1 Request Tracker (RT) Installation and Configuration

1.1 Notes:

• Commands preceded with "$" imply that you should execute the command as a general user - not as root.
• Commands preceded with "#" imply that you should be working as the root user.
• Commands with more specific command lines (e.g. RTR-GW> or mysql>) imply that you are executing commands on remote equipment, or within another program.
• If a command line ends with "" this indicates that the command continues on the next line and you should treat this as a single line.

2 Exercises

2.1 Exercise 0

Log in to your virtual machine as the sysadm user.

2.2 Exercise 1

Install the necessary packages for RT. You should have mysql-server already, but we do the install just in case. This won't cause problems.

Copy the "sudo apt-get install" lines below including the "" character, minus the "$" and paste this in to your terminal session on your virtual machine.

$ sudo apt-get install rt4-apache2 rt4-clients rt4-db-mysql request-tracker4 libapache2-mod-fastcgi libfcgi-perl mutt 

Respond "Yes" when prompted if you wish to install the packages.

You will now be presented with several windows. Read the follwing instructions to see how to respond:

Name for this Request Tracker (RT) instance:

Remove what is shown and replace with "netmgmt", then select <Ok> and press ENTER to continue.

RT installation name

Handle RT_SiteConfig.pm permissions?

• Select <Yes> and press ENTER to continue.

Configure database for request-tracker4 with dbconfig-common?

• Select <Yes> and press ENTER to continue.

DB configuration

Password of the database's administrative user:

Enter the MySQL root or admin password. This was set earlier in the workshop (probably when you installed Cacti). If you do not remember what this is, or if it's not written at the front of the classroom, ask an instructor for help.

DB admin password

MySQL application password for request-tracker4:

You may enter any password you wish. This will be used by Request Tracker to connect to MySQL. You generally do not need to remember this password. Pick something that cannot be guessed easily (i.e., don't use rt, requesttracker, 1234, etc...).

DB application password

Password confirmation:

• Enter the same password that you created in the previous step.

DB application password

Initial root password for RT system:

• Use the same password as we used for the MySQL database administrative user.

Initial root password

Now you will see quite a bit of information go across your screen as the Request Tracker installation process completes - It's a big package.

2.3 Exercise 3

At this point you have installed Request Tracker version 4. In order to access RT via the Apache web server you need to make a few small changes.

First let's update the Requestion Tracker (RT) configuration to improve the "From:" field format that will be used when RT sends out emails to users. In addition we will restrict attachment sizes and we will add our RT server to a whitelist to avoid cross site forgery error messages for legitimate RT usage.

Request Tracker maintains configuration files in the directory:

/etc/request-tracker4/RT_SiteConfig.d

We will go to this directory, create a new configuration file called 90-local and regenerate the RT RT_SiteConfig.pm file using the update-rt-siteconfig command:

$ cd /etc/request-tracker4/RT_SiteConfig.d
$ touch 90-local
$ edit 90-local

Add the following two lines to the file 90-local:

Set($MaxAttachmentSize , 10000000);
Set(@ReferrerWhitelist, qw(x.x.x.x:80  SERVNAME:80));

In the ReferrerWhitelist entry x.x.x.x. is the IP address of your PC and SERVNAME is the name of your PC. That is, if you are on pc1.ws.nsrc.org you would enter:

Set(@ReferrerWhitelist, qw(10.10.1.1:80 pc1.ws.nsrc.org:80));

Be sure to use the correct IP address and name for your PC, then save the file and execute the command:

$ sudo update-rt-siteconfig

Now we have one more change to the Apache web server configuration to make:

$ cd /etc/apache2/conf-available
$ sudo ln -s /etc/request-tracker4/apache2-modperl2.conf rt4.conf
$ sudo a2enconf rt4 
$ sudo service apache2 restart

The last step could take up to 30 seconds, so be patient! RT should now be up and running!

2.4 Exercise 3

Log in to RT as the root User

If you go to http://pcN.ws.nsrc.org/rt/ you will see the RT login screen:

Login screen

Enter the following information to log in as root on RT:

Username: root

Password: [SELECTED AT INSTALL]

2.5 Exercise 4

RT Configuration: Create a User

Now that you are logged in we will create a new user for the rest of these exercises.

On the top of the screen choose Tools => Configuration => Users and then click on the Create item in the menu.

Create User

You will now be presented with the following dialogue. Fill in the fields, and make sure the checkbox Let this user be granted rights is checked. Set your email to sysadm@pcX.ws.nsrc.org (X = your PC)

User creation form

Use the same password for sysadm as you are using in class. Be sure you check Let this user be granted rights. Once done, scroll down the page and click on the Create button (bottom right). You should see this:

User created

2.6 Exercise 5

RT Configuration: Create a Group

• At the top, choose the menu item Tools => Configuration => Group => Create

Create group

• Fill in the name: netmgmt, and add a description, then click on Create

Create group form

• You should see the following result:

Group created

• Click on Members (top menu)

Group members

• In the Add members field (right), type in the name of the user you created in step 3. This is the sysadm user. Then click on Modify Members (bottom right):

Add member

• You should see this:

Member added

2.7 Exercise 6

RT Configuration: Create a New Queue

• At the top, choose the menu item Tools => Configuration => Queue => Create

Create queue

• Fill in the fields. Let's use the following values and then click on Create:

Queue Name: net

Description: Network Problems

Subject Tag: RT: NET

Reply Address: net@pcX.ws.nsrc.org

Comment Address: net-comment@pcX.ws.nsrc.org

Queue create form

Note: Remember to replace pcX with the correct number of your machine

You should see this:

Queue created

2.8 Exercise 7

RT Configuration: Give Rights to our Group on the Queue

From the top menu, select Tools => Configuration => Queue => Select

You should see:

Enabled Queues

• Select net (click on it) then choose Group Rights (top right)

Group rights

The following page should look like this:

Group rights overview

Note the three categories: General rights, Rights for Staff, Rights for Administrators

Here, we want to give Everyone (including people who are not yet known to RT) some privileges, but only the minimum required. These are found under General Rights, and are the following:

• Create tickets (CreateTicket)
• Reply to tickets (ReplyToTicket)
• View queue (SeeQueue)
• View ticket summaries (ShowTicket)

So start by selecting these 4 privileges by checking the 4 boxes in your browser.

Notice that Everyone on the left is already highlighted.