How to Install osTicket Using Prerequisites

This tutorial outlines the prerequisites and installation of the open-source help desk ticketing system osTicket.

List of Prerequisites

Azure Virtual Machine
Internet Information Services (IIS)
PHP Manager
Rewrite Module
VC Redist
MySQL
Heidi SQL
osTicket v1.15.8
Link to downloads: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1APMfNyfNzcxZC6EzdaNfdZsUwxWYChf6

Installation Steps

1.) Create a virtual machine in Microsoft Azure. Go to https://portal.azure.com/. Setup your virtual machine using Windows 10 Pro, version 22H2. Note: you will want to create a virtual machine with at least 2 vCPUs and 16 GB of memory.

2.) Once you have created your virtual machine, connect to it by using the machine’s virtual IP address. You will connect using Microsoft Remote Desktop.

3.) Once the virtual machine is connected, go to your control panel. From the control panel open “programs.” Select “Turn Windows features on and off.”

4.) Enable IIS in Windows with CGI and Common HTTP Features.

World Wide Web Services >> Application Development Features. Check CGI and Common HTTP Features.
NOTE: Make sure all Common HTTP Features are checked.

To ensure the IIS is enabled, go to a browser of your choice and search IP address 127.0.0.1 in the search bar. It should look something like this.

5.) Now that the IIS is enabled, From the Installation Files, download and install PHP Manager for IIS (PHPManagerForIIS_V1.5.0.msi) Go through the install wizard and complete the install.

6.) From the Installation Files, download and install the Rewrite Module (rewrite_amd64_en-US.msi)

7.) Create a folder in your Virtual Machine’s C drive and name it “PHP”.

8.) From the Installation Files, download PHP 7.3.8 (php-7.3.88-nts-Win32-VC15-x866.zip) and unzip the contents into C:\PHP.

If the following download popup appears, choose to “Keep” the file:

9.) Once you have downloaded and extracted the zip file into the PHP folder on the C drive, download and install the VC_redist.x86.exe from the installation files. Go through the setup wizard to finish setting up and installing the VC_redist.x86.exe.

10.) Download and install MySQL 5.5.62 (mysql-5.5.62-win32.msi). Run the setup wizard: Typical Setup >> Launch Configuration Wizard (after install) >> Standard Configuration.

Set the new root password: Password1

Execute the process on the next page.

11.) Now that you have the files downloaded and installed, search for IIS in the windows search bar. Open IIS as an administrator. The program should look like this.

12.) Register PHP from within IIS. Click on PHP Manager.

You will want to provide a path to the PHP executable file (php-cgi.exe)). Go to C Drive >> PHP >> and click on php-cgi file.

Restart the IIS server.

13.) Install osTicket v1.15.8 -Download osTicket from the Installation Files Folder -Extract and copy “upload” folder to c:\inetpub\wwwroot -Within c:\inetpub\root, Rename “upload” to “osTicket”

Reload IIS again.

14.) On IIS go to sites >> Default >> osTicket. On the right, click “Browse *:80”

Some extensions are not enabled on the osTicket browser.

To enable the extensions, go back to IIS, sites >> Default >> osTicket. Double click PHP manager. Click “Enable or disable an extension”.

You will want to enable three extensions from here.

1.) php_imap.dll

2.) php_intl.dll

3.) php_opcache.dll

15.) Once the extensions have been enabled in IIS, go into the file explorer and search for C:\inetpub\wwwroot\osTicket\include\ost-sampleconfig.php

Rename ost-sampleconfig.php to ost-config.php

Now that the files have been renamed, right click on the file and go to properties. From there click security, advanced, and disable the inheritance. We will select Remove all inherited permissions from this object.

Now we’ll add new permissions.

Click Add.

Select a principal.

Type “Everyone” in the box.

Be sure Full Control and all other boxes are checked.

Click Apply and Ok.

16.) Continue to set up osTicket in the browser. Click Continue on the osTicket browser page. Fill out the page as required except the Database Settings at the bottom of the page. We will come back to this later.

Download and install HeidiSQL from the Installation Files.

When the program is open we will create a new session in it.

Be sure the username is root and the password is Password1.

17.) Once you are connected to the session, go back to the browser to finish the setup. Under the Database Settings in the browser the username will be root and the password will be Password1.

We will now create a new database within HeidiSQL. In Heidi, right click on the lefthand side near “Unnamed“. Select “create new“, and then “database“. Name the new database osTicket. Once we have the new database set up, go back to the osTicket browser and under MySQL Database type in “osTicket“.

18.) The last step is clean up. Delete the setup folder in our system. Delete the following: C:\inetpub\wwwroot\osTicket\setup Only delete the setup folder and nothing else.

Set the permissions back to “Read” only in the ost-config.php file.