This guide extends the AlmaLinux 10 base web server template with a production-ready WordPress stack using Apache, PHP-FPM, and MariaDB.

1. Install PHP and Required Extensions

dnf install -y php-fpm php-mysqlnd php-gd php-cli php-curl \
php-mbstring php-bcmath php-zip php-opcache php-xml php-json php-intl \
php-pecl-imagick php-exif

2. Enable and Start PHP-FPM

systemctl enable --now php-fpm
systemctl status php-fpm

3. Apache to PHP-FPM Configuration

AlmaLinux ships with a default php.conf that already maps PHP to PHP-FPM. Ensure the handler includes the FPM socket:

<FilesMatch \.(php|phar)$>
  SetHandler "proxy:unix:/run/php-fpm/www.sock|fcgi://localhost/"
</FilesMatch>

4. PHP-FPM Pool Configuration

Confirm the FPM pool runs as Apache:

user = apache
group = apache
listen = /run/php-fpm/www.sock
listen.owner = apache
listen.group = apache
listen.mode = 0660

5. PHP Performance and Security Tuning

Create WordPress-specific overrides:

/etc/php.d/99-wordpress.ini

upload_max_filesize=64M
post_max_size=64M
memory_limit=256M
date.timezone=America/New_York
expose_php=0

Opcache tuning:

/etc/php.d/10-opcache-tune.ini

opcache.enable=1
opcache.memory_consumption=192
opcache.interned_strings_buffer=16
opcache.max_accelerated_files=20000
opcache.validate_timestamps=1
opcache.revalidate_freq=2

systemctl restart php-fpm

6. Final Notes

• Remove any temporary phpinfo() files after testing
• Ensure WordPress directories are owned by apache:apache
• MariaDB should remain bound to 127.0.0.1
• Snapshot the VM before cloning