caching your content. For more information, see Test your Amazon Lightsail distribution.

11. If something went wrong, re-connect to your instance using the browser-based SSH client. Run the following command to restore the wp-config.php file using the backup you created earlier in this guide.

    sudo cp /opt/bitnami/wordpress/wp-config.php.backup /opt/bitnami/wordpress/wp-config.php

    After you restore the file, enter the following command to restart the Apache service:

    sudo /opt/bitnami/ctlscript.sh restart apache