Setting up a Redmine site on Ubuntu

Chris — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 10:37:00 -0600

After a variety of headaches setting up a redmine instance on an Ubuntu server, I thought I’d write a quick guide on how to do it quickly.

First step

Install Ubuntu. What flavour you go with is up to you.

Packages from apt

Install packages

as root, run:

aptitude install apache2 ruby rubygems subversion ruby-pkg-tools \
ruby1.8-dev build-essential postgresql libdbd-pg-perl libapache2-svn \
libapache-dbi-perl libapache2-mod-perl2 libdigest-sha1-perl

If you want to go with mysql rather than postgres, you can drop the postgresql and libdbd-pg-perl packages, and install the mysql equivalents, but you’re on your own in setting up the database.

Ruby gems

Install gems

as root, run:

gem install rails mongrel mongrel_cluster postgres-pr --include-dependencies

Add gems to $PATH

I did this by adding the line:

export PATH=/var/lib/gems/1.8/bin to the end of /etc/profile

Set up the database for Redmine to use

Switch to postgres user

as root, run:

su postgres

Create the redmine user

createuser redmine --no-superuser --no-createdb --no-createrole --login --pwprompt --encrypted

Create the redmine database

createdb --owner=redmine --encoding=utf-8 redmine

Switch back

exit

For the tutorial, I’ll be using the password “redmine” for the redmine user.

Redmine itself

For this setup I’ll be using the 0.6 stable branch of redmine via svn, and installing it under /var/www/rails_apps/redmine-0.6

Create the directory and checkout Redmine

mkdir /var/www/rails_apps
cd /var/www/rails_apps
svn co http://redmine.rubyforge.org/svn/branches/0.6-stable redmine-0.6

Configure database access

Create the file config/database.yml within the redmine directory with the following contents:

production:
  adapter: postgresql
  database: redmine
  host: localhost
  username: redmine
  password: redmine

Bootstrap the database

In the Redmine directory, run:

rake db:migrate RAILS_ENV="production"
rake redmine:load_default_data RAILS_ENV="production"

Configure mailing from Redmine

Setting up a mail account for redmine is your own business, then change this section of config/environment.rb:

# SMTP server configuration
config.action_mailer.smtp_settings = {
  :address => "127.0.0.1",
  :port => 25,
  :domain => "somenet.foo",
  :authentication => :login,
  :user_name => "redmine",
  :password => "redmine",
}

to this:

# SMTP server configuration
config.action_mailer.smtp_settings = {
  :address => "mail.yourdomain.com",
  :port => 25,
  :domain => "yourdomain.com",
  :authentication => :login,
  :user_name => "mail_user",
  :password => "mail_password"
}

or whatever’s appropriate for your setup.

Check that everything’s set up correctly

From the redmine directory run:

mongrel_rails start --environment=production

You should be able to view the redmine site at localhost:3000 and log in using the username “admin” and password “admin”.

Setting up subversion

Create the repository location

as root:

mkdir /var/svn
chmod 0750 /var/svn

Serve the repository path through Apache

Enable the necessary Apache modules

as root:

a2enmod dav
a2enmod dav_svn
a2enmod perl

Configure site and delegate authentication to Redmine

Copy the file Redmine.pm from the extra/svn directory in Redmine to /usr/lib/apache2.

Create a file under /etc/apache2/sites-available with an appropriate name (e.g. svn.yourdomain) with the following contents:

<VirtualHost *>
  ServerAdmin support@yourdomain
  ServerName svn.yourdomain

  PerlRequire /usr/lib/apache2/Redmine.pm

  <Location /svn>
    DAV svn
    SVNParentPath "/var/svn"

    AuthType Basic
    Authname "Redmine Project Tracking"
    Require valid-user

    PerlAccessHandler Apache::Authn::Redmine::access_handler
    PerlAuthenHandler Apache::Authn::Redmine::authen_handler
    PerlSetVar dsn DBI:Pg:dbname=redmine;host=localhost
    PerlSetVar db_user redmine
    PerlSetVar db_pass redmine
  </Location>

</VirtualHost>

Enable the site and restart apache:

ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/svn.yourdomain /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/svn.yourdomain
    /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Check it’s up

Now, if you point your browser to http://svn.yourdomain/svn you should be prompted for a username and password. Don’t worry about authenticating yet, that’s for when you actually have a project repository to go poking around in.

