Install SonarQube on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

Introduction

SonarQube is an open-source web-based tool for code quality analysis. It supports analyzing a wide range of programming languages through various plugins. This guide will explains how to install SonarQube on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS to help you identify bugs, vulnerabilities, and code smells in your projects effectively.

Prerequisites

• Deploy a fully updated Ubuntu 20.04 LTS server at Vultr with at least 2GB of RAM and 1 vCPU cores.
• Create a non-root user with sudo access.

1. Install OpenJDK 11

Installing OpenJDK 11 is necessary for SonarQube because it serves as the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) required for SonarQube to operate properly.

1. SSH to your Ubuntu server as a non-root user with sudo access.

2. Install OpenJDK 11.

    $ sudo apt-get install openjdk-11-jdk -y

2. Install and Configure PostgreSQL

1. Add the PostgreSQL repository.

    $ sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://apt.postgresql.org/pub/repos/apt/ `lsb_release -cs`-pgdg main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pgdg.list'

2. Add the PostgreSQL signing key.

    $ wget -q https://www.postgresql.org/media/keys/ACCC4CF8.asc -O - | sudo apt-key add -

3. Install PostgreSQL.

    $ sudo apt install postgresql postgresql-contrib -y

4. Enable the database server to start automatically on reboot.

    $ sudo systemctl enable postgresql

5. Start the database server.

    $ sudo systemctl start postgresql

6. Change the default PostgreSQL password.

    $ sudo passwd postgres

7. Switch to the postgres user.

    $ su - postgres

8. Create a user named sonar.

    $ createuser sonar

9. Log in to PostgreSQL.

    $ psql

10. Set a password for the sonar user. Use a strong password in place of my_strong_password.

     ALTER USER sonar WITH ENCRYPTED password 'my_strong_password';

11. Create a sonarqube database and set the owner to sonar.

     CREATE DATABASE sonarqube OWNER sonar;

12. Grant all the privileges on the sonarqube database to the sonar user.

     GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE sonarqube to sonar;

13. Exit PostgreSQL.

     \q

14. Return to your non-root sudo user account.

     $ exit

3. Download and Install SonarQube

1. Install the zip utility, which is needed to unzip the SonarQube files.

    $ sudo apt-get install zip -y

2. Locate the latest download URL from the SonarQube official download page.

3. Download the SonarQube distribution files.

    $ sudo wget https://binaries.sonarsource.com/Distribution/sonarqube/sonarqube-<VERSION_NUMBER>.zip

4. Unzip the downloaded file.

    sudo unzip sonarqube-<VERSION_NUMBER>.zip

5. Move the unzipped files to /opt/sonarqube directory

    sudo mv sonarqube-<VERSION_NUMBER> /opt/sonarqube

4. Add SonarQube Group and User

Create a dedicated user and group for SonarQube, which can not run as the root user.

1. Create a sonar group.

    $ sudo groupadd sonar

2. Create a sonar user and set /opt/sonarqube as the home directory.

    $ sudo useradd -d /opt/sonarqube -g sonar sonar

3. Grant the sonar user access to the /opt/sonarqube directory.

    $ sudo chown sonar:sonar /opt/sonarqube -R

5. Configure SonarQube

1. Edit the SonarQube configuration file.

    $ sudo nano /opt/sonarqube/conf/sonar.properties

   Find the following lines:

    #sonar.jdbc.username=
    #sonar.jdbc.password=

   Uncomment the lines, and add the database user and password you created in Step 2.

    sonar.jdbc.username=sonar
    sonar.jdbc.password=my_strong_password

   Below those two lines, add the sonar.jdbc.url.

    sonar.jdbc.url=jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/sonarqube

2. Save and exit the file.

3. Edit the sonar script file.

    $ sudo nano /opt/sonarqube/bin/linux-x86-64/sonar.sh

   About 50 lines down, locate this line:

    #RUN_AS_USER=

   Uncomment the line and change it to:

    RUN_AS_USER=sonar

4. Save and exit the file.

6. Setup Systemd service

1. Create a systemd service file to start SonarQube at system boot.

    $ sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/sonar.service

   Paste the following lines to the file.

    [Unit]
    Description=SonarQube service
    After=syslog.target network.target
   
    [Service]
    Type=forking
   
    ExecStart=/opt/sonarqube/bin/linux-x86-64/sonar.sh start
    ExecStop=/opt/sonarqube/bin/linux-x86-64/sonar.sh stop
   
    User=sonar
    Group=sonar
    Restart=always
   
    LimitNOFILE=65536
    LimitNPROC=4096
   
    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target

2. Save and exit the file.

3. Enable the SonarQube service to run at system startup.

    $ sudo systemctl enable sonar

4. Start the SonarQube service.

    $ sudo systemctl start sonar

5. Check the service status.

    $ sudo systemctl status sonar

7. Modify Kernel System Limits

SonarQube uses Elasticsearch to store its indices in an MMap FS directory. It requires some changes to the system defaults.

1. Edit the sysctl configuration file.

    $ sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf

   Add the following lines.

    vm.max_map_count=262144
    fs.file-max=65536
    ulimit -n 65536
    ulimit -u 4096

2. Save and exit the file.

3. Reboot the system to apply the changes.

    $ sudo reboot

8. Access SonarQube Web Interface

Access SonarQube in a web browser at your server's IP address on port 9000. For example:

http://192.0.2.123:9000

Log in with username admin and password admin. SonarQube will prompt you to change your password.

More Information

See the SonarQube documentation for more information.