Installation help / walkthrough

kdtop

Hello all,

Newcomer here. I need help install osticket. I have a fair amount of computer experience in a specific area, but very very little experience with web technologies or PHP or MySQL. I looked through 7-8 pages of prior threads and looked through any posts that seemed helpful, but didn't find what I needed.

NOTE: As I created this post, I was actually able to figure many of the problems out myself (so far). I am going to post this anyway in case it might help others in the future. So it looks like I am not asking for help after all. But if anyone wants to comment on easier ways to do what I have done, feel free.

My information:

local server (not hosted)

OS: Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS

Attempting to install osTicket 1.6.0

Webserver: Apache2

I download PHP according to instructions here:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/ubuntu/installing-php5-and-apache-on-ubuntu(http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/ubuntu/installing-php5-and-apache-on-ubuntu)

I downloaded MySQL according to instructions here:

https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/serverguide/mysql.html(https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/serverguide/mysql.html)

I then started through the installation guide, found here:

http://osticket.com/wiki/Installation(http://osticket.com/wiki/Installation)

I'm going to include the guide here, an insert my comments

Installation Process

osTicket comes with its own web-based installer to help guide you through the installation process without the frustration. While the installer provides step by step guide during the installation process, it's important and helpful to have general knowledge about Web servers, PHP and MySQL.

I may be in trouble without having the required general knowledge. I hope I can get this going anyway.

Prerequisites

To install osTicket, your web server must have PHP 4.3 (or better) and MySQL 4.1 (or better) installed. If you are unsure whether your server meets these requirements, please check with your host or webmaster before proceeding with the installation.

I think I have installed PHP 5, and since I just installed MySQL via apt-get, I assume I have the latest version.

I have checked that my Apache2 is running by browsing to localhost. I get back a test page that says "It Works!"

You will need one MySQL database with valid user, password and hostname handy during installation. MySQL user must have FULL privileges on the database. If you are unsure whether you have these details or if the user has sufficient permissions, please consult your host or database admin before proceeding.

I have MySQL running (verified by sudo netstat -tap | grep mysql), and I have full privileges, but I don't think that there has been a database defined inside MySQL. If I am supposed to create one on my own, I am confused about this. Wouldn't osticket use it's own database content/definition?

osTicket requires that the PHP directive short_open_tag be on. Depending on your server permission level - the directive can be set on in the file php.ini, .htaccess or httpd.conf.

I have looked in /etc/apache2/httpd.conf and found my file to be empty

I had to search the hard drive to find the php.ini file. It is in /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini. Reading through the file shows that my short_open_tag was already ON.

Getting Started

At this point you should have downloaded latest osTicket. Uncompress the files and upload files and directories in upload directory to a directory of your choice on your server. For example /osticket/, /helpdesk/ or /support/ depending on your preference. Basic knowledge of using FTP is a plus at this stage. If you don't know how to use FTP, we would recommend you read the documentation supplied with your FTP client and learn the basics of uploading and setting permissions on files.

I downloaded the archive osticket_1.6.0.tar.gz, extracted it to my linux desktop, and moved all the files in the directory into a new directory at /opt/osticket/ I set fully lax permissions (this will only be used locally on a secure server not exposed to the internet), so everyone can read and write the files.

osTicket installer needs to be able to write and modify ost-config.php found in the include directory. Please follow the instructions given by the installer.

Here I am starting to get lost. I have the permissions of ost-config.php such that they are modifiable, but what is this installer that is mentioned? Haven't ready anything about an installer yet. Is this to come below? I assume so.

Using installation script

Once all of the above steps are complete, you can complete the installation and basic setup in a web browser. You can invoke the installer by simply browsing the osTicket URL e.g http://www.yourdomain.com/support(http://www.yourdomain.com/support). Alternatively you can enter the URL to it into your browser address bar e.g http://www.yourdomain.com/support/setup(http://www.yourdomain.com/support/setup)

Here I am completely lost. I assume that I am supposed to browse to the files in the support folder, and that this will launch a configuration web-based utility. Buy how will my apache2 server know how to find these files? I looked in the setup folder, and see index.php. I know that index files are usually the root of a web site, so I try opening the file with my firefox browser, but all it wants to do is offer to safe the file for me.

I did some research and found that my apache2 is serving pages out of /var/www/ So I moved the entire set of files from /opt/osticket/ to /var/www/ I then again try to browse to http://localhost(http://localhost). Oops, still getting the "It Works" sample file. So I renamed the sample index.html to index.html.safe and refreshed. Hurray! I get something.

I get redirected from http://localhost(http://localhost) to localhost/setup. There I am given instructions to create a ost-config.php file from the sample one. I then realized that /var/www is owned by root. I had used sudo cp to copy the files in. But now I think that ost-config.php will need to be writeable by other processes. So I changed the permissions.

Alright! Now we seem to be working.

So I am shown the page for Basic Installation. I enter in username etc.

But now it wants the MySQL database information, including username and password. So to the web to figure how to do this....

So I reviewed this site:

http://www.ntchosting.com/mysql/create-database.html(http://www.ntchosting.com/mysql/create-database.html)

I discusses that managing MySQL is often easier using phpmyadmin.

I read about this here, following the instructions to get it going:

http://www.ntchosting.com/mysql/phpmyadmin.html(http://www.ntchosting.com/mysql/phpmyadmin.html)

I installed with this:

sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin

During the install process, it asks me if I want it to automatically create a database with a built in utility (I think dbconfig-common)

I won't duplicate the steps here from the above page. But I followed them, and I got it working

I then browsed to localhost/phpmyadmin, logged in with user name root, and the password I had specified, and I am in!

From here I clicked on Databases, and then "create new database." I called my database "my_osticket" and had the format to be the default "collation"

And now I seem to be installed. I get a "congratulations osticket basic installation completed!"

Thanks for listening.

Kevin

ntozier

I think I have installed PHP 5, and since I just installed MySQL via apt-get, I assume I have the latest version.

You can check the version of PHP you have installed a number of ways. via commandline the easiest way is probably:

dpkg --get-selections | grep php

If you see php5-* you have php 5. Alternatively you can run this:

php --version

If you don't like command line create a file called test.php and put the following code in it:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Then put it in your web dir and browse to it.

Yes you need to create an empty database. Yes you need to create a user that has access to it. Then when you run setup give that database name, username, and password to the setup script and it will setup the db for you. I generally prefer to utilize commandline as much as possible... but your solution of downloading phpmyadmin is probably just as good if not better for someone who wants a GUI.

It is in /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini. Reading through the file shows that my short_open_tag was already ON.

Then you don't have to turn it on, since it's already on. This requirement is going away with the 1.7 release.

This assumes that you have already setup Apache to utilize the directory that you want. By default I believe that the Ubuntu web directory out of the box is /var/www. The easiest way for you to do this is to simply put the support folder in /var/www. If you are planning on moving this else where or have a domain name you should look into virtual hosting apache setup. It is sort of beyond the scope of osTicket forums to tell you how to setup Apache. There are a number of good tutorials on the net though.

Thanks for posting your experience. I'm sure that someone else will benefit from your experiences.

kdtop

Thanks

Ntozier,

Thanks for taking time to go through my post. We are up and running now, and very pleased with the quality of the software.

Thanks!

Kevin T