How to Install UVdesk Helpdesk System on Ubuntu 22.04
On this page
- Prerequisites
- Step 1 - Configure Firewall
- Step 2 - Install Nginx
- Step 3 - Install PHP and extensions
- Step 4 - Install MySQL
- Step 5 - Configure MySQL
- Step 6 - Install Composer
- Step 7 - Download and Configure UVDesk
- Step 8 - Install and Configure SSL
- Step 9 - Configure Nginx and PHP
- Step 10 - Install UVDesk
- Conclusion
UVdesk is an open-source Saas-based helpdesk system for companies to interact with their customers and offer round-the-clock support. Its features include ticket management, knowledgebase support, canned replies, and automatic ticket generation based on emails. Uvdesk's capabilities can be extended using external modules. You can automate certain actions based on specific triggers to improve your workflow.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to install Uvdesk on a Ubuntu 22.04 server using Nginx, MySQL, and PHP.
Prerequisites
-
A server running Ubuntu 22.04.
-
A Fully Qualified domain name (FQDN) pointing to the server. For our tutorial, we will use the
uvdesk.example.comdomain. -
A non-root user with sudo privileges.
-
Make sure everything is updated.
$ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
-
Install basic utility packages. Some of them may already be installed.
$ sudo apt install wget curl nano unzip -y
Step 1 - Configure Firewall
Before installing any packages, the first step is configuring the firewall to allow HTTP and HTTPS connections.
Check the status of the firewall.
$ sudo ufw status
You should see something like the following.
Status: active To Action From -- ------ ---- OpenSSH ALLOW Anywhere OpenSSH (v6) ALLOW Anywhere (v6)
Allow HTTP and HTTPs ports.
$ sudo ufw allow http $ sudo ufw allow https
Check the status again to confirm.
$ sudo ufw status Status: active To Action From -- ------ ---- OpenSSH ALLOW Anywhere 80/tcp ALLOW Anywhere 443 ALLOW Anywhere OpenSSH (v6) ALLOW Anywhere (v6) 80/tcp (v6) ALLOW Anywhere (v6) 443 (v6) ALLOW Anywhere (v6)
Step 2 - Install Nginx
Ubuntu 22.04 ships with an older version of Nginx. To install the latest version, you need to download the official Nginx repository.
Import Nginx's signing key.
$ curl https://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.key | gpg --dearmor \ | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/nginx-archive-keyring.gpg >/dev/null
Add the repository for Nginx's stable version.
$ echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/nginx-archive-keyring.gpg arch=amd64] \ http://nginx.org/packages/ubuntu `lsb_release -cs` nginx" \ | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx.list
Update the system repositories.
$ sudo apt update
Install Nginx.
$ sudo apt install nginx
Verify the installation.
$ nginx -v nginx version: nginx/1.22.0
Start the Nginx server.
$ sudo systemctl start nginx
Step 3 - Install PHP and extensions
Ubuntu 22.04 ships with PHP 8.1 by default. UVdesk works well with PHP 8.0 though. To install PHP 8.0, we need to use Ondrej's PHP repository.
Add Ondrej's PHP repository.
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
Update your system repository list.
$ sudo apt update
Install PHP and the extensions required by UVdesk.
$ sudo apt install php8.0 php8.0-curl php8.0-intl php8.0-gd php8.0-xsl php8.0-mbstring php8.0-zip php8.0-xml php8.0-bz2 php8.0-mysql php8.0-soap php8.0-mysql php8.0-fpm php8.0-gmp php8.0-bcmath php8.0-apcu php8.0-redis php8.0-imagick php8.0-imap php8.0-xdebug php8.0-tidy php8.0-ldap php8.0-opcache php8.0-mailparse
Check the version of PHP installed.
$ php --version
PHP 8.0.23 (cli) (built: Sep 18 2022 10:25:06) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.0.23, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
with Zend OPcache v8.0.23, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies
with Xdebug v3.1.5, Copyright (c) 2002-2022, by Derick Rethans
Step 4 - Install MySQL
Ubuntu 22.04 ships with the latest version of MySQL. You can install it with a single command.
