Setup osTicket server on OpenBSD

This guide will help you set up osTicket using Nginx and MariaDB on OpenBSD 6.5. osTicket is an Open-Source Helpdesk Ticketing System.

osTicket is a widely-used and trusted open source support ticket system. It seamlessly routes inquiries created via email, web-forms and phone calls into a simple, easy-to-use, multi-user, web-based customer support platform. osTicket comes packed with more features and tools than most of the expensive (and complex) support ticket systems on the market.

Install necessary packages such as nginx, php, mariadb, etc. Select PHP 7.3 when prompted.

pkg_add nginx unzip mariadb-server mariadb-client php php-mysqli php-cgi php-gd php-imap php-intl

Enable the services.

 
rcctl enable mysqld      
rcctl enable nginx
rcctl enable php73_fpm

Edit /etc/php-7.3.ini, uncomment the following line and change its value to 0:

cgi.fix_pathinfo=0

Again in /etc/php-7.3.ini, add the following line under the “Dynamic Extensions” section:

extension=mysqli.so
extension=gd.so
extension=imap.so
extension=intl.so
zend_extension=opcache.so

Setup MariaDB

mysql_install_db
rcctl start mysqld
mysql_secure_installation

Once the MariaDB setup is complete, connect with MySQL shell with the following command:

mysql -u root -p

Create a new database and user for osTicket, the database name is osticketdb and the username is osticket.

mysql> create database osticketdb;
mysql> create user osticket@localhost identified by 'create-a-strong-password here';
mysql> grant all privileges on osticketdb.* to osticket@localhost identified by 'create-a-strong-password here';
mysql> flush privileges;
mysql> exit;

This step is a number of small ones - we are creating a directory to serve osTicket from, changing directories to the newly created one, downloading and unarchiving osTicket and then changing the permissions. Please visit the following page to see the current version, then in the commmands below make sure to use the latest version.

mkdir -p /var/www/htdocs/osticket
cd /var/www/htdocs/osticket
ftp https://github.com/osTicket/osTicket/releases/download/v1.12/osTicket-v1.12.zip
unzip osTicket-v1.12.zip
rm osTicket-v1.12.zip
cp upload/include/ost-sampleconfig.php upload/include/ost-config.php
chown -R www:www /var/www/htdocs/osticket

Create the Nginx config, save it as /etc/nginx/nginx.conf. Make sure you edit the server name and SSL cert as appropriate for your setup.

user  www;
worker_processes 4;

events {
	worker_connections  1024;
}

http {
	include         mime.types;
	default_type    application/octet-stream;
	sendfile        on;
	charset         utf-8;
	gzip            on;
	gzip_types      text/plain application/xml text/javascript;
	gzip_min_length 1000;

	index index.php index.html index.htm;

	# Rewrite all requests from HTTP to HTTPS
	server {
		listen 80;
		server_name osticket.daulton.ca;
		rewrite ^ https://osticket.daulton.ca permanent;
	}

	server {
		listen 443;
		server_name osticket.daulton.ca;
		ssl on;
		ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/server.crt;
		ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/server.key; 
		root /var/www/htdocs/osticket/upload;

		index index.php;
		client_max_body_size 2000M;
		client_body_buffer_size 100M;
		client_header_buffer_size 10M;
		large_client_header_buffers 2 10M;
 
		client_body_timeout 12;
		client_header_timeout 12;
		keepalive_timeout 15;
		send_timeout 10;
 
		set $path_info "";

		location ~ /include {
			deny all;
			return 403;
		}

		if ($request_uri ~ "^/api(/[^\?]+)") {
			set $path_info $1;
		}

		location ~ ^/api/(?:tickets|tasks).*$ {
			try_files $uri $uri/ /api/http.php?$query_string;
		}

		if ($request_uri ~ "^/scp/.*\.php(/[^\?]+)") {
			set $path_info $1;
		}

		location ~ ^/scp/ajax.php/.*$ {
			try_files $uri $uri/ /scp/ajax.php?$query_string;
		}

		location / {
			try_files $uri $uri/ index.php;
		}

		location ~ \.php$ {
			fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME  $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
			include        fastcgi_params;
			fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php-fpm.sock;
			fastcgi_param  PATH_INFO    $path_info;
		}
	}

}

Further setup for PHP FPM or else there will be an error and it will not start as this is not created by default but needed.

mkdir /etc/php-fpm.d
vi /etc/php-fpm.d/default.conf

Add the following:

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Pool Definitions ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

[www]
user = www
group = www
listen = /var/www/run/php-fpm.sock
listen.owner = www
listen.group = www
listen.mode = 0660
pm = dynamic
pm.max_children = 5
pm.start_servers = 2
pm.min_spare_servers = 1
pm.max_spare_servers = 3
chroot = /var/www

Remove the setup directory

rm -rf /var/www/htdocs/osticket/upload/setup
chmod 0644 /var/www/htdocs/osticket/upload/include/ost-config.php

Since osTicket with PHP is handling mailing it needs DNS to function, copy resolv.conf into the www chroot.

mkdir /var/www/etc
cp /etc/resolv.conf /var/www/etc/

Start/restart PHP and nginx now that things are prepared.

rcctl restart php73_fpm nginx

Lastly, we need to add a new root crontab entry to setup email retrieval.

*/3 * * * * /usr/local/bin/php-7.3 /var/www/htdocs/osticket/upload/api/cron.php

You will now be able to access your osTicket installation at the server_name you entered above in the nginx configuration. To access the agent portion of the system append /scp to end to make it like so: https://osticket.daulton.ca/scp

Notes:

If your mail server or provider is not working in the mail settings, please try to use smtpd as outlined in this guide for steps 5-7.
Here is how to generate self-signed keys

openssl genrsa -out /etc/ssl/private/server.key
openssl req -new -x509 -key /etc/ssl/private/server.key -out /etc/ssl/server.crt -days 3365

Setup osTicket server on OpenBSD

Notes:

See Also: