Nova – Setup Guide

katelidewij

So, you’ve got your web space and you’re ready to set up Nova?  Great!  This guide will take you through the process of setting up.  Please be aware, the screenshots are specific to utopia-host.com, however, you should still have similar options if you used a different host.  Also, this guide assumes you have already downloaded Nova.  Alright, let’s get started!

The first thing you will want to do is sign into your cpanel.  To do this you will need to put your web site address with :2083 on the end.  For example:

  • Sb47.utopia-host.com:2083

Once you log in your screen will look like this:

Now, that is a lot of option, but, don’t be intimidated, we got this!  We’ll be focusing on just a few key options here.  When setting up Nova the first thing you need is a database, this is where all your logs and other information is stored.  You have several options here, however, we will be using the database wizard today:

We’re going to click that button.  Once you do, you’ll get a screen like this:

Before we continue make sure you have a pen and paper or open a notepad, you’ll need the information we create here later.  Ready?  Ok, here you’ll type the name of your database.  make sure you copy the entire name down here then hit the next step button.

Next up it is going to ask you to create a user to go with the database.  This can be anything you want, however, for simplicity sake I usually give the user the same name as the database.  Then enter a password and make sure you write all this down as well!  Hit create user.  The final step is giving the user access to the database.  Click on All then hit next and you’re done!  Well, with that part.

Now, click return home and you’ll be looking at our cpanel again.  Now, there are several ways to put your new Nova installation in place.  However, the one we’ll be using is the one that does not require additional software.  Now, look for File Manager and click it:

When you click that you’ll get this screen:

Once here click on public_html.  This’ where your site will be put.  If you put it in any other folder it will not work.  Now, at the top left click upload:

After you click that go ahead and bring up the folder you have the Nova zip downloaded in.  The nice thing about the Utopia cpanel is you can drag and drop here to upload.  So, lets drag the Nova zip over and just plop it in there.  This part will take a few minutes, wait for the progress bar to go green before you continue.

Fast forward a few minutes and now you’re saying that’s pretty and all, but, now what do I do with it?  I’m glad you asked!  Because if you hadn’t I might be worried you only looked at the pictures here: ).

Now, go ahead and click one time to highlight it then click extract in top right corner of the screen:

Give that just a minute or 2 to do its thing then hit close on the window that pops up.  Now you should see something like this:

From here you’re set to start your install, have fun! 

Just kidding, I wouldn’t leave you hanging like that.  Now, let’s go to your site, type in your website address and hit enter.  Now, you should be looking at this:

Remember that information I told you to write down, this’ where you’ll need it (again, I hope you didn’t just look at the pictures like I would have ;P).  Click next and let’s get this going.  Fill in your database name, the username and password you created.  Leave everything else as is.  Hit next twice then hit install center.  Now this screen should be staring at you:

We want to click fresh install here.  On the next screen click verify server.  Now, if you see a File Handling warning (for Utopia servers) go ahead and continue, I host my own sim on Utopia.  From here click next and just keep hitting next until you get here:

This is your Nova account and character creation screen.  Fill this in all in so you can get access to your site after install.  Next, you’ll see your system set up screen:

All you need to fill out here is your sim name.  The email prefix will fill in automagically.  Then hit next and hit go to your site and say abracadabra, you’re done!  And hopefully with minimal hair pulling.

This guide is written by Wolf