I recently installed Movable Type 4.21 on MediaTemple's Grid-Service. The following documents the steps in detail. It may be useful for others who want to install Movable Type on the Grid-Service. Comments, observations and criticisms are invited.
1. Print the Movable Type Pro 4.21 installation instructions.
The instructions are at http://www.movabletype.org/documentation/installation/
The key document is called Quick Start Instructions. You may also want to print the documents Before You Begin, Working with Your Blog and Troubleshooting Installation Problems. Because you are installing MT Pro on the MediaTemple Grid-Service, the two documents relating to Linux/Unix and Windows servers are irrelevant.
2. Download MT Pro 4.21 to your personal computer and extract the files.
The download is at http://www.movabletype.com/download/blogger-license.html
3. If your MediaTemple Grid Service has both a primary domain and one or more alternate domains, decide what domain you are going to install MT Pro on. I chose to install it on my primary domain.
4. Prepare the chosen domain for installation of MT Pro.
Your chosen domain has to have a specific subdirectory to receive certain of the MT Pro files that you downloaded. It is a subdirectory of yourchosendomain.com/cgi-bin and must be called mt.
To create this subdirectory, you can log in to your MediaTemple account, go to WebControl and then to File Manager. Because you have to be in WebControl anyways for the next step, this is probably the most convenient way. However, obviously you can also use your ftp client to create the subdirectory.
The next step is to create an MT Pro database. At your MediaTemple WebControl page, click on Manage Databases. Click on the tab Add a Database. As step 1, give the database a name. The name begins with dbxxxxxx_, where xxxxx is your site number. MT Pro doesn't care what the rest of the name is. I named mine dbxxxxx_movabletype. As step 2, select either MySQL or PostgreSQL. I selected MySQL. Then click on Next, which will create the database.
Still on the Manage Databases page, click on the tab Global Settings. From that page, write down three pieces of information about your database that you will need during the installation of MT Pro:
(a) your Internal Hostname (which is in the form internal-db.sxxxxx.gridserver.com, where xxxxx is your site number);
(b) your Database Username (which is in the form dbxxxxx, where xxxxx is your site number); and
( c ) your Database Password.
5. Upload the MT Pro files to the domain that you have chosen to host the application.
You can use either your ftp client to upload the files or WebControl > File Manager.
The folder mt-static goes in yourchosendomain.com/html.
The rest of the folders and files go in the subdirectory that you created at yourchosendomain.com/cgi-bin/mt.
6. Confirm that the 16 files in yourchosendomain.com/cgi-bin/mt that end in .cgi have the right permissions.
The permissions for each of these 16 files should show as -rwxr-xr-x.
In other words:
Owner Access: read, write, execute
Group Access: read, execute
Everyone Access: read, execute
When I uploaded the files, all the permissions were correct. If one of more of them is not for some reason, edit the permission. This can be done in WebControl > File Manager.
7. Run the Movable Type Installation Wizard
This is the final step. Go to the URL http://domainname/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi, where domainname is the domain, such as rumpelstitlskin.com, where you installed the MT Pro files.
The Installation Wizard has ten pages, followed by the login page to your MT Pro installation:
Page 1: Configure Static Web Path
On this page, you say what the URL is for the folder mt-static. This is the file that you put in yourchosendomain.com/html. The page has two fields:
Static Web Path: this field will be blank
Static File Path: this field should say /home/xxxxx/domains/yourchosendomain.com/html/mt-static/ (where xxxxx is your customer number)
In the blank Static Web Path field, type: /mt-static
Then click Continue
Page 2: Requirements Check
This page should say:
"All required Perl modules were found. You are ready to proceed with the installation of Movable Type."
The page will also say that certain optional Perl modules cannot be found. These have to do with SQLite. Don't worry about it.
Click Continue.
Page 3: Database Configuration
You will be asked what kind of database you are using, MySQL or PostgreSQL. Choose the one that you are using. As I mentioned above, I used MySQL.
When you identify which database you are using, three fields will pop up that you have to fill out. This is where you will need the information on your database that you wrote down:
(a) Database Server
This field will be filled in with the word "localhost", which the page says is normally correct. In the case of MediaTemple Grid-Service, it is wrong. Replace "localhost" with: internal-db.sxxxxx.gridserver.com, where xxxxx is your customer number;
(b) Username
Fill in this field with your MediaTemple database username, which is dbxxxxx, where xxxxx is your customer number; and
( c ) Password
Fill in this field with your database password.
