# Persistent Installation of MySQL and WordPress on Kubernetes
This example describes how to run a persistent installation of [Wordpress](https://wordpress.org/).
We'll use the [mysql](https://registry.hub.docker.com/_/mysql/) and [wordpress](https://registry.hub.docker.com/_/wordpress/) official [Docker](https://www.docker.com/) images for this installation. (The wordpress image includes an Apache server).
We'll create two Kubernetes [pods](https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/blob/master/docs/pods.md) to run mysql and wordpress, both with associated [persistent disks](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks), then set up a Kubernetes [service](https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/blob/master/docs/services.md) to front each pod.
This example demonstrates several useful things, including: how to set up and use persistent disks with Kubernetes pods; how to define Kubernetes services to leverage docker-links-compatible service environment variables; and use of an external load balancer to expose the wordpress service externally and make it transparent to the user if the wordpress pod moves to a different cluster node.
Some of the example's details, such as the Persistent Disk setup, require that Kubernetes is running on [Google Compute Engine](https://cloud.google.com/compute/).
## Install gcloud and start up a Kubernetes cluster
First, if you have not already done so, [create](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/quickstart) a [Google Cloud Platform](https://cloud.google.com/) project, and install the [gcloud SDK](https://cloud.google.com/sdk/).
Then, set the gcloud default project name to point to the project you want to use for your Kubernetes cluster:
```
gcloud config set project <project-name>
```
Next, grab the Kubernetes [release binary](https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/releases). You can do this via:
Then, start up a Kubernetes cluster as [described here](https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/blob/master/docs/getting-started-guides/gce.md).
```
$ <kubernetes>/cluster/kube-up.sh
```
where `<kubernetes>` is the path to your Kubernetes installation.
For this WordPress installation, we're going to configure our Kubernetes [pods](https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/blob/master/docs/pods.md) to use [persistent disks](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks). This means that we can preserve installation state across pod shutdown and re-startup.
Before doing anything else, we'll create the persistent disks that we'll use for the installation: one for the mysql pod, and one for the wordpress pod.
The general series of steps required is as described [here](https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/blob/master/docs/volumes.md), where $ZONE is the zone where your cluster is running, and $DISK_SIZE is specified as, e.g. '500GB'. In future, this process will be more streamlined.
So for the two disks used in this example, do the following.
Note that we've defined a volume mount for `/var/lib/mysql`, and specified a volume that uses the persistent disk (`mysql-disk`) that you created.
Once you've edited the file to set your database password, create the pod as follows, where `<kubernetes>` is the path to your Kubernetes installation:
It may take a short period before the new pod reaches the `Running` state.
List all pods to see the status of this new pod and the cluster node that it is running on:
```shell
$ <kubernetes>/cluster/kubectl.sh get pods
```
#### Check the running pod on the Compute instance
You can take a look at the logs for a pod by using `kubectl.sh log`. For example:
```shell
$ <kubernetes>/cluster/kubectl.sh log mysql
```
If you want to do deeper troubleshooting, e.g. if it seems a container is not staying up, you can also ssh in to the node that a pod is running on. There, you can run `sudo -s`, then `docker ps -a` to see all the containers. You can then inspect the logs of containers that have exited, via `docker logs <container_id>`. (You can also find some relevant logs under `/var/log`, e.g. `docker.log` and `kubelet.log`).
### Start the Mysql service
We'll define and start a [service](https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/blob/master/docs/services.md) that lets other pods access the mysql database on a known port and host.
We will specifically name the service `mysql`. This will let us leverage the support for [Docker-links-compatible](https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/blob/master/docs/services.md#how-do-they-work) service environment variables when we up the wordpress pod. The wordpress Docker image expects to be linked to a mysql container named `mysql`, as you can see in the "How to use this image" section on the wordpress docker hub [page](https://registry.hub.docker.com/_/wordpress/).
So if we label our Kubernetes mysql service `mysql`, the wordpress pod will be able to use the Docker-links-compatible environment variables, defined by Kubernetes, to connect to the database.
The `mysql-service.yaml` file looks like this:
```yaml
kind: Service
apiVersion: v1beta1
id: mysql
# the port that this service should serve on
port: 3306
# just like the selector in the replication controller,
# but this time it identifies the set of pods to load balance
# traffic to.
selector:
name: mysql
# the container on each pod to connect to, can be a name
Then, find the external IP for your WordPress service by listing the forwarding rules for your project:
```shell
$ gcloud compute forwarding-rules list
```
Look for the rule called `wpfrontend`, which is what we named the wordpress service, and note its IP address.
## Visit your new WordPress blog
To access your new installation, you first may need to open up port 80 (the port specified in the wordpress service config) in the firewall for your cluster. You can do this, e.g. via:
This will define a firewall rule called `sample-http` that opens port 80 in the default network for your project.
Now, we can visit the running WordPress app.
Use the external IP that you obtained above, and visit it on port 80:
```
http://<external_ip>
```
You should see the familiar WordPress init page.
## Take down and restart your blog
Set up your WordPress blog and play around with it a bit. Then, take down its pods and bring them back up again. Because you used persistent disks, your blog state will be preserved.
If you are just experimenting, you can take down and bring up only the pods: