OTRS (Open-source Ticket Request System) – is a ticketing system which provides organized and centralized way to manage end user support requests, complaints, inquiries and other types of communications. In other words it provides end users with a single place to report issues and IT help desk with single place to respond to issues. Which provides more systematic approach to resolving reported issues, proactive prevention, time management, statistical analysis and other useful benefits.
Installation steps
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Download install files “otrs-4.0.10.tar.gz”.
root@otrs:/# cd /opt root@otrs:/opt# wget http://ftp.otrs.org/pub/otrs/otrs-4.0.10.tar.gz
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Extract “otrs-4.0.10.tar.gz” to “/opt” directory.
root@otrs:/opt# tar -xzvf otrs-4.0.10.tar.gz
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Rename “otrs-4.0.10″ directory to “otrs”.
root@otrs:/opt# mv otrs-4.0.10 otrs
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Install MySQL server.
root@otrs:/# apt-get install mysql-server
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Install Apache Web server.
root@otrs:/# apt-get install apache2
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Install Perl modules.
root@otrs:/# apt-get install libapache2-mod-perl2 libcrypt-eksblowfish-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libencode-hanextra-perl libgd-text-perl libgd-graph-perl libjson-xs-perl libmail-imapclient-perl libnet-dns-perl libnet-ldap-perl libpdf-api2-perl libtext-csv-xs-perl libyaml-perl libxml-parser-perl libarchive-zip-perl libtemplate-perl libtemplate-perl
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Update source list.
root@otrs:/# apt-get update
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Upgrade all installed packages.
root@otrs:/# apt-get upgrade
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Check and make sure that all required Perl modules are installed.
root@otrs:/# perl /opt/otrs/bin/otrs.CheckModules.pl
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Create new user for running OTRS, because OTRS should not be run with root user rights.
root@otrs:/# useradd -r -d /opt/otrs/ -c 'My_OTRS_user_description' otrs root@otrs:/# passwd otrs
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Add created OTRS user in step above to Web server group.
root@otrs:/# usermod -G www-data otrs
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Activate OTRS config files by copying them without .dist filename extension.
root@otrs:/# cd /opt/otrs/Kernel root@otrs:/opt/otrs/Kernel# cp Config.pm.dist Config.pm root@otrs:/opt/otrs/Kernel# cp Config/GenericAgent.pm.dist Config/GenericAgent.pm
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Run syntax check to see if your Perl is properly set up. After every command you should see message “syntax OK”.
root@otrs:/opt# perl -cw /opt/otrs/bin/cgi-bin/index.pl root@otrs:/opt# perl -cw /opt/otrs/bin/cgi-bin/customer.pl root@otrs:/opt# perl -cw /opt/otrs/bin/otrs.PostMaster.pl
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Set Web server user permissions for OTRS user.
root@otrs:/opt# cd /opt/otrs root@otrs:/opt/otrs# bin/otrs.SetPermissions.pl --otrs-user=otrs --web-user=www-data --otrs-group=otrs --web-group=www-data /opt/otrs
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Set up working Apache configuration by copying OTRS conf file “apache2-httpd.include.conf” to “etc/apache2/sites-available/” directory.
root@otrs:/opt# cp -va /opt/otrs/scripts/apache2-httpd.include.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/otrs.conf root@otrs:/opt# cd /etc/apache2/sites-available/ root@otrs:/etc/apache2/sites-available# chown root:root otrs.conf root@otrs:/etc/apache2/sites-available# a2ensite otrs.conf root@otrs:/etc/apache2/sites-available# service apache2 reload
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For installing additional packages, like for example ITSM bundle it is required to set MySQL database to accept packages larger than 16 MB which is set by default.
OTRS message: „Please make sure your database accepts packages over 20 MB in size (it currently only accepts packages up to 16 MB). Please adapt the max_allowed_packet setting of your database in order to avoid errors.“
mysql -u root -p Password -e "SET GLOBAL innodb_fast_shutdown = 1" service mysql stop rm -f /var/lib/mysql/ib_logfile* service mysql start
root@otrs:/# vi /etc/mysql/my.cnf
Change following line from:
max_allowed_packet = 16M
to
max_allowed_packet = 50M
Add the following line
innodb_log_file_size = 512M
root@otrs:/# /etc/init.d/mysql restart
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Copy Cron jobs scripts without suffix “.dist”.
root@otrs:/# cd /opt/otrs/var/cron root@otrs:/opt/otrs/var/cron# for foo in *.dist; do cp $foo `basename $foo .dist`; done
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Configure Cron Jobs with “Cron.sh” script.
Note: do not run Cron.sh script as root user, run it as OTRS user.
root@otrs:/# /opt/otrs/bin/Cron.sh start otrs root@otrs:/# crontab -l -u otrs root@otrs:/# su otrs $ bash otrs@otrs:/$ cd /opt/otrs/bin otrs@otrs:/opt/otrs/bin$ ./otrs.Scheduler.pl -w 1
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Change how often will PostMaster fetch email (by default it is set to fetch emails very 10 minutes).
root@otrs:/# su otrs $ bash otrs@otrs:/$ crontab -e
Change following line from:
# fetch emails every 10 minutes */10 * * * * $HOME/bin/otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl >> /dev/null
to
# fetch emails every 2 minutes */2 * * * * $HOME/bin/otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl >> /dev/null
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Run OTRS web based installer… http://serveripaddress/otrs/installer.pl
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Improve Web server GUI speed activate mod-headers.
root@otrs:/# a2enmod headers root@otrs:/# service apache2 reload
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Restart your Ubuntu server, and start using OTRS system via following links:
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Agent Web interface… http://serveripaddress/otrs/index.pl
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Customer web interface… http://serveripaddress/otrs/customer.pl
