You have probably already had some experience with Joomla installation, but I’ll provide a short overview so that you may consider the different installation possibilities. When you are making choices about the configuration, you must decide between local or remote deployment, select the platform Joomla will use, determine the method of performing the installation, and pick which Web server to use.

Although most of the options will hinge more on the target deployment conditions than personal preferences, you should evaluate the positives and negatives so that you can understand the ramifications of each selection. You should pay attention to the differences in deployment when performing your evaluation, since it is not unusual to use a different platform for development and testing than will be used for the final deployment. It is common to use Windows or Mac OS for the staging server, while the final site will be launched on a Linux Web server. By noting the variations at the start, you will have an easier time making the deployment transfer.

Local Installation or Remote Deployment
The first installation decision is whether Joomla will be installed locally or remotely. You may have a Web service provider such as GoDaddy.com or SiteGround.com that will be serving your Web site.

In these cases, all of the primary server software, including PHP and MySQL, are already installed and available for use. Activating Joomla is simply a matter of uploading the Joomla installation image and completing the process. If you’re installing locally, you have much more to do.

Following are some of the advantages of a local installation:

❑       Configuration freedom  — You can set up each Joomla server to exactly match your needs. The Web host providers for a remote installation will only rarely allow access to root configuration settings because of the potential danger to their system and other users.

❑       Thorough system knowledge  — You will almost certainly have more knowledge of the system if you perform the setup and maintenance. That knowledge can translate not only to better system performance but also to a greater understanding of the possibilities and limits of the system when it comes to the development of extensions, components, and plug-ins.

❑       Potential server performance — Running your own system gives you complete control to dedicate the maximum amount of resources to the Joomla site. When you use a remote installation, it is likely you’ll be sharing database execution and Internet connectivity with a great number of fellow subscribers. That can lead to servers bogging down, and your performance will suffer in peak usage times.

❑       Backup flexibility — With a local installation, you have the option of implementing backup procedures that can include everything from a simple manual backup to a mirrored server drive. On a remote installation, creating a backup of the current site installation and content can be tedious and require separate manual procedures for the files (through FTP) and the database (through some type of administration interface).

Following are some of the disadvantages of local installation:

❑       More work  —  With a local installation, you are also responsible for the setup and maintenance of the server. That includes configuration to most effectively divide the server resources among the various servers executing on the machine.

❑       Potential server performance  — Although having your own dedicated server is likely to give you better performance than a remote installation, this is not always the case. Web host providers spend a great deal of energy ensuring that their servers are optimized for peak performance. They also tend to use more expensive equipment because of the load being placed on it.

❑       Failover safety  —  Most host providers implement some type of redundancy in the system to ensure that their client’s Web sites don’t go down. This may include backup Domain Name System (DNS) servers, automatic failover hard drive mirrors, clustering, battery backups, and a number of other technologies that ensure that a client site continues to function properly in the event of a system failure. It is difficult and expensive to implement this type of safety net for an individual local server.

If you would like to have a local installation but don’t have a business-grade Internet connection, look into co-location options provided by your local Internet service providers (ISPs). Many ISPs have excellent pricing that allows you to locate your server on their premises and hook into their Internet backbone for a fee.

Choice of Platform: Windows, Linux, or MacOS
The choice of a platform can be a difficult one, and there are too many variables involved in the decision that will be particular to your situation to list here. It may boil down to your comfort level with a given operating system, or the consideration of licensing fees (Linux is free, while Windows and MacOS both require licensing fees). While the platform choice may affect performance, it shouldn’t have a significant effect on the Joomla installation process. Most Joomla administration occurs through the Web interface, so the platform is immaterial to the interaction with the system.

Further, Joomla uses the PHP and MySQL technologies, which are very nearly identical on all of the platforms. Therefore, you are going to be interacting with the system in much the same manner regardless of the platform.

Installation of Individual Servers or Combined Installation
You can choose to individually install each piece of server software or use a combined installer such as XAMPP (pronounced as either “x-amp” or “zamp”). When describing an installation setup, administrators often use acronyms such as WAMP, LAMP, or MAMP. These acronyms indicate the target platform providing the first letter (W = Windows, L = Linux, and M = MacOS) of the operating systems, and the other three letters representing the servers to be installed (Apache, MySQL, and PHP). The most popular combined installer is called XAMPP, where the X represents a variable, since the installers are available for all three operating systems. The two “PPs” in “XAMPP” indicate PHP and Perl software, both of which are included with the installation. Although Joomla doesn’t use Perl, it won’t affect server performance.

