1C-Bitrix Installation and Initial Setup
After purchasing a 1C-Bitrix license from the developer, you don't have a ready-made website—you have a distribution that needs to be deployed correctly. Incorrect initial server configuration or core settings aren't discovered on installation day, but three months later—when the site starts slowing down or fails under peak load.
Server Requirements
The minimum stack for production: PHP 8.1+, MySQL 8.0 or PostgreSQL 13+ (Bitrix officially supports both), Nginx web server + PHP-FPM. Apache works but is slower—Nginx is better for static content and proxying.
Critical PHP settings before installation:
-
memory_limit— minimum 256M, for complex pages 512M -
max_execution_time— 90-120 seconds (1C import can take a long time) -
realpath_cache_size— 4096K (Bitrix has thousands of files; standard 16K fills quickly) -
opcache.memory_consumption— 256M,opcache.max_accelerated_files— 20000 -
upload_max_filesizeandpost_max_size— from 128M (file uploads via editor)
Installation Process
Bitrix is installed two ways: via bitrix-env (a ready-made Linux distribution with a pre-configured environment, recommended for VPS/dedicated servers) or by manually uploading the distribution to an already configured server.
bitrix-env is a Bitrix script that deploys Nginx, PHP-FPM, MySQL, memcached with optimal Bitrix settings. Takes 20-30 minutes, solves most performance questions out of the box.
After unpacking the distribution—the installation wizard via browser: environment check, database connection setup, edition selection (if not chosen at purchase), administrator creation.
Initial Setup After Installation
-
Main module (
/bitrix/admin/settings.php): timezone, encoding (UTF-8), mail settings for system notifications -
Caching: enable memcached or Redis in cache settings
/bitrix/admin/cache.php. Without caching, the site works but every request executes the same SQL queries -
Paths to temporary files: ensure
/bitrix/cache/,/bitrix/managed_cache/,/upload/are writable -
Agents: switch agent execution from web mode to cron (
/bitrix/admin/agents.php). In web mode, agents launch on page visits—unreliable - Updates: immediately after installation, run an update to the current version via "System Updates" in the admin panel
Timeline
Installation and initial setup on a prepared server—1-2 days. Including environment setup from scratch—3-5 days.