Installing Redmine on OpalStack

rawzkid

Background:

After lots of searching for how to install redmine on a VPS, I was able to cobble together the following instructions. This should help anyone that needs to get Redmine running on OpalStack.

References:

https://www.redmine.org/projects/redmine/wiki/redmineinstall
https://help.opalstack.com/article/125/serving-your-own-rails-project
https://help.opalstack.com/article/51/managing-databases
https://help.opalstack.com/article/73/exporting-and-importing-mariadb-databases

Instructions:

Setup project using Control Panel
1. Create a Ruby On Rails application (e.g., RAILS_APP=redmine)
2. Create a Domain to point to Redmine (e.g., SITE=redmine.myuser.opalstacked.com)
3. Create a Site to point to Redmine
4. Create a MariaDB Database (e.g., DB_NAME=redmine)
  - select UTF-8 Unicode (utf8mb4) charset
  - no need to check external access
    Note: the database name and user will be the same
    Note: a password will automatically be created for you and available on the Notices page. Either use the password on Notices page or change the MariaDB User Password (e.g., DB_USER=redmine, DB_PASSWORD=<good password>)
  - I am using MariaDB even though there are known issues, since I need to port from MySQL on WF. Postgres should work too.
Login to your server via SSH

Setup your environment

# Change these to match your setup. This just makes it easier to use the commands below
export RAILS_APP=redmine
export REDMINE_VER=4.1.1
export RAILS_APP_PATH=/home/$USER/apps/$RAILS_APP
export REDMINE_APP_PATH=$RAILS_APP_PATH/redmine-$REDMINE_VER
export GEM_HOME=$RAILS_APP_PATH/env
export PATH=$RAILS_APP_PATH/env/bin:$REDMINE_APP_PATH/bin:/usr/pgsql-11/bin/:$PATH

Install Redmine

cd $RAILS_APP_PATH
wget https://www.redmine.org/releases/redmine-$REDMINE_VER.tar.gz
tar -xvf redmine-$REDMINE_VER.tar.gz

Setup Redmine Database YML File

cd $REDMINE_APP_PATH
cp config/database.yml.example config/database.yml
vi config/database.yml

Change the database.yml file to match your setup

            production:
              adapter: mysql2
              database: <DB_NAME>
              host: localhost
              username: <DB_USER>
              password: "<DB_PASSWORD>"
              # Use "utf8" instead of "utfmb4" for MySQL prior to 5.7.7
              encoding: utf8mb4

Restore an Existing Redmine Database (Optional)

Backup existing Redmine MySQL Webfaction Database
1. Login to Webfaction
2. Navigate to Databases (https://my.webfaction.com/databases)
3. Login to phpMyAdmin (https://webXXX.webfaction.com/phpMyAdmin/, where XXX is the server number) using your database user name and password.
  Note: if you don't have the user and password name you can get them from the redmine database.yml file located on your server under: ~/webapps/redmine/redmine/config/database.yml
4. Navigate to EXPORT, leave Quick selected, select SQL from the drop dropdown and press GO
5. Your browser should download a localhost.sql file. You should rename this file to something like redmine_backup_<date>.sql
6. Use FileZilla or SCP to upload the sql backup to your new server

Restore your Redmine database into OpalStack MariaDB

Edit the backup sql file to remove the lines that create the old database
vi redmine_backup_11032020.sql

-- Database: `old_redmine_database`
--
---CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS `old_redmine_database` DEFAULT CHARACTER SET latin1 COLLATE latin1_swedish_ci;
---USE `old_redmine_database`;

Install the old database

cd $REDMINE_APP_PATH
bundle install --without development test rmagick
# import the old database - for example: mysql -p -u redmine_db redmine_user < ~/redmine_backup_11032020.sql
mysql -p -u mydbuser mydb < mydb.sql
bundle exec rake generate_secret_token
RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rake db:migrate

Setup a New Redmine Database (Optional)

cd $REDMINE_APP_PATH
bundle install --without development test rmagick
bundle exec rake generate_secret_token
RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rake db:migrate
RAILS_ENV=production REDMINE_LANG=en bundle exec rake redmine:load_default_data

Setup PID files

mkdir -p $REDMINE_APP_PATH/tmp/pids
cp $RAILS_APP_PATH/myproject/tmp/pids/* $REDMINE_APP_PATH/tmp/pids

Edit the development ruby file
vi $REDMINE_APP_PATH/config/environments/development.rb
add the following line right the line "config.active_support.deprecation..."

#for example config.hosts << "redmine.myuser.opalstacked.com"
config.hosts << "<SITE>"

Edit the stop script

vi $RAILS_APP_PATH/stop

change PROJECTDIR to your use the full path to the redmine install folder

#for example PROJECTDIR='/home/myuser/apps/redmine/redmine-4.1.1'
`PROJECTDIR='$HOME/apps/redmine/redmine-4.1.1' `

Edit the start script
vi ./start
change PROJECTDIR to your use the full path to the redmine install folder

#for example PROJECTDIR='/home/myuser/apps/redmine/redmine-4.1.1
PROJECTDIR='$HOME/apps/redmine/redmine-4.1.1'

change
RAILS_ENV=development
to
RAILS_ENV=production

Test the start script

cd $RAILS_APP_PATH/
./start

Test the stop script

cd $RAILS_APP_PATH/
./stop

Possible Alternatives:

Bitnami Redmine - I tried Bitnami Redmine but couldn't get the apache rules to work on my VPS. Anyhow, I think it's much better to use the above method since it utilizes the tools that OpalStack has designed for Ruby apps.