XAMPP installers overcome one of the major obstacles to open source deployment: packaging. Open source developers are notorious for releasing software that, while stable when executing alone, breaks integration with existing versions of other necessary software. (For example, a new Apache version will no longer work with the stable version of PHP.) An XAMPP installer avoids these problems by shipping only fully compatible versions together. That means that you can download a single installer, execute it, and have an integrated server system up and running in very little time.

While the XAMPP installer provides easy and quick installation for staging or testing, it has some serious disadvantages. Central among those is the problem of security. The default installations of the servers in the XAMPP package leave all avenues of security penetration wide open. Further, there are many unneeded applications (such as Perl), extensions, and modules included in the install that can bog down your system. In fact, the amount of space used on your local drive will be more than three times greater than if you installed the servers needed for Joomla separately.

If you are a beginner, an XAMPP installer is fantastic to get you up and running in a short time. If you’re slightly more advanced, even though you’re sure to run into a problem or two, individual installations may be the way to go.

Keep in mind that the platform may also help determine how you want to perform the installation. For example, on the MacOS, Apache server is already natively installed — it needs only to be activated. Likewise, if you’re going to use IIS as your Web server on the Windows platform, it is likely already installed. The servers included would create redundancy for the existing technology, and at worst they may conflict with servers already in place.

Choice of Web Server: Apache or Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS)
If you are running on the Windows platform, you have a choice to make for the Joomla Web server: You can run either Apache or Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS). The choice is a difficult one for several reasons. The primary reason to use Apache on Windows is that compatibility between Joomla and Apache is well tested and understood. However, there are several reasons why you might want to choose IIS instead:

❑       Native SSL support  —  SSL security is natively supported in IIS on Windows. As of this writing, an Apache user would have to do a custom compilation of the Apache server to obtain Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) capabilities. The distribution binaries do not include this security.

❑       Tuned performance  —  Microsoft spends a great deal of time and money making sure that IIS is optimized for maximum performance on Windows. While Apache runs well, it is truly optimized for the Linux platform or another UNIX variant.

❑       Integrated directory security  —  IIS understands the directory security native to Windows and even works with Microsoft’s Active Directory infrastructure. Using Apache requires a partial integration of Windows security permissions with the Apache system.

❑       Bundled FTP server  —  The default installation of IIS includes a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server that can be useful for administration of both the central Joomla system as well as provided extra capabilities to a variety of Joomla extensions (such as upload/download capabilities to an image gallery component).

❑       Most IIS components already installed  —  On the Windows platform, most of the components needed for executing IIS are integrated into the operation system. This means that the install footprint of IIS is very small, since only a few extra pieces of technology need to be placed on the system.

To install Joomla on the Windows platform, first ensure that IIS is running properly. You can test for IIS by going to the Control Panel  ➪ Add or Remove Software. Click on the Windows Components button, find the Internet Information Server list item, and determine if it is checked. If not, check the installation box and perform the installation. When IIS is running properly, you should be able to type the following URL into your browser and see the default Web page: http://localhost

Before you can run Joomla, you must install PHP and MySQL so that the execution and database technology is available. You can obtain PHP from the following URL:

 http://www.php.net

Follow the PHP installer as you normally would. At the Web Server page of the Installation Wizard, choose your version of IIS. The PHP installer will automatically configure IIS to work with PHP.

That’s about it! Even though PHP doesn’t notify you that a reboot is required, it is. You must reboot your machine for the Path variable to be set to address the new PHP directory. If you have any problem getting PHP working, check the Path variable by opening the Control Panel  ➪  System and clicking on the Environment Variables on the Advanced tab. Edit the Path variable (see Figure 2-3) to include a reference to your PHP directory. This directory will likely be located at the root of your local drive (for example, c:) or in your programs directory (for example, c:Program  Files).

If the PHP engine still isn’t running properly (see the next section for a way to test it), try checking if there is a PHP.ini in your Windows directory. If so, ensure that it is configured to point to the proper directory. If not, try copying the PHP.ini there. You should stop and restart the server to make sure the PHP extension is reset after any change.