How To Set Up a Help Workdesk System with OTRS on Ubuntu 18.04

Introduction

OTRS, also known as Open resource Ticket Demand System, is an assistance workdesk and IT solution administration system. It offers a single factor of get in touch with for customers, clients, IT workers, IT services, and any type of external companies. The program is written in Perl, supports a selection of data sources (MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc.), and can integrate with LDAP directory sites.

In this tutorial, you will certainly set up OTRS Neighborhood Version on an Ubuntu 18.04 server and also established a straightforward help workdesk system, which will certainly permit you to get and also refine demands from your clients using both the internet interface and also e-mail.

Prerequisites

To finish this tutorial, you will require the following:

• An Ubuntu 18.04 server established by following our First Web Server Arrangement Overview for Ubuntu 18.04, including a non-root customer with sudo privileges as well as a firewall program set up with ufw.

• Apache and also MySQL installed on your Ubuntu web server. Comply with step 1 as well as 2 of this overview to configure these.

• A completely registered domain name. This tutorial will certainly use example.com throughout. You can acquire a domain name on Namecheap, obtain one for free on Freenom, or make use of the domain registrar of your selection.

• Both of the following DNS records set up for your web server. You can follow this introduction to DigitalOcean DNS for details on how to add them.Read here helpdeskz At our site

  • An A document with example.com indicating your web server’ s public IP
  • address. An A record with www.example.com pointing to your server’ s public IP

• address. A TLS/SSL certification installed on your Ubuntu 18.04 web server for your domain. You can adhere to the Let’ s Secure on Ubuntu 18.04 guide to get a cost-free TLS/SSL certification.

• Postfix mail transfer agent set up by following our tutorial Exactly how To Mount and also Set Up Postfix on Ubuntu 18.04.

• ( Optional) A dedicated Gmail account with IMAP access made it possible for, 2-step confirmation, and also an App password generated with the Other (Personalized name) choice. When you generate the App password, write it down so that you can utilize it in Step 5. You will certainly use Gmail to configure incoming mail ticket creation in OTRS, with Gmail as your IMAPS mail box. This is simply one approach of setting up incoming mail for OTRS; if you would like to discover various other choices, look into the OTRS paperwork.

Caution: Do not utilize any of your very own active Gmail accounts to configure inbound mail for OTRS. When imap.gmail.com forwards emails to OTRS, all emails in the Gmail account are deleted. Due to this, it is a better alternative to produce a new Gmail account to utilize particularly for OTRS.

Step 1 —– Mounting the OTRS Package and Perl Modules

In this step, you will certainly set up OTRS and a collection of Perl modules that will certainly raise the system’ s capability

. OTRS is offered in Ubuntu’ s plan supervisor, however the official documents suggests mounting OTRS from resource.

To do this, first log into your Ubuntu server as your non-root individual:

• ssh sammy@Ubuntu_Server_IP!.?.! Copy After that download the source archive with the wget command. For this tutorial, you will download and install version 6.0.19; you can locate the most up to date available version on the OTRS download web page. wget http://ftp.otrs.org/pub/otrs/otrs-6.0.19.tar.gz Duplicate Next off , unbox the compressed
  • file with tar: tar xzf otrs-6.0.19. tar.gz

  Replicate

  Move the contents of the archive into the/ opt/otrs

• directory site: sudo mv otrs-6.0.19/ opt/otrs Duplicate

  Because OTRS is written in Perl, it uses a number of Perl components. Examine

  • for missing components by using the CheckModules.pl manuscript

    included with OTRS: sudo/ opt/otrs/bin/ otrs.CheckModules.pl Replicate You ll see result similar to this, listing which modules you already have downloaded and which you are missing out on:

    • Some modules are just needed for optional capability,
      

      such

      as communication with other data sources or managing mail with specific personality sets; others are essential for the program to function

      . Although the suggested commands to download these modules make use of apt-get, this tutorial will certainly install the missing modules with the proper command, which is the recommended best method for Ubuntu 18.04.

