In the next article we're going to be shifting our focus to the installation and configuration of vBulletin.

In this article we begin at the point where most people begin with vBulletin with a copy of the software and somewhere to upload it to. If you have both of those, then you are probably eager to get going with the installation!
We will look at:

• The requirements of vBulletin

• How to install the files

• How to create the database

• How to troubleshoot installation problems

• How to configure vBulletin

• How to administer the default usergroups

• How to secure vBulletin

• How to get help and support

Requirements
The requirements to run vBulletin are pretty straightforward, and even the basic shared hosting available nowadays for a few dollars a month should allow you to upload, install, configure, and run vBulletin.
Basic requirements are:

• MySQL database support

• PHP support

If your host claims to support these, then you have a good chance of being able to run vBulletin. Now you need to look in a little more detail at what your host offers.

Detailed requirements for vBulletin are:

• PHP 4.0.6 (latest version recommended to reduce security loopholes, improve performance, and maintain best compatibility with future upgrades)

• MySQL 3.23.33 minimum (4.0.16 or later recommended)

• Operating system: BSD, Solaris, Linux, Windows

Disk Space
Disk space is an important consideration. By 'disk space' I mean the amount of space you are given on the server to host your site and the associated databases.
Disk space is a requirement that is harder to predict. Initially, you will be able to get away with a small amount of space, say 50 Mb. However, over time, the posts in your forum will add significantly to this. All you can do is estimate how busy your forum will be and judge how much space you need from that.
For example, if you think that your forum will generate about 100 posts a day, then that's 36,500 posts a year. On average, this number of posts will take up about 75 Mb of room. If you think that your discussion board will generate 200 posts a day, then you'll need at least 150 Mb of space. 400 posts a day means 146,000 posts a year and an approximate disk consumption of around 300 Mb.
Points to note about disk space
Remember that these figures are average figures. If your site regularly has large posts (in terms of text content) or users are able to attach a lot of attachments to posts, then these figures could rise significantly.
Another point to note is that posts are stored in the database. Different hosts handle disk space versus database space differently, so make sure you know in advance how much disk space and database space you have.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth is the amount of data transfer that your site has. Each time a page is called up by a browser, data extracted from a database or an image retrieved, this adds to your site's bandwidth usage.
For convenience, almost all hosts measure bandwidth over a period of a month in megabytes or gigabytes, so one hosting plan might give you 100 Mb of monthly bandwidth while another might give you 50 Gb. The more bandwidth you have, the more you usually pay and the more room your site has to expand.

Judging how much bandwidth a discussion board will need is tricky for a number of reasons. Yes, it depends on the number of users and the number of posts made, but it also depends on other, harder-to-measure factors. These include:

• How often posts are read. (Remember, a post can be read once or many times by the same person.)

• How often a post is re-read. (Re-reading a post contributes to the bandwidth used.)

• How many posts are displayed on a page.

• How many graphics are on the site.

• How often people carry out searches.

Even a small a forum can generate a lot of activity and therefore consume a lot of bandwidth. Shop around and you'll find some good deals.
As a general rule, it's probably better that you don't go for any plan that offers you less that 20 Gb month. If you go over your allocated bandwidth, you'll end up paying over the odds for additional bandwidth, so it pays to have more than you need.
Many hosts also allow you to roll over unused bandwidth, which means that what you don't use this month you have available the next month.
Flexibility
Try to find a host that is flexible you might not know how your forum will develop over a year or two, so try to find a host that will allow you to upgrade in mid-contract.
System Resources
The bigger your discussion board is, the more system resources it is going to need from the server that it is being hosted on. (By big, we mean how busy it is, which can be measured by how many people are on it at any one time and how many posts are being made over a period of time.)
There are three types of hosting solution available to you.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is sometimes called virtual hosting.
If your board is small (say under 200 posts a day and about 20 people online simultaneously), then you should find that this forum could be run on hosting known as shared hosting, where your website lives on a computer with many other websites.

Shared hosting facts
On a shared hosting plan you can be sharing the server with over 200 other sites. This means that the server power available to you is only a fraction of what the server has to offer. If your site is big and busy, then this can affect others on the server. This is why shared hosting is only viable for small discussion boards.

Shared hosting is by far the cheapest option open to you because you share the cost of the server with others, but be aware that you get what you pay for. Don't expect a shared server solution that costs $100 a year to offer you the same power and flexibility as a hosting solution costing $100 a month would offer you.
Semi-Dedicated Hosting
One rung up from shared hosting comes semi-dedicated hosting. This is similar to shared hosting, but you share the server with fewer other sites. This means that more server power is available to you and your site. The more power that you have, the more users can use your site at any given time and the faster your site appears to them (although ultimately the speed of their Internet connection also plays a big part).
There are benefits to semi-dedicated hosting the main one being a lot more power for only a little more money but be careful and make sure that you are clear about what you are getting. Find out up-front how many people will be sharing the server and what is the maximum allowed on a single semi-dedicated server. A good host will give you this information freely. If they don't, look elsewhere.

