Chapter 3. Installation, Configuration, and Maintenance

By now you should have a good understanding of what CiviCRM and constituent relationship management tools can do for your organization. You also should have taken the time to plan your implementation, including thinking through your existing data sources and mapping out how they will translate to CiviCRM. Don't underestimate the importance of the planning process—while you may be anxious to install CiviCRM and begin working with it, your project will be better positioned for success if you invest more of your time in preliminary planning.

In this chapter, we will:

• Install CiviCRM

• Walk through the initial configuration of the system

• Discuss advanced configuration options you need to be aware of, including access control permissions under Drupal

• Review the upgrade process

• Outline recommended maintenance procedures

• Plan a backup strategy

Since CiviCRM may be implemented in either the Joomla! or Drupal content management systems (CMS), there will...