RT installation name
RTR-GW> or mysql>) imply that you are executing commands on remote equipment, or within another program.Log in to your virtual machine as the sysadm user.
Install the necessary packages for RT. You should have mysql-server already, but we do the install just in case. This won't cause problems.
Copy the "sudo apt-get install" line below, minus the "$" and paste this in to your terminal session on your virtual machine.
$ sudo apt-get install rt4-apache2 rt4-clients rt4-db-mysql request-tracker4 libapache2-mod-fastcgi libfcgi-perl muttRespond "Yes" when prompted if you wish to install the packages.
You will now be presented with several windows. Read the follwing instructions to see how to respond:
Name for this Request Tracker (RT) instance:
Remove what is shown and replace with "netmgmt", then select <Ok> and press ENTER to continue.
RT installation name
Handle RT_SiteConfig.pm permissions?
<Yes> and press ENTER to continue.Configure database for request-tracker4 with dbconfig-common?
<Yes> and press ENTER to continue.
DB configuration
Password of the database's administrative user:
Enter the MySQL root or admin password. This was set earlier in the workshop (probably when you installed Cacti). If you do not remember what this is, or if it's not written at the front of the classroom, ask an instructor for help.
DB admin password
MySQL application password for request-tracker4:
You may enter any password you wish. This will be used by Request Tracker to connect to MySQL. You generally do not need to remember this password. Pick something that cannot be guessed easily (i.e., don't use rt, requesttracker, 1234, etc...).
DB application password
Password confirmation:
DB application password
Initial root password for RT system:
Initial root password
Now you will see quite a bit of information go across your screen as the Request Tracker installation process completes - It's a big package.
At this point you have installed Request Tracker version 4. In order to access RT via the Apache web server you need to make a few small changes.
First let's update the Requestion Tracker (RT) configuration to improve the "From:" field format that will be used when RT sends out emails to users. In addition we will restrict attachment sizes and we will add our RT server to a whitelist to avoid cross site forgery error messages for legitimate RT usage.
Request Tracker maintains configuration files in the directory:
/etc/request-tracker4/RT_SiteConfig.d
We will go to this directory, create a new configuration file called 90-local and regenerate the RT RT_SiteConfig.pm file using the update-rt-siteconfig command:
$ cd /etc/request-tracker4/RT_SiteConfig.d
$ sudo touch 90-local
$ sudo edit 90-localAdd the following two lines to the file 90-local:
Set($MaxAttachmentSize , 10000000);
Set(@ReferrerWhitelist, qw(x.x.x.x:80 SERVNAME:80));In the ReferrerWhitelist entry x.x.x.x. is the IP address of your PC and SERVNAME is the name of your PC. That is, if you are on pc1.ws.nsrc.org you would enter:
Set(@ReferrerWhitelist, qw(10.10.1.1:80 pc1.ws.nsrc.org:80));
Be sure to use the correct IP address and name for your PC, then save the file and execute the command:
$ sudo update-rt-siteconfigNow we have one more change to the Apache web server configuration to make:
$ cd /etc/apache2/conf-available
$ sudo ln -s /etc/request-tracker4/apache2-modperl2.conf rt4.conf
$ sudo a2enconf rt4
$ sudo service apache2 restartThe last step could take up to 30 seconds, so be patient! RT should now be up and running!
Log in to RT as the root User
If you go to http://pcN.ws.nsrc.org/rt/ you will see the RT login screen:
Login screen
Enter the following information to log in as root on RT:
Username: root
Password: [SELECTED AT INSTALL]
RT Configuration: Create a User
Now that you are logged in we will create a new user for the rest of these exercises.
On the top of the screen choose Tools => Configuration => Users and then click on the Create item in the menu.
