Classic Self Hosted Only
These instructions apply only to classic self-hosted customers who are responsible for manually installing and upgrading their own environments.
If you fall into this category, you should proceed with caution.
A failed installation or upgrade can leave your community in an unusable state, including potential data loss, corruption, or extended downtime. It is therefore critical that you take appropriate precautions before proceeding. At a minimum, you should ensure that you have a complete, tested backup of both your files and database, and that you are confident in your ability to restore from that backup immediately should anything go wrong.
If an issue occurs during the process, the recommended course of action is to stop immediately and revert to your last known good backup rather than attempting to continue in a potentially unstable state.
If you are unsure at any stage, or do not have direct experience managing your server environment, you should seek guidance from the team or provider responsible for your hosting infrastructure. They will be best placed to advise on server-level requirements, permissions, and recovery procedures.
For all other customers, installation and upgrades are fully managed. Updates are delivered via simple, click-through processes, with no manual intervention required.
Installing
Installing Invision Community on your own server requires direct interaction with your hosting environment. You should ensure you are comfortable managing your server, or consult your hosting provider or system administrator before proceeding.
Confirm server compatibility
Ensure your server meets the minimum system requirements. You can run the compatibility checker to identify any missing extensions or configuration issues.
If any requirements are not met, your hosting provider will be best placed to assist with resolving these.Download the software
Log into your client area, navigate to Manage Purchases, and select your license to download the latest version.Upload the files to your server
Extract the downloaded archive locally, then upload the contents to your server in the directory where you intend the community to run.
This step typically involves FTP, SFTP, or direct server access. If you are unsure which method to use, consult your hosting provider.Run the installer
In your browser, navigate to:/admin/installrelative to the directory where you uploaded the files.
The installer will attempt to validate your environment, including directory permissions and required configuration. If any issues are identified, you will be prompted to resolve them before continuing. These changes may require server-level access.
You will also be asked to provide:
Your MySQL database details
Other configuration information required for setup
Note
If you are unsure of your database credentials or how to create a database, your hosting provider or server administrator should be consulted.
Your license key can be found in the same location within the client area where you downloaded the software.
Test Install
Your self-hosted license for Invision Community permits a limited number of installations, and how these are used depends on the environment in which you deploy the software.
License Usage Overview
1 Live Installation – your production community
1 Test Installation – for staging or development purposes
Unlimited localhost installations – for local development only
Localhost installations must use localhost specifically. Alternative references such as 127.0.0.1 or custom local domains will not be treated as localhost and may count toward your test installation.
Test Installation Setup
When installing on a test environment, your license key must include the following suffix:
-TESTINSTALLIf you are installing on any domain that is not localhost, it will be treated as your test installation, and your license will be validated accordingly.
Automatic Upgrade
When an upgrade becomes available, you will see a notification within your Admin CP.
Follow the prompt to begin the upgrade process.
The system will attempt to download the required files and redirect you to the upgrader.
At this point, you will be guided through a series of steps to complete the upgrade.
Classic Self Hosted Only
For classic, self-hosted installations of Invision Community, the automatic upgrader is initiated from within your Admin CP. This process will make changes to your application files and database, so it should be approached with appropriate caution.
Before proceeding, you should ensure:
A full backup of both files and database is available
Your server environment meets the requirements for the new version
You have reviewed the release notes for any changes that may affect your setup
If you are unsure about any part of this process, you should consult your hosting provider or server administrator before continuing.
The automatic upgrade process for Invision Community relies on the ability to write files directly to your server.
In order for this to function correctly:
Your file system must allow write access to the application directories
Your server configuration must permit file operations initiated by PHP
If these conditions are not met, the upgrader may prompt you to provide FTP or SCP credentials so it can attempt to upload the required files remotely.
In some environments, both direct file access and FTP/SCP methods may fail. This can happen due to:
File permission restrictions
Server security policies
Disabled PHP functions
Incorrect FTP/SCP configuration
These are all server-level concerns, and resolving them may require input from your hosting provider or system administrator.
If the automatic process is unable to complete, you will need to proceed with a manual upgrade.
This involves:
Uploading the updated files yourself
Running the upgrader manually via your browser
As this requires direct interaction with your server environment, you should ensure you are confident in performing these steps, or seek assistance from your hosting provider.
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