diff --git a/INSTALL.md b/INSTALL.md
index af59f74e6..7a09bb179 100644
--- a/INSTALL.md
+++ b/INSTALL.md
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ Qiita is pip installable, but depends on specific versions of python and non-pyt
 
 ## Install and setup miniconda
 
-Download the appropriate installer [here](http://conda.pydata.org/docs/install/quick.html) corresponding to your operating system and execute it.
+Download the appropriate installer [here](https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/) corresponding to your operating system and execute it.
 
 Next, ensure conda is up-to-date.
 
@@ -19,7 +19,8 @@ conda update conda
 Setup a virtual environment in conda named `qiita` by executing the following:
 
 ```bash
-conda create -q --yes -n qiita python=3.6 pip libgfortran numpy nginx
+conda config --add channels conda-forge
+conda create -q --yes -n qiita python=3.9 pip libgfortran numpy nginx cython redis
 ```
 
 ### Brief introduction to managing conda environments
@@ -40,7 +41,7 @@ $ which python
 (qiita)
 ```
 
-If you don't see this output, your `$PATH` variable was setup incorrectly or you haven't restarted your shell. Consult the [conda documentation](http://conda.pydata.org/docs/install/quick.html).
+If you don't see this output, your `$PATH` variable was setup incorrectly or you haven't restarted your shell. Consult the [conda documentation](https://docs.conda.io/projects/conda/en/latest/user-guide/install/index.html).
 
 As long as you are in the active qiita environment, commands such as `pip install` or `python` will refer to and be contained within this virtual environment.
 
@@ -54,7 +55,7 @@ source deactivate
 Install the non-python dependencies
 -----------------------------------
 
-* [PostgreSQL](http://www.postgresql.org/download/) (minimum required version 9.5.14, we have tested most extensively with 9.5.15)
+* [PostgreSQL](http://www.postgresql.org/download/) (currently using v13)
 * [redis-server](http://redis.io) (we have tested most extensively with 2.8.17)
 * [webdis] (https://github.com/nicolasff/webdis) (latest version should be fine but we have tested the most with 9ee6fe2 - Feb 6, 2016)
 
@@ -64,9 +65,43 @@ There are several options to install these dependencies depending on your needs:
 - Alternatively, you could install them via conda. However, the conda repository may not have the exact versions of these dependencies that you want.
 - You could setup a full development environment with [Vagrant](https://www.vagrantup.com/), and continue using conda under it to primarily manage python dependencies. Note that we don't cover Vagrant in these instructions.
 
+### PostgreSQL installation on Linux
+The following instructions have been adapted from [this site](https://computingforgeeks.com/how-to-install-postgresql-13-on-ubuntu/) and tested on Ubuntu v20.04.4 for Postgres v13.
+
+First, ensure that you have updated packages and reboot the system with:
+```bash
+sudo apt update && sudo apt -y full-upgrade
+[ -f /var/run/reboot-required ] && sudo reboot -f
+```
+You can reboot the system with `sudo reboot` in case any packages were updated.
+
+Next, we need to add the Postgres repository to our system:
+```bash
+sudo apt update
+sudo apt install curl gpg gnupg2 software-properties-common apt-transport-https lsb-release ca-certificates
+curl -fsSL https://www.postgresql.org/media/keys/ACCC4CF8.asc|sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/postgresql.gpg
+echo "deb http://apt.postgresql.org/pub/repos/apt/ `lsb_release -cs`-pgdg main" |sudo tee  /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pgdg.list
+```
+Adding the repository has added many different packages, which allows us to now install Postgres v13 with the following commands:
+```bash
+sudo apt update
+sudo apt install postgresql-13 postgresql-client-13
+```
+Now, we need to reconfigure the `pg_hba.conf` file and change all occurrences of `md5` and `peer` to `trust`. You can access the file with:
+```bash
+sudo vim /etc/postgresql/13/main/pg_hba.conf
+```
+To make sure all changes have been reflected, restart the Postgres server:
+```bash
+sudo service postgresql restart
+```
+Installing Postgres is now complete. Note that you will need to start the Postgres server every time you start the Qiita server. You can do this with the following command:
+```bash
+sudo service postgresql start
+```
 ### PostgreSQL installation on Mac OS X
 
-For Mac OS X, you can either install postgres through the [Postgres.app](https://postgresapp.com/downloads.html). These instructions were tested with the Postgres.app v9.5.
+For Mac OS X, it is strongly encourage to install Postgres through the [Postgres.app](https://postgresapp.com/downloads.html). We recommend using Postgres.app versions 9.5 or 13, as instructions were tested most extensively with these versions.
 
 You'll then need to ensure that the postgres binaries (for example, ``psql``) are in your executable search path (``$PATH`` environment variable). If you are using Postgres.app on OS X, you can do this by running the following, though you may have to replace`~/.bash_profile`with `~/.zshrc` if you're using zshell rather than the built-in bash, and you may have to change the version number `Versions/9.3/` to the exact one that you are installing:
 
@@ -75,14 +110,20 @@ echo 'export PATH="$PATH:/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/9.5/bin/"'
 source ~/.bash_profile
 ```
 
