How to Setup GLPI with Nginx on Ubuntu Linux

This brief tutorial shows students and new users how to install GLPI IT Service Management (ITSM) software on Ubuntu 18.04 | 16.04 with the Nginx HTTP server.

Our previous tutorial showed you how to install GLPI on Ubuntu with an Apache2 web server. This one shows you how to use Nginx instead.

GLPI is a free, open-source ITSM platform built with PHP that allows IT decision makers with large IT infrastructures to solve problems efficiently when they emerge while getting insights into every IT asset in the company with automated inventory discovery.

GLPI comes with inventory management that automatically discovers computers, peripherals, and network printers, including asset lifecycle management, incidents, requests, problems and changes management, and many more.

If you’re looking for a simple ITSM for your company that’s free to use and easy to customize, you’ll find GLPI to be useful and easy to manage.

For more on GLPI, please visit its homepage

To get started with installing GLPI, follow the steps below:

Install Nginx HTTP

Nginx HTTP Server is the most popular web server in use. Install it since GLPI needs it.

To install Nginx HTTP on the Ubuntu server, run the commands below.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx

After installing Nginx, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable the Nginx service to always start up with the server boots.

sudo systemctl stop nginx.service
sudo systemctl start nginx.service
sudo systemctl enable nginx.service

To find out if the Nginx HTTP server is installed, simply open your web browser and type in the server’s IP or hostname.

When you see a page similar to the one below, then Nginx is installed and working.

http://localhost

Install MariaDB Database Server

GLPI also needs a database server to store its content. and MariaDB database server is a great place to start when looking at open-source database servers to use with GLPI.

To install MariaDB run the commands below.

sudo apt install mariadb-server mariadb-client

After installing MariaDB, the commands below can stop, start and enable the MariaDB service to start up when the server boots.

Run these on Ubuntu

sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service
sudo systemctl start mariadb.service
sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service

After that, run the commands below to secure the MariaDB server by creating a root password and disallowing remote root access.

sudo mysql_secure_installation

When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.

• Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter
• Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
• New password: Enter password
• Re-enter new password: Repeat password
• Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
• Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
• Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]:  Y
• Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]:  Y

Restart MariaDB server

To test if MariaDB is installed, type the commands below to logon into the MariaDB server

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then type the password you created above to sign on. if successful, you should see MariaDB welcome message

Install PHP 7.2-FPM and Related Modules

PHP 7.2-FPM may not be available in Ubuntu default repositories. to install it, you will have to get it from third-party repositories.

Run the commands below to add the below third party repository to upgrade to PHP 7.2-FPM

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.2

sudo apt update

Next, run the commands below to install PHP 7.2-FPM and related modules.

sudo apt install php7.2-fpm php7.2-common php7.2-gmp php7.2-curl php7.2-intl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-mysql php7.2-gd php7.2-imap php7.2-ldap php-cas php7.2-bcmath php7.2-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-zip php7.2-sqlite3

After installing PHP 7.2-FPM, run the commands below to open Nginx’s PHP default config file.

sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/fpm/php.ini

Then make the changes on the following lines below in the file and save. The value below is a great setting to apply in your environment.

file_uploads = On
allow_url_fopen = On
short_open_tag = On
memory_limit = 256M
cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0
upload_max_filesize = 100M
max_execution_time = 360
max_input_vars = 1500
date.timezone = America/Chicago

After making the change above, save the file and close it.

Create GLPI Database

Now that you’ve installed all the packages that are required, continue below to start configuring the servers. First, create a blank database for GLPI to use.

To do that, run the commands below to log on to MariaDB. When prompted for a password, type the root password you created above.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then create a database called glpi

CREATE DATABASE glpi;

Create a database user called glpiuser with a new password

CREATE USER 'glpiuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';

Next, grant the user full access to the glpiuser database.

GRANT ALL ON glpi.* TO 'glpiuser'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Finally, save your changes and exit.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Download GLPI Latest Release

To get the latest version of GLPI, go to its download page.

You can use the commands below to download the current latest version. At the time of this writing, the current version is at 9.4.5.

cd /tmp
wget https://github.com/glpi-project/glpi/releases/download/9.4.5/glpi-9.4.5.tgz
tar -xvf glpi-9.4.5.tgz
sudo mv glpi /var/www/glpi

Since you just ran the web server as root, you should make sure any newly created files are owned by the www-data user and group.

To do that, run the commands below:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/glpi/
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/glpi/

Configure Nginx

Finally, configure the Apahce2 site configuration file for GLPI. This file will control how users access GLPI content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called glpi

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/glpi

Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your domain name and directory root location.

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;

    server_name  example.com www.example.com;
    root   /var/www/glpi;
    index  index.php;
    
    access_log /var/log/nginx/example.com.access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/example.com.error.log;

    client_max_body_size 100M;
  
    autoindex off;

    location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ index.php;;
      }

    location ~ \.php$ {
         include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
         fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
         include fastcgi_params;
         fastcgi_intercept_errors on;
    }
}

Save the file and exit.

Enable the GLPI

After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/glpi /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name or hostname. This is often localhost but can be a hostname or IP address. Your server admin or hosting company will have this information available.

http://example.com/

Select the language and continue

After that, click Install to begin the installation.

Next, type in the server hostname, database user, and password.

Select the database you created earlier and continue

After a brief moment, the platform should be installed and ready to use.

Login and begin managing your platform.

Admin Username:  pi   Password:  glpi

Finally, run the commands below to delete the install directory.

sudo rm -rf /var/www/glpi/install/

Conclusion:

You have learned how to install the GLPI ITSM platform on Ubuntu with the Nginx HTTP server. If you find any errors above, please leave a comment below

Thanks,

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