Creating Sites

EE Dashboard allows users to create and manage WordPress, PHP, or HTML sites either on their own servers or via the serverless WP Cloud platform.

Create Site Options

EE Sites (Self-Hosted):

These are sites created on your servers with EasyEngine CLI installed on it.
Site Types:

WordPress
PHP
HTML

Steps to create an EE site:

Navigate to Sites > Add Site.
If the button is disabled, first connect a server.
Select Site Type:
1. Choose EE site and proceed.
General Info:
1. Enter domain name – e.g., example.com
2. Alias domains – optional, comma-separated
3. Select a server – search or click to select
4. Choose Site type from the drop-down – WordPress / PHP / HTML
5. Click Verify DNS
  1. DNS success: Proceed to the next step
  2. DNS warning message – “We couldn’t verify that the domain is pointing to this server—check your DNS settings or click Next to continue.” – We suggest you update your DNS records for the domain.
    Important: Leave SSL unchecked if DNS is not updated. SSL setup & site creation will fail otherwise.
Site Options:
1. SSL Configuration:
  Secures your site via HTTPS using SSL certificates. Automatic Let’s Encrypt SSL powered by Acme PHP
  When provisioning a WordPress or PHP or HTML site, EE Dashboard auto-generates and installs a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate.
  Note: Keep SSL unchecked if DNS records aren’t updated. Otherwise, site creation will fail.
  Recommended enabling for all live/public sites.
2. Cache Setup:
  Enable object and page caching for faster performance.
  EE optimizes performance with smart caching defaults:
  1. Built-in Fast CGI Cache:
    WordPress sites are autoconfigured with Fast CGI page caching for blazing-fast load times.
  2. Purge & Clear Options:
    Cache is automatically cleared on key WordPress events. Manual purge is available via CLI and via dashboard (coming soon).
3. HTTP Basic Authentication:
  Restrict access to your site with a username and password prompt.
  When enabled, users must enter a username and password before accessing the site.
  Useful for staging, private demos, or work-in-progress sites.
4. Admin Tools
  This enables phpMyAdmin – a browser-based MySQL database management tool.
  Useful for quick database edits, queries, and inspection
5. CI/CD – GitHub Deployments
  Enable continuous deployment using GitHub Actions.
  - Supports multi-branch deployments
  - Automatically builds and deploys your site on Git pushes
  - Uses the official action: rtCamp/action-deploy-wordpress
  - Fields to Fill:
    - Repository Name: e.g., eerepo
    - Repository Link: e.g., https://github.com/eerepo
    - Branches: Choose main or develop
    - Commits: Authored using the configured bot name/email
      
      Note: SSH Deployment Key: Add the private key to EE Dashboard; add its public key to GitHub
6. Mailhog – Email Testing Tool
  Mailhog captures and displays all outgoing emails from your site in a browser-based inbox.
  - Great for development – no real emails are sent
  - Default on dev sites – cannot be disabled
    Mailhog GitHub Repository
7. Website Configurations:
  This section allows you to configure the core aspects of your website. These settings ensure your site is compatible with the stack and tailored to your needs.
  - PHP Configuration:
    Choose the PHP version best suited for your site’s needs.
    EasyEngine Dashboard supports a range of versions, currently from 8.1 to 8.4.
  - WordPress Configuration:
    Fine-tune how WordPress behaves under the hood:
    - Table Prefix
      - Sets the database table prefix for the WordPress site.
      - Default is wp_, but you can change this for added security.
  - Multisite Support
    Create a WordPress network using one of the following modes:
    - False (default): Multisite is disabled.
    - Subdomain: Your network sites will use subdomains (e.g., site1.example.com).
    - Subdirectory: Sites appear under a path (e.g., example.com/site1).
      
      Note: Ensure your DNS and server configuration support your chosen option before enabling multisite.
  - Final Step – Submit Your Site
    Once you’ve configured all the settings, click the Submit button to create your site. The status will change to ‘Live’ once the site is successfully created and ready to use.
    
    DNS Not Set Up Yet?
    If your domain’s DNS isn’t yet pointing to your server, no worries.
    You can still proceed, but you’ll need to update the DNS records manually:
    - Copy the IPs shown in the setup screen (e.g. 192.0.79.147)
    - Go to your domain registrar’s DNS settings
    - Add/update the A records to point to the server
      
      Note: DNS propagation might take a few minutes to a few hours, depending on your registrar. Once your domain DNS is correctly configured, your site will be fully accessible.

WP Cloud WordPress Sites:

You can create serverless WordPress sites hosted via WP Cloud.

Steps to create a WP Cloud site:

Navigate to Site’s listing page, click on Add Site. (If the add site is disabled, add your WP Cloud key under Org settings → Cloud provider (tab)).
Select WP Cloud site and proceed to next step
General Info:
1. Enter domain name
2. Choose a data centre from the drop-down list:
  - Amsterdam, Netherlands
  - Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, United States
  - Washington, D.C., United States
  - Burbank, California, United States
3. Click Verify DNS
  - DNS success: Proceed to the next step
  - DNS warning messages –
    1. “We were unable to verify that your domain is correctly pointing to the WP Cloud IP addresses (192.0.79.147, 192.0.79.170)Please check your DNS settings, or click Next to proceed.”
    2. “The DNS records for are not set up correctly. Please ensure that the domain points to the server’s public IPv4 address.”
      
      Note: We suggest you update your DNS records for the domain.
      If you are proceeding without it, keep SSL unchecked, otherwise site creation will fail.
4. Site Configurations
  When creating a site on WP Cloud, you’ll be asked to configure a few essential settings:
  - Storage (in GB):
    This is the disk space allocated to your website for code, media files, cache, and database.
    Default: 25 GB | Max allowed: 200 GB
    These limits are set by WP Cloud.
  - Site Type
    Choose how this site is categorized in your workspace. This helps with billing, quota management and deployment.
    Notes:
    - WP Cloud offers one free Staging site for every Billable site.
      So if you have 3 billable sites, you can create up to 3 staging sites at no extra cost.
    - Only Billable sites count toward your paid site quota.
    - Staging and Internal are free but limited in number and cannot be used as production.
  - Billable – Production or live site that will be charged monthly.
  - Staging – Clone or test version of a billable site for development or QA purposes.
  - Internal – For internal use by your team (e.g., testing features, demos, tools, etc.).
5. PHP Configurations
  - PHP Version:
    Select a supported PHP version for your WordPress site.
    Available versions: 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4 (latest)
    Choose the version based on:
    - Plugin/theme compatibility
    - Performance needs
      We recommend using the latest version for better performance and security, unless your app requires older compatibility.
  - PHP Processes:
    Default: 2
    Range: 2 – 10
    This controls the number of PHP worker processes that can run concurrently.
  - PHP Memory Limit (in MB):
    Options: 512, 1024, 1536, 2048 MB
    This sets the maximum memory a PHP process can use.
6. Final Step – Submit Your Site
  Once you’ve configured all the settings, click the Submit button to create your site.
  The status will change to ‘Live’ once the site is successfully created and ready to use.
  
  DNS Not Set Up Yet?
  If your domain’s DNS isn’t yet pointing to WP Cloud, no worries.
  You can still proceed, but you’ll need to update the DNS records manually:
  - Copy the IPs shown on the site header section (e.g. 192.0.79.147, 192.0.79.170)
  - Go to your domain registrar’s DNS settings
  - Add/update the A records to point to the provided WP Cloud IPs
    Note: DNS propagation might take a few minutes to a few hours depending on your registrar. Once your domain DNS is correctly configured, your site will be fully accessible.