Before installation

Installing Drupal requires that you have a web server and a database server first.

For 'local' and 'online' Linux based servers using Apache and MySQL, the software that is needed to run Drupal is known as an "AMP stack", though Microsoft based servers and databases also come in a set known as a stack.

AMP stack

• Apache (or another web server)
• MySQL (or another database server)
• PHP

To install Drupal on your own computer for a local development environment, see the article, Local server setup.

Before making your website publicly available on the Internet, you probably will want to build and test it in an offline development environment. When it is working to your satisfaction in the development environment, you can then upload it to a Web host for serving online.