Requirements

To install XMB your web host must support both PHP and MySQL. If your web host does not have these available, you will NOT be able to install XMB.

Resource Requirements

On a new installation, XMB uses about 6 MB of disk space. Most forums use less than 20 MB of disk space between both files and the database, and use less than 100 MB of bandwidth a month. Pruning old posts and attachments can keep total disk space to acceptable levels.

XMB 1.9.10 Karl is very CPU efficient in comparison to previous versions and compares very favorably to other forum software. Most web hosts should not see any significant load from XMB until large numbers of users active simultaneously (about 200 simultaneous users).

You can expect a forum with 2,500 users, 125,000 posts, 20,000 attachments, and 35,000 U2U's to use about 400 MB of disk space and about 20 to 25 GB of bandwidth monthly. It is advised that you purchase a dedicated server for a forum with this level of activity.

Web Server

The majority of web hosts use Apache. However, XMB is compatible with any web server capable of running PHP. This includes Windows 2000’s Personal Web Server, IIS 5, 5.1 (Windows XP), and 6 (Windows 2003), and Apache 1.3.x and 2.0.x (both Unix and Windows).

XMB recommends using the latest version of Apache 2.0, suitably hardened and tuned for running forum software. Luckily, this is the web server of choice for most web hosts. If you have any queries about web server configuration, ask your web host for further information.

IIS Server Notes

PHP

PHP version 7.0 or higher is required to install XMB 1.9.12.

If you can't run PHP 7 then you should install XMB 1.9.11. The latest patched release of XMB 1.9.11 is compatible with both PHP 5 and PHP 7. PHP version 4.3.0 or higher is required.

The PHP MySQL extension is required, and the latest version of PHP with the GD2, MySQL, and Pspell extensions are recommended.

XMB fully supports PHP 7. PHP 7 is known to be more secure. It is the only version currently supported by the PHP community.

The use of a PHP accelerator is recommended if you are running a busy forum. Starting with PHP 5.5, the bundled opcache should take care of this automatically.

MySQL

To install XMB 1.9.11, MySQL version 4.1.7 is required, but the latest version is recommended.

XMB fully supports MySQL 5.

SMTP Relay

An SMTP relay (out going mail server) is required to be installed if you wish to use any of XMB's email to user services such as but not limited to, email verification of new registrations, U2U email notification, post subscription notifications, newsletters etc.

If your web provider does not supply an SMTP relay these features simply wont work as intended by XMB.

Also be aware that some SMTP relays will authenticate the From address, which is the board's "Administrator E-Mail" setting. If you do not configure a valid From address, then your board's e-mails will not get delivered.

FTP Client

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is the most common method of uploading files to servers. There are several free FTP clients availible that can be found on the Useful 3rd Party Utilities