$ sudo apt install mysql-server
Check the version of MySQL.
$ mysql --version mysql Ver 8.0.30-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 for Linux on x86_64 ((Ubuntu))
This step is necessary for MySQL versions 8.0.28 and above. Enter the MySQL Shell.
$ sudo mysql
Run the following command to set the password for your root user. Make sure it has a mix of numbers, uppercase, lowercase, and special characters.
mysql> ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'YourPassword12!';
Exit the shell.
mysql> exit
Run the MySQL secure install script.
$ sudo mysql_secure_installation
First, you will be asked for your root password. Enter it. Next, you will be asked to install the Validate Password Component. It checks the strength of passwords used in MySQL. Press Y to install it. Next, you will be asked to set the level of the password validation policy. Choose 2 as it is the strongest one.
Securing the MySQL server deployment. Enter password for user root: VALIDATE PASSWORD COMPONENT can be used to test passwords and improve security. It checks the strength of password and allows the users to set only those passwords which are secure enough. Would you like to setup VALIDATE PASSWORD component? Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No: Y There are three levels of password validation policy: LOW Length >= 8 MEDIUM Length >= 8, numeric, mixed case, and special characters STRONG Length >= 8, numeric, mixed case, special characters and dictionary file Please enter 0 = LOW, 1 = MEDIUM and 2 = STRONG: 2 Using existing password for root. Estimated strength of the password: 100
Next, enter N to refuse to change your root password. Also, enter Y to remove anonymous users, disallow remote root logins, remove the test database, and reload the privilege tables.
Change the password for root ? ((Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : N ... skipping. By default, a MySQL installation has an anonymous user, allowing anyone to log into MySQL without having to have a user account created for them. This is intended only for testing, and to make the installation go a bit smoother. You should remove them before moving into a production environment. Remove anonymous users? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : Y Success. Normally, root should only be allowed to connect from 'localhost'. This ensures that someone cannot guess at the root password from the network. Disallow root login remotely? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : Y Success. By default, MySQL comes with a database named 'test' that anyone can access. This is also intended only for testing, and should be removed before moving into a production environment. Remove test database and access to it? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : Y - Dropping test database... Success. - Removing privileges on test database... Success. Reloading the privilege tables will ensure that all changes made so far will take effect immediately. Reload privilege tables now? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : Y Success. All done!
Step 5 - Configure MySQL
Log in to the MySQL shell. Enter your root password when prompted.
$ sudo mysql -u root -p
Create a sample database.
mysql> CREATE DATABASE uvdeskdb;
Create an SQL user account.
mysql> CREATE USER 'uvdesk'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'Your_password2';
Grant all privileges on the database to the user.
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON uvdeskdb.* TO 'uvdesk'@'localhost';
Flush user privileges.
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Exit the shell.
mysql> exit
Step 6 - Install Composer
UVdesk uses Composer to manage dependencies. Run the following commands to download and install Composer.
$ php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
$ php -r "if (hash_file('sha384', 'composer-setup.php') === '55ce33d7678c5a611085589f1f3ddf8b3c52d662cd01d4ba75c0ee0459970c2200a51f492d557530c71c15d8dba01eae') { echo 'Installer verified'; } else { echo 'Installer corrupt'; unlink('composer-setup.php'); } echo PHP_EOL;"
$ php composer-setup.php
$ php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');"
$ sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer
Verify if Composer has been installed properly.
$ composer -V Composer version 2.4.2 2022-09-14 16:11:15
Step 7 - Download and Configure UVDesk
Create the /var/www directory.
$ sudo mkdir /var/www
Switch to the www directory.
$ cd /var/www
Give current logged-in system user permission on the /var/www folder.
$ sudo chown $USER:$USER /var/www/
Use Composer to install dependencies for UVdesk.
$ composer clear-cache $ composer create-project uvdesk/community-skeleton uvdesk.example.com
Install the Access Control Lists (acl) utility.
