PHP and database
Use PHP 8.2 or newer; the current installation guide recommends PHP 8.4 where available. Required extensions are PDO MySQL, OpenSSL, mbstring, fileinfo, JSON, session, ZIP, DOM, GD, cURL, Sodium and POSIX. Run the same PHP version for web requests and cron.
Create a new empty, dedicated MySQL 8.0+ or MariaDB 10.6+ database using InnoDB and utf8mb4. Give a dedicated database user the create, read/write, index and alter permissions required on that database only. Do not import the schema before running setup.
Domain and private files
Extract the release's enclosing pcmo/ folder into a new parent directory. Point your HTTPS domain at the pcmo/ application directory and install at the origin root, not a URL subdirectory. Apache needs the bundled .htaccess files and rewrite support. Nginx requires equivalent routing and denial rules.
Direct requests for app/, config/, storage/, plugins/, licensing/, database/, bin/, tests/, docs/ and vendor/ must return 403/404. PHP must write private config/ and storage/; executable files in a signed release must remain unchanged. Do not use world-writable permissions.
Licensing prerequisites
Use a correct server clock and verified outbound HTTPS to https://license.emailaorbit.com/api/licensing/v1. First licensed installation also requires the SDK preparation kit, PHP 8.2+ CLI with cURL, JSON, POSIX and sodium, and a new absolute private directory outside the application and every web root. Run preparation and the product as the same PHP Unix user. Arrange terminal access or host assistance, and configure the resulting ORBIT_LICENSE_CONFIG path for both web PHP and scheduled commands.
The installer checks requirements. An optional preflight is php bin/install.php --check from the PCMO directory as the PHP user. Passing preflight is the start of host acceptance; verify the configured mail and other integrations separately.