How to Setup osTicket Server on Azure/AWS/GCP
Install and setup osTicket helpdesk open source server solution on any of the cloud platforms (Azure, AWS or GCP) using the image available in the marketplace. Deploy on Ubuntu, Debian or CentOS, simple 2 click install. Check out the details below on how to install into any of the cloud platforms:
Install osTicket Server
Setup osTicket Server on Azure
Setup osTicket Server on AWS
Setup osTicket Server on GCP
Getting Started with osTicket Server
Once your osTicket server has been deployed, the following links explain how to connect to a Linux VM:
- How to connect to a Linux VM on Azure
- How to connect to a Linux VM on AWS
- How to connect to a Linux VM on GCP
Once connected and logged in, you’re ready to start configuring osTicket as per the steps below:
Setting up osTicket Server
In order to get your osTicket installation working, we need to perform a few steps:
- Set MySQL root password
- Create new database
- Configure Apache website for osTicket
- Complete the osTicket web installer
- Update file permissions
First make sure the current user is root:
sudo -i
On Ubuntu Server / Debian
Once logged in via your ssh terminal, the first thing to do is to set a new password for the MySQL root user account by running the following commands. Replace the text ‘your_pass_here‘ with your new password.
mysql --user=root --password
Enter password: password123
ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
On CentOS Server
On CentOS installations, the password is blank, so we run the following command to set a new password. You can select ‘Y‘ for all the options that are asked.
mysql_secure_installation
Then connect to the Mysql shell using the new password:
mysql -p
Create Database for osTicket
We need to create a MySQL database that will be used by osTicket. Assuming your still logged onto your MySQL shell
Lets create a database called ticket
CREATE DATABASE ticket;
Create a new user (we will call it ticketuser) with password ‘ticketpss‘ and assign the new user to our new database. Obviously change these to your own user and password.
CREATE USER 'ticketuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'ticketpss';
GRANT ALL ON ticket.* TO 'ticketuser'@'localhost';
Refresh the permissions and exit the console:
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit;
Setup PHP for osTicket
At the moment, PHP 8.0 and below is supported for running osTicket. If you are running PHP 8.1 and above we need to downgrade. Run the following command to see what version you’re running:
php -v
If you’re running PHP 8.0 or below (e.g 7.4) then you can skip to the next section. However if you’re running 8.1, follow these steps to downgrade to PHP 8.0
Run the following commands to downgrade PHP to version 8.0:
LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt install -y php8.0
sudo apt install php8.0-{fpm,imap,apcu,intl,cgi,common,mbstring,gd,xml,mysql,bcmath} -y
a2enconf php8.0-fpm
sudo systemctl reload apache2
Run the following command and select PHP 8.0 to set as your default PHP version.
sudo update-alternatives --config php
In my example, i select 2 and press enter.
Next we need to disable php 8.1 and restart Apache:
sudo a2dismod php8.1
sudo systemctl restart apache2
Now you should have PHP 8.0 as your default version, run this command to confirm:
php -v
Setup Apache for osTicket
Next step is to create an Apache config file so we can host osTicket as a web application (website). Run the following command to create an Apache conf file, depending on which OS you are using:
On Ubuntu Server / Debian
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/osticket.conf
On CentOS Server
sudo vi /etc/httpd/sites-available/osticket.conf
Copy the following config into your new osticket.conf
Replace the entries in ServerName and ServerAlias with your server/domain information.
On Ubuntu Server / Debian
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin admin@example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/osTicket/upload/
ServerName osticket.com
ServerAlias www.osticket.com
<Directory /var/www/osTicket/upload/>
Options FollowSymlinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/osticket_error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/osticket_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
On CentOS
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin admin@example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/osTicket/upload
ServerName osticket.com
ServerAlias www.osticket.com
<Directory /var/www/osTicket/upload/>
Options FollowSymlinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/osticket_error.log
CustomLog /var/log/httpd/osticket_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
Save the file.
Then, enable the new VirtualHost:
On Ubuntu Server / Debian
sudo ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/osticket.conf /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/osticket.conf
On CentOS Server
sudo ln -s /etc/httpd/sites-available/osticket.conf /etc/httpd/sites-enabled/osticket.conf
Now we restart the Apache service
Restart the Apache service on Ubuntu Server / Debian
sudo systemctl restart apache2
Restart the Apache service on CentOS Server
sudo systemctl restart httpd
osTicket Installation
Now if you open up your web browser and browse to the web address you used for osTicket, you should now see the installation page:
Press continue and fill out the new admin account to create and add in the database details of the database and user we created earlier.
osTicket Post Installation Cleanup
And finally, change the permissions on the osTicket configuration file and remove the setup directory.
sudo chmod 0644 /var/www/osTicket/upload/include/ost-config.php
sudo rm -rf /var/www/osTicket/upload/setup/
osTicket Documentation / Support
Official documentation on using osTicket can be found on the following link:
https://docs.osticket.com/en/latest/
If you have issues getting the server deployed in your environment, leave a message below or contact us directly
osTicket Firewall Ports
osTicket uses the following firewall ports for accessing the portal:
TCP 80
TCP 443
osTicket also uses mail for sending email alerts, which use the following ports:
TCP 465
TCP 587
TCP 25
If you are using any of the cloud security groups and need to change / add ports refer to the following guides:
To setup AWS firewall rules refer to – AWS Security Groups
To setup Azure firewall rules refer to – Azure Network Security Groups
To setup Google GCP firewall rules refer to – Creating GCP Firewalls
Disclaimer: osTicket is a registered trademark owned by Enhancesoft LLC and is licensed under GNU General Public license. No warrantee of any kind, express or implied, is included with this software. Use at your risk, responsibility for damages (if any) to anyone resulting from the use of this software rest entirely with the user. The author is not responsible for any damage that its use could cause.