$ sudo apt install acl
Grant permissions on specific directories and files for both the currently logged-in user $USER and the Nginx user nginx.
$ sudo setfacl -dR -m u:nginx:rwX -m u:$USER:rwX /var/www/uvdesk.example.com/var $ sudo setfacl -R -m u:nginx:rwX -m u:$USER:rwX /var/www/uvdesk.example.com/var $ sudo setfacl -dR -m u:nginx:rwX -m u:$USER:rwX /var/www/uvdesk.example.com/public $ sudo setfacl -R -m u:nginx:rwX -m u:$USER:rwX /var/www/uvdesk.example.com/public $ sudo setfacl -dR -m u:nginx:rwX -m u:$USER:rwX /var/www/uvdesk.example.com/config $ sudo setfacl -R -m u:nginx:rwX -m u:$USER:rwX /var/www/uvdesk.example.com/config $ sudo setfacl -dR -m u:nginx:rwX -m u:$USER:rwX /var/www/uvdesk.example.com/migrations $ sudo setfacl -R -m u:nginx:rwX -m u:$USER:rwX /var/www/uvdesk.example.com/migrations $ sudo setfacl -m u:nginx:rwX -m u:$USER:rwX /var/www/uvdesk.example.com/.env
Step 8 - Install and Configure SSL
We need to install Certbot to generate the SSL certificate. You can either install Certbot using Ubuntu's repository or grab the latest version using the Snapd tool. We will be using the Snapd version.
Ubuntu 22.04 comes with Snapd installed by default. Run the following commands to ensure that your version of Snapd is up to date.
$ sudo snap install core
Install Certbot.
$ sudo snap install --classic certbot
Use the following command to ensure that the Certbot command can be run by creating a symbolic link to the /usr/bin directory.
$ sudo ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot
Run the following command to generate an SSL Certificate.
$ sudo certbot certonly --nginx --agree-tos --no-eff-email --staple-ocsp --preferred-challenges http -m [email protected] -d uvdesk.example.com
The above command will download a certificate to the /etc/letsencrypt/live/uvdesk.example.com directory on your server.
Generate a Diffie-Hellman group certificate.
$ sudo openssl dhparam -dsaparam -out /etc/ssl/certs/dhparam.pem 4096
Check the Certbot renewal scheduler service.
$ sudo systemctl list-timers
You will find snap.certbot.renew.service as one of the services scheduled to run.
NEXT LEFT LAST PASSED UNIT ACTIVATES Mon 2022-09-19 00:28:48 UTC 13min left Sun 2022-09-18 23:31:55 UTC 43min ago fstrim.timer fstrim.service Mon 2022-09-19 00:39:00 UTC 23min left Mon 2022-09-19 00:09:00 UTC 6min ago phpsessionclean.timer phpsessionclean.service Mon 2022-09-19 00:40:00 UTC 24min left n/a n/a snap.certbot.renew.timer snap.certbot.renew.service .......
To check whether the SSL renewal is working fine, do a dry run of the process.
$ sudo certbot renew --dry-run
If you see no errors, you are all set. Your certificate will renew automatically.
Step 9 - Configure Nginx and PHP
Configure PHP-FPM
Open the file /etc/php/8.0/fpm/pool.d/www.conf.
$ sudo nano /etc/php/8.0/fpm/pool.d/www.conf
We need to set the Unix user/group of PHP processes to nginx. Find the user=www-data and group=www-data lines in the file and change them to nginx.
... ; Unix user/group of processes ; Note: The user is mandatory. If the group is not set, the default user's group ; will be used. ; RPM: apache user chosen to provide access to the same directories as httpd user = nginx ; RPM: Keep a group allowed to write in log dir. group = nginx ...
Find the listen.owner = www-data and listen.group = www-data lines in the file and change them to nginx.
; Set permissions for unix socket, if one is used. In Linux, read/write ; permissions must be set in order to allow connections from a web server. Many ; BSD-derived systems allow connections regardless of permissions. The owner ; and group can be specified either by name or by their numeric IDs. ; Default Values: user and group are set as the running user ; mode is set to 0660 listen.owner = nginx listen.group = nginx
Save the file by pressing Ctrl + X and entering Y when prompted.
