Rancher is an awesome service/operating system for managing Docker containers. In this post I will be using DigitalOcean as my infrastructure for running Rancher. This will be written shorthand mainly so I remember how to do this in the future.

Deploying Rancher: #

1. Create Droplet:

⋅⋅* Droplets > Create > Container Distributions > Rancher

⋅⋅* Size: 4G RAM, 2 vCPUs, 80GB SSD, 4 TB Transfer

⋅⋅* Additional Config

CREATE

1. Deploy Rancher Server (Web Dashboard):

⋅⋅* sudo docker run -d --restart=unless-stopped -p 8080:8080 rancher/server

1. Access Web Dashboard: http://:8080

Add DigitalOcean Hosts: #

1. Obtain DigitalOcean API key:

⋅⋅* API > Tokens/Keys > Generate New Token

⋅⋅* Save the key somewhere secure

1. Add DO Hosts via Rancher:

⋅⋅* Infrastructure > Hosts > Add Hosts > Select the DigitalOcean Icon

⋅⋅* Enter your access token

⋅⋅* Enter all the configuration desired (do the defaults if unsure)

Deploy Wordpress: #

1. Deploy Wordpress stack:

⋅⋅* Stacks > All > Add from Catalog > Wordpress > View Details

⋅⋅* Enter all the configuration desired

LAUNCH

1. Configure Wordpress to use your domain name (skip this section and go to LetsEncrypt if planning to use LE for certificates):

⋅⋅* Stacks > Select your Wordpress stack > Select more options (the dots) corresponding with your wordpress-lb (load balancer) service

⋅⋅* Add a service rule for your domain name with the following configuration:

Access: Public
Protocol: HTTP
Request Host: <your domain name>
Port: 80
Path: /
Target: wordpress/wordpress
Port: 80

Install LetsEncrypt: #

1. Deploy LetsEncrypt stack:

(Prior to configuring this, point a domain name to the public IP of the server you are running Wordpress on)

⋅⋅* Stacks > All > Add from Catalog > LetsEncrypt > View Details

⋅⋅* Enter the config desired

⋅⋅* Choose HTTP for the domain validation method if you cannot validate with the other methods

LAUNCH

1. Configure Wordpress to use the LetsEncrypt Stack:

⋅⋅* Stacks > Select your Wordpress stack > Select more options (the dots) corresponding with your wordpress-lb (load balancer) service

⋅⋅* Add a service rule for your domain name with the following configuration:

Access: Public
Protocol: HTTP
Request Host: <your domain name>
Port: 80
Path: /
Target: wordpress/wordpress
Port: 80 <br>

⋅⋅* Add a service rule for LE to verify if using HTTP for domain name verification with the following configuration:

Access: Public
Protocol: HTTP
Request Host: <your domain name>
Port: 80
Path: /.well-known/acme-challenge
Target: letsencrypt/letsencrypt
Port: 80 <br>

⋅⋅* Add a service rule for your domain name with the following configuration:

Access: Public
Protocol: HTTPS
Request Host: <your domain name>
Port: 443
Path: /
Target: wordpress/wordpress
Port: 80 <br>

*At the bottom of the page, an SSL Termination Tab should have come up. Select the SSL certificate you created in Step 1 of this section.