Installing SugarCRM version 5.x

    SugarCRM is closely related to the other leading open-source CRM application (VtigerCRM) in that the latter spun off from the opensource code that was initially created by SugarCRM. This document provides and illustrated overview of the steps needed to install SugarCRM 5.x which is currently on the first Beta version.

    1. Download the application files from the SugarCRM website. In this case, we are installing on a LAMP environment, and so we selected the LAMP/platform independent web version of the application. There are numerous installers available for Windows IIS as well as other popular operating systems. Uncompress the package and upload the files to the web folder where you want the application to reside on your web server
    2. Using your preferred database management tool, or working directly in command-prompt, create an empty database with a username and password with sufficient rights to create a drop tables. This information will be used in the SugarCRM setup to enable the application installer to create and configure itself.
    3. Point your browser to the location where you uploaded the application files to, and the application installer/welcome page will display prompting you to read the agreement and start the installation process. When you indicate that you are in agreement and click on 'Next', the application will check to make sure that you have the minimum required server configuration and move you to the next stage if the conditions are met (fig 1)
    4. The next stage will require you to choose between 'Typical Install' and 'Custom Install'. The differentiator between these options is the flexibility and the amount of user-input required (fig 2) I selected the custom install to be able to provide detailed information for this document
    5. The next stage will allow you to select the available database type (selection populated from the earlier system scan results) - MySQL is the only available option in my case
    6. The next stage will require you to provide the database server name (in most cases it is localhost unless you are using a remote database server... i.e, not hosted on your web server). This will be pre-populated with the domain name of your installation, and you will need to change it. Although you could use the external IP, or domain name of your DB server, most configurations restrict DB use calls to come from only web servers on the hosting LAN cluster of servers - hence the need to address it as localhost. You will also have to provide the database name (use the information you collected from stage (2) - above when you created a database and a username and password that has access and control over the database). You also have at this stage the option to populate the database with DEMO data that will help you understand how to organise your information in SugarCRM
    7. The next step will require you to provide site information for your soon-to-be hosted CRM application. Here you will see the current parent domain and path pre-populated (in almost all situations, you can leave this setting as is). You can also enter thename of your setup (you call this anything you want), as well as the password for your installation/CRM (this is for the first/admin user, and it can be changed down the road)
    8. Security Settings: These settings are a little tricky, but getting them right is essential and easy. Read the instructions carefully and if possible restrict as much external access as possible. Do not allow connections to other external servers to send any information (this may include the so-called anonymous statistics), you should restrict sugar sessions to a folder in your hosting partition as explained to make sure that no one can spoof your sessions and access your setup there-by compromising security. NB: Remember to use the server-side file-system path structure to reference folders, and not internet domain paths e.g /home/myhosts/sugar....
    9. Your installation is almost complete and the next stage is to adjust and provide locale settings so that the CRM application (Sugar CRM 5.x) can properly display date, currency and other units of measurement
    10. The final step will provide all the information so far provided (with the option to display passwords for confirmation), and provide you with the option to print the information. If/when you are satisfied, click on 'install', and the installer will write the configuration and create the database tables.

    Creating Sugar configuration file (config.php)
    Creating Sugar application tables, audit tables, and relationship metadata...
    ...............................................
    Creating default Sugar data
    Creating default users... done
    Creating default scheduler jobs... done
    The setup of Sugar 5.0.0beta1 is now complete.
    Total time: 3.854934 seconds.

    After the installation is complete, you will see a dialogue prompting you to optionally install patches from a local file, or from 'Sugar Exchange'. You will need a sugar username and password to install patches directly from Sugar Exchange.