If you want to install OTRS from source, first download the source archive as .tar.gz, .tar.bz2, or .zip file from http://www.otrs.com/try/
Unpack the archive (for example, using tar) into the directory /opt, and rename the directory from otrs-x.x.x to otrs (see Script below).
shell> tar xzf /tmp/otrs-x.x.x.tar.gz
shell> mv otrs-x.x.x /opt/otrs
Use the following script to get an overview of all installed and required cpan modules.
shell> perl /opt/otrs/bin/otrs.CheckModules.pl
o CGI..............................ok (v3.60)
o Crypt::PasswdMD5.................ok (v1.3)
o Crypt::SSLeay....................Not installed! (Optional - Required for Generic Interface SOAP SSL connections.)
o CSS::Minifier....................ok (v0.01)
o Date::Format.....................ok (v2.22)
o Date::Pcalc......................ok (v1.2)
...
To install missing Perl modules, you can:
For Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora or compatible systems:
shell> yum install "perl(Digest::MD5)"
For SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, openSUSE or compatible systems: first determine the name of the package the module is shipped in. Usually the package for My::Module would be called "perl-My-Module".
shell> zypper search Digest::MD5
Then install:
shell> zypper install perl-Digest-MD5
For Debian, Ubuntu or compatible systems first determine the name of the package the module is shipped in. Usually the package for My::Module would be called "libmy-module-perl".
shell> apt-cache search Digest::MD5
Then install:
shell> apt-get install libdigest-md5-perl
Please note that it might be that you can't find all modules or their required versions in your distribution repository, in that case you might choose to install those modules via CPAN (see below).
Note that when you're on Linux you should run CPAN as your superuser account because the modules should be accessible both by the OTRS account and the account under which the web server is running.
shell> perl -MCPAN -e shell;
...
install Digest::MD5
install Crypt::PasswdMD5
...
Any optional modules listed by the script should be installed depending on the special requirements of the target system.
Create user:
shell> useradd -d /opt/otrs -c 'OTRS user' otrs
Add user to webserver group (if the webserver is not running as the OTRS user):
shell> usermod -G www otrs
(SUSE=www, Red Hat/CentOS/Fedora=apache, Debian/Ubuntu=www-data)
There are two OTRS config files bundled in $OTRS_HOME/Kernel/*.dist and $OTRS_HOME/Kernel/Config/*.dist. You must activate them by copying them without the ".dist" filename extension.
shell> cd /opt/otrs/
shell> cp Kernel/Config.pm.dist Kernel/Config.pm
shell> cp Kernel/Config/GenericAgent.pm.dist Kernel/Config/GenericAgent.pm
shell> perl -cw /opt/otrs/bin/cgi-bin/index.pl
/opt/otrs/bin/cgi-bin/index.pl syntax OK
shell> perl -cw /opt/otrs/bin/cgi-bin/customer.pl
/opt/otrs/bin/cgi-bin/customer.pl syntax OK
shell> perl -cw /opt/otrs/bin/otrs.PostMaster.pl
/opt/otrs/bin/otrs.PostMaster.pl syntax OK
"syntax OK" tells you all mandatory perl modules are installed.
First of all, you should install the Apache2 web server and mod_perl; you'd typically do this from your systems package manager. Below you'll find the commands needed to set up Apache on the most popular Linux distributions.
# rhel / centos:
shell> yum install httpd mod_perl
# suse:
shell> zypper install apache2-mod_perl
# debian/ubuntu:
shell> apt-get install apache2 libapache2-mod-perl2
To access the web interface of OTRS via a short URL, Alias and ScriptAlias entries are needed. Most
Apache installations have a conf.d directory included. On Linux systems you can usually find this directory under /etc/apache or /etc/apache2. Log in as root, change to the conf.d directory and link the appropriate template in /opt/otrs/scripts/apache2-httpd.include.conf to a file called zzz_otrs.conf in the Apache configuration directory (to make sure it is loaded after the other configurations)..
Restart your web server to load the new configuration settings. On most systems you can start/restart your web server with the command /etc/init.d/apache2 restart.
Now your web server should be configured for OTRS.
File permissions need to be adjusted to allow OTRS to read and write files:
otrs.SetPermissions.pl [
--otrs-user=
OTRS user, defaults to 'otrs'
] {
--web-group=
group of the web server user
}
For example:
Web server which runs as the OTRS user:
shell> bin/otrs.SetPermissions.pl --web-user=otrs
Webserver with wwwrun user (e. g. SUSE):
shell> bin/otrs.SetPermissions.pl --web-group=wwwrun
Webserver with apache user (e. g. Red Hat, CentOS):
shell> bin/otrs.SetPermissions.pl --web-group=apache
Webserver with www-data user (e. g. Debian, Ubuntu):
shell> bin/otrs.SetPermissions.pl --web-group=www-data
Please use the web installer at http://yourhost/otrs/installer.pl (replace "yourhost" with your OTRS hostname) to setup your database and basic system settings such as email accounts.
Now you are ready to login to your system at http://yourhost/otrs/index.pl with the credentials you configured in the web installer (User: root@localhost).
With this step, the basic system setup is finished.
To check email reception, you can pipe an email directly into /opt/otrs/bin/otrs.Postmaster.pl:
shell> cat /opt/otrs/doc/sample_mails/test-email-1.box | /opt/otrs/bin/otrs.PostMaster.pl
There are several OTRS default cronjobs in /opt/otrs/var/cron/*.dist.
They can be activated by copying them without the ".dist" filename extension.
shell> cd var/cron
shell> for foo in *.dist; do cp $foo `basename $foo .dist`; done
To schedule these cronjobs on your system, you can use the script Cron.sh. Make sure to execute it as the OTRS system user!
Scheduling the cronjobs for the first time:
shell> /opt/otrs/bin/Cron.sh start
Updating the cronjob schedules if you made changes:
shell> /opt/otrs/bin/Cron.sh restart
Stopping the cronjobs (useful for maintenance):
shell> /opt/otrs/bin/Cron.sh stop
Note: From OTRS 3.3.7 on OTRS Scheduler uses a cronjob to start-up and keep alive. Please make sure that scheduler_watchdog cronjob is activated.
We advise you to read the OTRS performance tuning chapter.
If you encounter problems with the installation, you can send a message to our mailing list otrs@otrs.org (http://lists.otrs.org/).
You can also ask the OTRS Group to either help you in planning or deploying OTRS, or review your installed OTRS system. Our professional services are designed to help you deploy OTRS faster and to get the most benefit out of OTRS.