Manual Installation of SMF

Now you should create a database for your SMF forum. The database will be used by your SMF installation for storing all comments, polls and results, and almost everything else that SMF needs to remember.

To create a database, you should log into your cPanel and click on MySQL Databases. Look for the "Create Database" button. Pick a simple name for the database (e.g. 'smf'), fill it in and click on the "Create Database" button.

Now that you have created the database, you also need to make sure that SMF will be able to access it. You need to create a MySQL user that has privileges for accessing the database.

Again, go to cPanel -> MySQL Databases and find the "Create User" button. Right above it, fill in a username and password for the MySQL user and click on the "Create User" button. It is a good idea to keep the username the same as the name of the database.

At this point, the only thing left to do regarding the database setup is to grant privileges to the user for the database. On the cPanel -> MySQL Databases page, find the two drop-down menus for users and databases, select your SMF database and the user you have created and click "Add". On the next page check the box next to ALL PRIVILEGES and click on "Make Changes".

We're now ready to proceed with the SMF installation.