Create User
You will now be presented with the following dialogue. Fill in the fields, and make sure the checkbox Let this user be granted rights is checked. Set your email to sysadm@pcX.ws.nsrc.org (X = your PC)
User creation form
Use the same password for sysadm as you are using in class. Be sure you check Let this user be granted rights. Once done, scroll down the page and click on the Create button (bottom right). You should see this:
User created
RT Configuration: Create a Group
Create group
netmgmt, and add a description, then click on Create
Create group form
Group created
Group members
Add members field (right), type in the name of the user you created in step 3. This is the sysadm user. Then click on Modify Members (bottom right):
Add member
Member added
RT Configuration: Create a New Queue
Create queue
Queue Name: net
Description: Network Problems
Subject Tag: RT: NET
Reply Address: net@pcX.ws.nsrc.org
Comment Address: net-comment@pcX.ws.nsrc.org
Queue create form
Note: Remember to replace pcX with the correct number of your machine
You should see this:
Queue created
RT Configuration: Give Rights to our Group on the Queue
From the top menu, select Tools => Configuration => Queue => Select
You should see:
Enabled Queues
net (click on it) then choose Group Rights (top right)
Group rights
The following page should look like this:
Group rights overview
Note the three categories: General rights, Rights for Staff, Rights for Administrators
Here, we want to give Everyone (including people who are not yet known to RT) some privileges, but only the minimum required. These are found under General Rights, and are the following:
(CreateTicket)(ReplyToTicket)(SeeQueue)(ShowTicket)So start by selecting these 4 privileges by checking the 4 boxes in your browser.
Notice that Everyone on the left is already highlighted.
Modify group rights
Now, click Save Changes (bottom right) to make sure the changes are applied.
Saved rights
Staying on the same page, we're going to now give the netmgmt Group all rights...
To do this, first type in the name of the group in the ADD GROUP field in the lower left:
Add rights to group
Now check ALL the boxes in General Rights, Rights for Staff, Rights for Administrators.
All rights selected
Once this is done, press the Save Changes button on the bottom right of the page. You should see:
This is after having selected items. Remember to press Modify Group Rights after selecting the new rights. Once you press the Modify Group Rights button you will see a bunch of this:
Rights granted
RT Configuration: Log in as sysadm
Log out of RT (top menu, select the item Logged in as root => Logout)
Logging out
Now log back in as the sysadm user you have created:
Logging in as sysadm
You should see the following:
Main page view for sysadm
At this point RT has been properly configured for initial operation. Now we must configure email properly to talk with our new net queue in RT.
RT Configuration: Email
RT will work with the MTA (Mail Transfer Agent) of your choice. In our case we are using Postfix configured to run as an MTA for an <<Internet Site>> - that is, to deliver email locally and remotely using SMTP.
Edit the file /etc/aliases
$ sudo editor /etc/aliasesAdd the following two lines at the end of the file (copy and paste!):
net-comment: "|/usr/bin/rt-mailgate --queue net --action comment --url http://localhost/rt/"
net: "|/usr/bin/rt-mailgate --queue net --action correspond --url http://localhost/rt/"Save the file and exit. Some editors might cause the above-lines to become multiple lines. Be sure that you only have two new lines in your /etc/aliases file after copying and pasting in the text above.
Now run the command:
$ sudo newaliasesRT Configuration: Create an Email and Tickets
Let's create an email and send it to the RT net queue. Do this as the sysadm user (not as root!):
If you are currently root:
# su - sysadm
$ echo "Problem with my router" | mail -s "Router problem" net@pcX.ws.nsrc.orgRemember to replace pcX with the correct name of your server.
Now check that you have received email:
$ muttYou should see an email from Request Tracker acknowledging that your ticket has been created.
The mail should say something similar to this:
Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2012 00:29:27 +0000
From: Network Problems via RT <net@pcX.ws.nsrc.org>
To: sysadm@pcX.ws.nsrc.org
Subject: [Request Tracker: NET #1] AutoReply: Router problem
Greetings,
This message has been automatically generated in response to the
creation of a trouble ticket regarding:
"Router problem",
a summary of which appears below.
There is no need to reply to this message right now. Your ticket has been
assigned an ID of [Request Tracker: NET #1].
Please include the string:
[Request Tracker: NET #1]
in the subject line of all future correspondence about this issue. To do so,
you may reply to this message.
