How To Implement a Help Desk System using OTRS on Ubuntu 19.10

Prerequisites

Installing Apache

First, you need to install Apache web server using Ubuntu's package manager like below:

sudo apt -y install apache2 apache2-ssl-dev apache2-dev

Installing Perl Modules

sudo apt -y install libapache2-mod-perl2 libdbd-mysql-perl libtimedate-perl libnet-dns-perl libnet-ldap-perl libio-socket-ssl-perl libpdf-api2-perl libsoap-lite-perl libtext-csv-xs-perl libjson-xs-perl libapache-dbi-perl libxml-libxml-perl libxml-libxslt-perl libyaml-perl libarchive-zip-perl libcrypt-eksblowfish-perl libencode-hanextra-perl libmail-imapclient-perl libtemplate-perl libdatetime-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdbd-odbc-perl libdbd-pg-perl libauthen-ntlm-perl

Installing MySQL

Now that you have your web server up and running, it is time to install MySQL database:

sudo apt -y install mysql-server

Securing MySQL

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Response to the following prompts on your Ubuntu server like below:

Securing the MySQL server deployment.

Connecting to MySQL using a blank password.

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: 0
Please set the password for root here.

New password:

Re-enter new password:

Estimated strength of the password: 100
Do you wish to continue with the password provided?(Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : y
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!

sudo mysql -u root -p

Type the following on your mysql prompt but make sure you change password:

alter user 'root'@'localhost' identified with mysql_native_password by 'P@ssw0rd';
flush privileges;
exit

Downloading OTRS

wget https://ftp.otrs.org/pub/otrs/otrs-6.0.24.zip

sudo unzip -d /opt otrs-6.0.24.zip
sudo mv /opt/otrs-6.0.24/ /opt/otrs

Configuring OTRS

In this section, we will create a system user for OTRS, and then configure Apache and MySQL server to work with OTRS.

Create a user name otrs to run OTRS functions with the useradd command:

sudo useradd -d /opt/otrs -c 'OTRS User' otrs
sudo usermod -G www-data otrs

OTRS comes with a default config file /opt/otrs/Kernel/Config.pm.dist, you can activate this by copying it without the .dist filename extension:

sudo cp /opt/otrs/Kernel/Config.pm.dist /opt/otrs/Kernel/Config.pm

Now run the otrs.SetPermissions.pl script. It will detect the correct user and group settings and set the file and directory permissions for OTRS.

sudo /opt/otrs/bin/otrs.SetPermissions.pl

Next, activate the Apache configuration file and make sure it is loaded after all other configurations. To do this, make a symbolic link with the zzz_ prefix:

sudo ln -s /opt/otrs/scripts/apache2-httpd.include.conf /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/zzz_otrs.conf

sudo a2enmod perl
sudo a2enmod headers
sudo a2enmod deflate
sudo a2enmod filter

These modules enable Apache to work with Perl, control HTTP headers, compress server output, and configure output content filters.

Restart your Apache web server to apply new configurations:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Before you go to the next step and run the web installer, change some of the MySQL configuration settings. Open the MySQL configuration file in your preferred text editor:

sudo nano /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf

For max_allowed_packet and innodb_log_file_size, change the values to 64M and 512M respectively, as highlighted in the following code block:

innodb_log_file_size = 512M
max_allowed_packet      = 64M

Save and close file when you are finished.

Restart MySQL service to take changes into effect:

sudo systemctl restart mysql.service

Now run below script to verify if you are missing any module required to run otrs:

sudo /opt/otrs/bin/otrs.CheckModules.pl

We do not need DBD::Oracle module as we are running MySQL database, so you can safely ignore it and move to next step.

Creating Database

In this step, we will create a database, user and password for OTRS like below:

sudo mysql -u root -p

Type the following on mysql prompt but make sure you change password of your choice:

create database otrs;

create user 'otrs'@'localhost' identified by 'P@ssw0rd';

grant all privileges on otrs.* to 'otrs'@'localhost';

flush privileges;

exit

Connect to mysql prompt again to modify otrs database:

sudo mysql -u root -p otrs

Type the following on mysql prompt:

alter user 'otrs'@'localhost' identified with mysql_native_password by 'P@ssw0rd';

alter database otrs CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;

flush privileges;

exit

Now restart MySQL service to take changes into effect:

sudo systemctl restart mysql.service

Now edit /opt/otrs/Kernel/Config.pm file and update the following parameter with your otrs database user's password:

sudo nano /opt/otrs/Kernel/Config.pm

$Self->{DatabasePw} = 'P@ssw0rd';

Save and close file when you are finished.

