Installing vBulletin Forum Software on Rackspace Cloud Sites

Installing vBulletin Forum Software on Rackspace Cloud Sites needs extra works and the difficulty level is a bit higher than WordPress though not very tough. vBulletin Forum Software is well known for being used on the successfulness forums and with vBSEO plugin it performs well. vBulletin is not free or Open Source, its a paid software. Installing vBulletin Forum Software on Rackspace Cloud Sites, you need to download the compressed file from official website and obtain the license (customer ID). We will only show the technical part for Installing vBulletin Forum Software on Rackspace Cloud Sites as its a paid proprietary software.

Needed Steps Before Installing vBulletin Forum Software on Rackspace Cloud Sites

In this guide for Installing vBulletin Forum Software on Rackspace Cloud Sites, we will install vBulletin on a subfolder. Quite obviously, use a separate new database for Installing vBulletin Forum Software on Rackspace Cloud Sites, which is within this guide.

The two tools you will need WinSCP for Windows PC, which is a free software which supports SFTP 3 protocol or kind of such software. Another one is Notepad or any text editor.

Uncompress the vBulletin download on your desktop, there will be two folders inside the uncompressed folder :

Open this upload folder by double clicking it. There will be many files and folders. You need to upload only these contents via WinSCP / FTP client to the place where you want to create the homepage of vBulletin forum. It can be the domain’s root, a subdomain or a subfolder / subdirectory :

We have to create a database for Installing vBulletin Forum Software on Rackspace Cloud Sites. Let the uploading process run by then.

Creating Database for Installing vBulletin Forum Software on Rackspace Cloud Sites

Login to your Rackspace Cloud Control Panel. Click to expand Hosting on left hand column and then click Cloud Sites, Click the domain named hyperlink and click the features tab, Click Add under Databases. (Note : if you scroll down this page, you will see the Cron Jobs option). Now open any Text Editor like Notepad. Give the database a name, click continue and copy paste the database name in your Text Editor. In the next page, you will have to add a Database Username and password, use anything and write down it in your text editor. Click Finish.

The database will be created and it generally takes 2-5 minutes for proper functioning. You will see the hyperlinked database name under Databases. Simply clicking it will open the Database Information page :

Our database is not localhost but the red circled one. Copy and paste the ‘Hostname’ in your text editor too.

Editing the Script and Running Installation for Installing vBulletin Forum Software on Rackspace Cloud Sites

By now upload on FTP should be finished. Open the upload/includes/ folder within WinSCP. You will find a file named config.php.new. Rename this to config.php

Then Open it on WinSCP by double clicking. Edit the file carefully :

Change these lines :

$config['Database']['dbname'] = 'forum'; < - Change this

$config['Database']['technicalemail'] = < - Add yours

$config['MasterServer']['servername'] = 'localhost'; <- Change this
$config['MasterServer']['port'] = 3306;

$config['MasterServer']['username'] = 'root'; <- Change this
$config['MasterServer']['password'] = 'nothing'; <- Change this

Optional settings :

If you want to create another database as SLAVE DATABASE, create another one and start to edit this part too (this can be left if you are not sure what you are doing) :

$config['MasterServer']['usepconnect'] = 1;

And configure SLAVE DATABASE.

Now, on your browser, point to :

http://www.your-domain.com/if-sub-directory-its-name/install/install.php

Do not try to show your technical skill while Installing vBulletin Forum Software, I know there is memcache option on config file. Edit it later for performance.

So, if its not a subdirectory installation (like /forum/), omit the red words and one back slash. It should start after entering the customer number :