Installing WHMCS
Contents
Downloading WHMCS
- Visit http://download.whmcs.com/
- Click the Download button under the Full Release heading - this will be the latest release version
Reseller Customers
If your license key was obtained via a reseller and you therefore do not have a login for our members area, your reseller will be able to provide the latest WHMCS files to you
Installing Ioncube
WHMCS is encrypted using Ioncube to protect the source code. These days most servers/webhosts have Ioncube support compiled into the PHP build by default so you don't normally need to do anything extra for it. However if you find you do need to install Ioncube on your server, then you can find out how to do this in our Ioncube Installation Tutorial
Creating a Database
WHMCS uses a MySQL database to store all settings and data. You will be asked to create one during the installation process, so best to create one beforehand. Technical information is detailed on the Database Setup page.
Restrict Database Privileges
For day to day use, only the following database privileges are required. All others may be disabled.
- DELETE
- INSERT
- SELECT
- UPDATE
- LOCK TABLES
Please note that installation, upgrading, activating, and deactivating modules require the following additional privileges.
- ALTER
- CREATE
- DROP
- INDEX
Installing WHMCS
Installing WHMCS is very simple. The following steps will guide you through the process:
- Unzip the contents of the zip file to a folder on your computer
- Rename the file configuration.php.new to configuration.php
- Upload the entire whmcs folder to your website - if you experience problems, try uploading in binary mode
- Next you can rename the folder to whatever you like (billing, clients, etc...)
- Now visit the installation script at http://www.yourdomain.com/whmcs/install/install.php to run the installer process - if you get an Ioncube related error message, see the installation Ioncube steps above
- Follow the instructions on screen to install which will involve setting file permissions as listed below, entering your license key and setting up your primary admin account
Acceptable Password Characters
The following characters should not be used in an administrator password & " ' < > (ampersand, double quotes, single quotes, less than or greater than). Any other symbols such as # ! £ $ % ^ * ( ) . , / etc… are perfectly acceptable.
When complete, delete the install folder from your web server and CHMOD the configuration.php file back to 644.
Required file & folders permissions
/configuration.php CHMOD 400 Readable
/attachments CHMOD 777 Writeable
/downloads CHMOD 777 Writeable
/templates_c CHMOD 777 Writeable
The above applies unless your php is suPHP or PHPSuExec. If using DSO as your php handler, you must use 644 permissions.
Post Installation Suggested Steps
After installation is completed, we recommend that you go through and configure your new WHMCS system in the following order:
- Perform the recommended Further Security Steps
- Login to the Admin Area and configure your General Settings (Setup > General Settings)
- Setup your Payment Gateways (Setup > Payment Gateways)
- Setup your Products & Services (Setup > Products and Services)
- Configure your Domain Pricing (Setup > Domain Pricing)
- Setup your Support Ticket Departments (Setup > Support Departments)
- Setup email piping so you can manage tickets using the WHMCS Support Desk - for full instructions on this please see the Email Piping article
- Ensure the WHMCS Cron Job is setup and configure automated tasks (Setup > Automation Settings)
- Place some test orders on your website to check everything works as expected
For further guidance, you can watch video tutorials we have prepared for the above tasks @ www.whmcs.com/get-support/video-tutorials/