WordPress Operator

A production-grade Kubernetes Operator written in Go, built to deploy and manage WordPress environments automatically with AWS-native infrastructure integration.
This operator eliminates manual setup by provisioning RDS databases, S3 buckets, and Secrets Manager entries, while deploying fully optimized PHP-FPM and NGINX containers tuned for WordPress performance and reliability.

Overview

The WordPress Operator encapsulates the entire lifecycle of a WordPress site — infrastructure, application, and runtime — into a single declarative resource.
Engineered with controller-runtime and client-go, it observes WordPressSite custom resources and reconciles the full stack: AWS services, Kubernetes resources, and application configuration, delivering consistent, self-healing deployments at scale.

Key Features

• Declarative Site Creation – Deploy a complete WordPress site (database, secrets, storage, ingress, autoscaling) from one manifest.
• AWS Integration –
  • Automated RDS MySQL instance creation with subnet groups, parameter groups, and backup policies
  • S3 bucket provisioning for media offload with lifecycle and versioning
  • Secrets Manager integration for secure credential rotation
• Custom Runtime Images –
  • PHP-FPM Container: Minimal Alpine base, tuned for Opcache, Redis, and concurrent request throughput
  • NGINX Container: Custom caching layer with Brotli, Gzip, and pre-compressed static assets
• Built-In Observability – Structured logging, Prometheus metrics, and reconciliation health checks
• Resilient State Management – Idempotent reconciliation ensures desired state consistency even under network or API retries
• GitOps Ready – Fully declarative, designed for Argo CD or Flux pipelines

Architecture

• Language: Go (1.22+)
• Framework: Kubebuilder (controller-runtime)
• CRDs: WordPressSite and DatabaseInstance resources
• Databases: AWS RDS (MySQL / Aurora)
• Storage: S3 buckets for uploads and caching
• Secrets: AWS Secrets Manager for secure credential delivery to pods
• Ingress: NGINX with optional cert-manager TLS automation
• Deployments:
  • Custom graystack-wordpress-php-fpm image
  • Custom graystack-wordpress-nginx image
• Scalability: HPA and PDB templates per site with auto-tuned requests/limits

Performance Benchmarks

• Deployment Time: Full WordPress environment ready in under 90 seconds
• TTFB (cached): ~100–150ms on edge ingress
• Uptime SLA: 99.99% with pod disruption budgets and graceful restarts
• Asset Delivery: ~40% faster via S3 offload vs EFS baseline
• Concurrency Handling: Sustains 1,000+ RPS on read-heavy workloads

Example Workflow

1. Developer creates a site manifest:

   apiVersion: graystack.dev/v1alpha1
   kind: WordPressSite
   metadata:
     name: wp-gdlrural
   spec:
     domain: gdlrural.com.au
     phpVersion: "8.2"
     replicas: 2
     storage:
       type: s3
     database:
       engine: mysql
       size: small

2. Operator workflow:

   • Provisions an RDS instance with automated backups
   • Creates an S3 bucket and IAM role
   • Stores credentials in AWS Secrets Manager
   • Deploys optimized PHP-FPM + NGINX pods
   • Configures Ingress with TLS via cert-manager

3. The site goes live — fully integrated, secure, and auto-scaled within minutes.

DevOps & Reliability

• CI/CD: GitHub Actions pipelines integrated with Argo CD for automated environment syncs
• IAM: IRSA for pod-level fine-grained AWS permissions
• Backup & Recovery:
  • Automated RDS snapshotting
  • S3 versioning with lifecycle policies
• Observability: Datadog and Prometheus exporters for reconciliation metrics
• Network Policies: Enforced isolation for site-specific traffic

Results & Impact

• Reduced provisioning from hours to 90 seconds
• Delivered repeatable infrastructure parity across dev, staging, and production
• Eliminated configuration drift with strict reconciliation logic
• Enabled self-service WordPress deployment for multiple business units
• Improved page load performance and reliability under high concurrent traffic

Technologies Used

Summary

The WordPress Operator represents a next-generation approach to WordPress hosting — combining cloud-native automation with infrastructure intelligence.
By leveraging Go, Kubebuilder, and AWS integration, it transforms WordPress management into a declarative, scalable, and observable system — delivering unmatched reliability and performance for enterprise and internal use cases alike.