• Table of contents
• Preparing The Server
• Install Apache 2
  • Configure Apache 2
• Install Apache 2 Passenger
• Install MySQL 5.5
  • Configure a new MySQL database
• Install Redmine
  • Forcing SSL on a Website
• (Optional) Install Latest Redmine
  • Configure Apache 2

This is a simple guide for setting up Redmine on a LAMP server on Debian 7 (wheezy).

Preparing The Server¶

This guide is assumed that a Bare Debian install with only SSH Server access, a user that has sudo access.

• Obtain a root shell and upgrade the server:
  

  sudo -s
  apt-get update && apt-get upgrade
  

• Set the hostname in the hosts:
  

  nano /etc/hosts
  

  • And add/modify the following:
    

    127.0.1.1     redmine.example.com www
    

• And also edit the hostname file:
  

  nano /etc/hostname
  

  • And add/modify the following:
    

    redmine
    

• Reboot to apply the hostname settings:
  

  reboot
  

Install Apache 2¶

• Install apache2 and the passenger module:
  

  apt-get install apache2 libapache2-mod-passenger
  

Configure Apache 2¶

• Edit the default apache2 Vhost config:
  

  nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/default
  

  • And add/modify the following VirtualHost block:
    

    <VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerName redmine.example.com
    
        DocumentRoot /usr/share/redmine/public           
        <Directory /usr/share/redmine/public>
            RailsBaseURI /
            Options -Indexes FollowSymLinks -MultiViews
            AllowOverride All
            Order allow,deny
            allow from all
        </Directory>
    </VirtualHost>
    

  • NOTE: Make sure AllowOverride is set to ALL, or else the .htaccess file will not work.

Install Apache 2 Passenger¶

• Install the apache2 passenger module:
  

  apt-get install libapache2-mod-passenger
  

• Edit the apache2 passenger config file:
  

  nano /etc/apache2/mods-available/passenger.conf
  

  • And add/modify the apache usInstall Redmine on a Debian LAMP Serverer as the default passenger user:
    

    <IfModule mod_passenger.c>
      PassengerRoot /usr
      PassengerRuby /usr/bin/ruby
      PassengerDefaultUser www-data
    </IfModule>
    

Install MySQL 5.5¶

• Install MySQL server and client:
  

  apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client
  

  • NOTE: During the setup a prompt will appear to set the root MySQL user password. Set a strong password and do not forget it.

Configure a new MySQL database¶

• Log into the MySQL console:
  

  mysql -h localhost -u root -p
  

  • Create the redmineuser user with the SuperSecretPassword password and the redminedb database:
    

    CREATE USER 'redmineuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'SuperSecretPassword';   
    CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS  `redminedb` CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
    GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `redminedb`.* TO 'redmineuser'@'localhost';
    
    flush privileges;
    exit
    

Install Redmine¶

• Install Redmine and redmine-mysql packages:
  

  apt-get install redmine redmine-mysql
  

  • During the installation a Configuring redmine prompt for using dbconfig-common, choose: YES
  • During the installation a Configuring redmine prompt for database type, choose: mysql
  • During the installation a Configuring redmine prompt for password of the database administrative user, enter: <root mysql password>
  • During the installation a Configuring redmine prompt for application password, enter: SuperSecretPassword
  • During the installation a Configuring redmine prompt for application password confirmation, enter: SuperSecretPassword

• Change the ownership of the Redmine folder to the apache2 user:
  

  chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/redmine
  

• Restart apache for the php module to take effect:
  

  service apache2 restart
  

  
  Install Redmine on a Debian LAMP Server
  h1. Securing Redmine with SSL

• Install openssl:
  

  apt-get install openssl
  

• Generate a strong SSL key and a CSR to send for signing by a CA:
  

  mkdir /etc/apache2/ssl && cd /etc/apache2/ssl
  openssl req -sha512 -out redmine.example.com.csr -new -newkey rsa:4096 -nodes -keyout redmine.example.com.key
  