      Do not hesitate to go through these components by hand, or use the adhering to command:$ sudo apt set up libapache2-mod-perl2 libdbd-mysql-perl libtimedate-perl libnet-dns-perl libnet-ldap-perl \ libio-socket-ssl-perl libpdf-api2-perl libsoap-lite-perl libtext-csv-xs-perl \ libjson-xs-perl libapache-dbi-perl libxml-libxml-perl libxml-libxslt-perl libyaml-perl \ libarchive-zip-perl libcrypt-eksblowfish-perl libencode-hanextra-perl libmail-imapclient-perl \ libtemplate-perl libdatetime-perl Whenever you re done mounting these modules, rerun the script to see to it that all the called for modules have
      been mounted: sudo/ opt/otrs/bin/ otrs.CheckModules.pl Replicate Your outcome will now show all the mounted modules: Outcome … o Text:: CSV_XS … … …… ok

      ( v1.34) o Time:: HiRes … … …… ok (v1.9741) o XML:: LibXML … … …… ok (v2.0128) o XML:: LibXSLT … … …… ok (v1.95) o XML:

      • : Parser … … …… ok

      ( v2.44) o YAML:: XS … … … … … ok (v0.69) Now that you have

      OTRS and its

      dependences installed on your web server, you can set up OTRS to utilize Apache as well as MySQL. Action 2– Configuring OTRS, Apache, and MySQL server In this action, you will certainly create a system individual for OTRS, and after that set up Apache and also MySQL web server to collaborate with OTRS. Create a customer called otrs to run OTRS functions with the useradd command: sudo useradd

      – d/ opt/otrs -c ‘ OTRS user ‘ otrs Replicate- d establishes the customer s home directory site as/ opt/otrs, as well as -c sets

      the ‘ OTRS user ‘ comment to define the customer. Next, add otrs to the

      webserver group: sudo usermod- G www-data otrs Replicate OTRS includes a default config data/ opt/otrs/Kernel/ Config.pm.dist. Trigger this by duplicating it without the. dist filename extension: sudo cp/ opt/otrs/Kernel/ Config.pm.dist/ opt/otrs/Kernel/ Config.pm Copy Now, navigate

    to the/ opt/otrs directory: cd/ opt/otrs Copy From here, run the otrs.SetPermissions.pl manuscript. It will detect the 'appropriate customer and also team settings and established the data and also directory authorizations for OTRS. sudo bin/otrs. SetPermissions.pl Replicate This

  • will yield the following outcome:

  Outcome Establishing approvals on/ opt/otrs The correct consents are now set. Next off, turn on the apache2 configuration file as well as ensure it is loaded besides other arrangements. To

• do this, make a symbolic link with the zzz _ prefix: sudo ln- s/ opt/otrs/scripts/ apache2-httpd. include.conf/ etc/apache2/sites-enabled/ zzz_otrs. conf Replicate OTRS requires
• a couple of Apache components

to be

active for optimum procedure. You can trigger them using the tool a2enmod. Although some of these have actually already been allowed, it is a great suggestion to inspect them all: sudo a2enmod

• perl sudo a2enmod headers sudo a2enmod decrease sudo a2enmod filter Duplicate These components enable Apache to work with Perl,

  control HTTP

  headers, compress web server output, and also set up outcome content filters.

  Restart your web server to apply brand-new configurations: sudo systemctl reactivate apache2 Duplicate Before you most likely to the following action and run the web installer, change some of the MySQL arrangement settings.

• Open up the MySQL setup data in your recommended text editor. This tutorial uses nano: sudo nano/ etc/mysql/mysql.

  conf.d/ mysqld.cnf Duplicate Seek the adhering to choices under the [mysqld] section. For max_allowed_packet and query_cache_size, transform the values to 64M and also 32M specifically, as highlighted in the adhering to code block:/ etc/mysql/mysql. conf.d/

• mysqld.cnf … max_allowed_packet= 64M thread_stack= 192K thread_cache_size= 8 # This changes

the start-up

manuscript and also checks MyISAM tables if required # the initial time they are touched myisam-recover-options= BACK-UP #max _ connections= 100 #table _ open_cache =64 #thread _ concurrency= 10 # # * Question Cache Setup # query_cache_limit= 1M

• query_cache_size= 32M … Copy This readjusts the

  maximum allowed packet dimension and the query cache dimension to ensure that MySQL can user interface with OTRS. Then include the complying with highlighted extra alternatives under the [mysqld] section, at the end of the data:/ etc/mysql/mysql. conf.d

  • / mysqld.cnf … # ssl-cert=/ etc/mysql/server-cert.

    pem. # ssl-key =/ etc/mysql/server-ikey. pem. innodb_log_file_size= 256M. collation-server= utf8_unicode_ci. init-connect = ‘ SET NAMES utf8 ‘. character-set-server= utf8 Duplicate This sets the database logfile dimension, determines the personality collection and also relation

    , as well as develops an init_connect string to establish the

    character set upon starting the MySQL web server.
    
