Installing XenForo Forum Software on Rackspace Cloud Sites

Installing XenForo Forum Software on Rackspace Cloud Sites is just easy as installing WordPress, but the .htaccess needs a bit tweak for proper working. We wrote about XenForo Forum Software before. As Rackspace Cloud Sites has a proprietary control panel, the steps will be a bit different. You can ask for a free Demo before Installing XenForo Forum Software to check whether it fulfills your need. As its proprietary paid software, for this tutorial on installing XenForo Forum Software has no extra support from our side but if you follow the steps rightly, you can easily install XenForo Forum Software on Rackspace Cloud Sites.

Preparation before Installing XenForo Forum Software on Rackspace Cloud Sites

If you are using Windows OS, you can download WinSCP for accessing SFTP. However, we do not recommend to use Windows OS for huge FTP work like installing XenForo Forum Software on Rackspace Cloud Sites. Consider using any version of Linux or Mac OS. Yummy FTP can be used for Mac OS X. Download the latest version. Unzip it on a convenient place on your computer like Desktop.

(A) If you need installing XenForo Forum software on subfolder, not on the root simply create a folder in the root like named “forum” and upload all the contents inside it.

(B) If you need installing XenForo Forum software on subdomain login to your The Rackspace Cloud Control Panel and create a subdomain. If you do not know how to create – simply follow this unrelated tutorial on Host Rackspace Cloud Sites Subdomain on Dropbox.

(C) For root, the steps are same like (B) but you either have to buy the domain through Rackspace when you are adding the domain for Installing XenForo Forum or you need to point your name-servers towards Rackspace if you have bought it from some other reseller.

Steps for Installing XenForo Forum

After all uploads are complete, you need to create a MySQL database. Click the domain name from Cloud Sites list on control panel and Now click the features tab :

Click Add under Databases. (Note : if you scroll down this page, you will see the Cron Jobs)

Now open any Text Editor. Give the database a name, click continue and write 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 :

Alternative Hostname is not needed by us. Our localhost for Installing XenForo Forum is the red circled one. Point your browser to :

http://example.com/forum/install/

if your website’s name is example.com and the subfolder’s name is forum. Or in case of subdomain :

http://forum.example.com/install/

You will get a webpage to add the database details. localhost must be changed as we pointed above.  It will take few minutes to get installed.

Advanced settings after Installing XenForo Forum :

Now, open yummyftp or WinSCP. Connect to open your :

root/www.yourdomain.com/web/content/

Find the .htacess file. Add at the beginning of the .htaccess:

php_value memory_limit 512M

You can change to higher value after asking Rackspace support. For subfolder (forum named directory as example) installation, this .htaccess is correct (default will throw error after turning on SEO friendly URLs) if you want to use SEO friendly URL Later :

php_value memory_limit 512M

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /forum/
RewriteRule ^forum/index.php$ – [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /forum/index.php [L]
RewriteRule ^(data/|js/|styles/|install/|favicon.ico|crossdomain.xml|robots.txt) – [NC,L]
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_security.c>
SecFilterEngine Off
SecFilterScanPOST Off
</IfModule>

ErrorDocument 401 default
ErrorDocument 403 default
ErrorDocument 404 default
ErrorDocument 500 default

You can search with .htaccess on our search on top of the webpage after Installing XenForo Forum for performance tweak.