Installing WHMCS
Contents
Downloading WHMCS
To download WHMCS, login to your clients area at www.whmcs.com/clients/clients_login.php. You should then do the following to download the system:
- Click the My Licenses link
- Next to one of your active licenses click the View & Download button
- You should then find it available to download in the Downloads Section
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 in binary mode - you can rename the folder to whatever you like (billing,clients,etc)
- If you don't have Ioncube installed on your server then simply upload the runtime loaders folder named "ioncube" also included in the zip file to the whmcs directory
- CHMOD the following folders & files (unless your php is SUphp or phpsuexec):
/configuration.php 777 /announcements.xml 777 /attachments 777 /downloads 777 /templates_c 777
- Run the installation script at http://www.yourdomain.com/whmcs/install/install.php (choose New Install on Step 2) - This will guide you through the rest of the setup process. On the last step, it will ask you to setup a cron job and provide you with the exact command you need to use. If you fail to do this, then automated tasks will not be performed.
- Once completed, delete the install folder from your web server and CHMOD the configuration.php file back to 644.
Installing Ioncube
WHMCS is encrypted using the Ioncube system. There are therefore two ways to use WHMCS. You can use the runtime decoders or you can install the Ioncube decoders on your server in php.ini. The first way is easy, all you have to do is upload the ioncube folder included in the zip file download to your WHMCS directory. The second is slightly more difficult so here is a tutorial on how to do it.
You WILL require root access to the server in order to do this.
- Download the latest loaders to your computer from http://www.ioncube.com/loaders.php and upload them to your webspace
- Move the ioncube folder to a permanent location by entering: mv ioncube /usr/local
- Next, you need to locate the php.ini file, to do this enter: locate php.ini - You should find it is in /usr/local/lib/php.ini. Now that you know the location of php.ini you need to edit it. pico /usr/local/lib/php.ini
- Now find where other zend extentions are in the file: ctrl + w: zend_extension
- Paste in your new line for ioncube loader: zend_extension = /usr/local/ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_x.so (Replace x with your version of PHP eg. 4.4)
- Save the changes: ctrl + X then Y and enter
- Restart the web server to take effect: /etc/init.d/httpd restart
That's it! Ioncube is now installed on your server! You should now see a section in your PHP Info page that says:
Additional Modules Module Name ionCube Loader
Post Installation Suggested Steps
After installation is completed, we recommend that you go through and configure your new WHMCS system in the following order:
- Setup the WHMCS Cron Job - If you didn't do this when instructed by the installer process then you must login to cPanel and set this up. Without it, WHMCS will not automatically generate invoices, suspend accounts, send payment reminders, etc...
- Login to the admin area and configure your settings (Configuration > General Configuration)
- Setup your Payment Gateways (Configuration > Payment Gateways)
- Setup your Products & Services (Configuration > Products/Services)
- Configure your Domain Pricing (Configuration > Domain Pricing)
- Setup your Support Ticket Departments (Configuration > Support Departments)
- Setup email piping so you can manage tickets using the WHMCS Support Desk - for full instructions on this please see the relevant article
- Place some test orders on your website to check everything works as expected