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Manual Installation Guides

You can install eZ Platform manually on the following operating systems:

Supported systems

Only installation on Linux is fully supported.

Installations on macOS or Windows can only be used for development.

Available distributions

eZ Platform exists in different distributions. You select the distribution when performing the ezplatform:install command, by using the correct installation type. It depends on the meta-repository you are using.

Demo installation

The Demo is intended for learning and inspiration. Do not use it as a basis for actual projects.

eZ Platform installation types

Type Repository
clean ezplatform
platform-demo ezplatform-demo

eZ Platform Enterprise Edition installation types

Type Repository
studio-clean ezplatform-ee
platform-ee-demo ezplatform-ee-demo

Installing on Linux

1. Install a LAMP Stack

Depending on your Linux distribution, you may need to install part or all of the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) stack required to run eZ Platform. Before getting started, make sure you review the requirements page to see the systems we support and use for testing.

You may use your system's package manager (yum, apt-get, etc.) to obtain a copy of Apache, MySQL, and PHP, or download the latest versions from the official websites and install manually:

For example, with Debian you can use apt-get to install apache2, mysql-server, mysql-client, and all PHP packages listed in the requirements. You also need git for version control.

Set up Swap on Debian

If your machine only has 1 or 2 GB of RAM, be sure to set up swap so you don't run out of RAM when running the composer scripts later on.

Swap space allows your system to utilize the hard drive to supplement capacity when RAM runs short. Composer install will fail if there is insufficient RAM available, but adding swap will allow it to complete installation.

Via the command line, you can set up and enable swap on your Debian machine with the following commands (as root):

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fallocate -l 4G /swapfile
chmod 600 /swapfile
mkswap /swapfile
swapon /swapfile
echo "/swapfile   none    swap    sw    0   0" >> /etc/fstab
sysctl vm.swappiness=10
echo "vm.swappiness=10" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
sysctl vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50
echo "vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50" >> /etc/sysctl.conf

2. Get Composer

a. Install Composer, the PHP command line dependency manager, by running the following command in the terminal:

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php -r "readfile('https://getcomposer.org/installer');" | php

b. Move the downloaded composer.phar file to a globally-available path:

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mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

3. Download eZ Platform

You can download eZ Platform in two ways::

a. Download an archive

  • If you are installing eZ Platform, download the latest archive from ezplatform.com.
  • For licensed eZ Enterprise customers, download your file from the Support portal.

Extract the archive into /var/www/ezplatform.

b. Clone GitHub repository

You can also clone one of the repositories from GitHub.

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git clone https://github.com/ezsystems/ezplatform.git /var/www/ezplatform

You can check out a tag, or use the master branch if you are interested in working with the latest version.

Tip

You can use any other folder name in place of ezplatform in the examples above. You'll point your virtual host to this folder to use as its root.

4. Create a database

Create a new database (you can substitute ezplatform with the database name you want to use, but keep it in mind in next steps):

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mysql -u root -e 'CREATE DATABASE ezplatform CHARACTER SET utf8;'

5. Run installation scripts

Composer will look inside the composer.json file and install all of the packages required to run eZ Platform. The bin/console script will then install eZ Platform for your desired environment (dev/prod).

a. Run composer install

From the folder into which you downloaded eZ Platform, run:

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php -d memory_limit=-1 composer install

Once the installer gets to the point that it creates app/config/parameters.yml, you will be presented with a few decisions:

  1. Choose a secret; it should be a random string, made up of up to 32 characters, numbers, and symbols. This is used by Symfony when generating CSRF tokens, encrypting cookies, and for creating signed URIs when using ESI (Edge Side Includes).
  2. You can accept the default options for database_driver, database_host and database_port
  3. For database_name and database_user, reoplace them if you customized those values during configuration.
  4. If you set a password for your database user, enter it when prompted for database_password.

The installer should continue once you've completed this manual portion of the installation process.

b. Run eZ Platform's installer

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php bin/console ezplatform:install --env=prod clean

In this example the ezplatform:install script uses the clean installation type in production environment.

If Composer asks for your token, you must log in to your GitHub account generate a new token (edit your profile, go to Developer settings > Personal access tokens and Generate new token with default settings). Be aware that the token will be shown only once, so do not refresh the page until you paste the token into the Composer prompt. This operation is performed only once when you install eZ Platform for the first time.