Not all semi-dedicated servers were made equal It's all in the numbers. Some hosting companies only allow a semi-dedicated server to host 4 or 5 sites, while others will allow 20 or more. What you are looking for is the best deal based on your budget. Dedicated Hosting A dedicated hosting solution is where you get a server all to yourself. This gives you the best in terms of power and flexibility, but at a price. Remember too that dedicated hosting is a term not a standard a package (or packages) offered by one company is likely to be different from what's on offer from another company. There are many variables when it comes to dedicated hosting connection speed, server specification, support packages, add-ons. Be careful and shop around for the best deals. Get advice! If you are unsure about what you want, then you can get good advice, recommendations and feedback on good deals on the vBulletin community forums: http://www.vbulletin.com/forumAlso, you need to factor in issues like support and downtime. Check out the guarantees offered by the host.
Other Options
There are other options open to you. These include running your own server from your home over a leased line and collocation (where you lease space for your own server at the hosting company's server location). They are both similar to the dedicated hosting solution outlined above.
Both these are expensive solutions but allow you the very best in terms of performance and power. Choosing a collocation solution normally only makes sense if you want complete data privacy or want to handle your technical support and upgrades yourself.
Again, however, bear in mind that these terms aren't standards and that what one company offers you will differ from what another one will be offering. You will need to shop around to get the best deals.
Note of caution
Leaping straight into an expensive solution is folly it will probably have far more power than most discussion forums will ever need.
Be careful about unnecessarily lumbering yourself and your community with a lot of expensive and ongoing bills to pay!
Installing vBulletin
Let's now look at how to install vBulletin. The process is pretty straightforward and installation should only take you about an hour the first time you do it. (Once you get used to it, it's an easy job, one that you can accomplish in a few minutes.)
Make sure you have your customer number handy!
You will need this number to carry out the installation of vBulletin, so make sure you have it handy. (You should have been sent this when you purchased vBulletin.) You won't be able to proceed with the installation without it.

Let's begin by looking at the tools you will need to install vBulletin.

Tools
There are a few tools that you need to have, but these you should be able to pick up for free.

• Unzip tools: You will need one of these to expand the vBulletin installation files. You can choose to download a .zip zipped version or a .tar.gz tarball version of the vBulletin installation files. If you choose the zipped archive, you can download the Free Zip Wizard from http://www.coffeecup.com.

• Text editor: You will need one of these to make changes to some key vBulletin files. Windows WordPad, among others, is ideal for this. Be careful not to use a word processor (such as Word or Open Office), because these applications might try to reformat the code files and damage them. For power editing of text files (something that you will undoubtedly be doing if you plan on making modifications to your vBulletin board), we recommend the commercial editor UltraEdit, available from http://www.ultraedit.com.

• FTP program: To upload the vBulletin files, we will be using WS-FTP, but there are many other good (and free) FTP programs available. A good one is CoffeeCup Free FTP available from http://www.coffeecup.com.

Notepad problems
Oddly enough, Windows Notepad is not recommended for editing vBulletin files because it has difficulties handling line breaks in some files and can cause significant text corruption.

Downloading the Installation Files
When you purchased vBulletin, you will have received an email giving you details of how to log into the member area on the vBulletin website. In this password protected area on the vBulletin site you will find your license details along with the latest vBulletin download files.

Follow the instructions on the site to download the latest version of vBulletin to your computer.
File Extraction
Using a suitable unzip tool, extract these files into a working folder on your system your desktop is convenient for uploading later. For simplicity, we've called the folder vb 3.0.6 because we will be installing version 3.5.2 (which, at the time of writing, isn't the latest version, but we will show you how to upgrade later).
Inside this working folder you'll find another folder. The name of this folder follows the following convention:
xxxxxxxx.yyy
Where xxxxxxxx is your license number for vBulletin and yyy indicates the version number, in this case 352.
Inside this folder are two more folders and a few files (a readme file and license agreements). It might sound like we're hammering home the folders here, but you don't want to upload the wrong files to the Web!

There's a folder called upload and one called do_not_upload. The files you want to upload are in the folder called upload. The other folder contains tools that we don't need to worry about right now.
Upload Preparation
If you have chosen what to call the folder that you want to upload vBulletin to, you can rename the folder to that name now.

Root installation
If you are planning on installing vBulletin in the root of your website, then you don't need to do this you will only need to upload the contents of the upload folder to the root directory of your website.

