Last updated October 21, 2011. Created by LeeHunter on October 14, 2005.
Edited by jredding, silverwing, johntroy, danilomarques. Log in to edit this page.
A lot of new Drupal users run into issues getting Drupal to work properly on their webhost. These problems are not Drupal problems as such, they are usually the way the webserver is configured. Complex and functional web applications like Drupal will naturally require a lot more from a web server than just hosting a static HTML site would.
Note: There are webhosts that offer Drupal specific hosting for those without the time or inclination to do it themselves. See http://drupal.org/hosting and http://drupal.org/forum/34 for more info.
Unfortunately there is usually a knowledge gap between the Drupal installation documents and the exact environment a new user is confronted with when attempting to install and configure Drupal. For more experienced users that have a little Unix and Apache (a typical webhost setup) knowledge under their belts, bridging the gap between their webhosting environment and the general purpose Drupal installation guide is no problem. Things are more confusing for less experienced users though. The following info is intended to help newbies come to grips with the documentation and their webhosts environment.
There are a wide range of web site configuration tools (eg CPanel, Plesk, webmin etc) and near infinite number of ways a webhost could configure a webserver. What this means is that a lot of the general Drupal docs you read will have to use the lowest common denominator (ie Unix shell commands) to describe configuration steps.
Less experienced users will not fully understand what these commands do or why they should do them, and definitely won't know when to deviate from them. To make matters worse most webhosts don't even offer shell access, so the instructions need to be 'translated' to whatever control panel they offer.
The following topics will hopefully provide just enough insight into Apache and Unix that new users will be able to better understand the installation documentation and 'tune' their sites for running Drupal without too much pain. As a new user you might also gain an understanding of why most of the docs are written the way they are.
Comments
Sites/default/files does not exist
I get this error when doing fresh install:
"The directory sites/default/files does not exist. An automated attempt to create this directory failed, possibly due to a permissions problem. To proceed with the installation, either create the directory and modify its permissions manually, or ensure that the installer has the permissions to create it automatically. For more information, please see INSTALL.txt or the on-line handbook."
Two things:
1 - sites/default/files DOES exist.
2 - Why does the error message only say that the permissions have to be modified, but doesn't say what those permissions should be in the same go (666, 665,...) ? So typically Drupal...
o, and still: 3 - where on THIS page is the explanation or the link to "sites/default/files permission settings"?
Install.txt says: "chmod o+w sites/default", what's that in fileZillian?
I started with Drupal in 2007 and then my life got stuck...
In fact WHERE is the Drupal basic permission list???
I don't understand why there is not a clear list to the numerous basic issues that only would need their own OFFICIAL checklist. It feels all so tremendously "insider" focussed...
The only thing I found on this issue is (very long thread and only filled with doubts by the way):
http://drupal.org/node/244924#comment-2689024
This is NOT an official setting but just an interpretation of someone who too has doubts "As I read (and re-read) the instructions ...." "... I think this is what they mean". However, since I am sure he'll understand better than I, I'll give it a bet. And at least he writes it out in a very complete and plain ready to use way.
For the "files" directory inside Drupal's "sites" directory:
Path: /sites/files or /sites/default/files
Symbolic notation: rwxrwxr-x
Octal numbers: 775
Which means:
Owner: read, write, execute
Group: read, write, execute
Others: read, execute
Now I only hope this is correct and will not give us the problems that had us stuck for over 6 months on an official Drupal server who kind of just kicked us away, because "we had our site set in such a clumsy way" instead of helping us out. Later it turned out to be a major error in don't remember what core module that caused memory overload.
I started with Drupal in 2007 and then my life got stuck...
By the way
Those settings worked :)
I started with Drupal in 2007 and then my life got stuck...
Mod_Security issues
Hosting a website can be a lot of work, especially as the site becomes more and more advanced. I run a small website just for fun and tried adding in Drupal-based widgets but had similar issues. I'm going to try the following advice by Jim: "If these are malfunctioning, ask your host if they're using Mod_Security, and if so, please disable it for your domains." I know my host is using Mod_Security so this may prove helpful. I could only imagine how advanced one's knowledge must be to create, run, and maintain complex websites, especially ones that offer services such as Paycor Louisville for example. I hope the new setting you tried continue to work for you.
if you still have permission problems
i have mac ppc 10.5.8, mamp pro 1.9.6.1. installing drupal 7.
kept getting same as you - sites/default/files DOES exist - did change to chmod 777 - reinstall and get the same.
deleted drupal 7 and downloaded drupal 5.9 and completed install first time with no error messages on the install EDIT- now i'm getting "The following error must be resolved before you can continue the installation process:" "The Drupal installer requires write permissions to ./sites/default/settings.php during the installation process." i can't delete this post so i just quickly updated it.
--------------------------
The virtual host was set up successfully.
If you can see this page, your new virtual host was set up successfully. Now, web contents can be added and this placeholder page1 should be replaced or deleted.
Server name: localhost
Document-Root: /Applications/MAMP/htdocs
1 Files: index.php and MAMP-PRO-Logo.gif
This page in: Deutsch
---------------------------
Rackspace Cloud Site
I just wanted to let people know about my experience with installing Drupal on a Rackspace Cloud Site.
I was receving the same error as mentioned above. I was able to resolve this issue by NOT changing the permissions in the first place. Leaving the default permissions seemed to work fine in my instance.
Drupal 7 not compatible with Apache Mod_Security
Some hosts use an Apache Mod_Security filter to remove threats. Versions of this filter prevent calls to the javascript file; jquery.cookie.js , which is used by Drupal 7 for drag and drop in lists, and in menus. So, if these are malfunctioning, ask your host if they're using Mod_Security, and if so, please disable it for your domains.
If they won't, you can fix the problem by going to "performance" and select the option "aggregate javascript files"
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Unclear, confusing documentation
I´ve started with Drupal a long time ago. I always put 777 each time it asked me for permissions.
Now I´ve got a new Drupal 7 site to install, and thought that maybe 777 wasn´t the safest way. But since 755 didn´t worked for me, I always went for the 777 chmod instead. Up until now.
I´ve tried to stop and actually carefully read all the information that´s in the installation wizard.
After changing the settings file accordingly, I´ve read this:
"The Drupal installer requires write permissions to ./sites/default/settings.php during the installation process. If you are unsure how to grant file permissions, consult the online handbook." And there´s a link to this page.
Naturally, when you click that link you expect something like "Here´s how you do grant permissions to files and folders..."
But instead, the link points you to a page with webhosting issues, and the first thing it tells you is that you can use specific drupal hostings...
So for newbies, the first thing that you think "is there a problem with my webhost"?
Well, no. The only thing is that you should change the chmod configuration.
Why the page won´t tell you this? I´ve read the whole thing and it won´t clearly tell you how to configure the chmod. And I´m not the only person that tells you this, there are more comments wondering exactly the same. And those comments are quite older that mine.
In fact, I´m still wondering which number combination should be the safest one that works, because 777 isn´t safe, and 755 won´t work (at least in my case).
I´m a big fan of Drupal and specially the Drupal team, please, don´t take this badly, it´s just a personal feeling after reading this particular page of the documentation.
Thanks,
Rosamunda
Rosamunda
Buenos Aires | Argentina