In this blog post, I will be looking at how easy it is to get WordPress up and running on an Internet Information Services (IIS) web server. This is an advanced tutorial and so I will be making several assumptions concerning the server environment and your knowledge of its use:

• The server should be Windows-based, running IIS 6/7
• It has PHP 5 and MySQL 5 set up and running (most hosting companies that provide Windows servers will offer PHP/MySQL functionality, you may have to check first that it is installed)
• Your hosting company provides access to set up a MySQL database/user for WordPress to use
• A decent working knowledge of web servers (such as Apache), PHP, MySQL and FTP

First things first, you need WordPress. At the time of writing, the most current version available is 2.9.1. Once you’ve got it, you need to upload the directory contained within the zip file (wordpress/) to your webserver using a method such as FTP. The choice of where you put the directory for your blog is yours. However SEO is an important consideration and so for example in the instance of this blog, because it deals primarily with SEO related topics, the blog directory is aptly named /SEOBlog/.

Once the WordPress directory has been uploaded, theres one thing we need before we go ahead and install. We need a MySQL database and user suitable for WordPress to use. Depending on your hosting provider, you may have access to phpMyAdmin or an alternative MySQL database tool such as that provided in cPanel or Plesk. Whichever tool you can use, you need to have a existing database available to store the WordPress tables. Alternatively, create a new database for WordPress and name it accordingly.

With the database setup, a user needs creating specifically for WordPress; it should be named accordingly and have full database privileges. After that, you’re almost done, the last thing you need to do is setup for config for WordPress. Open the file at /<your-wordpress-folder/wp-config-sample.php and set the following:

• DB_NAME: <your-database-name>
• DB_USER: <wordpress-username>
• DB_PASSWORD: <wordpress-password>

Save the file as wp-config.php and your good to go. Open up a web browser and point it at http://<your-domain>/<your-wordpress-folder>/wp-install.php. Follow the infamous 5 minute install process and you should be done in flash. Now on the username/password screen, when you hit the Log In button you may get a 403 error(!).

Not a problem, its because your host hasn’t got index.php added as a default directory index document. That should be easy to solve using Plesk: from the Domain Management section, access the Web Directories feature and you should find the option to change the default document under the Preferences section.

Once done, try again logging in again! You should be good to go with WordPress installed on IIS!

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