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How To Install CachetHQ on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

Install CachetHQ on Ubuntu 18.04

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install CachetHQ on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Cachet is a beautiful and powerful open-source status page system written in PHP that allows you to better communicate downtime and system outages to your customers, teams, and shareholders.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of CachetHQ on a Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic Beaver) server.

Prerequisites

  • A server running one of the following operating systems: Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic Beaver).
  • It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
  • SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
  • An active internet connection.
  • A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install CachetHQ on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Bionic Beaver

Step 1. First, make sure that all your system packages are up-to-date by running the following apt commands in the terminal.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Step 2. Install LAMP (Linux, Apache, MariaDB, and PHP) server.

An Ubuntu 18.04 LAMP server is required. If you do not have LAMP installed, you can follow our guide here. Also, install all required PHP modules:

apt install php7.2 libapache2-mod-php7.2 php7.2-common php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-soap php7.2-gd php7.2-xml php7.2-intl php7.2-mysql php7.2-cli php7.2-zip php7.2-curl

Step 3. Configuring MariaDB for CachetHQ.

By default, MariaDB is not hardened. You can secure MariaDB using the mysql_secure_installation script. you should read and below each step carefully which will set a root password, remove anonymous users, disallow remote root login, and remove the test database and access to secure MariaDB:

mysql_secure_installation

Configure it like this:

- Set root password? [Y/n] y
- Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] y
- Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] y
- Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n] y
- Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] y

Next, we will need to log in to the MariaDB console and create a database for the CachetHQ. Run the following command:

mysql -u root -p

This will prompt you for a password, so enter your MariaDB root password and hit Enter. Once you are logged in to your database server you need to create a database for CachetHQ installation:

MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE DATABASE cachet; 
MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON cachet.* TO 'cachetuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your-password';
MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
MariaDB [(none)]> \q

Step 4. Installing CachetHQ.

First, download the source code with Git:

cd /var/www/html/
git clone https://github.com/cachethq/Cachet.git
cd Cachet git checkout v2.3.10

We will need to change some folders permissions:

chown www-data:www-data -R /var/www/html/Cachet/

Step 5. Configuring a database CachetHQ.

By default, Cachet comes with a .env.example file. You’ll need to rename this file to just .env regardless of what environment you’re working on:

mv .env.example .env

Open the .env file and change the following lines:

nano .env
APP_ENV=production
APP_DEBUG=false
APP_URL=http://localhost
APP_KEY=SomeRandomString

DB_DRIVER=mysql
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_DATABASE=cachet
DB_USERNAME=cachetuser
DB_PASSWORD=your-password
DB_PORT=null

CACHE_DRIVER=apc
SESSION_DRIVER=apc
QUEUE_DRIVER=sync
CACHET_EMOJI=false

MAIL_DRIVER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=mailtrap.io
MAIL_PORT=2525
MAIL_USERNAME=null
MAIL_PASSWORD=null
MAIL_ADDRESS=null
MAIL_NAME="Demo Status Page"
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=tls

REDIS_HOST=null
REDIS_DATABASE=null
REDIS_PORT=null

GITHUB_TOKEN=null

Step 5. Installing Composer.

Install Composer, the PHP dependency manager globally:

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | sudo php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer
composer install --no-dev -o

Set the application key:

php artisan key:generate

Cachet comes with an installation command that will:

  • Run migrations
  • Run seeders (of which there are none)
php artisan app:install

Step 5. Configuring Apache for CachetHQ.

Create a new virtual host directive in Apache. For example, create a new Apache configuration file named ‘cachet.conf’ on your virtual server:

touch /etc/apache2/sites-available/cachet.conf
ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/cachet.conf /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/cachet.conf
nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/cachet.conf

Add the following lines:

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin admin@your_domain_name.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/Cachet/public
ServerName your_domain_name.com

<Directory /var/www/html/Cachet/public/>
Options FollowSymlinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>

ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Save and close the file. Restart the Apache service for the changes to take effect:

sudo a2ensite cachet.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 7. Accessing CachetHQ Web UI.

CachetHQ will be available on HTTP port 80 by default. Open your favorite browser and navigate to http://your-domain.com/ or http://server-ip-address and complete the required steps to finish the installation. If you are using a firewall, please open port 80 to enable access to the control panel.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed CachetHQ. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing the CachetHQ open-source status page system on Ubuntu 18.04. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official CachetHQ website.

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r00t

r00t is a seasoned Linux system administrator with a wealth of experience in the field. Known for his contributions to idroot.us, r00t has authored numerous tutorials and guides, helping users navigate the complexities of Linux systems. His expertise spans across various Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, CentOS, and Debian. r00t's work is characterized by his ability to simplify complex concepts, making Linux more accessible to users of all skill levels. His dedication to the Linux community and his commitment to sharing knowledge makes him a respected figure in the field.
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