File paths
From now on we will define the names and locations of vBulletin files relative to the vBulletin root folder, so includes/config.php means config.php in the includes folder.
Open this file up in a text editor. (We are using UltraEdit.)
If you plan on keeping your installation of vBulletin as close to 'out of the box' as possible and don't plan on making many customizations, then editing the config.php file is one of the few times where you will need to edit raw PHP code. Don't worry if you are unfamiliar with PHP as this file is heavily commented in order to help you fill in the necessary information.
Of the many settings in this file, only the first few need concern you, and very little of the file needs to be edited in order to create a working vBulletin configuration file.
Creating the Database
Before you move to this stage, you need either to have a database already created on your web server or to create a new one. vBulletin can safely share a database with other software you might be running on your server, so if your host only allows you to have one database and you're already using that, you're still in luck!
Two of the easiest ways of creating a database are either via cPanel or using the command-line via SSH (Alternatively, you may be able to use Telnet access to your server but not all hosts allow this.)

Command-Line Database Creation
If your web host allows you to have root access to your web server, you can set up a new database for vBulletin to use via the MySQL command line.

• 1. Begin by logging in to your server via SSH or Telnet as the root user (or some other user with permission to control MySQL at the root level). Not all web hosts allow this, so check before trying.
• 2. Next, you need to start the MySQL command-line utility. This is done by typing the following (although the path you use might differ; again, if your host allows you to have access like this, then they will be able to provide you with the necessary details):

/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql -uroot –p You will now be asked for the MySQL root password (usually your web server logon password).
3. Once logged in you should see the following prompt:
mysql>
4. To see the list of databases that already exist, type the following command:
SHOW DATABASES;
5. If you want to add a new database then the name you give that one must be different from all existing databases.
To create a database called vb_database type the following:
CREATE DATABASE vb_database
6. Once you have created the database, you need to create a MySQL user account with permission to access the new database. Doing this is a security precaution as you should never have PHP scripts communicating to MySQL with root privileges. In this example, we will name our new user vb_user and give the account a password of password. Replace those values as appropriate when you type the following:
GRANT ALL ON vb_database.* TO vb_user@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
7. Job done!

cPanel Database Creation
The interface you are presented with in cPanel will vary a lot from host to host, so the following should only be used as a guide.

• 1. First, click on the MySQL Databases icon.
• 2. From here you can create a new MySQL database. Here we are creating one called vb_database.

3. Next, you need to create a new user for the database and assign a password for them.

Prefixes
Some hosts have configured cPanel and phpMyAdmin to add a prefix to the database name and username.

• 4. Now you have to add the user to the database so they can have access and control. Give the user ALL permission privileges. (Not doing this is a common source of errors when installing vBulletin.)

5. Job done!

Using phpMyAdmin
For information on using phpMyAdmin consult your web host or visit the phpMyAdmin site at http://www.phpmyadmin.net. Different hosts use different methods, but if the above methods don't seem to be available, then you can also create new databases through phpMyAdmin by accessing the main screen and clicking Create new database, and then filling in the name of the database, username, and password text boxes.

File Editing
You can now make the necessary changes to the config.php file.
The settings that need editing are (add the values into the '' after the equals sumbol on the appropriate lines):

• $config['MasterServer']['servername'] This sets the address of your database server. On most installations of vBulletin the database server is located on the same computer as the web server, in which case the address should be set to localhost. If this isn't the case, then you will need to use the address of the database server as supplied by your web host.

• $config['MasterServer']['username'] This is the username that was assigned to connect to the database on your web server. If you created a database yourself using phpMyAdmin, then use the username that you assigned there. Otherwise contact your web host. In our example this is vb_user.

• $config['MasterServer']['password'] This is the password that was assigned to connect to the database on your web server. In our example this is password.

• $config['Database']['dbname'] This is the name of the database that you want vBulletin to use. In our example this is vb_user.

• $config['Database']['technicalemail'] Here you need to enter an email address. All database error messages that are generated will be forwarded to this address.

• $config['Database']['tableprefix'] Here you need to enter a prefix for the tables that vBulletin will use. In our example this is vb.

Uploading the vBulletin Files
You are now ready to upload the files to the web server. Connect to your web server with your FTP program and upload the files and folders.
Most FTP client applications will handle the file transfers automatically, but if for some reason your application does not, you should make a note of the following:

• Transfer all text files in ASCII mode.

All files containing plain text from the vBulletin installation package should be transferred in ASCII mode.
Text file types you will find in vBulletin are: .html, .php, .js, .xml, and .css.
• Transfer all non-text files in Binary mode
The remaining files, which are mostly images, should be transferred to your web server in Binary mode.
Binary file types used in vBulletin include: .gif, .png, .jpg, and .ico.

