3.1. Quick Start (Ubuntu Linux 14.04)

This quick start guide makes installing Bugzilla as simple as possible for those who are able to choose their environment. It creates a system using Ubuntu Linux 14.04 LTS, Apache and MySQL. It requires a little familiarity with Linux and the command line.

3.1.1. Obtain Your Hardware

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Server requires a 64-bit processor. Bugzilla itself has no prerequisites beyond that, although you should pick reliable hardware. You can also probably use any 64-bit virtual machine or cloud instance that you have root access on.

3.1.2. Install the OS

Get Ubuntu Server 14.04 LTS and follow the installation instructions. Here are some tips:

  • Choose any server name you like.

  • When creating the initial Linux user, call it bugzilla, give it a strong password, and write that password down.

  • You do not need an encrypted home directory.

  • Choose all the defaults for the “partitioning” part (excepting of course where the default is “No” and you need to press “Yes” to continue).

  • Choose “install security updates automatically” unless you want to do them manually.

  • From the install options, choose “OpenSSH Server” and “LAMP Server”.

  • Set the password for the MySQL root user to a strong password, and write that password down.

  • Install the Grub boot loader to the Master Boot Record.

Reboot when the installer finishes.

3.1.3. Become root

ssh to the machine as the ‘bugzilla’ user, or start a console. Then:

sudo su

3.1.4. Install Prerequisites

apt-get install git nano

apt-get install apache2 mysql-server libappconfig-perl libdate-calc-perl libtemplate-perl libmime-perl build-essential libdatetime-timezone-perl libdatetime-perl libemail-sender-perl libemail-mime-perl libemail-mime-modifier-perl libdbi-perl libdbd-mysql-perl libcgi-pm-perl libmath-random-isaac-perl libmath-random-isaac-xs-perl apache2-mpm-prefork libapache2-mod-perl2 libapache2-mod-perl2-dev libchart-perl libxml-perl libxml-twig-perl perlmagick libgd-graph-perl libtemplate-plugin-gd-perl libsoap-lite-perl libhtml-scrubber-perl libjson-rpc-perl libdaemon-generic-perl libtheschwartz-perl libtest-taint-perl libauthen-radius-perl libfile-slurp-perl libencode-detect-perl libmodule-build-perl libnet-ldap-perl libauthen-sasl-perl libtemplate-perl-doc libfile-mimeinfo-perl libhtml-formattext-withlinks-perl libgd-dev libmysqlclient-dev lynx-cur graphviz python-sphinx

This will take a little while. It’s split into two commands so you can do the next steps (up to step 7) in another terminal while you wait for the second command to finish. If you start another terminal, you will need to sudo su again.

3.1.5. Download Bugzilla

Get it from our Git repository:

cd /var/www/html

git clone --branch release-X.X-stable https://github.com/bugzilla/bugzilla bugzilla

(where “X.X” is the 2-digit version number of the stable release of Bugzilla that you want - e.g. 5.0)

3.1.6. Configure MySQL

The following instructions use the simple nano editor, but feel free to use any text editor you are comfortable with.

nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Set the following values, which increase the maximum attachment size and make it possible to search for short words and terms:

  • Alter on Line 52: max_allowed_packet=100M

  • Add as new line 32, in the [mysqld] section: ft_min_word_len=2

Save and exit.

Then, add a user to MySQL for Bugzilla to use:

mysql -u root -p -e "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON bugs.* TO bugs@localhost IDENTIFIED BY '$db_pass'"

Replace $db_pass with a strong password you have generated. Write it down. When you run the above command, it will prompt you for the MySQL root password that you configured when you installed Ubuntu. You should make $db_pass different to that password.

Restart MySQL:

service mysql restart

3.1.7. Configure Apache

nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/bugzilla.conf

Paste in the following and save:

ServerName localhost

<Directory /var/www/html/bugzilla>
  AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
  Options +ExecCGI
  DirectoryIndex index.cgi index.html
  AllowOverride All
</Directory>

a2ensite bugzilla

a2enmod cgi headers expires

service apache2 restart

3.1.8. Check Setup

Bugzilla comes with a checksetup.pl script which helps with the installation process. It will need to be run twice. The first time, it generates a config file (called localconfig) for the database access information, and the second time (step 10) it uses the info you put in the config file to set up the database.

cd /var/www/html/bugzilla

./checksetup.pl

3.1.9. Edit localconfig

nano localconfig

You will need to set the following values:

  • Line 29: set $webservergroup to www-data

  • Line 67: set $db_pass to the password for the bugs user you created in MySQL a few steps ago

3.1.10. Check Setup (again)

Run the checksetup.pl script again to set up the database.

./checksetup.pl

It will ask you to give an email address, real name and password for the first Bugzilla account to be created, which will be an administrator. Write down the email address and password you set.

3.1.11. Test Server

./testserver.pl http://localhost/bugzilla

All the tests should pass. You will get warnings about deprecation from the Chart::Base Perl module; just ignore those.

3.1.12. Access Via Web Browser

Access the front page:

lynx http://localhost/bugzilla

It’s not really possible to use Bugzilla for real through Lynx, but you can view the front page to validate visually that it’s up and running.

You might well need to configure your DNS such that the server has, and is reachable by, a name rather than IP address. Doing so is out of scope of this document. In the mean time, it is available on your local network at http://<ip address>/bugzilla, where <ip address> is (unless you have a complex network setup) the “inet addr” value displayed when you run ifconfig eth0.

3.1.13. Configure Bugzilla

Once you have worked out how to access your Bugzilla in a graphical web browser, bring up the front page, click Log In in the header, and log in as the admin user you defined in step 10.

Click the Parameters link on the page it gives you, and set the following parameters in the Required Settings section:

  • urlbase: http://<servername>/bugzilla/ or http://<ip address>/bugzilla/

Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

There are several ways to get Bugzilla to send email. The easiest is to use Gmail, so we do that here so you have it working. Visit https://gmail.com and create a new Gmail account for your Bugzilla to use. Then, open the Email section of the Parameters using the link in the left column, and set the following parameter values:

  • mail_delivery_method: SMTP

  • mailfrom: new_gmail_address@gmail.com

  • smtpserver: smtp.gmail.com:465

  • smtp_username: new_gmail_address@gmail.com

  • smtp_password: new_gmail_password

  • smtp_ssl: On

Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

And you’re all ready to go. :-)

This documentation undoubtedly has bugs; if you find some, please file them here.