Getting Started

Getting Started with WooCommerce on AWS

2026-07-30 · woocommerce docs · aws

The CloudSOE WooCommerce image is a zero-touch online store: WordPress with the WooCommerce plugin and Storefront theme, on the same hardened Apache/PHP/MariaDB stack as our WordPress image. There is no web installer — on first boot the instance installs WordPress unattended with wp-cli, activates WooCommerce and Storefront, and generates a unique store admin password for you. You log in and land in the WooCommerce setup wizard.

What you’ll need

  • An AWS account subscribed to the CloudSOE WooCommerce listing on AWS Marketplace
  • An EC2 key pair in your target region (SSH is key-based only; password login is disabled)
  • About ten minutes

Step 1 — Launch the instance

  1. Open the WooCommerce listing on AWS Marketplace and click Continue to Subscribe, then Continue to Configuration.
  2. Pick your region and click Continue to Launch → Launch through EC2.
  3. Choose an instance type. t3.medium (2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM) is a good starting point for a typical store.
  4. Select your key pair, and give the root volume at least 30 GB.

Prefer the CLI? Once subscribed:

aws ec2 run-instances \
  --image-id <ami-id-from-the-listing> \
  --instance-type t3.medium \
  --key-name my-key \
  --security-group-ids sg-xxxxxxxx \
  --subnet-id subnet-xxxxxxxx \
  --tag-specifications 'ResourceType=instance,Tags=[{Key=Name,Value=woocommerce-01}]'

Step 2 — Open the firewall ports

Your security group needs exactly three inbound rules:

PortProtocolPurpose
22TCPSSH and SFTP administration
80TCPHTTP (redirects to the store)
443TCPHTTPS (the store)

Restrict port 22 to your own IP range where possible.

Step 3 — Let first boot finish

Two one-time services run in sequence on the very first boot, before Apache serves a single page:

  • wordpress-firstboot creates the database, writes wp-config.php with fresh salts, and generates a self-signed TLS certificate for your public IP.
  • woocommerce-firstboot then installs WordPress core unattended, activates the Storefront theme and the WooCommerce plugin, sets pretty permalinks and generates your store admin password.

This usually completes within a minute or two of the instance entering the running state. You can watch it:

ssh ubuntu@<public-ip>
systemctl status wordpress-firstboot woocommerce-firstboot

Step 4 — Retrieve your credentials

SSH in as the ubuntu user. The login banner (MOTD) shows your store URLs and points at the credentials file:

sudo cat /opt/wordpress/default-wordpress-credentials.txt

This file (mode 600) holds the generated MariaDB password and the WordPress admin login created on first boot (user admin plus a random password). Change the admin password after your first login.

Step 5 — Log in to your store

Your store is already installed — no setup screens:

  • Storefront: https://<public-ip>/
  • Admin: https://<public-ip>/wp-admin

Your browser will warn about the self-signed certificate — expected on a fresh instance; see the configuration guide for switching to a trusted certificate and your own domain. Log in to wp-admin with the credentials from the file, and the WooCommerce onboarding wizard walks you through payments, shipping and your first products.

Next steps