Increase the execution time for PHP-FPM and PHP-CLI to 60 seconds.
$ sudo sed -i 's/max_execution_time = 30/max_execution_time = 60/' /etc/php/8.0/fpm/php.ini $ sudo sed -i 's/max_execution_time = 30/max_execution_time = 60/' /etc/php/8.0/cli/php.ini
Increase the memory limit for PHP-FPM from 128MB to 256MB.
$ sudo sed -i 's/memory_limit = 128M/memory_limit = 256M/' /etc/php/8.0/fpm/php.ini
Restart the PHP-FPM service.
$ sudo systemctl restart php8.0-fpm
Change the group of the PHP sessions directory to Nginx.
$ sudo chgrp -R nginx /var/lib/php/session
Configure Nginx
Create and open the file /etc/nginx/conf.d/uvdesk.conf for editing.
$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/uvdesk.conf
Paste the following code in it.
server {
listen 443 ssl http2;
listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
server_name uvdesk.example.com;
access_log /var/log/nginx/uvdesk.access.log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/uvdesk.error.log;
# SSL
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/uvdesk.example.com/fullchain.pem;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/uvdesk.example.com/privkey.pem;
ssl_trusted_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/uvdesk.example.com/chain.pem;
ssl_session_timeout 5m;
ssl_session_cache shared:MozSSL:10m;
ssl_session_tickets off;
ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
ssl_ciphers ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384;
ssl_ecdh_curve X25519:prime256v1:secp384r1:secp521r1;
ssl_stapling on;
ssl_stapling_verify on;
ssl_dhparam /etc/ssl/certs/dhparam.pem;
resolver 8.8.8.8;
root /var/www/uvdesk/public;
index index.php;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
}
# Pass PHP Scripts To FastCGI Server
location ~ \.php$ {
fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(.*)$;
fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.0-fpm.sock; # Depends On The PHP Version
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
include fastcgi_params;
try_files $uri =404;
}
}
# enforce HTTPS
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
server_name uvdesk.example.com;
return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}
Notice the root directory to be used in the Nginx configuration is /var/www/uvdesk/public/ and not /var/www/uvdesk/.
Save the file by pressing Ctrl + X and entering Y when prompted once finished.
Open the file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf for editing.
$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
Add the following line before the line include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;.
server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
Save the file by pressing Ctrl + X and entering Y when prompted.
Verify the Nginx configuration file syntax.
$ sudo nginx -t nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful
Restart the Nginx service.
$ sudo systemctl restart nginx
Step 10 - Install UVDesk
Launch the URL https://uvdesk.example.com in your browser, and you will get the following screen.
Click the Let's Begin button to start the installation process. The installer will check for PHP settings and file permissions on the next page.
Click Proceed to continue. You will be asked to fill in the database details on the next page. Enter the data as configured in step 4.
Click Proceed to continue. Next, you will be asked to create a super administrator account. Fill in your details.
Click Proceed to continue. Next, you will be asked to configure the website by giving a name to the Member and Customer Panel prefixes. These prefixes are used in the website URLs.
Click Proceed to continue. You will reach the final installation page.
Click Install Now to begin the installation. Once finished, you will get the following screen.
You can access the admin panel and the frontend website through the given links. Your UVDesk installation is ready to use.
Notice: If the installation fails because of an SQL error "SQLSTATE[42S02]: Base table or view not found: 1146 Table 'uvdesk.uv_support_role' doesn't exist,", use the commands listed below to fix the problem.
$ cd /var/www/helpdesk.example.com/ $ php bin/console doctrine:migrations:diff $ php bin/console doctrine:migrations:migrate $ php bin/console c:c $ sudo shutdown -r now
Conclusion
You have installed the UVdesk Helpdesk system on a Ubuntu 22.04 server using Nginx, MySQL, and PHP. If you have any questions, post them in the comments below.
