# First-run setup

1. Open the site — the app service's subdomain is the public URL. WordPress installs itself on first boot; there is no wp-admin/install.php step to click through.
2. Log in — go to /wp/wp-admin. The admin username defaults to zadmin and the password is the generated WORDPRESS_ADMIN_PASSWORD — read it from the app service's env vars in the Zerops GUI, then change it.
3. Set the admin email — WORDPRESS_ADMIN_EMAIL ships as a placeholder; update it in Settings → General so password resets and notifications reach you.

# Configure

• Add plugins/themes via Composer, not the dashboard — the file editor and installer are disabled because the filesystem is rebuilt on every deploy. composer require wpackagist-plugin/<slug>, commit, push.
• Email — set SMTP_HOST_OVERRIDE / SMTP_PORT_OVERRIDE (and WORDPRESS_SMTP_AUTH / WORDPRESS_SMTP_USER / WORDPRESS_SMTP_PASSWORD) on the app service to route mail through your SMTP relay; left unset, WordPress uses PHP's default mail().
• Custom domain — add it in Zerops, then set WORDPRESS_URL to it (it defaults to the Zerops subdomain); WordPress uses it for every absolute URL.

# Upgrade

Bump johnpbloch/wordpress (and plugins) in composer.json, run composer update, commit and push. The deploy's upgrade.sh runs wp core update-db, so schema migrations apply automatically before traffic resumes — do NOT update core from the dashboard (it's disabled, and any write would be lost on the next deploy).

# 1. Find your service name

Many commands and configurations need the exact name of your service. You can find it in the Zerops Dashboard.

• Open your project in the Zerops Dashboard.
• In the project overview, find the service you want to manage.
• Use this exact name whenever a command or pipeline configuration asks for <service-name>.

# 2. Configure deployment pipeline

Go to Service Settings > Pipelines & CI/CD Settings in the Zerops Dashboard and connect your repository.

For production, use a trigger on new tags. This keeps deployments intentional and tied to a specific version. You can also add a regex filter, such as ^v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$, if you want to allow only semantic version tags.

Alternatively, add zcli push to your existing CI/CD pipeline if you want full control over when deployments happen.

Learn more about pipeline triggers: https://docs.zerops.io/features/pipeline

# 3. Deploy to production

Create and push a new Git tag to deploy a specific version of your app:

git tag -a v1.0.0 -m "Release version 1.0.0"
git push origin v1.0.0

# 4. Configure autoscaling

Review the autoscaling settings for your runtime services and databases in Service Settings > Automatic Scaling Configuration in the Zerops Dashboard.

The most important settings are:

verticalAutoscaling:
  minRam: 1
  minFreeRamGB: 0.5
  minFreeRamPercent: 20

# 5. Set up your domain

To send real traffic to your app, configure public HTTP access in Service Settings > Public Access & Internal Ports in the Zerops Dashboard.

Add your custom domain and point your DNS records to the Zerops IPs shown in the dashboard:

Type   Name          Content          TTL
A      example.com   <zerops-ipv4>    Auto
AAAA   example.com   <project-ipv6>   Auto

For wildcard domains, add a CNAME record for SSL validation.

Check the public access documentation: https://docs.zerops.io/features/access

Once everything works, you can disable the Zerops subdomain so all traffic goes through your custom domain.

# 🎉 You are good to go!

Your application is live in production and the core setup is complete.

The following sections are optional. They cover extra production features such as log forwarding, backups, and diagnostic access. You can stop here and come back later when you need them.

# 6. Set up log forwarding (Optional)

To send logs to an external service, go to Project Settings > Log Forwarding & Logs Overview in the Zerops Dashboard.

You can forward logs to services like Better Stack, Papertrail, or your own self-hosted solution.

Learn more about log forwarding: https://docs.zerops.io/references/logging

# 7. Configure database backups (Optional)

Manage automated encrypted backups in Service Settings > Backups in the Zerops Dashboard.

By default, backups run daily between 00:00 and 01:00 UTC.

Before a major deployment, create a manual protected backup:

zcli backup create <db-service> --tags pre-deploy,protected

Read the backup documentation for more options: https://docs.zerops.io/features/backup

# 8. Set up diagnostic access (Optional)

Use zCLI and VPN access when you need to inspect or maintain services directly.

For runtime services:

zcli vpn up
ssh <service-name>.zerops

For databases, connect through the VPN to reach the project’s private network, or set up secure direct IP access for your database admin tools.

Check the VPN documentation: https://docs.zerops.io/references/cli/commands#vpn-up