Install Guide for Request Tracker 3.8.4 on SLES 11

Install Guide for RT 3.8.4 on SLES 11
(also available on the RT Wiki)

Scope:

This install guide is for RT 3.8.4 on a minimal, no-GUI SLES 11 machine used only for RT. This document takes care of OS installation and configuration of RT, and does not touch basic email setup (such as postfix or sendmail configuration).

Additional Notes:

It is recommended to get an activation code for SLES on the Novell website to do the online updates. SLES 11 may be installed on baremetal or as a virtual guest. In this case, I've installed the 64-bit, multiprocessor version as a ESXi 4 guest, in full virtualization mode. Memory usage is approx. 256Mb in idle mode, and disk usage is approx 3Gb.

Versions:

cat /etc/SuSE-release:
     SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (x86_64)
     VERSION = 11
     PATCHLEVEL = 0

uname -srio:
     Linux 2.6.27.23-0.1-default x86_64 GNU/Linux

httpd2 -v:
     Server version: Apache/2.2.10 (Linux/SUSE)
     Server built:   Feb 23 2009 21:08:14

SLES 11 Installation Settings:

• Remove Gnome, X Windows, Print Server, Web-based Enterprise Management
• Add C/C++ Compiler and Tools
• Disable IPv6
• Disable Firewall
• If DHCP-configured with access to Internet: Enter Activation Code and run Online Update (you may need to do this many times)
• Do not create CA and Certificate (unless you use LDAP)

Static IP Configuration:

Configure IP address:

vi /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-eth0:
     BOOTPROTO =’static’
     IPADDR=''yourIP"
     NETMASK="yournetmask"

Add default route:

vi /etc/sysconfig/network/ifroute-eth0:
     default yourgatewayIP 0.0.0.0 eth0

Add name resolver :

vi /etc/sysconfig/network/config:
     NETCONFIG_DNS_STATIC_SERVERS=”yourresolverIP”
netconfig update

Restart network services:

/etc/init.d/network eth0 restart

Enter Activation Code:

yast2 --> 
Support/Novell Customer Center Configuration

Perform all online updates (you may need to do this many times):

yast2 --> Software/Online Update

Software Repositories:

To use the online software repositories:

• yast2 --> Software/Software Repositories
• Disable Suse-Linux-Enterprise-Server-11 11-0
• Enable SLES11-Pool

If installing SLES 11 as ESX/ESXi Guest:

Insert and connect CD in the ESX Client
Install VMWare Tools in SLES 11:

mkdir /media/cdrom
mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom
rpm -i VMwareTools-4.0.0-164009.i386.rpm
/usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl

---

Modules for RT:

Install, using zypper:

• apache2-mod_perl
• apache2-mod_python
• mysql-max
• gd
• ncftp
• openssl
• perl-DBD-mysql
• perl-MIME-tool

Install, using rpm:

• zlib-devel (latest version):

wget ftp://ftp.pbone.net/mirror/ftp5.gwdg.de/pub/opensuse/repositories/Base:/build/standard/x86_64/zlib-devel-1.2.3-135.52.x86_64.rpm

• libopenssl-devel (version 0.9.8h to match SLES 11 installation):

ncftpget ftp://rpmfind.net/linux/opensuse/update/11.1/rpm/x86_64/libopenssl-devel-0.9.8h-28.7.1.x86_64.rpm

Install lynx (latest version) from source:

wget http://lynx.isc.org/current/lynx-cur.tgz

Install Perl CPAN modules:

perl -MCPAN -eshell:
     o conf prerequisites_policy follow
     o conf commit
     install YAML
     install Bundle::CPAN
     reload CPAN
     install LWP
     install Apache::DBI

Install Test::Pod manually (version 1.26; version 1.40 does not test OK on SLES 11) :

wget http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/P/PE/PETDANCE/Test-Pod-1.26.tar.gz

MYSQL Configuration:

/etc/init.d/mysql start
/usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation

---

RT Installation:

Create RT user and group:

groupadd rt
useradd -m -g rt rt_user

Download RT:

wget http://download.bestpractical.com/pub/rt/release/rt.tar.gz
tar xf rt.tar.gz
cd rt-3.8.4
./configure --prefix=/opt/rt3 --with-web-user=rt_user --with-web-group=rt --with-db-database=rt3 --with-db-rt-pass=yourpass --with-db-type=mysql --with-rt-group=rt --with-apachectl=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl

Fix Perl dependencies (you may need to do this more than once):

make fixdeps

Check dependencies:

make testdeps

Install RT:

make install
make initialize-database

RT Site Configuration:

