Downloading & Installing

The following documentation is for SuiteCRM Version 7.x; to see documentation on the same topic for Version 8+, click here.

Downloading and installing SuiteCRM

If you are installing SuiteCRM for the first time, follow the instructions in this section. If you have an earlier version of SuiteCRM installed, refer to the upgrade section for instructions on how to upgrade your SuiteCRM instance. Follow the steps listed below to install SuiteCRM:

  1. Install the platform-appropriate (Linux or Windows) version of PHP, web server, and database on your machine.

  2. Download the SuiteCRM files from suitecrm.com(see “Downloading the latest SuiteCRM files” section).

  3. Copy the SuiteCRM files to your web server.

  4. Install SuiteCRM by following the SuiteCRM installation wizard.

Downloading the latest SuiteCRM files

  1. Navigate to the SuiteCRM Downloads section at http://suitecrm.com/download

  2. Download your flavour of SuiteCRM. We advise that all users download the latest SuiteCRM release. The latest version will contain the latest features and bug fixes.

  3. If you experience any issues during registering an account on our website or downloading SuiteCRM, please use our support forums.

Copying SuiteCRM files to web server

Once your SuiteCRM package has downloaded, you will need to unzip the files and set permissions required for the installation process. The following steps explain in detail the prerequisites to setting up your SuiteCRM files for installation:

  1. Locate the directory on the web server in which the SuiteCRM directory will be located(most commonly the root directory, or within a subdirectory).

  2. Unzip SuiteCRM into the directory selected in Step 1. This creates a “SuiteCRM” directory within your selected parent directory.

  3. At this stage, you may wish to rename the default “SuiteCRM” directory.

  4. Set the correct permissions on the SuiteCRM directory (Linux):

      sudo chown -R www-data:www-data .
  sudo chmod -R 755 .
  sudo chmod -R 775 cache custom modules themes data upload
  sudo chmod 775 config_override.php 2>/dev/null

  5. That www-data needs to be replaced by the actual system user that your web server runs under. This varies depending on your operating system. Common web server users are as follows:

    1. www-data (Ubuntu Linux/Apache)

    2. apache (Linux/Apache)

    3. nobody (Linux/Apache)

    4. IUSR_computerName (Windows/IIS) The commands/steps taken to setting permissions differ depending on your operating system. If you are experiencing issues with setting permissions on your SuiteCRM instance, visit our support forums.

Recommended installation pre-requisites

  • PHP

  • JSON

  • XML Parsing

  • MB Strings Module

  • Writable SugarCRM Configuration File (config.php)

  • Writeable Custom Directory

  • Writable Modules Sub-Directories and Files

  • Writable Upload Directory

  • Writable Data Sub-Directories

  • Writable Cache Sub-Directories

  • PHP Memory Limit (at least 128M)

  • ZLIB Compression Module

  • ZIP Handling Module

  • PCRE Library

  • IMAP Module

  • cURL Module

  • Upload File Size

  • Sprite Support

Notes about PHP configuration

SuiteCRM up until at least version 8.4.0 assumes that the name of the PHP session identifier (session.name) is PHPSESSID. If you run into troubles with 403 errors on /api/graphql calls, you may want to make sure that you either omit session.name in your php.ini file, or set it to PHPSESSID

Installing SuiteCRM

Once you have successfully copied the SuiteCRM files to your web server, you need to install SuiteCRM by following the on-screen installation wizard. You can navigate to the wizard by entering the following in your web browser:

http://<yourServer>/<yourSuiteCRMDirectory>/install.php

You can perform a typical installation or a custom installation. Typical installation is recommended, but you can choose custom installation for the following reasons: The same Database Admin User should not be used as the SuiteCRM database administrator Locale settings should be specified during installation instead of after logging into SuiteCRM

Performing a typical installation of SuiteCRM

  1. Launch your browser and enter the following URL:

http://<yourServer>/<yourSuiteCRMDirectory>/install.php

  • This displays the Welcome page.

    1. Click Next.

  • The Installer displays installation instructions and requirements to help determine successful SuiteCRM installation.

    1. Review the information and click Next.

  • This displays the SuiteCRM License Agreement.

    1. Review the license, check I Accept, and click Next. The installer checks the system for compatibility and then displays the Installation Options page.

  • Note: You can modify any of your settings at any time prior to clicking Install in the Confirm Setting menu. To modify any settings, click the Back button on your browser to return to the appropriate page.

    1. Select Typical Install.

    2. Click Next. This displays the Database Type page.

    3. Select the database that is installed on your system and click Next. This displays the Database Configuration page.

      1. Enter the database name. The Installer uses “suitecrm” as the default name for the database. You can specify a new name.

      2. Enter the Host Name or the Host Instance for the MySQL, MariaDB or SQL Server. The host name is, by default, set to localhost if your database server is running on the same machine as your web server.

