Ever wanted to use WordPress on IBM i?
What is WordPress?
WordPress is an open-source Content Management System written in PHP and paired with a MySQL or MariaDB database. Features include a comprehensive plugin architecture and a visual theme system.
WordPress is powered by a webserver – what options do we have?
HTTP Server for i
The IBM HTTP Server (powered by Apache) for IBM i is a complete Web server product which offers several components and features to assist with website configuration and development. Apache works great for a huge range of eBusiness website development on our IBM Power Systems, running IBM i OS.
IBM i DB2 Database
Db2 for i is an IBM i integrated Relational Database Management System delivering high performance, virtualization, and energy efficiency features of IBM Power Systems. Db2 for i is fully integrated with the IBM i operating system and Power Systems.
So, what happens when we want to push these boundaries and want to install a Content Management System like WordPress?
We have to jump through a few different hoops to get it up and running with IBM I.
Come with me as I try to get this WordPress thing working 😉
WordPress Pre-Requisites
WordPress officially recommends that your hosting environment must support the following minimum requirements.
| WordPress Requirements | Version |
|---|---|
| PHP | Version 7.3 or greater. |
| MySQL | Version 5.6 or greater. |
| MariaDB (if not using MySQL) | Version 10.1 or greater. |
| HTTPS | Supported by the server. |
As you can see in the above pre-requisites, there is more than one database available for use with WordPress, but neither of them is listed as IBM DB2.
You may have heard of MySQL, originally Developer by Sun Microsystems, it has grown to be one of the most widely used databases across the world. It’s open source and free so many many ISP’s have selected it as their database of choice of recent years.
However, when Sun Microsystems was acquired by Oracle, some of the senior MySQL database developers felt that there was a conflict of interest between MySQL and Oracle’s own Database Server. So, a fork was created using the MySQL base code and this new version of MySQL was called — MariaDB.
MariaDB is a new and improved database, but still free.
Differences Between MariaDB and MySQL
| MariaDB | MySQL |
| Faster performance | Comparatively slower performance |
| Open source | Technically open source, but largely managed by Oracle |
| Much larger connection pool | Much smaller connection pool |
| 12 storage engines | Much fewer storage engines |
| Suitable for large-sized data | Doesn’t work as well for large-sized data |
| Supports data masking | Does not support data masking |
| Supports dynamic columns | Does not support dynamic columns |
We can install MariaDB on our IBM i Server…. so, let’s go down that route first.
Part 2 – Install MariaDB on IBM i
This step caused a few head scratching moments, so I’ve separated it into another blog post.
Don’t panic, take a sip of your tea (hot obviously) and let’s dive in