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While your site is up and running, reviewing your terminal outputs reveals three critical technical details that you should address to prevent serious issues down the line.
1. The Mystery of the Two Environments
You originally mentioned that your local PowerShell connection worked perfectly with Bitnami commands, while the browser terminal gave you a plain Debian environment. Changing your SSH client cannot change a server's underlying operating system. Because you mentioned having an active EC2 t3.micro instance, it is almost certain that your PowerShell is configured to connect to that EC2 instance (which is likely running the Bitnami image), while your browser console is logging into the Lightsail instance (which is Debian). I highly recommend double-checking the IP address your PowerShell client is targeting to avoid making changes on the wrong server.
2. Avoid using --allow-root with WP-CLI
In your logs, you used the --allow-root flag to run WP-CLI commands. While this works for viewing lists, using it to install or update plugins/themes is dangerous for your site's permissions. It will cause those new files to be owned by the root user. As your ls -la output clearly shows, your web server runs as www-data. If files are owned by root, WordPress won't be able to update, modify, or delete them from the admin dashboard later.
- The correct way: Run the commands directly as the web server user. This completely removes the need for --allow-root and keeps your file permissions safe:
sudo -u www-data wp plugin list --path=/var/www/html
3. Your SSL/HTTPS Strategy needs an update
In your initial "Production-Ready Checklist," you planned to use sudo /opt/bitnami/bncert-tool to generate your free SSL certificate. Because we have now confirmed your Lightsail instance is running standard Debian and not Bitnami, this tool does not exist on your server and the command will fail. To secure your site with HTTPS, you will need to use standard Debian methods—specifically, installing Certbot via the apt package manager to generate your Let's Encrypt certificates.
Best of luck with your WordPress project!
Based on your description, it appears your Lightsail instance may be running a Debian-based operating system rather than the standard Bitnami WordPress blueprint you expected. The login banner showing "Debian GNU/Linux" and the admin user are indicators of this.
Here are some key points to help you troubleshoot:
Understanding Your Instance Configuration:
The browser-based SSH terminal connects using the default user configured for your instance. If you're seeing admin@ as the username and a Debian environment, this suggests your instance may not be using the standard Bitnami WordPress blueprint, or there may have been changes to the default configuration.
Verifying Your Blueprint:
First, confirm which blueprint your instance is actually running. In the Lightsail console, check your instance details to see if it was created from a Bitnami WordPress blueprint or a plain Debian OS blueprint. This will explain why the expected Bitnami paths (/opt/bitnami/) don't exist.
Finding Your WordPress Installation: If WordPress is running and accessible through your browser, the files must be somewhere on the system. Common locations to check include:
/var/www/html//usr/share/nginx/html//home/admin/or subdirectories
You can search for your WordPress installation by running: sudo find / -name "wp-config.php" 2>/dev/null
Next Steps:
- Verify your instance blueprint in the Lightsail console
- Locate your actual WordPress installation directory
- If WP-CLI is needed but not installed, you may need to install it manually for your specific environment
The difference between your PowerShell connection and browser SSH shouldn't cause this type of environment difference - both should connect to the same system with the same user. The issue is more likely related to which blueprint was used to create the instance initially.
For SSL certificate setup and other production configurations, you'll need to first confirm your actual server environment and WordPress installation location before proceeding with tools like bncert (which is Bitnami-specific).
sudo find / -name "wp-config.php" 2>/dev/null
Which give me message of "admin@ip-172-26-15-138:
$ sudo find / -name "wp-config.php" 2>/dev/null /var/www/wp-config.php admin@ip-172-26-15-138:$ …… wp plugin list --path=/var/www --allow-root Give message of: admin@ip-172-26-15-138:$ wp plugin list --path=/var/www --allow-root Error: This does not seem to be a WordPress installation. The used path is: /var/www/ Pass --path=$ ^C …… ls -la /var/www with answer of : admin@ip-172-26-15-138:path/to/wordpressor runwp core download. admin@ip-172-26-15-138:$ ls -la /var/www total 16 drwxrwsr-x 3 admin www-data 4096 May 28 10:23 . drwxr-xr-x 12 root root 4096 Apr 8 09:04 .. drwxrwsr-x 5 admin www-data 4096 Jun 6 10:55 html -r--r----- 1 admin www-data 3930 May 28 10:23 wp-config.php admin@ip-172-26-15-138:$ …….. wp plugin list --path=/var/www/html --allow-root give message admin@ip-172-26-15-138:~$ wp plugin list --path=/var/www/html --allow-root +----------------+----------+-----------+-----------+-------------------+-------------+ | name | status | update | version | update_version | auto_update | +----------------+----------+-----------+-----------+-------------------+-------------+ | all-in-one-wp- | inactive | none | 7.105 | | off | | migration | | | | | | | all-in-one-seo | inactive | none | 4.9.7.2 |Dear Support Team,
I would like to inform you that, after following your guidance and implementing the commands and recommendations provided in your previous response, my AWS account is now functioning correctly and I have regained access to the required services.
The issue has been successfully resolved, and my account is back to normal working condition.
Thank you very much for your assistance, support, and valuable guidance throughout the troubleshooting process. Your help is greatly appreciated.
Best regards, Usman Khan
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