Thank you,
net@pcX.ws.nsrc.orgIf, for some reason, you do not see mail try taking these steps, and then send the mail again:
$ sudo touch /var/mail/sysadm
$ sudo chown sysadm:mail /var/mail/sysadmRT Configuration: View, Reply, Resolve, Reopen Tickets in Request Tracker
Go back to your web browser where you are logged in to RT as the sysadm user and click on the Home menu item (top left).
You should then be presented with an updated view with the current ticket:
Main page - ticket overview
Now, click on the ticket subject.
You will see many pieces of information about the ticket. Scroll to the bottom of the page.
Here you can Reply to the ticket:
Display ticket
Go ahead and type in a reply, set the Status of the ticket to Resolved (upper-right drop-down menu), and then click on Update Ticket (bottom-right):
Replying to ticket
You should see this:
Reply sent
The ticket is currently Resolved but you can reopen the ticket via the RT web interface at any time, or if the original ticket creator (sysadm in this case) replies to the resolution email RT sent, then the ticket will be reopened.
View the history at the bottom of the page to see that the ticket is currently resolved:
View history
If you went back to your terminal session as the sysadm user and typed:
$ muttand responded to the email generated from Request Tracker, then your ticket status will change. You can see this by reloading the RT web page for the ticket and viewing the history at the bottom of the page:
Using Mutt to Reply to an Email
mutt, select the message you want to respond to using the arrow keysTo: System Admin via RT <net@localhost> - Press ENTER to continueInclude message in reply? ([yes]/no): press ENTER to include the message.vi. Type in your response. We suggest to answer below the original message.:wq in vi).y key to send the message.q to exit Mutt at this point if you wish.
Ticket history showing reply
You now have a functioning RT instance with email integration!
You can experiment a bit. Now, this is not a very realistic setup, since you are communication with yourself! But in fact, other users in the classroom can send you email:
sudo apt-get install postfix then accept the defaults)echo "Where is my cat ?" | mail -s "Missing cat" net@pcX.ws.nsrc.orgnet queue on your pc "pcX" - verify that you do receive the tickets!We are still missing an important feature: it's not practical to have to log into RT to check if tickets have arrived. It would be much more convenient if we received an email every time a problem request had been submitted, no?
Logout as sysadm
Log in as root
Now to receive an email every time a request is submitted we're going to modify the Queue settings for net:
Select queue
From the Queue page, select the net queue by clicking on its name, and you select the Watchers menu option at the top:
Queue watchers
You should now see this:
Modify queue watchers
Under New watchers, enter the group name netmgmt in the field: <
New watchers
And click on Go!
RT will search for all groups matching netmgmt. Of course there is only one right now, which we created earlier. RT finds it and displays the following:
Matched groups
Notice how we select AdminCc from the pull down memu Groups next to netmgmt. Do this and click on Save Changes at the bottom right.
The result should look like this:
Watchers modified
What does it mean ? Well, ask another user to send you a mail, like before, but this time you should receive a mail from RT with the ticket notification - run mutt as sysadm.
A bit later we will extend the use of RT by integrating it with other Network Monitoring software using the rt-mailgate facility that we have already configured in the /etc/aliases file.
Finding a ticket once it's closed.
After a ticket has been resolved or closed may notice that it disappears from your Queue. Actually finding a closed ticket requires a few steps. First, click on Tickets => New Search on the top menu in RT:
Search tickets
and you will see a screen like this:
Ticket search form
If you are going to search for items in a queue and there are already items in the <<Current search>> box, then you should delete the items from the <<Current search>> box first. Next in the <<Add Criteria>> box in the <<Queue>>" choice select the <<net>> queue from the drop-down menu (see below):
Adding search terms
Click on <<Add these terms>> or <<Add these terms and Search>> - If you just do <<Add these terms>> then go to the bottom of the page and click on <<Update format and Search>> - RT will keep the search terms until you delete them at a later time.
Execute search
And the results of your search will look something like this and you will be able to view tickets that have been closed, resolved, etc. Clearly there will be more tickets in the results over time:
Search results