Serve Redmine through apache and mongrel_cluster

Set up the cluster

Create the file config/mongrel_cluster.yml under the Redmine directory with the following contents:

user: root
cwd: /var/www/rails_apps/redmine-0.6
port: "9000"
environment: production
group: root
address: 0.0.0.0
pid_file: log/mongrel.pid
servers: 2

Check the cluster works

In the redmine directory, run:

mongrel_rails cluster::start

You should be able to get to Redmine on ports 9000 and 9001 of your server.

Have the cluster start at boot

As root:

mkdir /etc/mongrel_cluster
ln -s /var/www/rails_apps/redmine-0.6/config/mongrel_cluster.yml /etc/mongrel_cluster/redmine.yml
cp /var/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel_cluster-1.0.5/resources/mongrel_cluster /etc/init.d
chmod +x /etc/init.d/mongrel_cluster
/usr/sbin/update-rc.d -f mongrel_cluster defaults

Install some more Apache modules

As root:

a2enmod proxy
a2enmod proxy_http
a2enmod proxy_balancer
a2enmod rewrite

Configure the redmine site through Apache

Create /etc/apache2/sites-available/redmine.yourdomain with the following contents:

<VirtualHost *>

  ServerAdmin support@yourdomain
  DocumentRoot /var/www/rails_apps/redmine-0.6
  ServerName redmine.yourdomain
  ErrorLog /var/www/rails_apps/redmine-0.6/log/error.log

  ProxyPass /images !
  ProxyPass /stylesheets !
  ProxyPass /javascripts !
  ProxyPass /favicon.ico !
  ProxyPass /static !
  ProxyPass /holding !
  ProxyPass /templates !
  ProxyPass / balancer://redmine_cluster
  ProxyPreserveHost On

  <Proxy balancer://redmine_cluster>
    BalancerMember http://127.0.0.1:9000
    BalancerMember http://127.0.0.1:9001
  </Proxy>

  RewriteEngine On
   # Redirect all non-static requests to cluster
  RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/%{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
  RewriteRule ^/(.*)$ balancer://redmine_cluster%{REQUEST_URI} [P,QSA,L]
</VirtualHost>

Enable the site and restart apache:

ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/redmine.yourdomain /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/redmine.yourdomain
/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Have Redmine manage your repositories

Tell Redmine that it’s managing your repositories

In the Redmine site, go to Administration -> Settings. Tick the box labeled “Enable WS for repository management”

Set up automatic repository creation

Check that repository autocreation works

Add a project through Redmine with the identifier “test”

On your SVN server run:

ruby /var/www/rails_apps/redmine-0.6/extra/svn/reposman.rb --redmine redmine.theoru.com --svn-dir /var/svn --owner www-data --url http://svn.theoru.com/svn/

You should get the following message:

repository /var/svn/test registered in Redmine with url http://svn.theoru.com/svn/test
repository /var/svn/test created

Make the server do your dirty work for you

Add the following line to /etc/crontab:

10 * * * * root ruby /var/www/rails_apps/redmine-0.6/extra/svn/reposman.rb --redmine redmine.yourdomain --svn-dir /var/svn --owner www-data --url http://svn.yourdomain/svn/

Restrict access to Redmine’s web services’ API

Add the following section to /etc/apache2/sites-available/redmine.yourdomain:

<Location /sys>
  Order allow,deny
  Allow from ip.of.svn.yourdomain
</Location>

Restart apache:

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Relax, it’s done

Redmine and SVN should be happily up and running.

Once an hour, the cron job you set up will check for any newly registered projects and create an SVN repository for each new project at http://svn.yourdomain/svn/#{project_identifier} and register this location with the project.

To allow repository browsing, you will need to add appropriate credentials (e.g. project manager login) to the repository settings of the project.

Enjoy!

Drinkingbird: Tag projects

Setting up a Redmine site on Ubuntu

First step

Packages from apt

Install packages

Ruby gems

Install gems

Add gems to $PATH

Set up the database for Redmine to use

Switch to postgres user

Create the redmine user

Create the redmine database

Switch back

Redmine itself

Create the directory and checkout Redmine

Configure database access

Bootstrap the database

Configure mailing from Redmine

Check that everything’s set up correctly

Setting up subversion

Create the repository location

Serve the repository path through Apache

Enable the necessary Apache modules

Configure site and delegate authentication to Redmine

Check it’s up

Serve Redmine through apache and mongrel_cluster

Set up the cluster

Check the cluster works

Have the cluster start at boot

Install some more Apache modules

Configure the redmine site through Apache

Have Redmine manage your repositories

Tell Redmine that it’s managing your repositories

Set up automatic repository creation

Check that repository autocreation works

Make the server do your dirty work for you

Restrict access to Redmine’s web services’ API

Relax, it’s done