Joomla is a content management system (CMS) that powers nearly two million active websites worldwide. Joomla is a popular choice for small and large organizations thanks to its flexibility, scalability, and wide customization possibilities. Its open-source nature enables developers to contribute and expand its capabilities via a wide library of extensions and templates.
This tutorial walks you through each step of deploying Joomla on a Civo Kubernetes cluster, ensuring a seamless and successful installation.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, ensure you have the following:
- A Civo account (create one at Civo).
- Basic knowledge of Kubernetes concepts.
- Installed tools: Kubectl.
Setting Up Civo Kubernetes Cluster
To create a cluster using the Civo CLI, run the following command:
civo k3s create joomla_demo --wait --save --merge --switch
The command above will build a 3-node K3s cluster called joomla_demo with a g4s.kube.medium instance. Wait for the cluster to be live before saving the kubeconfig alongside your current ~/.kube/config file.
After performing the command, the Civo CLI will display the completion time and confirm that your kubeconfig has been merged and that the current context has been switched to the new cluster.
Merged with main kubernetes config: /home/yongdev/.kube/config
Access your cluster with:
kubectl get node
The cluster joomla_demo (81f9d9f6-4662-4ebc-bec1-b16cf72cdf95) has been created in 1 min 36 sec
Setting Up Persistent Storage
You will need Persistent Storage for database data and Joomla configurations and data to guarantee that application-related data is kept. You could create and install MariaDB from scratch, but why would you do that when the Civo marketplace already includes critical Kubernetes technologies like MariaDB?
To install MariaDB from the CLI, run the code below in your terminal:
civo kubernetes applications add mariadb:5GB --cluster=joomla_demo
After a moment, you will get an output similar to this:
The application was installed in the Kubernetes cluster joomla_demo
The installation from the marketplace creates a service, a PV claim, and a deployment. You can view the source here.
You can confirm if the MariaDB pod is operational by inputting:
kubectl get pods -l app=mariadb
While the installation of MariaDB went on, Civo created a password for the root user. This password should be copied from the dashboard in the Installed application section because it is needed for this process.
Next, you must set up a database and user account in MariaDB for our Joomla service. Run the command shown below:
kubectl exec -it svc/mariadb -- /bin/sh
mariadb -u root -p
This command launches a shell within the MariaDB service instance and will attempt to connect to the server. You will be prompted to enter a password. Enter the password you copied from the dashboard.
After entering the right credentials, you will have access to the server. To create a database and user account, run the SQL statement below. Ensure you tweak the values of the user account (joomla_user and strong-password) at will:
CREATE DATABASE joomla_db;
CREATE USER joomla_user identified by 'strong-password';
GRANT ALL ON joomla_db.* TO joomla_user;
The last thing to do here is to create a persistent volume (PV) for the Joomla deployment instance. Create a joomla-pv.yml file and copy the code below into the new file:
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
name: joomla-pv-claim
spec:
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
resources:
requests:
storage: 5Gi
Apply the newly created file by running:
kubectl apply -f joomla-pv.yml
You will receive a message confirming its creation.
persistentvolumeclaim/joomla-pv-claim created
Deploying Joomla
Before deploying Joomla, you need to install a cert manager to create a TLS certificate. In the terminal, run the following:
civo kubernetes applications add cert-manager --cluster=joomla_demo
You should receive a message verifying the installation. After a while, check that it's running by inputting:
kubectl get pods -n cert-manager
If all the pods are running, create a file provider.yaml and copy the following code into it. You will need to replace <YOUREMAILHERE> with your Civo registered e-mail:
apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
kind: ClusterIssuer
metadata:
name: letsencrypt-prod
namespace: default
spec:
acme:
# The ACME server URL
server: https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
# Email address used for ACME registration
email: <YOUR_EMAIL_HERE>
# Name of a secret used to store the ACME account private key
privateKeySecretRef:
name: letsencrypt-prod
# Enable the HTTP-01 challenge provider
solvers:
- http01:
ingress:
class: traefik
Apply the certificate on the cluster:
kubectl apply -f provider.yml
Then, create a file named joomla-app.yaml and copy the following code into it:
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: joomla
labels:
app: joomla
spec:
replicas: 1
strategy:
type: Recreate
selector:
matchLabels:
app: joomla
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: joomla
spec:
containers:
- name: joomla
image: joomla:5.2
imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
ports:
- containerPort: 80
protocol: TCP
volumeMounts:
- name: joomla-persistent-storage
mountPath: /var/www/html
env:
- name: JOOMLA_DB_HOST
value: mariadb
- name: JOOMLA_DB_PASSWORD
valueFrom:
secretKeyRef:
name: mysql-pass
key: MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD
volumes:
- name: joomla-persistent-storage
persistentVolumeClaim:
claimName: joomla-pv-claim
You can now create the deployment by running:
kubectl apply -f joomla-app.yml
The next thing to do is to create a service for the application. You can do that by creating a file joomla-svc.yaml and pasting the code below into it:
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
name: joomla-service
spec:
selector:
app: joomla
ports:
- protocol: TCP
port: 80
targetPort: 80
After the definition of the service, you can now apply it:
kubectl apply -f joomla-svc.yaml
The final step is to publish the just-created service to the web. Civo automatically installs some applications when creating a new cluster, including the Traefik ingress controller, which exposes services to externally reachable URLs.
Copy the code below to a file called ingress.yaml, replacing YOURCLUSTERID with your own available on your Civo dashboard:
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
name: joomla
annotations:
ingressClassName: traefik
cert-manager.io/cluster-issuer: letsencrypt-prod
ingress.kubernetes.io/ssl-redirect: "true"
spec:
tls:
- hosts:
- joomla.YOURCLUSTERID.k8s.civo.com
secretName: letsencrypt-prod
rules:
- host: joomla.YOURCLUSTERID.k8s.civo.com
http:
paths:
- backend:
service:
name: joomla-service
port:
number: 80
path: /
pathType: Prefix
Then, apply this file to your cluster:
kubectl apply -f ingress.yml
After the file has been applied, you can access your Joomla instance from the URL (joomla.YOURCLUSTERID.k8s.civo.com) a few minutes later.
Run the installer and enjoy your website! Remember to use the user account and database you created before, and the database host is mariadb.
After the installation is complete, you should have your Joomla site ready. Congratulations! That’s how to deploy Joomla on Civo Kubernetes.
Summary
In this guide, you went through how to successfully deploy Joomla on a Civo Kubernetes cluster with MariaDB and Traefik, set up persistent storage, configure ingress, and secure your installation with HTTPS.
This deployment approach ensures that your Joomla website or application remains robust and resilient in a cloud-native environment as you expand your Joomla project. Happy building!