-### Redis-server installation on Mac OS X
+### Redis-server installation using Homebrew (Mac OS X, Linux)
 
-Assuming you have [homebrew](http://www.brew.sh) installed, you can install redis-server v2.8.x as follows:
+Assuming you have [homebrew](http://brew.sh) installed, you can install the latest version of the redis-server as follows:
 
 ```bash
 brew update
 brew install homebrew/versions/redis28
 ```
+### Redis-server installation using apt-get (Linux)
+
+Alternatively, you can sudo install redis:
+```bash
+sudo apt-get install redis-server
+```
 
 ### webdis
 
@@ -112,7 +153,7 @@ Install Qiita development version and its python dependencies
 Clone the git repository with the development version of Qiita into your current directory:
 
 ```bash
-git clone https://github.com/biocore/qiita.git
+git clone https://github.com/qiita-spots/qiita.git
 ```
 
 Navigate to the cloned directory and ensure your conda environment is active:
@@ -121,12 +162,17 @@ Navigate to the cloned directory and ensure your conda environment is active:
 cd qiita
 source activate qiita
 ```
-
+If you are using Ubuntu or a Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), you will need to ensure that you have a C++ compiler and that development libraries and include files for PostgreSQL are available. Type `cc` into your system to ensure that it doesn't result in `program not found`. The following commands will install a C++ compiler and  `libpq-dev`:
+```bash
+sudo apt install gcc              # alternatively, you can install clang instead
+sudo apt-get install libpq-dev
+```
 Install Qiita (this occurs through setuptools' `setup.py` file in the qiita directory):
 
 ```bash
 pip install . --no-binary redbiom
 ```
+Note that if you get any errors or warnings with 'certifi', you can add the `--ignore-installed` tag to the command above.
 
 At this point, Qiita will be installed and the system will start. However,
 you will need to install plugins in order to process any kind of data. For a list
@@ -135,7 +181,7 @@ github organization. Each of the plugins have their own installation instruction
 suggest looking at each individual .travis.yml file to see detailed installation
 instructions. Note that the most common plugins are:
 - [qtp-biom](https://github.com/qiita-spots/qtp-biom)
-- [qtp-target-gene](https://github.com/qiita-spots/qtp-target-gene)
+- [qtp-sequencing](https://github.com/qiita-spots/qtp-sequencing)
 - [qp-target-gene](https://github.com/qiita-spots/qp-target-gene)
 
 ## Configure Qiita
@@ -148,7 +194,7 @@ Move the Qiita sample configuration file to a different directory by executing:
  cp ./qiita_core/support_files/config_test.cfg ~/.qiita_config_test.cfg
 ```
 
-Note that you will need to change `BASE_URL = https://localhost:8383` to `BASE_URL = https://localhost:21174` if you are not using NGINX.
+Note that you will need to change `BASE_URL = https://localhost:8383` to `BASE_URL = https://localhost:21174` in the new copy of the configuration file if you are not using NGINX. Additionally, you will also need to change all URLs that start with `/home/runner/work/qiita/qiita/...` into wherever your qiita directory is (e.g. `/home/<username>/qiita/...`).
 
