This walk-through aims to guide you through the process of Installing the world class, industry tested ticket system known as Request Tracker or RT. We start with a solid Ubuntu 20.04 base as the server combined with MariaDB for the Database and Apache2 as the web server.
You will need a base install of Ubuntu 20.04. Once complete ssh to your Ubuntu 20.04 server.
ssh to the Ubuntu server you have provisioned. Ubuntu 20.04 was used for this walk-through.
ssh username@your_servers_ip
Installing the some system base packages.
- Ensure the system is up to date.
sudo apt-get update
1.1 Install the some system base packages
sudo apt install build-essential apache2 libapache2-mod-fcgid libssl-dev libexpat1-dev libmysqlclient-dev libcrypt-ssleay-perl liblwp-protocol-https-perl mariadb-server mariadb-client
1.3 Installing some Perl modules
sudo /usr/bin/perl -MCPAN -e shell
1.3.1 When prompted with the below, input yes then q to quit.
Would you like to configure as much as possible automatically? [yes]
1.3.2 Installing the required Perl modules
sudo cpan install Parallel::Perforce
sudo cpan install HTML::FormatText
sudo cpan install HTML::TreeBuilder
sudo cpan install HTML::FormatText::WithLinks
sudo cpan install HTML::FormatText::WithLinks::AndTables
sudo cpan install DBD::mysql
sudo cpan install LWP::Protocol::https
General RT5 Installation
- Download and unpack the RT5 tar file to a temporary location.
wget https://download.bestpractical.com/pub/rt/release/rt-5.0.0.tar.gz
2.1 Extract / unpack the file to /tmp and run the ./configure script provided.
tar xzvf rt-5.0.0.tar.gz -C /tmp
cd /tmp/rt-5.0.0/
sudo ./configure
2.2 Ensure the required Perl and system libraries are installed with the command below.
sudo make testdeps
2.2.1 If the script reports any missing dependencies run the fixdeps command.
sudo make fixdeps
2.2.2 During our demo install we were promoted with the following three questions while running the fixdeps script. We opted to answer yes.
Once the fixdeps script is complete validate all dependencies are present by running the testdeps script to confirm. You should see the below.
2.3 Run the make install with appropriate permissions to install RT5
sudo make install
- Initialize the Database for RT5
sudo make initialize-database
3.1 If the initialization fails run make dropdb and then rerun make initialize-database. Once completed successfully you should see the following.
3.1.1 Change the default password for the RT database user. (We recommend for production systems to also change the user.)
sudo mysql -u root -p
ALTER USER ‘rt_user’@’localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘your_new_rt_pass’;
commit;
quit;
Although not covered in this guide, we recommend securing your MariaDB by running the below script.
sudo mysql_secure_installation
3.1.2 Update the RT_Config.pm config to reflect our password change we did for the RT database user rt_user.
sudo vi /opt/rt5/etc/RT_Config.pm
Edit the section as shown below:
Original Config – RT5 database user
Updated Config – RT5 database user
3.2 Confirm we have a working RT instance running with the standalone rt-server.
sudo /opt/rt5/sbin/rt-server –port 8080
3.2.1 Open your web browser and navigate to your servers ip or FQDN and port 8080. For our demo server it is http://135.181.98.216:8080/. You should see the login page.
NOTE: If this a demo system you can stop here. For production use we recommended configuring RT to use a production ready web server like Apache2.
Configure RT5 to work with the Apache2 web server
- Create a RT5 sites-available configuration file.
sudo vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/rt5.conf
4.1 Populate the file you just created with the information below. (link to conf file or image)
4.2 Edit the apache2.conf file and add the information below. (link to conf file or image)
sudo vi /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
4.2.1 Add the following
4.3 Enable the RT5 site
sudo a2ensite rt5
4.3.1 Disable the default site
sudo a2dissite 000-default
4.3.2 Check the config
sudo apachectl configtest
4.3.3 Restart Apache
sudo systemctl restart apache2
4.4 Open your web browser and navigate to your servers ip or FQDN. For our demo server it is http://135.181.98.216. You should see the login page.
4.4.1 You should see the login page.
NOTE: The default credentials for RT5 are:
User: root | Password: password
Your first step once logged in is to change the root password! It is a SECURITY risk!
This guide does not cover server / application hardening and security as it is a broad topic and not the aim of this guide. You should always harden your servers.
Some useful links:
Secure your MariaDB installation – https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mysql_secure_installation/
Apache2 Security Tips – https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/misc/security_tips.html
Ubuntu Security and Server hardening – https://ubuntu.com/security
This guide stops here.
There still is allot to do like configuring an RT email gateway, task scheduler, full text search and general system security etc. That’s potentially for a future guide should there be demand.