How to Install osTicket on FreeBSD 12

osTicket is an open-source customer support ticketing system. osTicket source code is publicly hosted on Github. In this tutorial, you will learn how to install and configure osTicket on FreeBSD 12.

Requirements

• HTTP server running Nginx or Apache. This guide uses Nginx.
• PHP version 5.6 to 7.2, 7.2 is recommended
• mysqli, gd, gettext, imap, json, mbstring, and xml extension for PHP
• MySQL database version 5.0 or greater or MariaDB equivalent

Before you begin

Check the FreeBSD version.

uname -ro
# FreeBSD 12.0-RELEASE

Ensure that your FreeBSD system is up to date.

freebsd-update fetch install
pkg update && pkg upgrade -y

Install the necessary packages.

pkg install -y sudo vim unzip curl wget bash socat git

Create a new user account with your preferred username.

adduser

# Username: johndoe
# Full name: John Doe
# Uid (Leave empty for default): <Enter>
# Login group [johndoe]: <Enter>
# Login group is johndoe. Invite johndoe into other groups? []: wheel
# Login class [default]: <Enter>
# Shell (sh csh tcsh nologin) [sh]: bash
# Home directory [/home/johndoe]: <Enter>
# Home directory permissions (Leave empty for default): <Enter>
# Use password-based authentication? [yes]: <Enter>
# Use an empty password? (yes/no) [no]: <Enter>
# Use a random password? (yes/no) [no]: <Enter>
# Enter password: your_secure_password
# Enter password again: your_secure_password
# Lock out the account after creation? [no]: <Enter>
# OK? (yes/no): yes
# Add another user? (yes/no): no
# Goodbye!

Run the visudo command and uncomment the %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL line, to allow members of the wheel group to execute any command.

visudo

# Uncomment by removing hash (#) sign
# %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

Now, switch to your newly created user with su.

su - johndoe

NOTE: Replace johndoe with your username.

Set up the timezone.

sudo tzsetup

Install PHP

Install PHP, as well as the necessary PHP extensions.

sudo pkg install -y php72 php72-mbstring php72-tokenizer php72-pdo php72-pdo_mysql php72-openssl php72-hash php72-json php72-phar php72-filter php72-zlib php72-dom php72-xml php72-xmlwriter php72-xmlreader php72-curl php72-session php72-ctype php72-iconv php72-gd php72-simplexml php72-zip php72-filter php72-tokenizer php72-calendar php72-fileinfo php72-intl php72-phar php72-soap php72-xmlrpc php72-opcache php72-mysqli php72-bcmath php72-gmp php72-exif php72-imap php72-pecl-APCu

Check the version.

php -v
# PHP 7.2.9 (cli) (built: Sep  7 2019 01:12:47) ( NTS )
# Copyright (c) 1997-2018 The PHP Group
# Zend Engine v3.3.9, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies
#    with Zend OPcache v7.3.9, Copyright (c) 1999-2018, by Zend Technologies

Check installed PHP extensions.

php -m

# mbstring
# curl
# gd
# PDO
# mysqli
# openssl
# . . .

Soft-link php.ini-production to php.ini.

sudo ln -s /usr/local/etc/php.ini-production /usr/local/etc/php.ini

Enable and start PHP-FPM.

sudo sysrc php_fpm_enable=yes
sudo service php-fpm start

Install MariaDB

Install MariaDB.

sudo pkg install -y mariadb102-client mariadb102-server

Check the version.

mysql --version
# mysql  Ver 15.1 Distrib 10.2.25-MariaDB, for FreeBSD12.0 (amd64) using readline 5.1

Start and enable MariaDB.

sudo sysrc mysql_enable="yes" 
sudo service mysql-server start

Run the mysql_secure_installation script to improve the security of your MariaDB installation.

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Log into MariaDB as the root user.

sudo mysql -u root -p
# Enter password:

Create a new MariaDB database and user and remember the credentials.

CREATE DATABASE dbname;
GRANT ALL ON dbname.* TO 'username' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit;

Install Nginx

Install Nginx.

sudo pkg install -y nginx

Check the version.

nginx -v
# nginx version: nginx/1.16.1

Enable and start Nginx.

sudo sysrc nginx_enable=yes
sudo service nginx start

Configure Nginx for use with the osTicket.

sudo vim /usr/local/etc/nginx/osticket.conf

And populate the file with the below config.

server {

  listen 80;
  server_name example.com;

  root /usr/local/www/osticket/upload;
  index index.php index.html;

  set $path_info "";

  location ~ /include {
    deny all;
    return 403;
  }

  if ($request_uri ~ "^/api(/[^\?]+)") {
    set $path_info $1;
  }

  location ~ ^/api/(?:tickets|tasks).*$ {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /api/http.php?$query_string;
  }

  if ($request_uri ~ "^/scp/.*\.php(/[^\?]+)") {
    set $path_info $1;
  }

  if ($request_uri ~ "^/.*\.php(/[^\?]+)") {
    set $path_info $1;
  }

  location ~ ^/scp/ajax.php/.*$ {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /scp/ajax.php?$query_string;
  }

  location ~ ^/ajax.php/.*$ {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /ajax.php?$query_string;
  }

  location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ index.php;
  }

  location ~ \.php$ {
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    include fastcgi_params;
    fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $path_info;
    fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
  }

}

Save the file and exit with Colon+W+Q.

Now we need to include osticket.conf in the main nginx.conf file.

Run sudo vim /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf and add the following line to the http {} block.

include osticket.conf;

Test the configuration.

sudo nginx -t

Reload Nginx.

sudo service nginx restart

Install osTicket

Create a document root directory.

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/www/osticket

Change ownership of the /usr/local/www/osticket directory to johndoe.

sudo chown -R johndoe:johndoe /usr/local/www/osticket

Navigate to the document root folder.

cd /usr/local/www/osticket

Download and unzip the latest release of osTicket.

wget https://github.com/osTicket/osTicket/releases/download/v1.14.1/osTicket-v1.14.1.zip
unzip osTicket-v1.14.1.zip
rm osTicket-v1.14.1.zip

Copy the sample config file.

sudo cp upload/include/ost-sampleconfig.php upload/include/ost-config.php

Change ownership of the /usr/local/www/osticket directory to www.

sudo chown -R www:www /usr/local/www/osticket

Once everything is configured, it's time to access the osTicket web installation wizard. Open your site in a web browser and follow the instructions on the screen to finish the installation.

After installation, delete the setup directory for security.

sudo rm -rf upload/setup
sudo chmod 0644 upload/include/ost-config.php