• Make sure to securely copy the SSL certificate to redmine.example.com.crt

• Edit the apache2 default ssl Vhost config file:
  

  nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/default-ssl
  

  • And Add the following:
    

    <VirtualHost *:443>
        ServerName redmine.example.com
    
        DocumentRoot /usr/share/redine/public           
        <Directory /usr/share/redmine/public>
            Options FollowSymLinks
            AllowOverride All
            Require all granted
        </Directory>
    
        SSLEngine on
    
        SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/redmine.example.com.crt
        SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/redmine.example.com.key
    
        <FilesMatch "\.(cgi|shtml|phtml|php)$">
            SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
        </FilesMatch>
    
        BrowserMatch "MSIE [2-6]" nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0
        BrowserMatch "MSIE [17-9]" ssl-unclean-shutdown
    </VirtualHost>
    

Forcing SSL on a Website¶

• Enable forced SSL connection by setting the two lines from earlier in the .htaccess file. Open the file for editing:
  

  nano /usr/share/redmine/public/.htaccess
  

  • Look for the following two lines, and remove the # characters before them:
    

    RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
    RewriteRule ^ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]
    

• Restart apache2:
  

  service apache2 restart
  

• Now the website will be accessible from https://redmine.example.com
  • The default username is admin
  • The default password is admin

(Optional) Install Latest Redmine¶

Debian has a older version of Redmine, this section is a guide on installing the latest Redmine version.

• Install required packages:
  

  apt-get install dbconfig-common libjs-prototype libjs-scriptaculous rake ruby-actionmailer-2.3 ruby-actionpack-2.3 ruby-activerecord-2.3 ruby-activeresource-2.3 ruby-activesupport-2.3 ruby-blankslate ruby-builder ruby-coderay ruby-fastercsv ruby-i18n ruby-memcache-client ruby-net-ldap ruby-rails-2.3 ruby-rchardet ruby-text-format ruby-tmail ruby-tzinfo rubygems-integration unzip zip
  

• Remove the old bundler that was installed earlier:
  

  apt-get remove bundler
  

• Install git, ruby1.9.1-dev, zlib1g-dev, libmysqlclient-dev, ImageMagick, and libmagickwand-dev:
  

  apt-get install git ruby1.9.1-dev zlib1g-dev libmysqlclient-dev libmagickwand-dev
  

• Install bundler from gems (Debian's version is too outdated):
  

  gem install bundler
  

  
  NOTE: I needed to log out and log back in for the new bundler to take effect

• Download latest Redmine:
  

  cd /usr/local
  git clone https://github.com/redmine/redmine.git
  

• Create and edit the Redmine database config:
  

  cp /usr/local/redmine/config/database.yml.example /usr/local/redmine/config/database.yml
  nano /usr/local/redmine/config/database.yml
  

  • And modify the config:
    

    production:
      adapter: mysql2
      database: redminedb
      host: localhost
      username: redmineuser
      password: "SuperSecretPassword" 
      encoding: utf8
    

• Install the gems required by Redmine
  

  cd /usr/local/redmine
  bundle install --without test development postgresql --path vendor/bundle
  

• Generate a secret token:
  

  rake generate_secret_token
  

• Create the database structure, by running the following command under the application root directory:
  

  RAILS_ENV=production rake db:migrate
  

• Set file system permissions:
  

  mkdir -p tmp tmp/pdf public/plugin_assets
  sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/local/redmine
  sudo chmod -R 755 files log tmp public/plugin_assets
  

Configure Apache 2¶

• Edit the default apache2 Vhost config:
  

  nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/default
  

  • And add/modify the following VirtualHost block:
    

    <VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerName redmine.example.com
    
        DocumentRoot /usr/local/redmine/public           
        <Directory /usr/local/redmine/public>
            RailsBaseURI /
            Options -Indexes FollowSymLinks -MultiViews
            AllowOverride All
            Order allow,deny
            allow from all
        </Directory>
    </VirtualHost>
    

  • NOTE: Make sure AllowOverride is set to ALL, or else the .htaccess file will not work.