In this article I am going to walk you through the section of the eGroupware installation that takes care of the final stages of the eGroupware installation. Once you are done with that, your eGroupware site will be ready to go.

Where are we?

Figure 1

The last thing you did was create the configuration file /var/www/egroupware/header.inc.php. Now it’s a matter of finishing up the installation from a page that is set up in stages (see Figure 1). You will have logged in by now and are ready to take care of the first stage in this final step.

Stage 1: The first stage is to create the database. You have to supply the charset, DB root username, and DB root password. For the charset, just let it as the default. The username/password will be for the username that can connect to the database you created for this setup. Once you have entered that information click Create Database. You should get the warning: Your database is working, but you don’t have any applications installed. When you do get that warning you will also see a button labeled Install all applications. You are now ready to click that button.

Stage 2: When you click the Install all applications button. When this

Figure 2

stage finishes you should see If you did not receive any errors, your applications have been installed. At that point click the Re-check my installation button. Now your setup page should look similar to that in Figure 2. As you can see there are only two stages left in the installation.

Stage 3: As you can see, in the Step 2 Configuration section we have neglected to create a couple of directories. This is simple. Open up a console window and issue the following commands:

• sudo mkdir /opt/egroupware
• sudo mkdir /opt/egroupware/default/
• sudo mkdir /opt/egroupware/default/files
• sudo mkdir /opt/egroupware/default/backup
• sudo chmod -R 777 /opt/egroupware

Now, oddly enough, we need to click on the Edit Current Configuration button and enter the following:

Full path for users and group files: /opt/egroupware/default/files

Full path to the backup directory: /opt/egroupware/default/backup

Click Save and you should be complete. Of course those directories could have been created during the prerequisite stage of the install, but I wanted to highlight how you could go back and re-configure at any stage of the installation. NOTE: If there are any other issues in your Current Configuration, now is the time to take care of them.

Stage 4: The final step is to click on the Create an Admin Account button. When you click on that you only need fill out the information for the admin account. All of the information is straight forward. You will notice two check boxes. One is to allow the admin access to all installed applications. Although they warn you this can be annoying, I tend to prefer it this way so my admin user can see everything. You can also opt to have eGroupware create demo accounts. This is users choice. You will be creating accounts anyway – so this is up to you.

That should do it. When you click Save on this you should have all green checks and be ready to log into your eGroupware installation. You will find a TON of stuff to configure now. Start playing around and see what eGroupware has to offer.

But what is the header.inc.php you ask? That file is the configuration file eGroupware uses for the server and the database information. It is not, however, the only configuration necessary for this groupware tool. But it is one of the most important as it dictates the very foundation of the system. Without this file, eGroupware can not, and will not, work. So…now that you’ve all the requirements met, let’s set about to work on the header admin section.

Getting to this section

Figure 1

Once you have passed all the tests you need to pass (remember, there may be some you do not need – say, for example, you are using MySQL and you don’t need any of the PostgreSQL extensions) all you need to do is to click on the Continue on to the Header Admin button. When you get to this page you will notice number configuration options (see Figure 1 for the top portion of this page).

At minimum these are the options you need to configure (in order to continue with the eGroupware installation):

1. Server root path. This is where you have unpacked the tar file. Most likely this will be in a sub-folder of your web servers’ document root (i.e. /var/www/egroupware).

2. Header username. This can be the same as the admin user name you will select later on. You can leave this as admin if you like.

3. Header password. You MUST add this and you MUST remember it. It will be wise to also create a password that is strong.

4. Database type. This will be dictated by the type of database you are going to use.

5. DB Host. If you are using the same server which is housing eGroupware as database server, this can be left as localhost.

5. DB Port. Unless you are using a non-standard port for your database, leave this as the default – 3306.

6. DB Name. The name of the database you created before you began installation. If you have not created the database, now would be a good time to do so.

7. DB User. This will, most likely, be root. At least by default that is the easiest way to make sure eGroupware can communicate to your database. If you configure a user other than root, make sure that user has full access to the database you use.

8. DB Password. This is the password used by your DB User to connect to the database. I hope you have not left this blank, because that is just not secure.

9. Configuration user. This will be the user you use for the domain configuration. This can be the same as the header admin you configured earlier.

10. Configuration password. The password you will use for the Configuration user. Again, this password needs to be remembered and strong.

Figure 2

Now, if you notice at the bottom of this page the warning “Cannot create the header.inc.php due to file permission restrictions.” that means the eGroupware installer does not have write access so it can write the configuration file. This is not a problem. What you can do is download the file (by clicking the Download button) and then moving that file to /var/www/egroupware. To be safe change the permissions of that file with the command sudo chmod 777 header.inc.php and then click the Add new Database Instance. This will then take you to the Setup/Config login page (see Figure 2), where you can then log into as the Setup/Config administrative user. The next phase – installing the eGroupware applications…stay tuned for the next entry.

