Installing Drupal 7 to OIT Web Hosting

The following sections describe options for setting up Drupal 7 on OIT Web Hosting.  These steps will give you a generic Drupal 7 installation – if you'd rather start with a more turnkey configuration, you may want to look at Drupal Express.

Installing Drupal Using Installatron

The quickest way to get Drupal setup is to use the Installatron Applications Installer, which will download and setup Drupal for you.

1. From the front page of the Plesk control panel, look for the Installatron Applications Installer link on the right-hand side of the page.
2. Under the heading "Apps for Content Management", look for and select the Drupal blue water drop icon (the text underneath reads 'Drupal cms'. 
3. You can read about Drupal on the next page and view the live demo if you like.  When you are ready to install, look for the drop-down in the top right section of the page with a big blue plus symbol and the words "install this application"
4. On the next page answer all of the questions about your installation.  Details on some of the more notable settings are given below:
   • Version:  You should install the latest 7.x version, as it the only version currently supported by the Georgia Tech Drupal Theme and other GT Drupal modules.  Do not under any circumstances select a version earlier than 7.65, and only select an 8.x version if you are setting up a site that doesn't have to have full Georgia Tech branding and you are already familiar with and comfortable with supporting the 8.x version of Drupal.
   • Automatic Update and Automatic Update Backup:  You can leave these settings at their defaults unless you have a good reason for changing them.
   • Administrator Username and Administrator Password:  These have been randomly generated, but you can change them if you prefer.  Avoid using 'admin' or 'administrator' for the username - something more unique provides a little better security.
   • Administrator Email:  Set this to an email address that someone will be watching (ideally yourself).  The default will be for the mailing list that sends to everyone who is an owner or administrator for your OIT Web Hosting account.
   • Advanced:  Most of these can be left alone.  However, you may wish to select Let me manage these settings and then under Email Notification choose Let me choose which notifications are sent and uncheck some of the options.  Otherwise, you may get quite a bit of email from Installatron about your application.  For example, you may prefer to uncheck all of the "*Something* Complete" options so that you only get emails when an operation fails or when updates come available.
5. Select the Install button at the bottom of the page to complete your installation.
6. Once installation is complete, you can visit your site's URL to log into your Drupal installation and start configuring it and adding content.

Installing Drupal Manually From a Downloaded Archive File

Another way to install Drupal is to download the installer and copy it to your hosting account.

1. Visit the Drupal.org website and download the latest version of the Drupal 7.x series for any site that needs to have standard Georgia Tech branding.
   • Do not under any circumstances select a version earlier than 7.65, and only select an 8.x version if you are setting up a site that doesn't have to have full Georgia Tech branding and you are already familiar with and comfortable with supporting the 8.x version of Drupal.
   • If your are comfortable with using SSH to connect to your Web Hosting account, you can select either download format (.tar.gz or .zip).  If you prefer to upload the archive file to your Web Hosting account via the Plesk control panel, you must download the ZIP format file.
2. Upload the archive file to your OIT Web Hosting Account and unpack it where you want your Drupal installation to live.  From within the Plesk control panel, you can upload the archive file via the File Manager.  Once the file is uploaded, just select it in the File Manager to unpack it.  After the archive file has been unpacked, move it to your hosting account's "/private/" folder.
3. In the Plesk control panel, go to the Databases manager and create a new database.  Copy down the database name, the database user name, and the password, as you will need them later.
4. Navigate to your Web Hosting site's URL and you should get an installation screen for Drupal.  Follow the prompts and answer the questions - they should mostly be straightforward.  Refer to the Drupal Installation Guide if you need any help.
   • IMPORTANT NOTE:  When entering your database information you must enter "mysql.localhost" as the server name.  This in an artifact of the way that the OIT Web Hosting Servers are set up.