Installation on a Web Server

This chapter describes the installation of SoSci Survey on an own web server.

If you want to update an already existing installation of SoSci Survey, please read Update of the installation.

Note: This chapter is not relevant if you want to use SoSci Survey on an already existing survey server (e. g. www.soscisurvey.de). There you can directly register a user account and a survey project without installation (Overview).

Note: SoSci Survey is not publicly available for download. Companies can purchase server licenses to run their own survey server (pricing). Academic institutions receive a free university license upon request.

The procedure is simple if you are familiar with the installation of web applications:

1. Prepare the database
   • Create an user for databases in MySQL and
   • a database for SoSci Survey and
   • make sure that the data at rest encryption is activated
2. Copy all files from the Setup-ZIP in a directionary on the webserver
3. Make sure that the PHP process has a file write access on the directionary
4. HTTP-access rights
   • Prohibit HTTP access on files, system, inc and lib.
   • Optionally restrict HTTP access to admin to the corporate network and/or VPN.
   • Make sure that HTTP access is only possible via HTTPS (SSL encrypted).
5. Rufen Sie im Browser die URL …/admin/install.php auf
6. Add any missing PHP modules and adjust the PHP configuration as needed
7. Email dispatch
   • Enter a relay host in the sendmail settings if necessary.
   • Entry alternativly a SMTP server for mail dispatch in thr server settings
8. Set up two cronjobs for SoSci Survey (Scheduled Tasks)

The steps are described more detailed in the following manuals:

• System Requirements
• Server Security (important)
• Preparation
• Copy SoSci Survey on Webserver
• File Access Rights
• PHP-Settings
• Initialisation of the Installation
• Scheduled Tasks (necessarry)

• You should change some of the Settings to ensure Server Security
• SoSci Survey knows a number of extensions that you can now install: Extensions.
• The chapter Data in SoSci Survey gives you an overview of where SoSci Survey stores which data.
• There are a number of ways to Optimize Server Performance .
• To adjust non-modifiable settings the configuration can be changed manually .
• The procedure for updating an existing installation is described in the chapter Update of the Installation.