Recently I revisited the installation of eGroupware and thought I should give a bit more detail on the procedure of installing this rather challenging tool. So in this article I will walk you through the steps on installing eGroupware.

Download and unpack and prerequisites

I will assume you have a working Apache and MySQL installation, on your Linux server,  ready to go. If not, go ahead and take care of that major prerequisite first. Once you have completed that task you are ready to being. Almost. There are still a few other prerequisites to get out of the way. You will want to fire up Synaptic (or whatever package manager you use) and make sure you have the following installed:

• PHP
• php-pear
• An SMTP server (Postfix is a good choice)
• IMAP server (Dovecot is a good choice)

There will also be a LOT of pear extensions to install – we will deal with those in a moment. Before going any further create the database you intend on using (let’s stick with the name egroupware). If you’re not sure how to create the database give my article “Complete database administration with MySQL Workbench” a read.

Now it’s time. move the the downloaded tar file for eGroupware into the /var/www/ directory and then unpack it with the commands:

bunzip2 eGroupware-XXX.tar.bz2

Where XXX is the release number.

tar xvzf eGroupware-XXX.tar

Where XXX is the release number.

You will now have a newly created directory /var/www/egroupware. Point your browser to http://ADDRESS_TO_SERVER/egroupware and you will begin the installation process. This is where it gets fun. On the first page you will have a link that allows you to run the installation tests. Click that and you will be presented with a long list of items. Each of these items will be preceded by either a green check, a yellow lightning bolt, or a red X. Anything marked with a red X MUST be resolved. Yellow lightning bolts are only warnings. Some of these you can ignore (for instance features you know you won’t use). The green checks – those are all right.

Most likely you will need to deal with some php issues and some Pear modules. Let’s examine each.

PHP

In the directory /etc/php5/apache2/ is the main php configuration file (php.ini). You will need to make some modifications to this file in order for the installation to work. Typically the modifications you will need to deal with are:

upload_max_filesize >= 8M By default PHP has a 2MB upload limit. You will need to change that.

mbstring.func_overload = 7 By default this is set to 0. You will need to change this.

Pear

Now you will enjoy quite a few pear module installations. This is hit or miss on how many your system will have installed by default. What you need is the following:

• HTTP_WebDAV_Server
• Net_Socket
• Auth_SASL
• Net_IMAP
• Net_Sieve
• XML_Feed_Parser
• Log

Some of these modules can be found in Synaptic. The best way to locate them is do a search for “pear” (No quotes) and then mark the necessary modules for installation (and then, of course, install them). Those that you do not find you will have to install from the command line, like so:

sudo pear install MODULE_NAME

Typically these install very quickly.

You should now be at the point where all of the X’s are gone and all of the necessary warnings have been replaced with green checks as well. The next step is to click Continue with the Header Admin. That we will deal with in our next article.

Final thoughts

It may seem like eGroupware is a pain to install. It’s not really as bad as some I have tried to work with. But it is, most certainly, worth the effort.

What eGroupware DOES have

The feature list of eGroupware looks like this:

• Calendar (including support for groups, resources, and contacts)

• Contact manager (support for both SQL or LDAP)

• Integrated IMAP mail client

• Infolog (tasks and notes)

• Project Management

• Resource and inventory management

• File manager

• Web based authoring system

• Time tracker

• Bug Tracker

• Wiki

• Knowledge base

• On demand support from Stylite

What eGroupware does NOT have

• Support from Microsoft

• Costly licensing

Installing eGroupware

The installation of eGroupware is what will stop many users from deploying eGroupware.  The first requirement is to have a LAMP server up and running. Once that is up you’ll need to download the correct file. You can install eGroupware from source or from a binary file such as an rpm file. After you have installed the system you need to point your browser to http://DOMAIN_OR_IP/egroupware/setup/index.php and finish up the installation. At this point you will be given instructions regarding what is missing from your installation in order to continue.

Of course that is a rather minimal installation description, but it gives you an understanding of how the system is installed.

Who Would eGroupware Best Fit?

The eGroupware suite would best fit any business or enterprise who is looking for a cost-effective replacement for Exchange and is willing to put the time into installation. eGroupware is also perfect for any situation looking for an Exchange-like groupware that offers more features and better reliability.

Who Would eGroupware Not Fit?

The obvious answer to that is an enterprise with an IT staff having zero knowledge of Linux. However, it must be noted that eGroupware can be installed on an IIS server so this isn’t necessarily a credible factor. The real factor that could hinder adoption of eGroupware is if your enterprise is Microsoft-only. If your company has already spent the budget on Exchange servers and licenses they will be less likely to agree on adopting an all together different technology. Those licenses, however, will expire so this would be an ideal time to create a testing environment for eGroupware so that, when the time comes, you will have plenty to show the powers that be how well a free, open source solution can be.

Final Thoughts

eGroupware is one of those tools that will quickly become one of your favorites even if only because of the cost savings it offers. But don’t think the only reason to adopt eGroupware is cost. eGroupware is as powerful and as flexible as anything Microsoft can offer in the groupware category.