Hello, friends. In this post, you will learn how to install Snipe-IT on Ubuntu 20.04. This tool will help you with IT-related operations being open source and easy to install.
So, This is a FOSS project for asset management in IT Operations. Knowing who has which laptop, when it was purchased in order to depreciate it correctly, handling software licenses, etc.
It is created in Laravel so we are in the presence of a web application created in PHP. This allows you to deploy it on your home server or wherever you want as long as you have the right server.
The application has an Admin Dashboard to have access to recent activity and an overall view of what assets, accessories, consumables, and components you have.
So, the Items that have been checked in, checked out, recently updated or deleted, show up in a recent activity snapshot.
Install Snipe-IT on Ubuntu
As this is a web application, we require certain applications on our server. So to meet this requirement, it is necessary to install the LAMP stack. In it, we will have Apache, PHP, and a database manager called MariaDB. That is, we will have a web server available to install Snipe-IT.
So, read our post How to install LAMP on Ubuntu 20.04 Additionally, install these precise PHP modules for Snipe-IT
sudo apt install php-{opcache,pdo,bcmath,bz2,calendar,ctype,exif,ffi,fileinfo,ftp,gd,iconv,intl,json,mbstring,mysqli,phar,posix,readline,shmop,sockets,sysvmsg,sysvsem,sysvshm,tokenizer,zip,curl,ldap} php7.4-cli git unzip
This single command will install all the necessary PHP modules as well as the git and unzip packages.
Install Composer
Composer is an application to manage PHP dependencies. With Composer we can quickly fulfill the necessary Snipe-IT dependencies on library level without any effort.
So, download and run the Composer installer script
curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
This will generate an executable that we need to move to /usr/local/bin/ so we can use it as a system command in any location.
sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer
With this, we will have the latest stable version of Composer installed on Ubuntu 20.04.
Creating the Database and User for Snipe-IT
Like all web applications, Snipe-IT requires a database driver to store the information it generates. As a general rule, it is convenient to create a user different from root.
So, access the MariaDB shell
sudo mysql -u root -p
And proceed to create the database, the user as well as the corresponding permissions:
CREATE DATABASE snipedb; CREATE USER 'snipeuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password'; GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON snipedb.* TO 'snipeuser'@'localhost'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;
You can replace the values with the ones you need, especially the password value
Download and install Snipe-IT on Ubuntu
Now we proceed to download Snipe-IT by cloning its Git repository.
cd /var/www/ sudo git clone https://github.com/snipe/snipe-it snipe-it Cloning into 'snipe-it'... remote: Enumerating objects: 102845, done. remote: Counting objects: 100% (1534/1534), done. remote: Compressing objects: 100% (985/985), done. remote: Total 102845 (delta 684), reused 1159 (delta 533), pack-reused 101311 Receiving objects: 100% (102845/102845), 110.88 MiB | 18.48 MiB/s, done. Resolving deltas: 100% (65841/65841), done.
This will create a folder called snipe-it which you will need to access.
cd /var/www/snipe-it
There is a .env.example file that we will have to convert into the application configuration file. To do this, simply rename it.
sudo cp /var/www/snipe-it/.env.example /var/www/snipe-it/.env
Now you have to edit it, to balance some necessary settings.
sudo nano /var/www/snipe-it/.env
Among the configurations we will have to set the following ones:
APP_URL=[domain] APP_TIMEZONE='[timezone]'
And also the database configuration.
DB_DATABASE=snipedb DB_USERNAME=snipeuser DB_PASSWORD=password
Remember that you have to replace the values with the ones you defined.
When you are ready, save your changes and close the text editor.
Then, make the Snipe-IT folder belong to Apache and assign the correct permissions to it.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/snipe-it sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/snipe-it
Now update Composer.
sudo composer update --no-plugins --no-scripts
And install all application dependencies.
sudo composer install --no-dev --prefer-source --no-plugins --no-scripts
As this is an application created with Laravel, it is necessary to generate a key.
sudo php artisan key:generate ************************************** * Application In Production! * ************************************** Do you really wish to run this command? (yes/no) [no]: > yes Application key set successfully.
Now the Snipe-IT packages are installed.
Creating a VirtualHost for Snipe-IT
The next step is to create a VirtualHost for best access to Snipe-IT. This will also allow Apache to manage the application with policies that suit your needs.
So, create the file
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/snipeit.conf
And add the following content:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName snipe.osradar.test
DocumentRoot /var/www/snipe-it/public
<Directory /var/www/snipe-it/public>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
Replace ServerName with the name of the domain you have.
Save the changes and close the editor. To apply these changes, enable the rewrite module and restart Apache.
sudo a2ensite snipeit.conf sudo a2enmod rewrite
Optional: Obtain a Let’s Encrypt and Enable HTTPS certificate
If Snipe-IT will be available from the internet, then the idea would be to secure access via HTTPS.
So, install Certbot and its Apache plugin.
sudo apt-get install certbot python3-certbot-apache
Now get the certificate by running
sudo certbot --apache
During the process, you will have to answer some questions and indicate the domain. All very simple.
At the end of the process, restart Apache to apply the changes.
sudo systemctl restart apache2
Complete the installation of Snipe-IT on Ubuntu
Now you can open your web browser and go to https://your-domain and you will see the following screen
The server is checked to see if it meets the requirements.
Then, some data will be loaded into the database as well as the table structure.
The next step is to create the admin user and configure the program with the default currency and other settings.
At the end of the installation, you will go to the Dashboard.
So, enjoy it.
Conclusion
Snipe-IT is one of the best in its field. Now you know how to install it step by step and it’s up to you to put this post into practice.
