Installing WordPress 1.5 on Windows 2003 Server with IIS6
Regular readers may have noticed about a week has gone by without a post. The time has been well spent installing WordPress 1.5 on two Windows 2003 Servers running Internet Information Server 6 (IIS6) at the office. I now have the wisdom that only comes from performing and mastering a task. You, the reader, now gain the advantage of learning from my experience without the expense of time nor the frustration of troubleshooting.
If you are planning to install WordPress on Microsoft Server 2003 and/or IIS6, here’s the inside information:
1) Install PHP 4.3. Do NOT install PHP 5, unless you are looking for trouble. While the WordPress requirements clearly state that you must install PHP 4.1 or higher, they also do not mention that WordPress will not work on Windows Server 2003 with PHP 5 as commonly installed. Recommend you install PHP 4.3.nn as PHP 4.3 includes the magic MySQL PHP extension that allows WordPress to interface with the required MySQL database.
2) Install MySQL 4.0. Do NOT install MySQL 5, unless you are looking for trouble. While the WordPress requirements clearly state that you must install MySQL 3.23.23 or higher, they also do not mention that WordPress will not work on Windows Server 2003 with MySQL 5 as commonly installed. It seems there was a change in how passwords are handled in versions 4 and 5. As you know, wrong password equals no access.
3) Configure MySQL 4.0. Using the MySQL instructions for manual installation, install MySQL as a service, add a root password, create a wordpress account and password, and give the wordpress account full privileges to the test database schema.
4) Install WordPress 1.5. At this point, the installation of WordPress 1.5 should proceed as per the WordPress 5 Minute Installation instructions. Download and extract WordPress 1.5 to its final location. Open up wp-config-sample.php and fill in your database details. Save and rename the wp-config-sample.php file to wp-config. php. Open your browser and run /wp-admin/install.php. Don’t forget to write down the random password at the end of the installation. (To clear the password, you’ll have to delete the wordpress database schema and start with a fresh blank database schema. Don’t forget to assign your wordpress account full privileges to the new schema or the blog magic won’t happen.)
At this point you should be home free and staring at your new WordPress blog. Login to the WordPress administrative control panel and set the admin account to your favorite password.
Again, for Windows Server 2003 and/or IIS6 users, install WordPress 1.5 with PHP 4.3 and MySQL 4.0.
Here’s a peek at the future blog. I’m currently skinning the blog to match the website. The header, footer, and index pages are largely done. I’m working on the comments page at this time. After verifying that the blog meets XML and accessibility standards, the blog will go live.
Regarding point #2: you can probably install MySQL 5 and set it to use the old password encryption method. I had to do this in order to use phpMyAdmin. Our current phpMyAdmin setup is v.2.6.1-pl2. I could not figure out for the life of me why it didn’t work with MySQL 5, and then I found the old password encryption setting. I don’t know for sure that it will work, but my hunch is that if it worked with phpMyAdmin, it should work for WordPress.
The setting can be found in the Security tab of the Startup Variables page in the MySQL Administrator. It can also be setup in the my.ini file with the “old-passwords” directive. Just leave it on a line by itself and restart the MySQL service.
Comment by Mark — April 5, 2005 @ 3:43 pm
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Pingback by asuka.gs » Blog Archive » — April 5, 2005 @ 3:49 pm
This looks great!
One of the problems we found with Windows was loss of some of the advanced features, such as search freindly URLs with rewrite, mailing, and style sheet/ Javascript external files.
Have you found a way to implement these?
Keep up the good work!
Comment by Ric — April 5, 2005 @ 4:20 pm
Are there known problems using WordPress with PHP5? I’ve seen none myself and would be interested in hearing more details on why you caution against it. Also, are you recommending MySQL 4.0 instead of 4.1? I’d agree with not going with MySQL5 as it’s still in beta. However, the latest installer for MySQL4 for Windows is packaged in an MSI (eases upgrades) and has a nice wizard for first-time setup that should help n00bs from running with a blank root password. Installing WordPress on a Win2k3 server with IIS6 is trivial once someone has PHP and MySQL running. You might do better in helping with those prereq’s as there are many pitfaills in setting up PHP with IIS.
Comment by Kevin Severud — April 6, 2005 @ 11:32 am
re: Comments
1. (Mark) While it may be possible to use old password encryption with MySQL5, there may be other issues, such as incompatibility with PHP. I did a lot of reading and research on use of WordPress with IIS and most of the successful installations used the above combination. I was looking for the most simple straight forward solution. I believe the combination above is it.
3. (Ric) I too have noticed the loss of search friendly URLs and am actively working the issue. I haven’t had a problem with external stylesheets or javascript files. If you check the HTML in link above, you’ll see that both are happily co-existing.
4. (Kevin) The only known problem with WordPress and PHP5 is that PHP5 does not install a required MySQL extension. PHP4.3 installs the extension. Again, it may be possible to install PHP5 and manually install a MySQL extension, but PHP4.3 is the straight forward, simpler way.
Yes, I’m recommending MySQL4.0 over 4.1. Yes, the newest versions contain an installation wizard, but I didn’t have any trouble with installing manually. Just copy the MySQL structure to the desired location and create a configuration file in C:/Windows. Worked first time.
There was only one pitfall with installing PHP4.3. After running the install program, I only needed to open the MSC and associate the PHP extension with the application. Ditto when I first tried PHP5.
Again, I’m not saying that you can’t use the other versions, just that the above process provided a simple straight forward method of installing WordPress on IIS6/Win 2K3. Its a file combination that’s compatible and works.
If you feel the need for the latest and greatest or to exploit some advanced feature, knock your socks off. If you just want to install WordPress and get a blog going with little hassle, what I did works.
Comment by Timothy Lee — April 11, 2005 @ 12:27 pm
I’m having trouble getting the RSS feeds to work correctly under Windows 2003 - since I’m using a shared hosting environment I don’t have access to the machine, but the hosting company are pretty helpful. Did you have any trouble setting up RSS or did it just work?
Comment by Tom — April 19, 2005 @ 8:47 am
re: Coment #6 - rss feeds
I hadn’t checked the rss feeds yet, but seem to have the same problem as you.
Copying the full URI gives a 404 error. This is strange as the file does exist in the directory.
I made a backup copy of the wp-rss2.php file and deleted all, but the xml tag. The file loads fine.
It appears there is something in the page code that is causing the problem. I’ll try to make time to investigate. I did note, while installing WP, that there are some oustanding issues with WP and W2K3. This may be one…
Comment by Timothy Lee — April 27, 2005 @ 8:21 pm