JoshSweeney

SugarCRM: A Short Guide to Installation on Windows

The first thing that most potential users of SugarCRM want to do is try the software out for themselves. The options are to download SugarCRM CE ( Community Edition ) and install it on a system that you have available or to sign up for a Pro (SugarCRM Professional ) trial and wait for the sales people to call. If you are going to need the feature set provided in SugarCRM Pro for your business then you should definately sign up for the trial and play with the same edition that you will be implementing. If your plans are to go with SugarCRM CE then this post will help you get up  and running.

The first step to getting SugarCRM installed on Windows is to fulfill the requirements of running the software. These requirements include a web server such as Apache or IIS, PHP, and various other modules never mentioned in the installation and administration guide. This all sounds really complicated if you have never installed a webserver but there are a few software packages that make it very easy.

When it comes to installing a webserver with the packages required for SugarCRM there are mulitple options.

1. SugarCRM FastStack – The SugarCRM FastStack installs everything that is needed including SugarCRM CE. The only drawback that I see from the FastStack is that it is not widely used for any other types of software installation so if you need help then the only place that you can go to is the SugarCRM forum. This isn’t a big deal except that most of the knowledgable people in the forum don’t use the FastStack on their own machine and may not be as helpful as they could be had you chosen a different installer.

2. Apache2Triad – Apache2Triad is similar to the FastStack except that it is made by a group that is dedicated to giving users of any web based software package a good experience. Another difference is that SugarCRM is not bundled so you will have download it.

3. XAMPP – XAMPP by Apache Friends is what I use on my Windows system simply because it provides an easy to use interface along with a few built in tools that I like to use while working on SugarCRM. Just like the other two packages it is easy to install and provides all of the necessary package for SugarCRM installation.

You are welcome to try any of the packages because they are all provided free of charge. I am going to move forward and tell you how to get SugarCRM installed on XAMPP.

Step 1. Download XAMPP from ApacheFriends.org – This quick tutorial assumes that you download the full version and not XAMPP lite.

Step 2. Download SugarCRM

Step 3. Install XAMPP by double clicking the installer that you downloaded. I recommend keeping all of the defaults and the tutorial will assume that you did.

Step 4. Once you install XAMPP you will need to change to lines in a file called php.ini. Go to the following directory c:\xampp\apache\bin and open php.ini.

Step 5. Find the line that says “memory_limit” change the limit from the default number to read memory_limit = 64M. This will give SugarCRM enough memory so that you don’t get errors during installation.

Step 6. Find the line that says “upload_max_filesize” change the limit from the default to read upload_max_fiilesize = 32M.

The memory that I have alotted in Step 5 and 6 are not the minimums that SugarCRM can run on so keep in mind that they can be set lower if you are installing to an older system.

Step 7. Save the file and restart the server. This can be done by going to Start -> Programs -> Apache Friends and opening the control panel. If both Apache and MySQL both have a green box next to them that says running then click to Stop Apache. Once it Stops, click Start again so that it will pick up your new settings.

Step 8. Unzip all of the files from the SugarCRM zip file and move them to the c:\xampp\htdocs\sugarcrm directory. The sugarcrm directory will not exist so you will have to create it.

Step 9. Once this has been complated you are ready to install SugarCRM. You start the installation by opening your browser and going to http://localhost/sugarcrm

Step 10. Follow the steps that SugarCRM guides you through to install the software. When you are at the database step you will want to set the database server to localhost and use the default XAMPP databases username and password which is username: root with no password.

If all is done correctly then at the end you will have a working version of SugarCRM that you can play with. If you follow this short guide and get hung up on a step then leave a comment and I can add it in for other users so that they too can get SugarCRM up and running quickly.

Tags: installation, SugarCRM, sugarcrm installation