Installing WHMCS on IIS Windows Server

We did some testing yesterday and installed WHMCS on a Windows IIS 8.0 Server. Was alot of fun as we had to troubleshoot alot of things to get it working 100%. I’ve decided since we have 100s of resellers on our Windows Shared Environment to be proactive and create a blog that may assist some of them if they do purchase or are struggling to install it.

Lets Begin….

Firstly ensure you have the requirements installed.

Steps

1. Install IIS Role

2. Install Web Platform Installer

3. Install PHP 5.4 (NOT PHP 5.5) and install MySQL 5.5, Ensure curl is enabled (I also enabled error reporting initially)

4. Install wincache if you like to speed up PHP pages also don’t forget to install ioncube loader WIndows 9 VC (NTS)

5. In the php.ini file ensure you add “zend_extension=c:\\Program Files(X86)\\PHP\\v5.3\\ext\\ioncubeloader.dll” – Use the double slashes

5. Install MYSQL Administrator or MYSQL Workbench on the server.

6. Create a database with a db user through MySQL Workbench which you will use to install WHMCS.

7. Download a copy of WHMCS and extract it to your chosen path and link the IIS site to it by going to advanced settings.

8.  Once completed install it as per normal on the site.

9. Now for security I recommend placing a temp folder with folders downloads, attachments and templates_c before your root (www or wwwroot) folder.

10. Ensure the above folders are writable

11. Next edit your configuration.php file and change any paths that are like c:\Domains\hostking.io\wwwroot to something like c:\\Domains\\hostking.io\\wwwroot\\ etc. Use the double slashes is key to making it work properly.

12. If you’ve followed the above all should be working on WHMCS perfectly.

13. If you however try and login to admin area you will receive an error saying the custom folder specified is different. The fix of the init.php file needs to be downloaded and uploaded to your site via this link: http://forum.whmcs.com/showthread.php?93382

I really hope this helps someone 🙂

How To Install PHP on Windows/IIS via Web Platform Install

php on web platform installer

php on web platform installer

Over the years PHP has gotten better and better running on Windows and IIS. The latest version of PHP for Windows includes dramatic improvements that come from a deep collaboration between the PHP Core Maintainers and Microsoft.

If you want to easily install PHP on Windows, you can use the newly released Microsoft Web Platform Installer to get the public community version of PHP ((VC6 x86 non thread safe installer build) on Windows XP/Vista/Server 2003/Server 2008/Win 2012/Win7 with IIS and the Microsoft Web Platform. The Windows Installer for PHP also automatically configures IIS FastCGI as part of its setup.

To install PHP using Web Platform Installer:

  1. Install the Web Platform Installer if you don’t have it already from here.
  2. Go to the Web Platform tab under All Programs.
  3. Click on textbox in top right corner and search for PHP
  4. Click Add and then Instal
  5. The next page will request dependencies be install. Accept all and finish the installation
  6. We recommend you install wincache and PHP manager aswell. Wincache is used to speed up load times of websites and PHP manager makes it easier to manage the PHP.ini file.
  7. Next we will discuss how to optimize FCGI for PHP in IIS 7.