Detailed description of installing Magento on purchased hosting.
The process of starting the Magento hosting service can be divided into 2 main parts:
Installing Magento app
Installing process of Magento app takes place in Plesk server control panel, so you need to log in there to start. But before you begin, make sure that:
- Your hosting service is active. Log in to customer dashboard on www.smartxhosting.com, go to Services and check status of Magento hosting service. We activate services shortly after payment confirmation.
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Your domain is properly configured and pointing to your server. If you registered or transferred domain during ordering process, DNS zone should be configured automatically and all you need to do is wait for changes to propagate.
If you use domain registered in other registrar, you need to change DNS servers there to those shown in your domain DNS zone in customer dashboard. Go to Services -> Web App Magento -> DNS Settings, edit DNS zone for domain related to Magento hosting service and find entries for NS records. Set these entries as DNS servers in current domain registrar and wait for changes to propagate.
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You have at least one active email account. Magento installation requires to set up 2 factor authentication (2FA). A message with instruction how to do this will be sent, so you need to be able to receive it to complete the installation.
To create email account login to customer dashboard at www.smartxhosting.com and go to Services -> Web App Magento -> Email Addresses and press "Create Email Account" button. Then fill in the form and click "Create" button.
Step 1: Login to Plesk server control panel
If you have your service active and domain properly configured, you may login to Plesk control panel to start Magento installation procedure. To do so, go to the service setting in customer dashboard and click Plesk link in the sidebar menu or Plesk tile in One Click Login section.
You will be automatically logged in to server control panel where you can take the next steps of installing Magento app.
Step 2: Install SSL certificate for your domain
To successfully install Magento app your domain needs to be secured by SSL certificate. We provide free of charge SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt. It will be installed automatically if DNS settings for your domain are correct and propagated. If you want to speed up issuing certificate process, you can install it manualy. To do so click SSL/TLS Certificates icon in server control panel.
On the next page you can choose what kind of certificate you want to install. We offer various selection of premium paid certificates as well as free one from Let's Encrypt. To install free SSL certificate click "Install" button at the bottom of the screen.
Now, provide an email address for administrative purposes and select areas you want to secure. For Magento app we recommend these selected on the screen below. To issue your SSL certificate click the "Get it free" button.
If there was no errors during the issue process, you should see a page with information that your domain has been secured. Now you are ready to go to the next step of Magento installation procedure.
Step 3: Checking destination directory
Important note! For the Magento application to work properly, the destination directory must be empty before starting the installation.
To check if there no files in destination directory click "Files" icon on the main page of server control panel and go the "httpdocs" folder. If there are any files there, archive them if necessary and then delete them.
Step 4: App Installer
Once you have SSL certificate successfully installed, email account created and destination folder checked, you can proceed to App Installer, a tool we will use to install Magento app.
After clicking App Installer link in server control panel a new tab will open with a app installation tool. You will see only one application available - Magento. Click "Install" button to start installation.
Step 5: Installer configuration
Now, it's time to set up Magento installer. You need to provide some informations before you start installation:
- Select https protocol, as you've installed SSL certificate before, choose domain assigned to Web App Magento service and leave "In directory" field blank.
- Magento requires a CRON to work. Please specify the CRON timings here. If you are unaware of it, leave it as it is!
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In the "Site Settings" section provide an admin path. You will need to add this path to your website address in a browser to login to Magento admin panel (eg. https://mydomain.com/admin123). Avoid using obvious paths such as admin or panel, as they are easy to guess and could impact your shop security
If you want to import some sample data for a better shop layout preview, check the "Sample data" option.
- Admin Account - provide all necessary data of administrator account of your shop. If you wish to create safe password automatically, then click the key icon at the end of the password field. Don't forget to save generated password, you will need it later to login to your shop.
- Advanced Options - in this section you can set up database details and backups. If you are not sure of database settings, we recommend leaving defaults. If you want the App Installer to handle backups of your shop you can set parametrs like Backup location (place where backup files will be stored), Automated backups interval (frequency of backups) and Backup rotation (how many backups you want to keep).
The last option before you click the "Install" button is "Email installation details to". You can add an email address you want send installation details to. If you are happy with your settings, click "Install" button and confirm that you have a valid email address to begin installation.
Step 6: Installing Magento App
Magento installation will take approximately 3-4 minutes. During this time, a progress bar will be displayed. Do not leave or refresh the page during the installation process as this will cause the installation to fail.
After installation is complete you will see a confirmation page with home page and admin panel URLs of your Magento shop. Please note that information may appear on the confirmation page that you need to take some configuration steps in your store, but before you will be able to it, you must set up 2 factor authentication to get access to admin panel.
Important notice! Sometimes administrative URL on a confirmation page is invalid. If you click the link and see "No input file specified" message instead of login page, you need to remove "/index.php" part from it.
E.g. https://mydomain.com/index.php/my_admin_page --> https://mydomain.com/my_admin_page
Step 7: Configuring 2 factor authentication (2FA)
Before you will be able to login to admin panel of your shop, you need to configure 2 factor authentication. This security matter is required by Magento. To do so, follow below steps:
- Go to your shop admin login page. You will find its address on a installation confirmation screen. Provide credentials you've set up during installation process.
- On your first login attempt you will see a message, that in order to proceed to admin area of your store you need to configure Two-Factor Authentication and the email with details was sent to you.
- Check the email you've provided in Magento installer configuration. You should receive a message with 2FA configuration link.
- Click this link or copy and paste it to the browser address bar to open 2FA configuration page. Use your authenticator app to scan the QR code and provide generated code to confirm.
- If there was no errors, you will be redirected to you admin panel.
- From now on you will be asked for authenticator code on every login attempt.
Step 8: Post install configuration
Once Magento is successfully installed you need to adjust one more option in server configuration panel. To do so click "Plesk" icon in your customer dashboard and go to server configuration panel. Then click "Sheduled Tasks" link to get access to configuration of Magento cron job settings. Click the name of the job to open configuration screen.
On the configuration screen find "Use PHP version" option and set it to 8.1.29 and click "OK" button to save changes. Now your Magento cron job is configured properly and you can start building your shop.
Congratulations! You've just installed your Magento store and you can begin customization process.