 
 Set your `QIITA_CONFIG_FP` environment variable to point to that file (into `.bashrc` if using bash; `.zshrc` if using zshell):
@@ -160,8 +206,10 @@ Set your `QIITA_CONFIG_FP` environment variable to point to that file (into `.ba
   source activate qiita
 ```
 
-Update paths in the newly copied configuration file to match your settings, e.g. replace /home/travis/ with your user home directory.
-
+If you are working on Mac OS X or WSL, you will need to start the redis server with the following command before making a test environment:
+```bash
+redis-server --daemonize yes --port 7777
+```
 Next, make a test environment:
 
 ```bash
@@ -174,7 +222,7 @@ Finally, redbiom relies on the REDBIOM_HOST environment variable to set the URL
 export REDBIOM_HOST=http://my_host.com:7379
 ```
 
-## Confirgure NGINX and supervisor
+## Configure NGINX and supervisor
 
 (NGINX)[https://www.nginx.com/] is not a requirement for Qiita development but it's highly recommended for deploys as this will allow us
 to have multiple workers. Note that we are already installing (NGINX)[https://www.nginx.com/] within the Qiita conda environment; also,
@@ -284,7 +332,11 @@ sudo apt-get install postgresql-contrib
 # or: sudo apt-get install postgresql-contrib-9.3 depending on your OS and apt repository versions
 ```
 
+### Apple Silicon Mac (M1/M2)
+
+#### `no such file or directory` or `fatal error: file not found`
 
+M1 and M2 macs have a new feature where homebrew is not installed to the path `usr/local/bin` like Intel Macs are, but to `opt/homebrew/bin`. This is because of reasons including security concerns with the old path, potential conflicts with installing to `/usr/local/bin`, and the fact that other package managers have been using `/opt/<manager_name>` for a while now. To fix this, ensure that homebrew libraries are being searched for in the `opt/homebrew/lib` path.
 
 ## General Troubleshooting
 
@@ -339,3 +391,77 @@ to troubleshoot your system in case any of the steps above fail.
 ### matplotlib
 
 In the event that you get `_tkinter.TclError: no display name and no $DISPLAY environment variable` error while trying to generate figures that rely on matplotlib, you should create a matplotlib rc file. This configuration file should have `backend : agg`. For more information you should visit the [matplotlib configuration](http://matplotlib.org/users/customizing.html) and [troubleshooting](http://matplotlib.org/faq/troubleshooting_faq.html#locating-matplotlib-config-dir) page.
+
+## Generating certs for individual Qiita installations
+
+Qiita comes with a set of certs used for continuous integration (CI) tests. These certs are located in qiita_core/support_files/ and are not the certs used in production Qiita; they are for development use ONLY. When installing Qiita for development purposes you may wish to generate a set of certs and keys for your own use.
+dd
+
+### Generate a new root CA private key and certificate:
+
+`openssl req -x509 -sha256 -days 356 -nodes -newkey rsa:2048 -subj "/CN=localhost/C=US/L=San Diego" -keyout ci_rootca.key -out ci_rootca.crt`
+
+### Generate a new server private key:
+
+`openssl genrsa -out ci_server.key 2048`
+
+### Copy the following to a new file named csr.conf and modify to suit your needs
+
+```
+[ req ]
+default_bits = 2048
+prompt = no
+default_md = sha256
+req_extensions = req_ext
+distinguished_name = dn
+
+[ dn ]
+C = US
+ST = California
+L = San Diego
+O = UCSD
+OU = Knight Lab
+CN = localhost
+
+[ req_ext ]
+subjectAltName = @alt_names
+
+[ alt_names ]
+DNS.1 = localhost
+IP.1 = 127.0.0.1
+```
+
+### Generate a certificate signing request
+
+`openssl req -new -key ci_server.key -out ci_server.csr -config csr.conf`
+
+### Copy the following to a new file named cert.conf and modify to suit your needs
+
+```
+authorityKeyIdentifier=keyid,issuer
+basicConstraints=CA:FALSE
+keyUsage = digitalSignature, nonRepudiation, keyEncipherment, dataEncipherment
+subjectAltName = @alt_names
+
+[alt_names]
+DNS.1 = localhost
+```
+
+### Generate a new signed server.crt to use with your server.key
+
+`openssl x509 -req -in ci_server.csr -CA ci_rootca.crt -CAkey ci_rootca.key -CAcreateserial -out ci_server.crt -days 365 -sha256 -extfile cert.conf`
+
+### (Optional) Updating certifi package used by requests and urllib3 packages
+The contents of server.crt can be appended to certifi package's CA cache after which the CA cert won't need to be passed to QiitaClient objects and the like.
+
+### Start python interactively and get location of cacert.pem
+
+```
+import certifi
+certifi.where()
+'/Users/qiita_user/miniconda3/lib/python3.9/site-packages/certifi/cacert.pem'
+```
+
+### Append ci_rootca.crt to cacert.pem
+
+`cat ci_rootca.crt >> '/Users/qiita_user/miniconda3/lib/python3.9/site-packages/certifi/cacert.pem'`