To install and run Drupal your web host must meet certain minimal requirements. Most web hosts meet these requirements. However, a few stand out by also supporting the Drupal community. If you need a host, consider selecting one of our reviewed web hosts.

Drupal's minimum requirements.(Click the section headers for detailed information):

Disk space

15 Megabytes

 

Web server

Apache 1.3, Apache 2.x, or Microsoft IIS

 

Database server

Drupal 5: MySQL 3.23.17 or higherDrupal 6: MySQL 4.1 or higher, PostgreSQL 7.1,Drupal 7: MySQL 5.0.15 or higher with PDO, SQLite 3.3.7 or higherNote: Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle are supported by an additional module

PHP

Drupal 5: 4.4.0 or higher (5.2 recommended)Drupal 6: 4.4.0 or higher (5.2 recommended)Drupal 7: 5.2.5 or higher (5.3 recommended)

Note: if you meet these requirements but still have problems with your site, be sure to read through the Webhosting Troubleshooting FAQ.

See the phpinfo() page on Drupal.org to learn how to use phpinfo to get the details of your system. For example, phpinfo will tell you if you have a database already installed and what versions of PHP, MySQL, etc. your system is running. Phpinfo will also tell you what PHP variables are set as well as many other helpful things.

Disk space

A minimum base installation requires at least 15MB of disk space but you should assume that your actual disk space needs will be much larger.

For example, if you install many contributed modules and contributed themes, the actual disk space for your installation could easily be (and likely will be) larger than 60 MB (exclusive of database content, media, backups and other files which should be considered too when planning for your site).

Web server

Drupal has been deployed successfully on both Apache and IIS.

Apache (Recommended)

• Drupal will work on Apache 1.3 or Apache 2.x hosted on UNIX/Linux, OS X, or Windows. The majority of Drupal development and deployment is done on Apache, so there is more community experience and testing performed on Apache than on other web servers.
• You can use the Apache 'mod_rewrite' extension to allow for clean URLs.

Microsoft IIS

• Drupal core will work using IIS 5, IIS 6, or IIS 7 if PHP is configured correctly.
• To achieve clean URLs you may need to use a third party product. For IIS7 you can use the Microsoft URL Rewrite Module or a third party solution.
• When using Drupal on IIS 7 with fastcgi you must install Hotfix kb954946, or wait until the hotfix appears in a package update (recommended). KB954946 was included inWindows 2008 Server SP2

Drupal is being developed to be web server independent, but we have limited or no reports of successful use on web servers not listed here.

The total file size of your Drupal installation will depend on what you add to your site, but Drupal core files alone will take up approximately 2 to 3 MB uncompressed. The exact size depends on the version of Drupal you have installed.

Database serverRecommended: MySQL (or an equivalent such as MariaDB)

• Drupal 5.x and earlier supports MySQL 3.23.17 or higher. MySQL 4.1 or higher is strongly recommended.
• Drupal 6 supports MySQL 4.1 or higher.
• Drupal 7 will only support MySQL 5.0.15 or higher, and requires the PDO database extension for PHP (see What is PDO?).

There are several drop-in replacements for MySQL. Drupal has been extensively tested withMariaDB, and version 5.1.44 (or greater) is recommended. It is also likely that other drop-in replacements will work well with Drupal, but they have not specifically undergone testing.

Notes

• Drupal makes use of some features not available on some inexpensive hosting plans so please check that your host allows database accounts with the following rights:SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, DROP, INDEX, ALTER.These rights are sufficient to run Drupal core 6.x.
• Some contributed modules, and also Drupal core 5.x (but not Drupal core 6.x), additionally require the following rights:CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES, LOCK TABLES.
• If your system/host is running MySQL 4.1 or newer and you receive the error "Client does not support authentication protocol requested by server", address the problem by following the instructions provided by MySQL AB. There is a minor OS issue with someMySQL 5+ installations primarily on Windows but affecting some versions of Unix/Linux as well.
• When using Drupal 5.x or later, particularly with contributed modules, it may be necessary to set the system variable max_allowed_packet to at least 16M. Some inexpensive hosting plans set this value too low (the MySQL default is only 1M). In that case, you may need to choose a better hosting plan. A value of 1M may be sufficient for 5.x.
• Drupal supports MyISAM and InnoDB table types. NDB tables (MySQL Cluster) are not supported.
• Note that if your web hosting account is set up with a graphic control panel such as Plesk or CPanel, it is very likely that you do not need to worry about installing a driver for MySQL -- it is probably already installed on your server. You might wish to simply create your database and proceed with installing Drupal, and then refer back to Drupal documentation for specific troubleshooting help if you run into problems.

PostgreSQL

Note: Some contributed modules are not as abstracted from MySQL-specific code as everyone would like. If you are familiar with PostgreSQL please file issues with those contributed modules as you find them.

• Drupal 6 supports PostgreSQL 7.1 or higher
• Drupal 7 will only support PostgreSQL 8.3 or higher
• PHP 5.2.6 for Windows has a bug in its pgsql extension. You will need to replace it with the php_pgsql.dll from version 5.2.5.

SQLite 3.x - Drupal 7 only

SQLite 3.3.7 or higher.

Note: Some contributed modules are not as abstracted from MySQL-specific code as everyone would like. If you are familiar with SQLite please file issues with those contributed modules as you find them.

Other database servers

Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle are supported by an additional module.

Please see discussions in the Enterprise Group if you are interested in working on database support.

PHP

Drupal 5 and 6: 4.4.0 or higher (5.2 recommended)Drupal 7: PHP 5.2.5* or higher (5.3 recommended)

*For Drupal 7, versions of PHP 5.2.4 that include backported security patches also meet the requirements. The PHP version included with Ubuntu 8.04 is the most common example of this.