WordPress on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS — Support & Quick Start

At a glance

Application ports	80 (HTTP). Nothing listens on 443: mod_ssl is not enabled and no certificate is installed until you add one (see Quick start)
Open in browser	http://<VM-IP>/wp-admin/
Admin credential file	sudo cat /root/wordpress-admin-credentials.txt
Sign in as	admin
Service(s)	apache2, mariadb
Configuration	/var/www/wordpress/wp-config.php; vhost /etc/apache2/sites-available/wordpress.conf
Logs	/var/log/apache2/{access,error}.log
Version	WordPress 6.8.3 (Apache 2.4, PHP 8.3, MariaDB; wp-cli installed)
Platform	Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

Quick start

1. Deploy from the Azure Marketplace (Get It Now → Create), choosing your SSH key at the Administration step.
2. Allow inbound SSH (22) for yourself plus the application port(s) in the Network Security Group (NSG): 80 (HTTP), and 443 once you have added a certificate — restrict to your own IP where possible. The VM's own firewall (ufw) is installed but NOT enabled on this image, so the NSG is the only filter in front of the VM.
3. Open http://<VM-IP>/wp-admin/ and sign in as admin (see First login below).
4. Turn on HTTPS — it is not on out of the box: the image serves plain HTTP on port 80 only, and neither certbot nor mod_ssl is installed. Point your domain's DNS at the VM and run `sudo wordpress-set-site-url your.domain`; set `ServerName your.domain` in /etc/apache2/sites-available/wordpress.conf and `sudo systemctl reload apache2`; then `sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache` and `sudo certbot --apache -d your.domain` (port 80 must be reachable, because certbot proves the domain over HTTP), and allow 443 in the NSG.
5. To make WordPress itself use https:// addresses, first stop the every-boot address refresh — `sudo systemctl disable wordpress-site-url.service` — because on this image it writes the address back as http:// at boot (read from the image's script, not separately tested); then change both addresses in Settings → General to https://your.domain.

First login / credentials

This image generates its admin credential on the VM at first boot — nothing is pre-set. SSH into the VM with the username + key you chose at deploy, then print the generated credential:

ssh <your-username>@<VM-IP>
sudo cat /root/wordpress-admin-credentials.txt

Sign in as admin.

1. Print the credential file: username admin, the generated password, and the database name/user/password. The password completed a real sign-in at wp-login.php on your VM before the file was written.
2. Open http://<VM-IP>/wp-admin/ and sign in as admin (first boot set the site address to the VM's public IP).
3. Change the password (Users → Profile) and the admin e-mail, and delete the file once both passwords are stored safely.
4. Attach your domain with `sudo wordpress-set-site-url www.yourdomain.com` (point its DNS at the VM first). It pins the name, updates siteurl/home and rewrites links in your content. Do not change the address in Settings → General instead: wordpress-site-url.service re-applies the pinned name — or, if none is pinned, the VM's public IP — as http:// at every boot.

Sign in as admin (unless noted), then change the password immediately. The file is root-only and can be deleted once the password is stored securely.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Check	Fix
Uploaded PDFs get no thumbnail, or Site Health lists imagick as a recommended module	`php -m | grep -ci imagick` prints 0	Expected on images 2026.917.1946 and later: php-imagick is not shipped, because ImageMagick's Ubuntu 24.04 security fixes are available only through Ubuntu Pro. JPEG, PNG, GIF and WebP uploads are resized, cropped and rotated with GD (must-use plugin dca-gd-image-editor.php).

Still stuck?

Email support@dcassociatesgroup.com (response within 1 business day) or send a message via the contact form. Include the offer name, VM size, region, and any log output — sudo journalctl -u <service> -n 100 usually tells the story.