Request Tracker(RT) ticketing system for your Support Group

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RT is an enterprise-grade ticketing system which enables a group of people to intelligently and efficiently manage tasks, issues, and requests submitted by a community of users.

Request Tracker Features

RT is your organization's focal point for tracking tasks, issues, knowledge, and collaboration.

It's easy to submit, assign, prioritize, search, escalate, and report on issues.

RT keeps track of each ticket's full history and metadata to help your organization better retain knowledge and analyze trends.

RT can track multiple projects for multiple teams within a single installation.

RT tracks critical system metadata, including time spent per action, due dates, and estimated time to completion.

It's easy to record private comments that are not available to end-users.

RT's web interface comes complete with an intuitive "iterative" search interface that allows end users to construct

complex queries by pointing and clicking within their web browsers.

Users can save and edit queries later, using their browser's "bookmarks" feature.

Install Request Tracker in Ubuntu

First you need to make sure you have enabled Universe Source list in /etc/apt/sources.list file

Now you need to install the following packages

sudo apt-get install request-tracker3.4 rt3.4-apache2 rt3.4-clients apache2-doc postfix postgresql postgresql-doc-7.4
lynx

This will start the installation it also installs the Additional services required for Request-Tracker, such as Apache2
-- Web Server, Postfix -- Email Server (for sending emails), & PostgreSql-7.4 -- Database to Store the RT information.

At the time of installation it will prompt for your postfix configuration.In the "Postfix Configuration":
I choose "Internet Site", because I preffer to have the system send emails without being dependant on a different mail
server.The logic behind that is because if the email Server goes down, the Ticket-Server should not follow.

Postfix is now set up with a default configuration. If you need to make changes, edit /etc/postfix/main.cf as needed.After modifying main.cf you need to reload the postfix using the following command.

sudo /etc/init.d/postfix reload

You will also see this: Configuring postgresql-common

Obsolete major version 7.4

The PostgreSQL version 7.4 is obsolete, but you still have the server and/or client package installed. Please
install the latest packages (postgresql-8.1 and postgresql-client-8.1) and upgrade your existing clusters with
pg_upgradecluster (see manpage).

Please be aware that the installation of postgresql..................

The old server and client..................

just click OK, as RT3.4 is certified with 7.4.

Configuring Request Tracker

Request Tracker configuration file located at /etc/request-tracker3.4/RT_SiteConfig.pm

You need to take backup before doing any changes to your config file using the following command

sudo cp /etc/request-tracker3.4/RT_SiteConfig.pm /etc/request-tracker3.4/RT_SiteConfig.pm.orig

Edit the configuration file using the following command

sudo vim /etc/request-tracker3.4/RT_SiteConfig.pm

Customize using the directions in the file and add this to the end of the file but before the "1;" ...

Set($DatabaseHost , ‘localhost');
Set($DatabaseRTHost , ‘localhost');

If you want to see the sample configuration file check here

Create the user for the RT database

Enter the following commands

sudo su postgres

psql -d template1

CREATE USER rtuser WITH PASSWORD ‘wibble' CREATEDB NOCREATEUSER; \q

exit

Setup Postgresql permissions

You need to take backup of postgresql config file using the following command

sudo cp /etc/postgresql/7.4/main/pg_hba.conf /etc/postgresql/7.4/main/pg_hba.conf.orig

Edit the file using the following command

sudo vi /etc/postgresql/7.4/main/pg_hba.conf

at the bottom of the file along with the other similar lines -- but above existing entries.

###according to install.debian for request-tracker
host template1 rtuser 127.0.0.1 255.255.255.255 password
local template1 rtuser password
host rtdb rtuser 127.0.0.1 255.255.255.255 password
local rtdb rtuser password

save and exit the file

Now you need to do the following change

You need to take backup of postgresql config file using the following command

sudo cp /etc/postgresql/7.4/main/postgresql.conf /etc/postgresql/7.4/main/postgresql.conf.orig

Edit the file using the following command

sudo vi /etc/postgresql/7.4/main/postgresql.conf

change

#tcpip_socket = false

to

tcpip_socket = true

save and exit the file

Now you need to restart the postgresql database using the following command

sudo /etc/init.d/postgresql-7.4 restart

Create RT DataBase

Now you need to create RT Database using the following command

sudo /usr/sbin/rt-setup-database-3.4 --action init --dba rtuser --prompt-for-dba-password

#enter password at the prompt, we set it to wibble in the example above

Configuring Apache

You need to take backup of apache config file using the following command

sudo cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/default /etc/apache2/sites-available/default.orig

Edit the configuration file

sudo vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/default

Add the following line to the VirtualHost section of Apache from which you wish to serve RT

Include "/etc/request-tracker3.4/apache2-modperl2.conf"

save and exit the file

If you want to see the sample apache config file check here

Enable Apache2 RewriteEngine

sudo cd /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/

sudo ln -s ../mods-available/rewrite.load .

Restart Apache web server using the following command

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 force-reload

Testing Web Interface

Now you need to point your browser to http://yourserverip/rt/

You should see similar to the following screen

In the above screen promted for username and password use

Username :- root

Password :- password

Once you logged in you should see the following screen

First thing you need to change the password via the Configuration menu

If you want more documentation about how to use RT check here

I have tested this in Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft) and it was working fine without any problem.

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