Upload of the files will take several minutes, even with a fast connection.
Once all the files are uploaded, you are ready for the next stage of the installation.
Running the vBulletin Installation Script
Once all the vBulletin files have been successfully uploaded to your web server, you will need to run the vBulletin Installation Script in order to prepare your database to work with vBulletin.
The Installer runs as a PHP script using your web browser. To start the installation process, open your browser and type the http address of your forum's directory, followed by /install/ install.php, then hit the Enter key to begin the running of the script. For example, http://www.example.com/vb/install/install.php.

Before you can continue with the installation, you need to enter your customer number. (You will have been provided with this when you purchased vBulletin.)

After successfully entering your customer number, you are ready to proceed with the installation.

Step 1 of the installation only verifies that the configuration file is present and readable.

Step 2 connects the script to the database, which ensures that the username and password you enter is correct. At this stage you are also given the option to empty the database of any data. Here we are installing vBulletin into a database that contains the data for other applications running on the server, in which case we want to retain the information. Otherwise we could empty the database (but remember that this is one way and unrecoverable unless you have a backup).

In step 3 vBulletin creates the tables that it requires to function.

If you want these tables to be distinguishable from other tables in your database, you can assign them a table prefix in the includes/config.php file. In this case we have chosen not to do this to keep things 'standard', but this doesn't conflict with either the Wordpress blog software or phpBB discussion board software that we have installed into the same database that vBulletin will be using. In fact, vBulletin is quite happy to share a database with other applications and doesn't, as some people think, require a database to itself. (However, as the bulletin board gets bigger and busier, a dedicated database may become desirable, and you will be able to see to this when the need arises.)
To ensure that you don't have conflicts if you are sharing a database, it isn't a bad idea to assign a table prefix.

Step 4 makes some necessary table configurations.
Step 5 inserts default data into the tables. This data is used as the default settings for the vBulletin installation. At this stage you don't need to do anything only click the buttons to proceed from one installation screen to the next!

Step 6 configures the language settings for the discussion forum.
Step 7 imports the necessary style information into the vBulletin installation.

Step 8 installs the admin help files for the discussion board.
Step 9 asks you for some basic information about the discussion board you are setting up title, name, contact details, and so on. If you are only running the one discussion board on your web site, then you can also leave the Cookie Path as /. The Cookie Domain settings box allows you to change the scope of the cookies on your site as a rule you can leave this blank. Installation of other cookie-dependent software might mean that you have to revisit these settings and make changes later.

Step 10 confirms that the settings have been successfully stored.

Step 11 asks you to enter the login details of the administrator of the forum. Make a careful note of these settings you don't want to forget them!
Make sure that the password is a good one too. A poor password will mean that others might be able to guess it and gain access to the site. Make sure that the password is at least eight characters long and contains both upper and lower case characters and a few numbers thrown in for good measure.

Step 12 confirms that the administrator details have been successfully saved.

Step 13 tells you to do something important and that is to delete the install/install.php file from the web server. This is required because others could use it to alter your site or delete the data from the database.

Use your FTP application to delete the file. Once you have done this you can enter the control panel by clicking the link on the screen.

Troubleshooting
If you have managed to get this far without problems, then that's great. Chances are that you won't have any problems at all because vBulletin has been designed to make installation quick and easy.
However, it would be unwise to discount the possibility that things could go wrong.
Here are some of the most commonly occurring problems that you might encounter during the installation of vBulletin
Database Access Issues
This is the commonest issue that you are likely to encounter and isn't really a vBulletin problem it just means that you haven't made all the necessary configuration changes.
If vBulletin cannot access the database, check the following:

• You are using the correct database username. (Remember that a prefix may have been added automatically.)

• The password is correct.

• The database name is correct. (Again, a prefix may have been added automatically to the database name.)

• You have granted the database user full privileges for the database.

If problems still persist, then the problem may be that your FTP client didn't upload the files properly (especially the text files, which are uploaded as ASCII). Upload all the files again and try to run the installation script again.
Images/Styling Not Showing
This is another common problem, and it can make the site look very odd no graphics will show, and the text will be unformatted.
The problem here is that your web server is sensitive to capitalization but your FTP program uploaded the files all lowercase.
To solve this problem navigate to the cpstyles folder and rename the following folders:
vbulletin_3_default -> vBulletin_3_Default
vbulletin_3_frontend -> vBulletin_3_Frontend
vbulletin_3_manual -> vBulletin_3_Manual
vbulletin_3_silver -> vBulletin_3_Silver
vbulletin_2_default -> vBulletin_2_Default

PHP Errors
The most common reason for a PHP error is having white space at the end of a PHP file after the closing ?> tag. Check for this in any of the files that you have recently edited and remove it. Then resave the file, upload it and try again.
If the problems continue, then upload all the files again and try to run the installation script once more.