Click on Test Connection.
Page 4: Database Configuration
This page will say: "Your database configuration is complete. You may proceed to the next step".
Click on Continue.
Page 5: Mail Configuration
This page says:
"Periodically Movable Type will send email to inform users of new comments as well as other events. For these emails to be sent properly, you must instruct Movable Type how to send email".
The choices are: SMTP Server or Sendmail.
If you decide to opt in, presumably your choice on this page is followed by further, related pages.
I get enough email and chose neither.
Either way, click Continue.
Page 6: Configuration File
This page says:
"Congratulations! You have successfully configured Movable Type Pro. Your configuration settings have been written to the following file:
/nfs/c02/h02/mnt/xxxxx/domains/yourchosendomain.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-config.cgi"
where xxxxx is your customer number and yourchosendomain.com is the domain to which you installed MT Pro.
This is a long way of saying that your configuration settings are in yourchosendomain.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-config.cgi. Even if you are not used to writing directly to configuration files, this file is worth reading, as is mt-config.cgi-original. It will say something like:
## Movable Type Configuration File
##
## This file defines system-wide
## settings for Movable Type. In
## total, there are over a hundred
## options, but only those
## critical for everyone are listed
## below.
##
## Information on all others can be
## found at:
## http://www.movabletype.org/documentation/config
#======== REQUIRED SETTINGS ==========
CGIPath /cgi-bin/mt/
StaticWebPath http://yourchosendomain.com/mt-static/
StaticFilePath /home/xxxxx/domains/yourchosendomain.com/html/mt-static
#======== DATABASE SETTINGS ==========
ObjectDriver DBI::mysql
Database dbxxxxx_thenameyouchoseforyourdatabase
DBUser dbxxxxx
DBPassword [your password]
DBHost internal-db.sxxxxx.gridserver.com
Page 7: Create Your Account
This page creates your account to administer your MT Pro installation. There are seven blank fields:
Username: enter the name that you want to use to log in to your MT Pro installation
Display Name: enter the name that you want to appear on the MT dashboard and on your blog
Email address: enter the email address that you want to use for your blog
Language: Choose Dutch, English, French, German, Japanese or Spanish
Password: make up a password for logging in to your MT Pro installation
Password confirm: re-enter the password
Password recovery word/phrase: choose a word or phrase that will help you remember your password if you forget it
Note that once MT Pro is installed, you can change any of the above from within the Movble Type Dashboard (control panel).
Click Continue.
Page 8: Create Your First Blog
This page says:
"To publish your blog, you must provide Movable Type with your blog's URL and the path on the file system where its files should be published".
The page contains three fields, each of them filled out by default:
Blog Name: My First Blog
Blog URL: http://yourchosendomain.com/my_first_blog/
Publishing Path: /home/xxxxx/domains/yourchosendomain.com/html/my_first_blog
The field "Publishing Path" is followed by the statement: "Your Publishing Path is the path on your web server file system where Movable Type will publish all the files for your blog".
The three fields are followed by two menus:
Template Set: Here, you choose to apply one of four templates to your blog - Classic Blog, Community Blog, Community Forum or Professional Website.
Timezone: Here, you choose the timezone that you want to use for your blog.
I suggest that you leave the default values for the three fields alone and that you not waste time worrying about what template set to select.
The creation of this blog will give you something to play around with. From inside the Movable Type dashboard, it can be modified to your heart's content, including choice of template set, and it can be deleted whenever you want. In the meantime, it gives you a canvas on which you can experiment with various dashboard controls.
When you are finished with this page of the Installation Wizard, click on Finish Install.
Page 9: Initializing Database
This page is shown while the database is being initialized, which will take less than a minute.
Page 10: Installation Complete!
This page will appear automatically when initialization of the database is complete.
Click on Sign In to Movable Type
Page 11: Sign In
Note that the URL for this page is: yourchosendomain.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi
This is the same URL that you used to enter the Installation Wizard. It is the URL that you will need whenever you want to log in to your MT Pro installation. Bookmark it.
Enter your Username and Password.
Click on Sign In.
....
The installation of Movable Type Pro is complete and you are now at the MT Pro Dashboard.
Cheers.