Enterprise

Enable Date-based Publisher

To enable delayed publishing of Content using the Date-based Publisher, you need to set up cron to run the command bin/console ezstudio:scheduled:publish periodically.

For example, to check for publishing every minute, add the following script:

echo '* * * * * cd [path-to-ezplatform]; php bin/console ezpublish:cron:run --quiet --env=prod' > ezp_cron.txt

For 5-minute intervals:

echo '*/5 * * * * cd [path-to-ezplatform]; php bin/console ezpublish:cron:run --quiet --env=prod' > ezp_cron.txt

Next, append the new cron to user's crontab without destroying existing crons. Assuming the web server user data is www-data:

crontab -u www-data -l|cat - ezp_cron.txt | crontab -u www-data -

Finally, remove the temporary file:

rm ezp_cron.txt

6. Set up directory permissions

See Set up directory permissions for more information.

7. Set up a Virtual Host

This example demonstrates using Apache2 as part of the traditional LAMP stack.

Option A: Scripted Configuration

Instead of manually editing the vhost.template file, you may instead use the included shell script: /var/www/ezplatform/bin/vhost.sh to generate a configured .conf file. Check out the source of vhost.sh to see the options provided.

Option B: Manual Edits

a. Copy the vhost.template file from its home in the doc folder:

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cp /var/www/ezplatform/doc/apache2/vhost.template /etc/apache2/sites-available/ezplatform.conf

b. Edit the file:

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vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/ezplatform.conf

For a development environment, you can change:

  • <VirtualHost %IP_ADDRESS%:%PORT%> to <VirtualHost *:80>
  • ServerName %HOST_NAME% to ServerName localhost
  • ServerAlias %HOST_ALIAS% can be deleted.
  • DocumentRoot %BASEDIR%/web to DocumentRoot /var/www/ezplatform/web
  • LimitRequestBody %BODY_SIZE_LIMIT% to LimitRequestBody 0
  • TimeOut %TIMEOUT% to TimeOut 42 to avoid waits longer than 42 seconds.

Be sure to specify /var/www/ezplatform/web as the DocumentRoot and Directory. Uncomment the line that starts with #if [SYMFONY_ENV] and set the value like this:

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# Environment.
# Possible values: "prod" and "dev" out-of-the-box, other values possible with proper configuration
# Defaults to "prod" if omitted (uses SetEnvIf so value can be used in rewrite rules)
SetEnvIf Request_URI ".*" SYMFONY_ENV=dev

8. Server Configuration

Make sure you've got the libapache2-mod-php5 module installed for Apache2 to use PHP5.x, and have the rewrite module enabled:

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apt-get -y install libapache2-mod-php5
a2enmod rewrite

a. You'll need the web user set as the owner/group on all your files to avoid a 500 error:

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chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/ezplatform

b. With your vhost file properly prepared and located in /etc/apache2/sites-available/ezplatform.conf, enable the VirtualHost and disable the default:

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a2ensite ezplatform
a2dissite 000-default.conf

9. Restart server

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service apache2 restart

Testing the Result

You should see the changes effected immediately, and can check via the command line:

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# You should see swap in use now:
free -m

# Swappiness should now be 10
cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

# Cache pressure should be set to 50
cat /proc/sys/vm/vfs_cache_pressure

Installing on macOS

Supported systems

Only installation on Linux is fully supported.

Installations on macOS can only be used for development.

1. Install MySQL

Download from the official MySQL webpage is strongly recommended.

2. Set up PHP

This step requires the modification of two files: Apache2 configuration file and php.ini. These files can be edited using a terminal editor like vi or nano, or a simple text editor such as TextEdit or Atom.

a. Edit Apache2 configuration file:

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sudo vi /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf

b. Uncomment the following line:

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LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so

c. If you can't locate the php.ini file on your machine, it's probably under php.ini.default. Create a new php.ini file based on defaults:

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sudo cp /private/etc/php.ini.default /private/etc/php.ini

d. Open the file in a text editor (in this example, in vi):

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sudo vi /private/etc/php.ini

e. Locate date.timezone and pdo_mysql.default_socket and provide them with values as in the example below:

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date.timezone = "Europe/Warsaw"
pdo_mysql.default_socket = /tmp/mysql.sock

f. Increase memory_limit value for eZ Platform:

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memory_limit = 4G

3. Set up virtual host and start Apache2

a. Edit Apache2 configuration file:

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sudo vi /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf

b. Uncomment and modify the following lines:

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LoadModule vhost_alias_module libexec/apache2/mod_vhost_alias.so
LoadModule rewrite_module libexec/apache2/mod_rewrite.so

c. Comment the following line:

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Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

d. Add the following line to the file:

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Include /private/etc/apache2/users/*.conf

e. Change permissions for virtual hosts storage directory (775):

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sudo chmod -R 775 /private/etc/apache2/users
sudo chmod 775 /private/etc/apache2

4. Start Apache2 daemon using terminal

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sudo apachectl start

5. Install Composer globally

Composer is a dependency manager that allows you to install packages directly in the project. It is also checking all packages' versions on a regular basis to make sure they are up-to-date and to avoid inconsistencies.

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curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
mkdir -p /usr/local/bin
php -d memory_limit=-1 composer.phar

6. Create a new database for eZ Platform

Create new database (you can substitute ez1 with the database name you want to use):

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/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql -u root -e 'create database ez1;'

7. Install Brew package manager

Brew is a package manager for macOS, if you haven't used it already you are going to love what it does!

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ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

8. Install additional requirements for eZ Platform

a. Install PEAR/PECL extension:

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cd /usr/lib/php
curl -O https://pear.php.net/go-pear.phar
php -d detect_unicode=0 go-pear.phar
sudo php install-pear-nozlib.phar
sudo pear channel-update pear.php.net
sudo pecl channel-update pecl.php.net
sudo pear upgrade-all
sudo pear config-set auto_discover 1

b. Install autoconf:

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brew install autoconf

c. Install intl:

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brew install icu4c
sudo pecl install intl

d. The path to the ICU libraries and headers is: /usr/local/opt/icu4c/.

Edit /private/etc/php.ini and add following line:

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extension=intl.so

e. Enable opcache extension for PHP (suggested, but not required) by adding:

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zend_extension=opcache.so

9. Install eZ Platform

a. Go to the folder with your installation and set up directory permissions:

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chmod 775 ../ez1.lh
chmod 775 ../../workspace
chmod 775 ../../../Documents

b. Download archive from ezplatform.com. Extract the eZ Platform archive to a directory, then execute post install scripts.

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cd /<directory>/
php -d memory_limit=-1 composer.phar run-script post-install-cmd

c. Copy the virtual host template:

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sudo cp doc/apache2/vhost.template /private/etc/apache2/users/ez1.lh.conf

d. Edit the new virtual host:

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sudo vi /private/etc/apache2/users/ez1.lh.conf

e. Modify virtual host file vhost.template.

Replace the ---USER_ID--- variable (used in lines 10 and 17) with your current user ID. Use whoami command to get effective user ID of the currently logged user. If you want to use the default virtual host template (delivered with eZ Platform package) all you have to do is set up lines 7, 8, 9, 10, 17, 25 and 33:

f. Restart Apache 2 server:

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sudo apachectl restart

g. Install required dependencies using Composer:

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composer install

When Composer asks you for the token you must log in to your GitHub account and edit your profile. Go to the Personal access tokens link and Generate new token with default settings. Be aware that the token will be shown only once, so do not refresh the page until you paste the token into Composer prompt. This operation is performed only once when you install eZ Platform for the first time.

h. Change directory permissions:

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rm -rf var/cache/* var/logs/* var/sessions/*
sudo chmod +a "_www allow delete,write,append,file_inherit,directory_inherit" var web/var
sudo chmod +a "`whoami` allow delete,write,append,file_inherit,directory_inherit" var web/var

i. Install eZ Platform:

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php bin/console ezplatform:install clean

You will be able to see your page under http://ez1.lh (or the address you chose in preparation). Please note that a clean install of eZ Platform doesn’t include DemoBundle anymore.