      3. Enter the username and password for the Database Administrator and specify the SuiteCRM Database Username.

      4. Ensure that the Database Administrator you specify has the permissions to create and write to the SuiteCRM database.

  • For My SQL, MariaDB and SQL Server, by default, the Installer selects the Admin User as the SuiteCRM Database User. The SuiteCRM application uses SuiteCRM Database User to communicate with the SuiteCRM database. You can create a different SuiteCRM Database user at this time.

  • To select an existing user, choose Provide existing user from the SuiteCRM Database Username drop-down list. To create a new SuiteCRM Database user, choose Define user. Enter the database username and password in the relevant fields. Re-enter the password to confirm it. The new user information is displayed in System Credentials on the Confirm Settings page at the end of the installation process.

    1. Accept No as the default value if you do not want the SuiteCRM Demo data. Select Yes to populate the database with the SuiteCRM Demo data.

      1. Click Next. The Installer validates the credentials of the specified administrator. If a database with that name already exists, it displays a dialog box asking you to either accept the database name or choose a new database. If you use an existing database name, the database tables will be dropped.

      2. Click Accept to accept the database name or click Cancel and enter a new name in the Database Name field.

  • This displays the Site Configuration page.

    1. Enter a name for the SuiteCRM administrator.

  • The SuiteCRM administrator (default name admin) has administrative privileges in SuiteCRM. You can change the default username.

    1. Enter a password for the SuiteCRM admin, re-enter it to confirm the password, and click Next.

  • This displays the Confirm Settings page. The Confirm Settings page displays a summary of the specified settings. Click Back on your browser to navigate to previous pages if you want to change the settings.

    1. Click Print Summary for a printout of the settings for your records.

  • Click Show Passwords and then click Print Summary to include the database user password and the SuiteCRM admin password in the printout. When you click Show Passwords, the system displays the passwords and changes the button name to Hide Passwords. You can click this button to hide the passwords again.

    1. Click Install.

  • This displays the Perform Setup page with the installation progress.

    1. Click Next when the setup is complete.

  • This displays the Registration page(registration is optional).

    1. Enter the necessary information and click Send Registration to register your SuiteCRM instance with SuiteCRM; or click No Thanks to skip registration.

  • This displays the SuiteCRM login page. You can now log into SuiteCRM with the SuiteCRM admin name and password that you specified during installation.

Performing a custom installation of SuiteCRM

  1. Launch your browser and go to your new SuiteCRM installation. The URL should be similar to the following: http://crm.yourserver.com/Suite-CRM-Directory/install.php

  2. The Welcome to the SuiteCRM Setup Wizard screen You need to accept the license agreement first. To do so:

    1. Click the I Accept checkbox.

    2. Click Next to continue.

  3. The Pre-Installation requirements screen The installer will display installation instructions and requirements.

    1. Please review the information and resolve any issues.

    2. Click Next to continue.

  4. The Configuration screen This is where you will configure SuiteCRM to work with your customized environment.

    1. Database Configuration

      1. Specify Database Type Select the type of database you will be using. If you do not see your database here, please make sure you have installed the correct PHP modules.

      2. Provide Database Name

        1. Database Name suitecrm is default name for the database. You can specify a custom name as well.

        2. Host Name It is set to localhost by default. If your database server is running on a different machine as your web server, you can specify a custom location.

        3. User & Password Enter the username and password for the Database Administrator and specify the SuiteCRM Database Username. Note: You must ensure that the Database Administrator you specify has the permissions to create and write to the SuiteCRM database.

        4. SuiteCRM Database User The SuiteCRM application uses the SuiteCRM Database user to communicate with the SuiteCRM database. For MySQL, MariaDB and SQL Server, the Installer selects the Admin user by default. You can also select an existing database user or create a new one. To do so Enter the database username and password in the relevant fields and re-enter the password to confirm it. This new user information displays in System Credentials on the Confirm Settings page at the end of the installation process.

    2. Site Configuration

      1. Identify Administration User

        1. SuiteCRM Application Admin Name This is the username of the administrator account. Ex: johnsmith

        2. SuiteCRM Admin User Password This is the password of the administrator account. Please re-enter it in the Re-enter SuiteCRM Admin User Password section for validation.

        3. URL of SuiteCRM Instance The URL to the CRM. Ex: http://crm.yourserver.com/Suite-CRM-Directory

        4. Email Address This is the administrator’s email address. Ex: john.smith@yourserver.com

      2. More Options In this section you can opt to:

        • Populate SuiteCRM with demo data

        • Add SMTP server specifications

        • Add branding (Name and logo)

        • Set the system locale

        • Set security options Once you are happy with all the settings on the page click Next to begin installation.

  5. The Installation screen The Installer validates the credentials of the specified administrator. If a database with the specified name already exists, it displays a dialog box prompting you to either accept the database name or choose a new database. If you use an existing database name, the database tables will be dropped. Click Accept to drop current tables or click Cancel and specify a new database name.

  6. Login to your new SuiteCRM instance!

Content is available under GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 or later unless otherwise noted.