Install Magento 2 beginners tutorial

It is time for a beginners tutorial on how to install Magento 2. Magento 2 comes with a pretty installer that guides you through a number of pre configuration points. I show you what to do and tell you about some possible problems.

Install Magento 2 beginners tutorial

First step is to download preferred version of Magento. For this I choose latest version, which is currently 2.1.7. I download the shop package from Magento download site and choose my desired compression file (*.zip, *.tar.gz or *.tar.bz2). Wait until download finished and then upload it to your web space.

You now have to login to your web space account. It works best with SSH. There you need to unpack Source Code with following command:

Install wizard

Many files and folders are generated. This is now your Magento 2 base directory with full Source Code. You are ready for installing the software by its wizard. For this, you need to start up your desired browser and point your address field to this Magento 2 root directory. You should now see this content:

You get information about Version and you have to agree to some Terms of usage. If you accept this, you can start installation. First step is to check your software. It is the most important step, because depending on its output you will know if you can use Magento 2 or if you need to configure your web server first:

Magento checks if your PHP Version is ready for this eCommerce system and if file permissions are right. If you fail one check, please contact your server admin or reconfigure your web server or file system. Don’t forget, that this check only detects software issues. You also need a hardware that can handle Magento 2 and also can serve many customers simultaneously.

The next step covers database settings. You need an already running MySQL database system with a database. You need to enter its login data:

localhost is the default setting. It is a good idea to use a local installed MySQL database, but not needed. If you like, you can use a dedicated database server as well. If you run other systems like WordPress on this database, you may define a table prefix.

Now its time to do web configuration. It is up to you how to configure these settings. Your store address is prefilled with current address. If you currently have no domain, you need to change that later in database or adminhtml. The only important setting is admin address. Be creative to hide your login, but remember it!

In next step you need to customize your store. Set currency, time zone and preferred language. In advanced modules configurations you are able to deselect all not needed modules. This modules won’t be installed. This is only needed if you know exactly what you do.

Last step in configuration is to create your adminhtml account. I provide no screenshot here, because it is obvious what to do. Please use a secure password and a username other than admin would be perfect.

Installation

Magento 2 has a graphical install program, which shows you current status of installation. There is also a console log. You can watch which package is currently installed. The main disadvantage of this installer is, that it is obviously buggy. I used current stable Magento 2 version, and it crashed multiple times (once at about 70% and again at about 98%). If you think it freezes, just reload the page. If it freezes at 98% it is possible, that all works, and you will see Magento 2 frontend.

Conclusion

Magento 2 offers a nice installer wizard which guides you through all necessary configuration steps. The graphical installer is buggy, you may need to run it more than once. After some tries, Magento 2 runs as expected.