Host a WordPress Site using Windows 11 Azure VM

Question

Host a WordPress Site using Windows 11 Azure VM

Garima Das 1,061

I installed Xampp on a Windows 11 Azure Virtual Machine and created a WordPress website there. The Website is working as expected on the localhost. I now want to access this website from the internet using the Azure VM's Public IP. I tried changing the Xampp Apache server configuration files, but it did not work with the VM's Public IP.

I then tried to do the same while using the VM's Private IP and it worked. I wanted to access the website from anywhere through the internet and so with the Private IP it is not giving me that option.

Is there anyway I can make my Website live on the internet without migrating it anywhere?

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Jackson Martins 10,631 MVP

Hi @Garima Das

Yes, you can make your website live without migrating it. In order to do so, you'll need to ensure that your Network Security Group (NSG) rules in the Azure portal are configured properly. Specifically, you need to allow inbound traffic to the port on which your web server (Apache in this case) is running, typically port 80 for HTTP and 443 for HTTPS.

Go to Azure portal, navigate to the Network Security Group (NSG) that's associated with your VM.

In the NSG settings, go to Inbound security rules.

Click on Add and create a new inbound rule. You'll need to allow traffic on the port that your website is using

In addition to setting the NSG rules, you'll also need to check your Windows Firewall settings inside your Azure VM:

After configuring both the Azure NSG and the Windows Firewall, you should be able to access your WordPress website from the internet using your Azure VM's public IP.

Get in touch if you need more help with this issue.

--please don't forget to "[Accept the answer]" if the reply is helpful--

Garima Das 1,061 Reputation points

2023-07-11T12:37:13.51+00:00

I tried this and it is working partially. First, on typing just the IP address of my VM, it does not open. I have to type in the IP address of my VM and the site name. Example: 192.168.x.x//abc (the doubleslash is intentional, without this it doesn't work).

Also, this makes just the HTML content accessible. So, I don't get to see any CSS or images that are in the website.

If I want to traverse to any other page in the website, the initial link that opens is of the localhost. and on modifying the URL with the IP, it still doesn't work.
Jackson Martins 10,631 Reputation points MVP

2023-07-11T12:45:34.41+00:00

@Garima Das

Maybe the WordPress saves the URL of the site when you first set it up, and it uses this URL to generate links and load resources like CSS and images. Since you set up your site on localhost, WordPress is using "localhost" as the URL of your site

Log in to your WordPress dashboard. Go to Settings > General and change both the "WordPress Address (URL)" and the "Site Address (URL)" fields to your VM's public IP address.

or go to wp-config.php file: add these two lines of code, replacing your_public_IP with your public IP:

define('WP_HOME','http://your_public_IP');

define('WP_SITEURL','http://your_public_IP');

After you've made these changes, restart Apache, and try to access your site again with the public IP.
Jackson Martins 10,631 Reputation points MVP

2023-07-11T12:48:33.1066667+00:00

about the two slashes there is this workaround on StackOverflow

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/55409123/remove-double-slash-in-url-using-htaccess
Garima Das 1,061 Reputation points

2023-07-11T12:57:27.8233333+00:00

The first page is loading as expected, but all other links are still getting redirected to the first page itself. Are there any changes required to the individual page links?
Jackson Martins 10,631 Reputation points MVP

2023-07-11T13:02:41.2333333+00:00
@Garima Das

I would need to understand all the confs you have, but According to the stackoverflow reference below, changing the htaccess file works

refence: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/52811173/localhost-wordpress-redirects-to-xampp-site

# BEGIN WordPress <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On RewriteBase /site1/ RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule . /site1/index.php [L] </IfModule> # END WordPress
Garima Das 1,061 Reputation points

2023-07-11T13:42:05.1866667+00:00

Thank you so much for the help. All the solutions worked perfectly.