OX6:Open-Xchange Installation Guide for RHEL6 622

Requirements

• Plain installed RedHat Enterprise Linux 6 with latest updates
• Valid access to the RedHat Network
• A configured internet connection

Enabling required RedHat Repositories

When setting up RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), only the base software channel is subscribed, this alone does not provide all required software packages. Before you start, please login to the RedHat Network (https://rhn.redhat.com) using your RedHat Account and enable the channel RHEL Supplementary (v. 6 for ...) by selecting the registered RHEL deployment and using the "Alter Subscriptions" button. After saving this configuration, the RHEL installation is capable to fetch all required software packages for Open-Xchange to work properly.

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Updating repositories and installing packages

Reload the package index. This will download the package descriptions available at the software repositories:

$ yum update

The following command starts the download and installation process of all required package for Open-Xchange deployment:

Note: instead of java-sun, you can also use java-openjdk.

Open-Xchange configuration

To avoid confusion right at the start notice that Open-Xchange uses multiple administration levels and requires different credentials at some stages at the installation and server management. Note that the passwords chosen at this guide are weak and should be replaced by stronger passwords.

• The MySQL database user
  • Username: openexchange
  • Password used at this guide: db_password
  • Responsibility: Execute all kinds of database operations

• The Open-Xchange Admin Master
  • Username: oxadminmaster
  • Password used at this guide: admin_master_password
  • Responsibility: Manage contexts, manage all kinds of low level server configuration

• The Context Admin
  • Username: oxadmin
  • Password used at this guide: admin_password
  • Responsibility: Manage users/groups/resources inside a context

As stated above we assume the MySQL service has been installed previously, and it is running and available.

A good idea is to add the Open-Xchange binaries to PATH:

$  echo PATH=$PATH:/opt/open-xchange/sbin/ >> ~/.bashrc && . ~/.bashrc

Now we have to initialize the Open-Xchange configdb database. This can all be done by executing the initconfigdb script.

$ /opt/open-xchange/sbin/initconfigdb --configdb-pass=db_password -a --mysql-root-passwd=root_password

Use the --mysql-root-passwd option to supply the MySQL root password as configured during database installation.

Add the -i option if you want to remove an already existing open-xchange configdb.

Note: The -a parameter adds an openexchange account to MySQL. This account will be used for database connections from the OX App Suite middleware and requires some privileges. You can also create that account manually during database installation / configuration, in which case you can (should) skip the -a parameter here.

Before starting any service, all basic configuration files need to be set up correctly. The --configdb-pass option indicates the password of the openexchange database user previously created, the --master-pass options specifies the password of the Open-Xchange adminmaster user that will be created when executing the oxinstaller script.

Important: You should have your Open-Xchange license code at hand. If you do not plan to license Open-Xchange, you can use the option --no-license instead. Please also check OXReportClient documentation for more information about configuring a supported and maintained Open-Xchange server.

Important: For MAX_MEMORY_FOR_JAVAVM a rule of thumb for simple installations is half available system memory. The value must be in MB. For example "1024" for 1GB .

$ /opt/open-xchange/sbin/oxinstaller --add-license=YOUR-OX-LICENSE-CODE \
--servername=oxserver --configdb-pass=db_password \
--master-pass=admin_master_password --ajp-bind-port=localhost --servermemory MAX_MEMORY_FOR_JAVAVM

Note: In a clustered setup, --ajp-bind-port must be set to *

Now is a good time to configure the way OX will authenticate to your mail server. Edit the file /opt/open-xchange/etc/mail.properties and change the com.openexchange.mail.loginSource to use. This is very important for servers that require your full email address to log in with.

# adjust com.openexchange.mail.loginSource
$ vim /opt/open-xchange/etc/mail.properties

After initializing the configuration, start the Open-Xchange service by executing:

$ /etc/init.d/open-xchange start

Next we have to register the local server at the Open-Xchange configdb database:

$ /opt/open-xchange/sbin/registerserver -n oxserver -A oxadminmaster -P admin_master_password

Now we have to create a local directory that should be used as Open-Xchange filestore. This directory will contain all Infostore content and files attached to groupware objects. To maintain access by the Open-Xchange Groupware service, it is required to grant permissions to the open-xchange system user.

$ mkdir /var/opt/filestore
$ chown open-xchange:open-xchange /var/opt/filestore

Now register the directory as a filestore at the Open-Xchange server:

$ /opt/open-xchange/sbin/registerfilestore -A oxadminmaster -P admin_master_password \
-t file:/var/opt/filestore -s 1000000

Note: You might want to adapt the value provided with -s, the "The maximum size of the filestore in MB", see registerfilestore --help.

Note 2: If you are setting up OX App Suite, you need a shared filestore accross your OX servers even though you do not plan to have the OX Files feature enabled for your customers.