Maintenance

Opalstack automatically creates a cronjob to run your start script (above) once every 10mins. This is helpful for making sure that your redmine app restarts in case it goes down for some reason. If needed you can edit the cronjob using:
crontab -e

sean

Thanks for sharing this! ❤️

rawzkid

sean Is it possible to edit this tutorial somehow? I would like to fix some things and add instructions for exporting and importing a redmine database from Webfaction.

ideabcn

After several attempts, I get it work!
However I've changed the step 8 from config.hosts = "<SITE>" to config.hosts >> "<SITE>"
Thanks for the steps.

klynton

You should be able to. The edit option is usually hidden in the ... area on the bottom right of the post.

rawzkid

klynton There is no such option. I see the ... on all the replies here but none on the article itself - just have Like and Reply and nothing to the right of that

sean

rawzkid the forum is configured to allow edits on a post until someone replies to it.

Feel free to drop your entire edited version in a comment here and alert me to it, I'll then edit your original post for you and delete the comment.

sean

@rawzkid I updated the OP for you.

sean

@rawzkid I've also changed the forum setting to allow you to edit your posts, so no need for the comment in the future 🙂

rawzkid

sean Thanks Sean!

colinj

many thanks for this rawzkid/sean.

am i right in thinking that i could use the opalstack db migratiion tool to automate the db transfer and then attach a new redmine install to it (or point at it during the install?) or should i stick to the above?

rawzkid

colinj I would think it would work fine. You just need to make sure that you put the right credentials in database.yml

colinj

rawzkid thx - ill give it a whirl 🙂

colinj

rawzkid \o/ i got it working. thank you so much, if you are ever in wales, let me know and ill buy you as much beer as you like.

nb: my old version was 2.6.0 and i could not get it to work. i tried again with 4.1.1 and the db migrate worked as did the rest of it.

thanks again.

ps: there is a micro typo in step 9. "the line" == "after the line". and the line of code is shown on two lines. i know its kinda obvious but worth mentioning perhaps..

cmiadmin

Hi! I am trying to install my old Redmine but I has some issues. In step 6 I restored my backup sql file into OpalStack Maria DB. It works fine since Adminer. But in step 2 (Install the old database) I got some issues.
On this line: "bundle install --without development test rmagic" SSH says "Your user account isn't allowed to install to the system RubyGems. You can cancel this installation and run:
bundle install --path vendor/bundle
to install the gems into ./vendor/bundle/, or you can enter your password and install the bundled gems to RubyGems using sudo. "

If I put password I receive other issue "cmi is not in the sudoers file"

I guess I'm doing something wrong.
When I tried to get access the message is "404 Not Found" and if I try with cmiadmin.opalstacked.com/default the issue is "The page you were looking for doesn' t exists"

(I configured inside OpalStack on Application Routing Info /default for URI endpoint.)

In this point I am lost. I didn't run "mysql -p -u mydbuser mydb ....."
Is it necesary ? I mean, I updated from Admin my old database I am not sure about this line.

I hope someone can help me please! maybe @rawzkid or @sean
Thanks!

sean

cmiadmin If you've set the environment (ie step 3 "Setup your environment" in the OP) then those bundle commands shouldn't prompt you for sudo.

If you've already imported your database via Adminer then you shouldn't need to import it again via the command line - but generally if you're doing things out of order then all bets are off.

Are you following the procedure in order from start to finish?

cmiadmin

sean Hi sean, thanks for the replay. Yes, I followed the order step by step until 6. I skiped the second part on 6 because I understood it was ok using Maria DB Adminer for restore.
Related to step 3 I didn´t receive any issues but when I checked start and stop I have this "No such file or directory"
I use the same PROJECDIR in lines 10(stop) and 11 (start)
I don´t see the problem because my REAILS_APP is redmine and REDMINE_VER is 4.1.1
The only different is the user (in my case is cmi) but I don´t need to put this on the line.
So, I can´t start or stop. By the way, I changed ok the RAILS_ENV from development to production in start.
And this is my step 9:
config.hosts >> "cmiadmin.opalstacked.com"

I guess the problem is in the directory route, but It should be ok, I can´t see the problem ☹️
Thanks

cmiadmin

@sean I realized the directory was wrong. I fixed it (redmine-4.1.1 was separated from redmine, I put it inside). PROJECTDIR is ok. Executed again point 3 (gems and path) and I didn't get issues in that.
So, now the problem is Start (point 12) it says "Missing encryption key to decrypt file with. Ask your team for your master key...."
I updated production.rb with line config.require_master_key = true but I don´t know about the master key..

sean

cmiadmin Apologies for the late reply, I'll follow up via the ticket you've opened.

ideabcn

Please note that if you follow all the steps to install redmine, you may change step 10 & 11 as follows:

SETP10 - Edit the stop script
Change
PROJECTDIR='/home/myuser/apps/redmine/redmine-4.1.1'
to
PROJECTDIR=$HOME'/apps/redmine/redmine-4.1.1'

STEP11 - Edit the start script
Change
PROJECTDIR='/home/myuser/apps/redmine/redmine-4.1.1'
to
PROJECTDIR=$HOME'/apps/redmine/redmine-4.1.1'
AND
RAILS_ENV=development
to
RAILS_ENV=production