Enterprise

Enable Date-based Publisher

To enable delayed publishing of Content using the Date-based Publisher, see above

10. Optional

a. Install PHP 5.6 with opcache extension:

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brew install -v homebrew/php/php56
chmod -R ug+w $(brew --prefix php56)/lib/php
brew install -v php56-opcache

b. Add proper date.timezone settings:

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sudo vi /usr/local/etc/php/5.6/php.ini

c. Uncomment and modify:

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date.timezone = "Europe/Warsaw"
(…)
Increase memory_limit value for eZ Platform:
memory_limit = 4G
(…)

d. Disable errors showing:

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display_errors = Off

e. Change default PHP parser used by Apache:

``` bash: sudo vi /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf 

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f. Find and comment the following line:

``` bash
# LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so

g. Add below:

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LoadModule php5_module /usr/local/opt/php56/libexec/apache2/libphp5.so

e. Install intl extension for PHP 5.6:

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brew install php56-intl

f. Restart Apache:

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sudo apachectl restart

Installing on Windows

Supported systems

Only installation on Linux is fully supported.

Installations on Windows can only be used for development.

1. Set up PHP

This step requires the modification of two files: Apache2 configuration file and php.ini. These files can be edited using a terminal editor like vi or nano, or a simple text editor. file name is httpd.conf and by default it is located in this directory:

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C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\conf

a. Uncomment the following line:

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LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so

b. Locate php.ini file. By default it should be in the following directory:

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C:\program files\php\php.ini

c. Open the file in a text editor and locate date.timezone and pdo_mysql.default_socket and provide them with values as in the example below:

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date.timezone = "Europe/Warsaw"
pdo_mysql.default_socket = /tmp/mysql.sock

d. Increase memory_limit value for eZ Platform:

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memory_limit = 4G

2. Set up virtual host and start Apache2

a. Edit Apache2 configuration file:

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c:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\conf

b. Uncomment and modify the following lines:

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LoadModule vhost_alias_module libexec/apache2/mod_vhost_alias.so
LoadModule rewrite_module libexec/apache2/mod_rewrite.so

c. Comment the following line:

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Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

d. Add the following line to the file:

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Include /private/etc/apache2/users/*.conf

3. Start Apache2 daemon using Command Line

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httpd.exe

4. Install Composer globally

Composer is a dependency manager that allows you to install packages directly in the project. It is also checking all packages' versions on a regular basis to make sure they are up-to-date and to avoid inconsistencies.

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curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
php -d memory_limit=-1 composer.phar

5. Create a new database for eZ Platform

Create new database (you can substitute ez1 with the database name you want to use):

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mysql -uroot -ppassword -e "CREATE DATABASE ez1"

6. Install additional requirements for eZ Platform

a. Install PEAR/PECL extension:

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cd c:\program files\php\php.ini
curl -O https://pear.php.net/go-pear.phar
php -d detect_unicode=0 go-pear.phar
php install-pear-nozlib.phar
pear channel-update pear.php.net
pecl channel-update pecl.php.net
pear upgrade-all
pear config-set auto_discover 1

b. Edit php.ini and add following line:

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extension=intl.so

c. Enable opcache extension for PHP (suggested, but not required) by adding:

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zend_extension=opcache.so

7. Install eZ Platform

a. Download archive from ezplatform.com. Extract the eZ Platform archive to a directory, then execute post install scripts.

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cd /<directory>/
php -d memory_limit=-1 composer.phar run-script post-install-cmd

b. Copy the virtual host template:

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COPY c:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\vhost.template c:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\users/ez1.lh.conf

d. Modify virtual host file vhost.template.

Replace the ---USER_ID--- variable (used in lines 10 and 17) with your current user ID. Use whoami command to get effective user ID of the currently logged user. If you want to use the default virtual host template (delivered with eZ Platform package) all you have to do is set up lines 7, 8, 9, 10, 17, 25 and 33:

e. Restart Apache 2 server:

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httpd.exe -k restart

f. Install required dependencies using Composer:

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composer install

When Composer asks you for the token you must log in to your GitHub account and edit your profile. Go to the Personal access tokens link and Generate new token with default settings. Be aware that the token will be shown only once, so do not refresh the page until you paste the token into Composer prompt. This operation is performed only once when you install eZ Platform for the first time.

h. Install eZ Platform:

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php bin/console ezplatform:install clean

You will be able to see your page under http://ez1.lh (or the address you chose in preparation). Please note that a clean install of eZ Platform doesn’t include DemoBundle anymore.

Enterprise

Enable Date-based Publisher

To enable delayed publishing of Content using the Date-based Publisher, see above.

Read the Docs