Installation

The are several methods in which ((OTRS)) Community Edition can be installed, depending on the chosen platform (e.g. a dedicated server, virtual machine, Docker containers) and the Linux distribution.

Installation on a Dedicated Server or Virtual Machine

Installation on Red Hat-based Systems

Disabling SELinux

OTRS CE requires SELinux to be disabled. If SELinux is enabled in your system, use this command to disable it:

sudo setenforce 0

To make this change permanent, so that SELinux stays disabled after the server is restarted, edit the configuration file /etc/selinux/config and change the line:

SELINUX=enforcing

to:

SELINUX=disabled

Alternatively, you can change the option to permissive, in which case SELinux will generate warnings rather than enforcing its security policy.

Enabling Additional Software Repositories

Some of the system packages required by OTRS CE need to be installed from additional software repositories, primarily EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux). Go to EPEL installation instructions and follow the procedure for your Linux distribution.

Choosing the Database Type

OTRS CE uses a relational database to store its data. It supports MySQL, MariaDB (which is fully compatible with MySQL), PostgreSQL, and Oracle.

If you already have a database management system set up on your server (or on a separate server), you will need to provide the server's name, administrator's username and password in the OTRS CE installation process.

If you want to install a new database system on the server where OTRS CE will be hosted, follow the next section for the database type of your choice.

Installation of MariaDB

Use dnf to install the mariadb-server package:

sudo dnf install -y mariadb-server

Then use these commands to start MariaDB and configure it to start automatically at server boot:

sudo systemctl enable mariadb
sudo systemctl start mariadb

Run the mysql_secure_installation script to configure the security measures of the new installation:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

You will be asked a few yes/no questions, for which you can choose the suggested default answers. You will probably be asked to set a new root user password -- take note of it, because it will be needed later in the OTRS CE installation process.

RPM Package Installation

The RPM package of OTRS CE will automatically configure the database for the application. It will need the administrator's password for the database that you chose. First, run the following command to save the password in an environmental variable that will later be read during the installation process:

read -rs OTRSCE_MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD; export OTRSCE_MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD

The system will wait for you to enter the password (without displaying it).

If you also want to specify the OTRS CE administrator's password (for the default root@localhost account), set it as another variable:

read -rs OTRSCE_ROOT_PASSWORD; export OTRSCE_ROOT_PASSWORD

If you don't set this variable, the password will be autogenerated during the installation process and displayed as part of the package post-installation messages.

Start the RPM installation using dnf (make sure to replace X.Y.Z with the specific version of OTRS CE package that you downloaded):

sudo -E dnf install -y otrs-ce-X.Y.Z.rpm

Firewalld Configuration

If you have firewalld running in your system, its configuration may block incoming HTTP connections. Use the following commands to allow HTTP and HTTPS clients to connect to the server:

sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-service=http --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-service=https --permanent

Apply these changes with this command:

sudo firewall-cmd --reload