Now that you have created the database and configured Apache and MySQL to work with OTRS, you are ready to use the web installer.

Accessing Web Installer

Click Next


Accept License and Continue



Type: MySQL
Install Type: Use and existing database for OTRS

Click Next

Enter database credentials you created earlier then click Check database settings


You will see Database check successful like below.

Click Next


It will take few moments and then you will see below screen.

Click Next


Next, provide the following required system settings:

System FQDN
AdminEmail
Organization

Leave all other options at their default values:

Click Next.




The only thing left after a successful installation is to start the OTRS daemon and activate its cronjob.

sudo su - otrs -c "/opt/otrs/bin/otrs.Daemon.pl start"

You will see the following output:

Manage the OTRS daemon process.
Daemon started

There are two default cron files in the /opt/otrs/var/cron/ directory. Move into this directory.

cd /opt/otrs/var/cron

These cron files are used to make sure that the OTRS daemon is running. Activate them by copying them without the .dist filename extension.

sudo cp aaa_base.dist aaa_base
sudo cp otrs_daemon.dist otrs_daemon

To schedule these cron jobs, use the script Cron.sh with the otrs user:

sudo su - otrs -c "/opt/otrs/bin/Cron.sh start"

Next, we will log in to the administrator web interface by navigating https://your_server_name/otrs/index.pl or https://your_server_ip/otrs/index.pl and perform the below tasks.

Securing OTRS

To get started, log in as root@localhost and the password you copied from earlier step of web installer, then click Login.


You will see the main dashboard. It contains several widgets which show different information about tickets, statistics, news, etc. You can freely rearrange them by dragging or switch their visibility in settings.



First, we will create a new agent.


Click the Add agent button. This will bring you to the Add Agent screen. Most of the default options are fine. Fill in the first name, last name, username, password, and email fields. Record the username and password for future login. Submit the form by clicking the Save button.

Next, change the group relations for the new agent. Because your agent will also be the administrator, you can give it full read and write access to all groups. To do this, click the checkbox next to RW all the way on the right, under Change Group Relations for Agent.



Finally, click Save and finish.

Now, log out and log back in again using the newly created account. You can find the Logout link by clicking on the avatar picture in the top left corner.



Once you have logged back in, you can customize your agent's preferences by clicking on Personal preferences in the avatar menu. There you can change your password, choose the interface language, configure setup notifications and favorite queues, change interface skins, etc.

Once you have logged in as your new agent and configured the account to your liking, the next step is to configure the inbound mail options to generate tickets from incoming emails.

Configuring OTRS Inbound Mail

Customers have two ways to forward new tickets to OTRS: via the customer front-end or by sending an email. In order to receive customer's messages you need to set up a POP or IMAP account. We will use a Gmail account as an example for OTRS configuration.

Navigate to the Admin tab by clicking on Admin in the top menu. Then find the PostMaster Mail Accounts option and click on it. Press the Add Mail Account button to set up a new mailbox.



On the Add Mail Account screen, select IMAPS for Type. For Username, type in your email address, and Password. Leave all other options as default. Click Save.

Next, send a test email from an external email account to your dedicated OTRS email account. The mail will be fetched every 10 minutes by the OTRS daemon, but you can force receipt by clicking the Fetch mail link.

As a result, you will see the new ticket.



Now you are ready to accept tickets from customers via email. Next, you will go through the process of creating a ticket through the customer front-end.

Configuring OTRS Customer Interface

The second way for a customer to create a ticket is through the OTRS front-end. In this step, you will walk through this process to make sure this ticket creation method is set up.

The customer front-end is located at http://your_server_name/otrs/customer.pl or http://your_server_ip/otrs/customer.pl. Navigate to it in a web browser. You can create a customer account there and submit a ticket using the GUI.

Use the Sign up now link to open the registration form and fill out the below form and press the Create button.




You will see a message like this:

New account created. Sent login information to username@youremail.com. Please check your email.

Check your inbox for the message from the OTRS. You will see a message with the new account credentials:

Hi example,

You or someone impersonating you has created a new OTRS account for
you.

Full name: example
User name: example@youremail.com
Password : user_password

You can log in via the following URL. We encourage you to change your password via the Preferences button after logging in.

http://your_server_name/otrs/customer.pl or http://your_server_ip/otrs/customer.pl