Configure RT_SiteConfig.pm:

vi /opt/rt3/etc/RT_SiteConfig.pm:
     Set($rtname , "rt.yourdomainename");
     Set($Organization , "yourdomainename");
     Set($CorrespondAddress , 'yourname@yourdomainename');
     Set($CommentAddress , 'yourname@yourdomainename');
     Set($OwnerEmail , 'root');
     Set($MaxAttachmentSize , 10000000);
     Set($WebBaseURL, "http://rt.yourdomainename");
     Set($WebImagesURL , $WebPath . "/NoAuth/images/");
     Set($LogoURL, $WebImagesURL . "yourlogo.gif");
     Set($LogoLinkURL, 'http://yourdomainename');
     Set($LogoImageURL, $WebImagesURL . "yourlogo.gif");
     Set($LogoAltText, "your company name");

     # THE DATABASE:

     Set($DatabaseType, 'mysql');
     Set($DatabaseUser , 'rt_user');
     Set($DatabasePassword , 'yourpassword');
     Set($DatabaseName , 'rt3');

     # THE WEBSERVER:

     Set($WebPath , "");
     #Set($WebPath , "/");
     Set($WebBaseURL , "http://rt.yourdomainename");
     1;

Allow web server to write in mason_data directory:

chown wwwrun.www /opt/rt3/var/mason_data
chown wwwrun.www /opt/rt3/var/mason_data/obj

---

Apache2 Configuration:

Add Perl module:

vi /etc/sysconfig/apache2:
                 add "perl" to the APACHE_MODULES variable

Create rt.conf virtual host file:

vi /etc/apache2/vhosts.d/rt.conf:
     <VirtualHost *:80>
           ServerAdmin yourname@yourdomainname
           ServerName rt.yourdomainname
           DocumentRoot /opt/rt3/share/html
           AddDefaultCharset UTF-8
           SetHandler perl-script
           PerlHandler RT::Mason
           PerlModule Apache::DBI
           PerlRequire /opt/rt3/bin/webmux.pl
     <Directory /opt/rt3/share/html>
           Options ExecCGI +FollowSymLinks
           AllowOverride All
           Order deny,allow
           Allow from 192.168.1.0/24  # watch for HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden
           Deny from all
     </Directory>
     </VirtualHost>

If you get the following warnings in /var/log/apache2:
       apr_sockaddr_info_get() failed:

vi /etc/hosts:
     yourIP yourhost yourFQDN

Apache2/SSL Configuration:

Get certificate and key fiels from a CA and put them in:
      /etc/apache2/ssl.crt/server.crt
      /etc/apache2/ssl.key/server.key

If you need a self-signed certificate instead:

openssl req -new -x509 -nodes -out server.crt -keyout server.key
cp server.crt /etc/apache2/ssl.crt/server.crt
cp server.key /etc/apache2/ssl.key/server.key

Create an SSL site-specific configuration file:

vi /etc/apache2/vhosts.d/rt-ssl.conf:

<VirtualHost *:443>

       ServerAdmin yourname@yourdomain
       ServerName yourhost.yourdomain
   
       DocumentRoot /opt/rt3/share/html
       SSLEngine on

       SSLCipherSuite ALL:!ADH:!EXPORT56:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM:+LOW:+SSLv2:+EXP:+eNULL
       SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl.crt/server.crt
       SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl.key/server.key

       <Files ~ "\.(cgi|shtml|phtml|php3?)$">
           SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
       </Files>

       <Directory "/srv/www/cgi-bin">
           SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
       </Directory>

       SetEnvIf User-Agent ".*MSIE.*" \
                nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown \
                downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0

       CustomLog /var/log/apache2/ssl_request_log   ssl_combined

       AddDefaultCharset UTF-8
       SetHandler perl-script
       PerlHandler RT::Mason
       PerlModule Apache::DBI
       PerlRequire /opt/rt3/bin/webmux.pl

       <Directory /opt/rt3/share/html>
               Options ExecCGI +FollowSymLinks
               AllowOverride All
               Order deny,allow
               Allow from 192.168.1.0/24
               Deny from all
       </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

To force apache2 to load with SSL at boot-time, comment out the following tags:

      <IfDefine SSL>
      <IfDefine !NOSSL>
      </IfDefine>
      </IfDefine>

in the following files:
      /etc/apache2/ssl-global.conf
      /etc/apache2/listen.conf

---

RT Mail Configuration:

Create an alias that will accept mail and post it in a queue:

vi /etc/aliases:
     youralias: "|/opt/rt3/bin/rt-mailgate --queue 'yourqueuename' --action correspond --url http://yourhost.yourdomain"
newaliases

Make sure your queue has at least assigned "CreateTicket" rights to the people who will send to it.

If you are going to fetchmail from another server:

vi /etc/fetchmailrc:
     poll "yourotherserver" protocol yourpostofficeprotocol : user "youruser@yourdomain" with password "yourpassword" is "yourqueuename" here ;

Final Steps:

Perform all updates:

yast2 --> Software/Online Update

Make sure services load at boot-time:

chkconfig mysql on
chkconfig apache2 on
chkconfig -d smartd

Optional/Suggested:
     install nmap and remove any unnecessary services with zypper

Restart server to see if everything loads correctly at boot time:

shutdown -r now