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Installing Drupal

Drupal is an open source content management platform.

Included on this page:

Pre-Requisites

Using MySQL
Drupal requires a Database Management System, so if you don't already have it installed on your account, we recommend installing MySQL. You should also create an empty database for Drupal to use.
The link above explains how to install MySQL. If you need help creating a database, you can look at our instructions for creating a database using the MySQL command-line client or Drupal's database creation page.

Note: We recommend disabling the InnoDB storage engine in MySQL. If you use InnoDB, recovering from an unexpected system restart will be more difficult. You can disable InnoDB by including a line that says skip-innodb underneath the 'datadir' line in your .my.cnf file.

Installation

  1. Log in to your Homer or Dante account with Tera Term or another terminal emulator.

  2. Press the O key for Other, then press the W key to drop into the Web development environment (Ovid or Vergil).

  3. Change directories to your public_html directory.

    cd public_html
  4. Download Drupal using wget.
    wget http://ftp.drupal.org/files/projects/drupal-VERSION.tar.gz

    Make sure to replace VERSION with the actual version of Drupal you're trying to download, or just copy/paste the URL from drupal.org.

  5. Unzip the file you just downloaded:

    tar -xzvf drupal-VERSION.tar.gz

  6. Rename the directory to something easier to remember, or perhaps something that pertains to what you're going to use Drupal for.

    mv drupal-VERSION drupal

  7. Edit the .htaccess file in the drupal directory

    cd drupal

    pico .htaccess

    Comment out the two lines that begin with "Options" by adding a pound symbol (#) to the beginning of the line they are on. The "Options" lines should look like the ones below when you're done.

    # Don't show directory listings for URLs which map to a directory.
#Options -Indexes

# Follow symbolic links in this directory.
#Options +FollowSymLinks

    Un-comment the 'RewriteBase" line by removing the pound symbol on that line. The "RewriteBase" line should look like the one below when you have uncommented it and added your UW NetID.

    RewriteBase /Your UW NetID/drupal

  8. Copy the configuration file template.

    cp sites/default/default.settings.php sites/default/settings.php

  9. Go to http://AccountType.washington.edu/UWNetID/drupal/ (where AccountType is the type of account you have and UWNetID is the UWNetID of the account you are installing Drupal on).

  10. Click on "Adavanced options" and fill out the Database configuration form as follows:

    Database type:mysqli
    Database name:drupal (or whatever you named the database you created for Drupal)
    Database username:Use a username you have created in MySQL with access to the drupal database.
    Database password:The password for the database username above.
    Advanced options
    Database host:webdev host.u.washington.edu
    Database port: The port number you used when you configured MySQL.

    The "Database host" field is the most confusing one here. You'll need to enter the hostname of either ovid or vergil, depending on where your MySQL server is running. The port number is located in your .my.cnf file if you don't remember it. When you're done entering the information, click "Save and continue."

  11. Wait for the database structure to be written and then fill out the "Configure site" form. These options are up to you. If you do not enter a real email address, you will probably recieve bounced email messages.

    Press the "Save and continue" button to submit the form.

  12. You're done. Click on the "your new site" link to start using Drupal.

Other Useful Drupal Resources