APBoard v3 · Documentation
Documentation

Everything you need to install, configure and run APBoard. Explained in full, even for complete beginners.

APBoard › Documentation › Prerequisites

What you need before installation

Before you install APBoard, prepare the server, domain and access data. This page explains the words and decisions you will meet in both installation guides.

1. A server or hosting account

APBoard is a self hosted PHP forum. That means it runs on a server that you control. You can use a VPS, a dedicated server, a small home server for tests, or a hosting account that supports PHP 8.5 and a MySQL compatible database.

ResourceMinimumRecommended
CPU1 core2 cores or more
Memory1 GB2 GB or more
Disk10 GB20 GB or more on SSD storage
SystemModern LinuxUbuntu 24.04 LTS or Debian 12
For beginners

A small VPS is usually the easiest place to start. You get your own Linux server, full SSH access and enough control for Docker. Shared hosting can work for the plain web server installation, but only if the host offers PHP 8.5 and lets you set the web root to public/.

2. A domain name

Your forum needs a public address, for example forum.example.com. In your domain provider's DNS panel, create an A record that points the name to your server's IPv4 address. If your server also has IPv6, create an AAAA record for the IPv6 address.

  1. Open the DNS settings at your domain provider.
  2. Create a record for the name you want to use, such as forum.
  3. Set the value to the IP address of your server.
  4. Wait until the change has reached the internet. This often takes minutes, but it can take several hours.
bash 
nslookup forum.example.com
dig forum.example.com +short

3. SSH access

SSH is the secure terminal connection to your server. You type commands on your computer, and they run on the server. On Linux and macOS, open the terminal. On Windows, use Windows Terminal or PuTTY.

bash 
ssh root@YOUR-SERVER-IP
# Example:
ssh root@203.0.113.10

The first connection may ask whether you trust the server key. Type yes if the IP address is correct.

4. Requirements for Docker

For Docker, your server needs Docker Engine, Docker Compose and Git. Docker runs APBoard in containers. A container is a small isolated runtime that contains the software APBoard needs.

bash 
docker --version
docker compose version
git --version

The Docker guide shows how to install these tools on Ubuntu or Debian. If your server already has a reverse proxy such as Traefik, APBoard can use it for HTTPS.

5. Requirements for a plain web server

A plain installation means that APBoard runs directly on Apache or nginx with PHP and a database server. This path is good if you already understand your hosting environment or if Docker is not available.

  • PHP 8.5 or newer
  • PHP extensions mysqli, gd, mbstring, intl and zip
  • MariaDB 10.6 or newer, or MySQL 8.0 or newer
  • Apache 2.4 with rewrite and headers, or nginx with equivalent rewrite rules
  • A way to set the web root to the APBoard public/ directory
bash 
php -v
php -m | grep -E 'mysqli|gd|mbstring|intl|zip'
mysql --version

6. Information you should write down

Keep these values in a password manager or another safe place. You will need them during installation.

  • The full forum URL, for example https://forum.example.com
  • The database name, database user and database password
  • The first admin email address and password
  • SMTP host, port, username, password and sender address if you want APBoard to send email
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