Finally register the groupware database, this is a separated database where all groupware specific data is stored:

$ /opt/open-xchange/sbin/registerdatabase -A oxadminmaster -P admin_master_password \
-n oxdatabase -p db_password -m true

Configure services

Now as the Open-Xchange Server has been set up and the database is running, we have to configure the Apache webserver and the mod_proxy_ajp module to access the groupware frontend. To gain better GUI performance, the usage of mod_expires and mod_deflate is strongly recommended. Those modules will limit the amount of client requests and compress the delivered content. The default installation of the Apache webserver on RHEL provides a welcome screen which is not necessary for server operation, it can be removed by deleting the corresponding configuration file:

$ rm /etc/httpd/conf.d/welcome.conf

Configure the mod_proxy_ajp module by creating a new Apache configuration file.

$ vim /etc/httpd/conf.d/proxy_ajp.conf

<Location /servlet/axis2/services>
    # restrict access to the soap provisioning API
    Order Deny,Allow
    Deny from all
    Allow from 127.0.0.1
    # you might add more ip addresses / networks here
    # Allow from 192.168 10 172.16
</Location>

LoadModule proxy_ajp_module modules/mod_proxy_ajp.so

<IfModule mod_proxy_ajp.c>
   ProxyRequests Off
   
   <Proxy balancer://oxcluster>
       Order deny,allow
       Allow from all
       # multiple server setups need to have the hostname inserted instead localhost
       BalancerMember ajp://localhost:8009 timeout=100 smax=0 ttl=60 retry=60 loadfactor=50 route=OX1
       # Enable and maybe add additional hosts running OX here
       # BalancerMember ajp://oxhost2:8009 timeout=100  smax=0 ttl=60 retry=60 loadfactor=50 route=OX2
      ProxySet stickysession=JSESSIONID|jsessionid scolonpathdelim=On
      
   </Proxy>
   
   # OX frontend
   <Proxy /ajax>
       ProxyPass balancer://oxcluster/ajax
   </Proxy>
   <Proxy /servlet>
       ProxyPass balancer://oxcluster/servlet
   </Proxy>
   <Proxy /infostore>
       ProxyPass balancer://oxcluster/infostore
   </Proxy>
   <Proxy /publications>
       ProxyPass balancer://oxcluster/publications
   </Proxy>
   # USM
   <Proxy /usm-json>
       ProxyPass balancer://oxcluster/usm-json
   </Proxy>
   # SOAP
   <Proxy /webservices>
       ProxyPass balancer://oxcluster/webservices
  </Proxy>
  
   # OXtender
   <Proxy /Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync>
       ProxyPass balancer://oxcluster/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync
   </Proxy>
</IfModule>

Modify the default website settings to display the Open-Xchange GUI

$ vim /etc/httpd/conf.d/ox.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>
	ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost

	DocumentRoot /var/www/html/

	<Directory /var/www/html/>
		AllowOverride None
		Order allow,deny
		allow from all
		RedirectMatch ^/$ /ox6/
               Options +FollowSymLinks +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
	</Directory>
       # deflate
      AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/javascript application/javascript text/css text/xml application/xml text/x-js application/x-javascript

	# pre-compressed files
	AddType text/javascript .jsz
	AddType text/css .cssz
	AddType text/xml .xmlz
        AddType text/plain .po
	
	AddEncoding gzip .jsz .cssz .xmlz
	SetEnvIf Request_URI "\.(jsz|cssz|xmlz)$" no-gzip
	
	ExpiresActive On
	
	<Location /ox6>
	        # Expires (via ExpiresByType to override global settings)
	        ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 6 months"
	        ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 6 months"
	        ExpiresByType image/jpg "access plus 6 months"
	        ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 6 months"
	        ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 6 months"
	        ExpiresByType text/html "access plus 6 months"
	        ExpiresByType text/xml "access plus 6 months"
	        ExpiresByType text/javascript "access plus 6 months"
	        ExpiresByType text/x-js "access plus 6 months"
	        ExpiresByType application/x-javascript "access plus 6 months"
	        ExpiresDefault "access plus 6 months"
	        Header append Cache-Control "private"
	        Header unset Last-Modified
	        Header unset Vary
	        # Strip version
	        RewriteEngine On
	        RewriteRule v=\w+/(.+) $1 [L]
	        # Turn off ETag
	        Header unset ETag
	        FileETag None
	</Location>
	
	<Location /ox6/ox.html>
	        ExpiresByType text/html "now"
	        ExpiresDefault "now"
	        Header unset Last-Modified
	        Header set Cache-Control "no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0"
	        # Turn off ETag
	        Header unset ETag
	        FileETag None
	</Location>
	
	<Location /ox6/index.html>
	        ExpiresByType text/html "now"
	        ExpiresDefault "now"
	        Header unset Last-Modified
	        Header set Cache-Control "no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0"
	        # Turn off ETag
	        Header unset ETag
	        FileETag None
	</Location>
</VirtualHost>

After the configuration is done, restart the Apache webserver

$ /etc/init.d/httpd restart

Finally restart the Open-Xchange service

$ /etc/init.d/open-xchange restart

Adding services to runlevels

The new services are now installed and configured, but to make them start up on a server boot, they need to be added to some runlevels:

$ chkconfig --level 345 mysqld on
$ chkconfig --level 345 httpd on
$ chkconfig --level 345 open-xchange-groupware on
$ chkconfig --level 345 open-xchange-admin on

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Installing Open-Xchange Update packages

Please read UpdatingOXPackages on how to get access to the latest Open-Xchange packages.