glpi

Managing Computing Infrastructures with GLPI and a Database for MySQL

Reviewed on 07 March 2023 • Published on 13 August 2020

GLPI
Asset
Management
sysadmin
Database
MySQL
Nginx

Gestionnaire Libre de Parc Informatique (GLPI), or Open Source IT Equipment Manager in English, is a web-based asset and IT management open-source software, written in PHP and released under the GNU General Public License. A graphic interface, accessible via web-browser, allows users to easily operate IT operations, that can include hardware from peripherals to entire server racks.

The application disposes of several features to assist companies in managing their information systems. Among them:

Asset management and automatic inventory
Item lifecycle management
Data Center Infrastructure Management
Issue tracking system
Helpdesk
Administrative and financial management of IT assets
Statistics and reports
Knowledge base

Security & Identity (IAM):

You may need certain IAM permissions to carry out some actions described on this page. This means:

you are the Owner of the Scaleway Organization in which the actions will be carried out, or
you are an IAM user of the Organization, with a policy granting you the necessary permission sets

Important:

You have an account and are logged into the Scaleway console
You have configured your SSH key
You have created an Instance that runs Ubuntu Focal Fossa (20.04 LTS)
You have a domain or subdomain pointed to your Instance

Installing the stack

In this tutorial we will install and configure a LEMP-Stack using Ngnix, a Database for MySQL and PHP.

Update the systems’ apt repository information and upgrade it to make sure that the system is up to date and that the latest bug-fixes are installed.
```
apt update && apt -y upgrade
```
Use Ubuntu’s apt package manager to install Nginx. Then, restart and enable Nginx.
```
apt install nginx
systemctl restart nginx.service
systemctl enable nginx.service
```

Install PHP.

apt install php7.4-fpm php7.4-common php7.4-mysql php7.4-gmp php7.4-curl php7.4-intl php7.4-mbstring php7.4-soap php7.4-xmlrpc php7.4-gd php7.4-xml php7.4-cli php7.4-zip

Creating a Database for MySQL

In this tutorial we use a Scaleway Database for MySQL. To create the database, follow this how-to.

Note:

Make sure you select MySQL as your database engine.

Downloading GLPI

Change the directory from root to the folder where you want to download the GLPI repository.

In this tutorial, we use /tmp
```
cd /tmp
```
Check the most recent version of GLPI here and replace it in the commands accordingly. In this tutorial we are using version 10.0.2
```
wget https://github.com/glpi-project/glpi/releases/download/10.0.2/glpi-10.0.2.tgz
tar -xvf glpi-10.0.2.tgz
```
Move glpi to the /var/www/glpi directory.
```
mv glpi /var/www/glpi
```

Give Nginx ownership of the directory.

chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/glpi/

Configuring Nginx

Use a text editor to create a new server block VirtualHost file named glpi under the /etc/nginx/sites-available directory to include the client request settings of your web server. In this tutorial we use nano as a text editor.
```
nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/glpi
```

Copy and paste the configuration below into the file. Replace example.com with your domain name and save.

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name  example.com www.example.com;
    root   /var/www/glpi;
    index  index.php index.html index.htm;
    access_log /var/log/nginx/example.com.access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/example.com.error.log;
    client_max_body_size 100M;
    autoindex off;
    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
    location /dataroot/ {
      internal;
      alias /var/www/glpi/;
    }
location ~ [^/].php(/|$) {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
}

Create a symbolic link to enable the server block and restart Nginx.

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/glpi /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
systemctl restart nginx.service

Enter your server’s domain name or IP address in a browser to check if GLPI can be accessed via Internet.

Installing an SSL/TLS certificate

In order to protect user credentials and other confidential information that are stored in GLPI, you can generate an SSL/TLS certificate issued by Let’s Encrypt for free.

In this tutorial we use certbot.

Prepare the system:

apt-get update
apt-get install software-properties-common
add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot
apt-get update

Install certbot using snap.

apt-get install python3-certbot-nginx

Run certbot:
```
certbot --nginx
```

Answer the questions when prompted by the certbot Wizard. A) Enter your e-mail address.

Enter email address (used for urgent renewal and security notices) (Enter 'c' to
cancel):

Please read the Terms of Service at
https://letsencrypt.org/documents/LE-SA-v1.2-November-15-2017.pdf. You must
agree in order to register with the ACME server at
https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(A)gree/(C)ancel: A

B) Type A to agree.

Would you be willing to share your email address with the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, a founding partner of the Let's Encrypt project and the non-profit
organization that develops Certbot? We'd like to send you email about our work
encrypting the web, EFF news, campaigns, and ways to support digital freedom.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(Y)es/(N)o:

C) Choose Yes or No and input accordingly. The Wizard then asks which names you would like to activate HTTPS for.

D) Input the corresponding number(s) and enter.

Which names would you like to activate HTTPS for?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1: example.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Select the appropriate numbers separated by commas and/or spaces, or leave input
blank to select all options shown (Enter 'c' to cancel): 1

E) Answer the following prompt with 2 and press enter If you want to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS.

Please choose whether or not to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS, removing HTTP access.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1: No redirect - Make no further changes to the webserver configuration.
2: Redirect - Make all requests redirect to secure HTTPS access. Choose this for
new sites, or if you're confident your site works on HTTPS. You can undo this
change by editing your web server's configuration.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Select the appropriate number [1-2] then [enter] (press 'c' to cancel): 2

Your certificate is generated.

Obtaining a new certificate
Performing the following challenges:
http-01 challenge for openproject-scw.ga
Using the webroot path /opt/openproject/public for all unmatched domains.
Waiting for verification...
Cleaning up challenges
IMPORTANT NOTES:
- Congratulations! Your certificate and chain have been saved at:
  /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.name/fullchain.pem
  Your key file has been saved at:
  /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.name/privkey.pem
  Your cert will expire on 2020-10-20. To obtain a new or tweaked
  version of this certificate in the future, simply run certbot
  again. To non-interactively renew *all* of your certificates, run
  "certbot renew"
- Your account credentials have been saved in your Certbot
  configuration directory at /etc/letsencrypt. You should make a
  secure backup of this folder now. This configuration directory will
  also contain certificates and private keys obtained by Certbot so
  making regular backups of this folder is ideal.

Take note of the paths provided as they will be required in a later step.
Run the command below to program an automatic renewal of your certificate.
```
certbot renew --dry-run
```

Configuring GLPI

Access your GLPI interface via browser using your domain name or IP address. The GLPI setup wizard displays.
Select the language and click OK. The GLPI license terms display.
Read the license terms and check I have READ and ACCEPT the terms of the license written above to proceed.
Click Install to begin the installation,

The wizard runs a compatibility check and a list of tests done on the environment displays.
Click Continue to proceed.
Fill out the boxes to set up your database connection. Enter the following information:
- SQL Server (MariaDB or MySQL): XXX.XXX.XX.XX:PORT (The IP address of your Database Instance followed by the MySQL port)
- SQL User: db-username (The username previously created for your Database)
- SQL Password: db-password (The password previously created for your Database)
Click Continue to proceed.
Select a database and click Continue:

The initialization of the database might take a few minutes.
Click Continue again.

Once the installation completes, your default logins and passwords display.
Use the following identification to connect as the administrator:
- Login: glpi
- Password: glpi
The GLPI dashboard displays.

Important:

For security reasons GLPI recommends you to change the password for your default users and to remove the install/install.php file.

Your setup is complete. You can begin managing assets and resources. GLPI provides documentation to help you get started.