This brief tutorial shows students and new users how to install and configure the osTicket customer support platform on Ubuntu 18.04 | 16.04 with Nginx HTTP servers.
Setting up osTicket with Nginx on Ubuntu Linux can benefit those who prefer Nginx as their web server instead of Apache2. Nginx is known for its high performance, stability, and low resource usage, making it an excellent choice for running osTicket.
Additionally, Nginx is a popular web server used by many websites, so if you’re already familiar with it, setting up osTicket with Nginx should be a breeze.
For more about osTicket, please check its homepage.
To get started with installing osTicket, follow the steps below:
Install Nginx HTTP Server
osTicket requires a web server, and the Nginx HTTP server is the most popular open-source web server available today.
To install the Nginx 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
Now that Nginx has been installed, browse your browser to the URL below to test whether the web server works.
http://localhost
If you look at the page above, then Nginx has been successfully installed.
Install MariaDB Database Server
osTicket also requires a database server to store its content. MariaDB is a great place to start if you’re looking for a truly open-source database server.
To install MariaDB, run the commands below:
sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client
After installing MariaDB, the commands below can stop, start, and enable the service to start when the server boots.
Run these on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
sudo systemctl stop mysql.service sudo systemctl start mysql.service sudo systemctl enable mysql.service
Run these on Ubuntu 18.10 and 18.04 LTS
sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service sudo systemctl start mariadb.service sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service
Next, run the commands below to secure the database server with a root password if you were not prompted to do so during the installation.
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
Once MariaDB is installed, run the commands below to test whether the database server was installed.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Type the root password when prompted.
The server was successfully installed if you see a similar screen.
Install PHP 7.2-FPM and Related Modules
osTicket is a PHP-based platform. And PHP 7.2 may not be available in Ubuntu’s default repositories. To run PHP 7.2-FPM on Ubuntu 14.04, you may need to run the commands below:
sudo apt-get install software-properties-common sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.2-FPM
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-mysql php7.2-gmp php7.2-curl php7.2-intl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-apcu php7.2-gd php7.2-bcmath php7.2-soap php7.2-ldap php7.2-imap php7.2-xml php7.2-cli php7.2-zip
After installing PHP 7.1, run the commands below to open Nginx’s PHP default configuration file.
sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/fpm/php.ini
The lines below are a good setting for most PHP-based CMS. Update the configuration file with these and save.
file_uploads = On allow_url_fopen = On short_open_tag = On cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0 memory_limit = 256M upload_max_filesize = 100M max_execution_time = 360 date.timezone = America/Chicago
Restarting the Nginx web server whenever you change the PHP configuration file would be best. To do so, run the commands below:
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service
Create osTicket Database
Now that you’ve installed all the packages required for osTicket to function, continue below to start configuring the servers. First, run the commands below to create a blank osTicket database.
To log on to the MariaDB database server, run the commands below.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then, create a database called osticket
CREATE DATABASE osticket;
Create a database user called osticketuser with a new password
CREATE USER 'osticketuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';
Then, grant the user full access to the Database.
GRANT ALL ON osticket.* TO 'osticketuser'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Finally, save your changes and exit.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;
Download osTicket Latest Release
osTicket community edition can be downloaded from its download page here.
To get osTicket latest release, you may use the GitHub repository… Install the git tool to download Bagisto packages.
sudo apt install git curl curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | sudo php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer
After installing curl above, change into the Nginx root directory and download osTicket packages from GitHub…
cd /var/www/ sudo git clone https://github.com/osTicket/osTicket osticket cd /var/www/osticket sudo php manage.php deploy --setup /var/www/osticket/
Rename the sample file include/ost-sampleconfig.php to ost-config.php by running the commands below:
sudo mv /var/www/osticket/include/ost-sampleconfig.php /var/www/osticket/include/ost-config.php
Next, run the commands below to update osticket root directory permissions so the web server can access them.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/osticket/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/osticket/
Configure Nginx
Finally, configure the Apahce2 site configuration file for osTicket. This file will control how users access osTicket content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called osticket
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/osticket
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/osticket;
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;
if ($request_uri ~ "^/api(/[^\?]+)") {
set $path_info $1;
}
location ~ ^/api/(?:tickets|tasks).*$ {
try_files $uri $uri/ /api/http.php?$query_string;
}
if ($request_uri ~ "^/scp/.*\.php(/[^\?]+)") {
set $path_info $1;
}
location ~ ^/scp/ajax.php/.*$ {
try_files $uri $uri/ /scp/ajax.php?$query_string;
}
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 osTicket and Rewrite Module.
After configuring the VirtualHost above, please enable it by running the commands below.
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/osticket /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ sudo systemctl restart nginx.service
Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. You should see the osTicket setup wizard complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.
http://example.com/
Then, follow the on-screen instructions to complete the setup.
Before you begin, the installer will check your server configuration to ensure you meet the minimum requirements to run the latest osTicket version.
Next, type in the database name, username, and password. Then, create a backend admin account and continue.
Your osTicket installation has been completed successfully. Your next step is to configure your new support ticket system for use entirely, but please take a minute to clean up before you get to it.
Conclusion:
You have successfully learned how to install the osTicket platform on Ubuntu. You may need to configure additional settings, but the steps above give you a basic starting point.
If you find errors with the steps above, please comment below:
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