• Drupal provides documentation on system requirements and installation in the Drupal handbook.
• Know that while many OS environments are supported, the most popular hosting platform is Linux/Unix and Apache. If problems with installation are a result of the installation environment, users will typically find better troubleshooting information in the Drupal forums with this platform.
• Also note the mention of .htaccess. If your host does not support changing php.ini config settings and making use of Apache modules via the supplied .htaccess file and the settings.php page, you may encounter difficulties. Using Apache mod_rewrite is optional, but necessary for clean URL's.
• Drupal also provides support for hosting more than one Drupal site off a single code base and putting more than one Drupal db in the same mysql database.
• More information about mutlisite configurations and basic install instructions are available in the INSTALL.txt file in each Drupal installation.

Overview of installation steps

• Download and unarchive Drupal into a folder on your webserver
• Create a database and database user (suggested: use phpMyAdmin for managing multiple Drupal sites)
• Provide base url and db name, password, and username in sites/default/settings.php.
• Modify .htaccess file as necessary (sites installed in Linux user directories with ~ in the URL may need to set RewriteBase).
• Modfiy php settings in settings.php as necessary.
• Optionally setup cron (not necessary to get the site running; can be done later).
• If everything has gone well, you can now access your website via the URL and create your first user.

Installing additional themes and contributed modules

Members of the Drupal community have provided additional modules and themes which can be installed in your Drupal site.

• For themes, download and unarchive into your theme directory. Be sure to consult the install and readme files with the theme. Some may require an additional theme engine.
• For modules, download and unarchive into your module directory. Be sure to consult the install and readme files with the theme. Some may require you to upload an additional table(s) into your Drupal database.

Additional Resources

See Getting Started for more information on Drupal webhosting, installation, setup, and upgrading.