Make WordPress Hosting Easy with Plesk on Amazon Lightsail

Sign up for Amazon Lightsail using your Amazon Web Services account, then access Lightsail via the AWS Console or Lightsail landing page, with built-in help and tl;dr guidance.

Deploy a Lightsail instance with the Plesk hosting stack on Ubuntu, and choose a location near your visitors. Configure the SSH key pair and choose a RAM plan (1GB).

Reserve a static IP in Lightsail to prevent downtime after restarts. Attach the IP to your instance in the same region and name it for quick matching.

Learn to connect to your Windows server on Amazon Lightsail using PuTTY. Convert the PEM key to PuTTY's .ppk with puttygen, then configure PuTTY for SSH login.

Connect to a Lightsail instance from macOS or Linux via SSH by placing the key in ~/.ssh as id_rsa with 700 and 600 permissions, then login with ssh username@IP.

Log in to Plesk Onyx via ssh to generate a one-time login link and set up administrator access. Open firewall ports 8443, 8447, and 53 on Lightsail, then sign in.

Explore the Web Admin edition on Lightsail, review license options, and learn to create a website, manage domains, and use extensions like Git, WordPress Toolkit, and Docker.

Point your domain to your Lightsail Plesk instance by using Route 53 as the authoritative dns, creating a delegation set, and syncing zones from Plesk for proper domain resolution.

Apply essential security measures with the Advisor extension, improve your server's security rating, and obtain a valid ssl certificate for Plesk using Let's Encrypt by updating the hostname.

Upgrade to the web pro license to unlock the full WordPress toolkit, including license management and smart updates, enabling up to 30 websites on the server.

WordPress powers a third of all sites with a 60 percent market share and a vast plugin ecosystem, while the WordPress toolkit simplifies deployment, security, staging, and updates.

Create a new WordPress site with the WordPress toolkit in Plesk on Amazon Lightsail, installing by entering domain, site title, and admin credentials, then add Jetpack and Google Analytics.

Import your existing WordPress site to Plesk by installing the site import extension, connecting via FTP or SSH, selecting the detected WordPress installation, and using the WordPress toolkit to manage it.

Connect to and manage a remote WordPress site with the WordPress toolkit, while noting remote limitations like fewer configuration options and the ability to manage multiple installations from one screen.

Secure all WordPress installations by applying critical and recommended security measures, either collectively or per site, with the option to revert changes if conflicts occur.

Update WordPress, plugins, and themes safely using the WordPress toolkit, with smart update that previews changes by creating a copy of the site and allows rollback to a restore point.

WordPress toolkit checks updates every 24 hours and auto-installs minor releases, while major upgrades require manual action. Adjust smart update settings and plugin and theme updates to balance safety.

Clone your site into a staging subdomain with the WordPress toolkit, copying files and database and enabling password protection and debugging for safe testing.

Learn how to push staging changes to production by selecting what to copy: code, files, or database, and how to restore from a restore point.

Configure email for WordPress sites on Lightsail, enable domain email, and optimize settings to reduce spam using the built-in mail server.

Set up mail DNS records for your domain by configuring MX, SPF, and DKIM with Plesk on Amazon Lightsail, and enable DKIM and DMARC while syncing with Route 53.

Discover how to bypass cloud mail blocks with an external mail relay, like Mailjet, and sign up, authenticate your domain, and configure SMTP relay for your site.

Authenticate your domain with Mailjet by adding SPF and DKIM records to your plus name server and saving them in Plesk; verify status in Mailjet and ensure propagation.

Configure postfix to send mail through the mailjet relay by setting the relay host and port, enabling sasl authentication, creating a hashed sasl_password map, and restarting postfix.

Create a mailbox for your domain and configure WordPress to send mail via the WP Mail SMTP plugin using a hosted service, including from email, from name, and test delivery.

Conclude the course by inviting learners to explore Plesk and its extensions at Plesk University. Note that registration and access to all courses and exams are completely free.