    Conserve as well as close mysqld.cnf by pressing CTRL+ X, followed by Y and afterwards GET IN. Then, reactivate your MySQL
    
    web server to apply the new parameters:
    
    sudo systemctl reboot mysql.service Duplicate Now that you have produced the otrs customer and also set up
    
    Apache as well as MySQL to collaborate with OTRS
    
    , you prepare to use the internet installer. Step 3-- Using the Web Installer In this step, you will certainly configure OTRS
    
     s data source settings in an internet browser and begin the OTRS daemon process on the command line. Open https://example.com/otrs/installer.pl in your favorite web internet browser, changing example.com with your domain name. You will certainly locate a welcome screen with the message Welcome to OTRS 6 as well as info concerning the OTRS
    offices. Click Next. The following screen will have the
    
    certificate for OTRS, which is the GNU Public Permit common to open resource programs. Accept by clicking Accept certificate and also proceed'after reading.
    
    On the next display, you will certainly be triggered
    
    to select
    a data source type. The defaults( MySQL as well as Create a new data source for OTRS) are great for your arrangement, so click Alongside proceed. On the next display, enter the MySQL credentials
    that you established throughout the MySQL web server installation. Usage root for the Customer area, then go into the password you produced. Leave the default host worth. Click Check data source setups to make sure it
    
    functions. The installer will generate credentials
    for the new
    data source. There is no need to keep in mind this generated password. Click Beside continue. The data source will certainly be produced and also you will certainly see the successful result: Click Next. Next —, give the complying with required
    system settings: System FQDN: A totally qualified domain name. Change example.com with your own domain. AdminEmail: The e-mail address of your system administrator. Emails about errors with OTRS will certainly go right here. Company: Your company  s name. Leave all various other options at their default values: Click Following. Currently you will certainly arrive on the Mail Configuration web page. In order to have the ability to send and also obtain emails, you have to configure a mail account. This tutorial will certainly take care of this later on in Step 5, so click Miss this step. The OTRS setup is now full; you will see a Completed page with a link to the admin panel after Beginning page, and also the qualifications
    of the OTRS extremely customer afterwards. Make sure you make a note of the created password for the root@localhost user as well as the URL for the Beginning page. The only thing left after a successful setup is to begin the OTRS daemon as well as trigger its cronjob. Raise the terminal you are utilizing to access your Ubuntu 18.04 web server. The OTRS daemon is in charge of managing any asynchronous and repeating tasks in OTRS.
    Begin it with the otrs individual: sudo su- otrs -c"/ opt/otrs/bin/ otrs.Daemon.pl start" Replicate You will certainly see the following output: Result Manage the OTRS daemon process. Daemon began There are
    two default cron files in the/ opt/otrs/var/ cron/ directory site. Relocate right into this directory. cd/ opt/otrs/var/ cron
    Duplicate These cron data are
    used to make certain that the OTRS daemon is running. Activate them
    
    by copying them without the. dist filename expansion. sudo cp aaa_base. dist aaa_base sudo cp otrs_daemon.
    dist otrs_daemon Duplicate To arrange these cron jobs, make use of the script Cron.sh with the otrs user: sudo su- otrs- c"/ opt/otrs/bin/ Cron.sh beginning" Copy You have actually currently’mounted OTRS
    with the web installer and established its connection
    to the MySQL
    data source. You additionally began the OTRS daemon on your server. Next off, you will log in to the manager web user interface as well as secure OTRS. Conclusion In this tutorial, you set up OTRS and also produced examination assistance desk tickets. Now you can accept and
    process demands from your customers utilizing both the internet interface as well as email. You can find out more about OTRS by reviewing the OTRS Admin Handbook. If you intend to find out more regarding how to use MySQL, see our An Introduction to Queries in MySQL post, or check out DigitalOcean  s Managed Databases product.