I made a couple of attempts at installing SugarCE-6.2.0beta3 only to see 500 Internal Server Error upon completion of the installation. The installation completes without an error, and the Sugar provides login screen. However, when I login and click on some of the links such as “Accounts” or “Contacts”, the application throws an 500 Error. This is very mind boggling, and time-consuming to diagnose unexpected error. At other times, we’ve also seen “blank” screen upon completed installation.

I had to follow the official installation guide multiple times in order to complete the installation successfully. I suggest anyone installing the SugarCRM to read the prerequisites and permission settings very carefully before attempting to begin installation. Sugar requires moderate runtime resources in order to run, so a modification to the php.ini is required.

You may also read our earlier article about upgrading the Sugar CRM.

Upgrading one version of SugarCRM to another version may seem easy as the software provides administrative wizard that will walk you through. However, if you do not follow instructions carefully or your system is configured with defaults, it may take hours to upgrade SugarCRM. If you’ve used SugarCRM for more than a year, it’s most likely that you’ll have to install multiple upgrades as there is no single upgrade from versions below 5.0 to the latest 5.2 version.

1. Before you begin upgrade, make a copy of the database and source codes. Create a new instance of SugarCRM, and begin your upgrade there so that if anything goes bad you can go back to your previous version. If you have to perform multiple upgrades, make a backup after each upgrade so that you don’t have to start from scratch.

2. Verify System requirements. The versions 5.1 and above require the latest PHP (5.2.x). If you do not meet necessary requirements, Sugar will throw blank screen at you during the upgrade process which will make you go back to starting point again. Of the most important, you’ll have to set following parameters in php.ini.

;Make the following number big, otherwise Sugar will throw blank screen.
max_execution_time = 14400
max_input_time = 14400
memory_limit = 128M
post_max_size = 128M
upload_max_filesize = 128M

Restart the app server. (i.e. service httpd restart)

3. Install optional RPMs. In order for Sugar to send emails, you’ll need a few php modules.

# yum install php-gd php-imap

4. Sugar does not offer manual upgrade, so you’ll have to use Wizard provided in the admin area of the Sugar CRM. To allow Sugar to upgrade the app, you’ll have to change permission of the files/folders so that Sugar can write or modify the files.

# find {sugar-root-folder} -type f -exec chmod 666 {} \;
# find {sugar-root-folder} -type d -exec chmod 777 {} \;
# chmod 777 {sugar-root-folder}

5. Download the necessary Sugar upgrade packages, and start the upgrade by logging into the SugarCRM as an administrator, and following Admin -> Upgrade Wizard. You may have to run Admin -> Repair -> Upgrade Sugar Studio in order to proceed with additional upgrades if you’re starting from a lower version of the Sugar CRM (i.e. 4.2.1 or below).

6. After desired Sugar upgrade, change permission of the files back to previously known settings.

# chmod 755 {sugar-root-folder}
# find {sugar-root-folder} -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;
# find {sugar-root-folder} -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

Now, you’ll have to allow the following folders write permission to Sugar.

data, custom, modules and sessions folder have to be 666 for files, and 777 for folders.

7. Test your Sugar installation and make sure it’s working correctly.

References

· Sugar CRM Community Edition Download (a complete revision history)