In this tutorial, we will show you how to install UVdesk on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, UVdesk is an open-source helpdesk system that provides complete support solutions for any business process to deliver the best customer service. UVdesk also organizes internal and external communication through clear structures and optimized processes allowing IT teams to avoid errors and complete tasks quickly and efficiently.
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 through the step-by-step installation of the UVdesk on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.
Prerequisites
- A server running one of the following operating systems: Ubuntu 20.04, 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.
- It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
- A
non-root sudo useror access to theroot user. We recommend acting as anon-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.
Install UVdesk on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa
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 sudo apt install curl git
Step 2. Installing the LAMP stack.
A Ubuntu 20.04 LAMP server is required. If you do not have LAMP installed, you can follow our guide here.
Step 3. Installing Composer.
Run the following command below to install Composer:
curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | sudo php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer
Test if the Composer is successfully installed by running the composer version command:
composer -V
Step 3. Installing UVdesk on Ubuntu 20.04.
First, create a directory to house the server with the command:
sudo mkdir /var/www/uvdesk
We will need to change some folders permissions:
sudo chown $USER:$USER /var/www/ -R
Next, change into the newly created directory with the command:
cd /var/www/uvdesk
Clear the Composer cache with the command:
composer clear-cache
Create the UVdesk project with the command:
composer create-project uvdesk/community-skeleton helpdesk-project
Once running the commands above you should see a success message similar to the one below:
To start things off, here are a few commands to help you setup:
* Configuring your project:
php bin/console uvdesk:configure-helpdesk
* Run your project through a local php web server:
php bin/console server:run
Made with by the UVDesk Team. Happy helping :)
Step 4. Configuring MariaDB for UVdesk.
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 UVdesk. 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 UVdesk installation:
MariaDB [(none)]> create database uvdeskdb; MariaDB [(none)]> create user uvdesk_user@localhost identified by 'your-strong-passwd'; MariaDB [(none)]> grant all privileges on uvdeskdb.* to uvdesk_user@localhost identified by 'Passw0rd@123'; MariaDB [(none)]> flush privileges; MariaDB [(none)]> exit;
Step 5. Configuring Apache.
Create a new virtual host directive in Apache. For example, create a new Apache configuration file named ‘uvdesk.conf’ on your virtual server:
touch /etc/apache2/sites-available/uvdesk.conf ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/uvdesk.conf /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/uvdesk.conf nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/uvdesk.conf
Add the following lines:
<VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin admin@yourdomain.com DocumentRoot /var/www/uvdesk/helpdesk-project/public ServerName your-domain.com ServerAlias www.your-domain.com <Directory /var/www/uvdesk/helpdesk-project/public/> Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride All Order allow,deny allow from all </Directory> ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/your-domain.com-error_log CustomLog /var/log/apache2/your-domain.com-access_log common </VirtualHost>
Now, we can restart the Apache webserver so that the changes take place:
sudo a2enmod rewrite sudo a2ensite uvdesk.conf sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
Step 6. Set up HTTPS.
We should enable a secure HTTPS connection on PrestaShop. We can obtain a free TLS certificate from Let’s Encrypt. Install Let’s Encrypt client (Certbot) from Ubuntu 20.04 repository:
sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache
Next, run the following command to obtain a free TLS certificate using the Apache plugin:
sudo certbot --apache --agree-tos --redirect --staple-ocsp --email you@example.com -d example.com
If the test is successful, reload Apache for the change to take effect:
sudo apache2ctl -t sudo systemctl reload apache2
Step 7. Accessing UVdesk Web Interface.
UVdesk will be available on HTTP port 80 by default. Open your favorite browser and navigate to https://your-domain.com or https://server-ip-address and complete the required steps to finish the installation. You will see the welcome screen:
Congratulations! You have successfully installed UVdesk. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing the UVdesk on your Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official UVdesk website.
