Redmine Installation Instructions

On the following page I will explain how to install Redmine together with the required packages on a virtual machine running on a normal GSI linux computer.

Prerequisites

• Root access on the host computer
• virtualization support on the host computer
• virtual machine image with basic Debian Wheezy system

Install virtualization support on host computer

For the installation of the virtualization support please check the excellent information provided by Victor Penso. The instructions and the scripts can be found at github. There are also instructions how to get a virtual machine image at GSI.

Adapt the virtual Debian Wheezy image

The image are missing some important features which has to be installed before you can install Redmine using the cookbook. Everything can be installed using apt.

• lsb-release : without the package chef-solo will not work
• ca-certificates : allow to install the GSI specific certificates
• ruby-dev : without the package the mysql installation fails, because it is using gems
• GSI related certificates : Needed to connect to the GSI subversion repository.
• locate ?
• unzip ?

Before running apt one must copy the GSI related certificates to the correct position in the file system of the vm. In the directory with the instance of the vm use the following command to copy the required files from the host system to the correct location of the vm

vm put /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/dfn_pca_global_g01.crt /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/  
vm put /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/gsi_ca_02.crt /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/

After you copied the files login to the machine and run apt to install all the additional packages.

sudo apt-get install lsb-release ca-certificates ruby-dev <everything else>

Now you have an image which can be used as base for the redmine installation.

Create a new instance of the virtual image

vm clone <your image> lxdev01

After some time the machine is provisioned and booted so you can login

vm login

If everything looks okay log out again.

Install Redmine

Copy the required cookbooks to the directory holding the instance of the virtual machine

vm config add cookbook <name>

Copy and edit or create the file with the instructions for chef-solo and store in the directory of the instance of the virtual machine. An example of the file is shown below.

{
  "run_list": [
    "recipe[apt]",
    "recipe[redmine]"
  ],
  "apt": {
    "packages": [
      "vim",
      "less",
      "joe",
      "apt-show-versions",
      "lynx",
      "ruby-dev"
    ]
  },
  "redmine": {
    "databases": {
      "production": {
        "password": "my_secret_password"
      }
    }
  },
  "mysql": {
    "server_root_password": "another_secret_password"
  }
}

Now you can start the installation using chef-solo

vm config solo

which will copy the information to the virtual machine and start chef-solo. The installation will crash at some point (installing libaprutil). Rerun the configuration again and the installation will run till the end. After chef-solo has finished successfully one has to create the correct rules for the port forwarding from the host machine to the virtual machine. This is again done by some of Victors fantastic scripting commands.

vm forward add <instance_name>:port <port of host computer>

e.g.

vm forward add lxdev02:80 80
vm forward add lxdev02:443 443

Now you can login to Redmine for the first time. Use your favorite browser to navigate to the following URL

.gsi.de

If everything works you will be redirected to the https version of Redmine.

Congretulations. You have now a running Redmine installation. Now we come to the necessary configuration of Redmine.

Redmine Configuration

Change the default admin information

Now you should login and immediately change the admin password. Click on Sign In in the upper left corner of the web page and login with the default combination admin/admin. Click on Administration and Users and choose the admin user to change the password, the mail address and other things. After changing the items don't forget to save. To test if everything works log out and in again.

Change the general settings

Chose Administration, Settings, General and provide a good Name for the Redmine instance and write a nice welcome text which will be shown on the first page. Also set the host name and choose if you prefer http or https. Should make no difference since we redirect http to https anyway. Save the settings.

Sending E-Mail

TODO: Create a template which creates the needed file during the installation procedure.

To be able to send emails one has to set the correct information about the mail transport agent which should be used. Copy the example file, create a symbolic link and edit the file

sudo cp /usr/local/share/redmine/current/config/configuration.yml.example /usr/local/share/redmine/shared/config/configuration.yml
sudo ln -s /usr/local/share/redmine/shared/config/configuration.yml /usr/local/share/redmine/current/config/configuration.yml
joe /usr/local/share/redmine/shared/config/configuration.yml

In this file one finds several examples for different mail configurations. To send email at GSI one can use the smtp server at GSI. The settings are shown below.

default:
  # Outgoing emails configuration (see examples above)
  email_delivery:
    delivery_method: :smtp
    smtp_settings:
      address: "smtp.gsi.de"
      port: 25

sudo service apache2 restart

Save the file and restart apache that the changes take effect. Now log in as admin and choose Administration, Settings, Email notification to change the email settings. Choose a good name as sender address. Beside that chose whatever seems appropriate for you. In the text field for the email footer exchange hostname by the name of the machine. Save the settings and the test the mail by clicking on Send a test mail in the lower right corner of the page. If you receive the mail everything is okay.

Enable the LDAP authentication

-- FlorianUhlig - 28 Jun 2013