Running OTRS beyond localhost

[Kyle_MBL]

Hi everyone.

Before I get down to business let me introduce myself: My name is Kyle, I work in point of sale IT and I live in Perth, Australia. Nice to meet you all! You have created a great product and am very keen to implement and use it.

I've downloaded v2.4.7 and installed it on my personal notebook, running off localhost. Now, I've had a play around in the menus to get a feel for the program. I've fiddled around with creating users, queues, notifications and tickets so I have a very basic understanding of where everything is that I'll be using mostly.

My basic question is, how do I set up OTRS to be run and accessed from multiple computers. I understand it has to be set up on an external server that said computers can connect to, however this is where I get stuck!

So...

1. How do I go about setting up a PC to act as a server for OTRS?
2. How do I go about installing and configuring OTRS to run off that server?
3. How do I go about installing and configuring OTRS on client computers to connect to the server?

While I work in IT, my experience is mostly in Hardware and Software so unfortunately I don't really have the host/network set up experience to do this without a helping hand. So, any help given is greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
Kyle.

[peter_sk]

Hi,

everything is the same, as you did on your notebook. You can even let users access to your instance of OTRS (on your notebook), if you just put your notebook's IP and name in your company's DNS server. Then your users can acces OTRS with web browser on: http://maschinename.domain.com/otrs/index.pl

But more professional way of doing it is to have a special server, with OS (Linux, Windows) and OTRS installed.

Peter

[Kyle_MBL]

Thanks a lot for your reply Peter it was helpful.

I think in means of testing the program I might do as you suggested with the DNS set up. But like you mentioned a more professional way, which we would prefer once implemented, would be to have it running off it's own server.

If I were to put a server in place (running Windows) what pre-requisites should this server have and how would I go about installing/configuring OTRS on this machine to act as a server.

EDIT: It would be exactly the same wouldn't it (I just re-read everything we've said)? So if I installed OTRS on a separate server, added that servers name/IP to the company DNS users should be able to connect to it or is there another way completely?

[mario156]

Hi!
Of courese you should run it on a server if you are going to using it productiv. Laptop is just ok for testing around.

I would suggest u to take a unix based os instead of windows (if u have the choise and / or someone to hand who has the experiance to set up one)

Regardless of which OS u take you need just an websever (+ all perl modules which are requiered, see manual) and a database (like u must have it allready on your notebook now).
And of course the server must be connectet to your network to have access from all clients (if you goging to use a firewall on it of course you must open port 80 to allow the connection to otrs).

You can directly connect to the server via the ip but of course a dns entry would be practiacl

Cheers,
Mario

[peter_sk]

Correct! Everything is the same! The only difference is in operating system you're using. On your notebook there's desktop version (example: Windows XP), on the server you'll have server version of OS (Windows 2003 Server).
I don't know if you are on windows or linux...

One hint maybe: I installed everything on virtual server on my computer first. When it was ready for production, I just moved the virtual maschine to differnet host (network server). The local instance became test environment...

[Kyle_MBL]

I really appreciate everyone's help guys.

Okay so I think I have a fair idea of what to do so I'll take the next few steps in getting a server set up and then refer back here to you guys if I have any problems.

Unfortunately the server will be using a Windows OS (Windows Server or 7 Professional x64 more than likely), this is beyond my control

Thanks so far!

[Daniel Obee]

By any chance I would recommend professional help in setting up the system. An initial setup and admin training is affordable and way worth it if you come remotely close to the term 'productive'. And do yourself a favor and avoid any kind of windows server...

Just my 2 cents
Daniel