Drupal Tutorial and Installation How To

The following tutorial describes how to install Drupal with your NEXCESS.NET web hosting account. NEXCESS.NET is Drupal friendly. This tutorial is meant to help you quickly setup and configure Drupal 6.0 with our web hosting service.

Drupal is a popular portal content management system that rivals Joomla, Mambo and other open source content management systems. Drupal is distributed under the GPL ("General Public License") meaning its is free to download and use. What distinguishes Drupal from other rival CMS is the simplicity of its installation and management. Little to no experience in programing is needed, so you don't have to worry about modifying any code.

Make sure your host supports Drupal! This step only applies only if you don't have a NEXCESS.NET hosting plan - all of our shared and reseller plans support Drupal. If you're not a NEXCESS.NET client, then you can check the minimum requirements for Drupal.

For the sake of this tutorial we'll assume that you own the domain 'johnsmith.com' and are setting up Drupal at http://johnsmith.com/drpl/.

1. Set up your database for Drual to use
   The first thing to do is to run through the SiteWorx MySQL tutorial and create a MySQL username and database for Drupal to use to store the information it needs. For the purpose of making this tutorial simple, we are going to use db_user as the Drupal database user and Drupal_db as the Drupal database.
2. Download the Drupal software, and upload it to your site
   Go to the Drupal download page and download either the ".zip" or ".tar.gz" version of the software. For this tutorial, we'll assume that you've downloaded the .tar.gz version. Upload the Drupal-6.0.tar.gz file to the home directory of your site. You should do this using an FTP Program. If you need help with FTPing files, you can check out our FTP tutorials.
3. Don't like SSH?
   You can use an extraction program like Power Archiver to extract the files on your local computer, then upload them with an FTP client. Most FTP clients will also let you change permissions on files and directories.
   Login via SSH to extract the files
   Once completed open an SSH session to your website. If you do not have SSH access or are not familiar with SSH please visit our SSH tutorial. Upon logging in you should be in your home directory were the Drupal tar file is located. Verify the file exists by typing "ls" without the quotation marks then hit enter. This should reveal the contents of your home directory. If you want to install Drupal in your home directory, continue on to the next step, otherwise move the tar file to the directory you wish to use for Drupal. For the purpose of this tutorial we are going to assume you are installing Drupal in a folder named drpl. Type tar -zxvf Drupal-6.0.tar.gz in SSH to extract the installation files. Now we need to move the Drupal files from recently extracted directory to the Drupal directory we are going to use. Type mv Drupal-6.0/* public_html/drpl/ at the command line. This command will move the contents of the Drupal-6.0 directory and place them in the drpl folder.
4. Drupal Requirements Problem
   To begin configuring Drupal, open a new browser window and navigate to http://johnsmith.com/drpl (replacing "johnsmith.com" with your domain name of course). You should now see the Drupal install script. Select your language of choice, you will now see the following error:
   
   Drupal may require permission changes during installation
   In your SSH terminal navigate to your Drupal install directory and type the following command: chmod a+w sites/default/ then hit enter. If the permission change worked you will not get any feedback, if it failed, you will get an error. Now go back to your browser, refresh Drupal install script or hit the "Try Again" link. Now your screen should display the database configuration for Drupal.
5. Database Configuration
   Enter the database settings you configured earlier. Your configuration should be similar to this:
   
   Entering your database details during configuration
   Then click "Continue" - if all goes well you should see a progress bar. If not, double-check that you entered the correct database name, username and password - and that you correctly set up permissions on the database that Drupal will be using.
6. Finishing Installation
   When the installation is complete the "Configure Site" page is displayed. Notice the warning in red - for security reasons you must now remove the write permissions on the sites/default/ folder. You can do this by typing the following command in your SSH terminal chmod a-w sites/default/ and then hit enter.
   
   Be sure to remove the "write" permission on sites/default before proceeding
   Now fill out the required fields in the Drupal "Configure Site" page. Then click the "Save and Continue" button. Click the link "Your New Site" and you will be forwarded to your freshly installed Drupal 6.0 website! You will receive an email from the Drupal configuration script confirming that your account has been activated.
   
   Your Drupal installation is complete and ready to use!

If any part of this tutorial is unclear or you need further help, don't hesitate to contact our support team. Check out our drupal hosting support page for more information. If you need custom Drupal development, check out Switchback CMS.

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