How to install RackTables on EndeavourOS

RackTables is a web-based datacenter management software that helps you manage servers, networking hardware, and storage devices in a data center. It can track and manage physical and virtual servers, switches, and routers, storage devices, IP addresses, and more.

In this tutorial, we will learn how to install and configure RackTables on EndeavourOS, a lightweight Arch Linux-based operating system.

Prerequisites

Before starting this tutorial, you need to have the following prerequisites:

  • EndeavourOS installed and running
  • A terminal window/command line
  • sudo or root privileges

Step 1: Update your EndeavourOS system

Before installing any software on your EndeavourOS system, we recommend updating all the packages to their latest versions. You can do this by running the following command:

sudo pacman -Syu

Step 2: Install Apache

RackTables requires a webserver to function properly; we will use Apache. To install Apache on EndeavourOS, run the following command:

sudo pacman -S apache

Step 3: Install PHP

RackTables is written in PHP, so we need to install it on our system. To install PHP on EndeavourOS, run the following command:

sudo pacman -S php php-apache

Step 4: Install MySQL/MariaDB

RackTables requires a database to store its data. We can use either MySQL or MariaDB; we will use MariaDB here. To install MariaDB on EndeavourOS, run the following command:

sudo pacman -S mariadb

Now, we need to start and enable the MariaDB service:

sudo systemctl start mariadb
sudo systemctl enable mariadb

After that, run the following command to secure the MariaDB installation:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Follow the prompts, and when prompted to enter the current MariaDB root password, press Enter as it is the default configuration.

Step 5: Create a database for RackTables

We will now create a database and user for RackTables on our MariaDB installation. Run the following commands to create a database named racktables and a user named rackuser. Replace password with a strong password:

sudo mysql -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE racktables;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON racktables.* TO 'rackuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 6: Install RackTables

We will now download and install the latest version of RackTables. Run the following command to download and extract RackTables:

cd /tmp
wget https://sourceforge.net/projects/racktables/files/latest/download
tar -xvf download

Now, copy the extracted files to the /var/www/html/racktables directory:

sudo cp -r racktables-X.X.X/* /var/www/html/racktables

Replace X.X.X with the latest version of RackTables.

Step 7: Configure RackTables

To configure RackTables, we need to create a config file by copying the example config file. Run the following command to copy the example config file:

sudo cp /var/www/html/racktables/inc/config-dist.php /var/www/html/racktables/inc/config.php

Open the config file in a text editor and replace the following values:

  • __user__ with the MariaDB username rackuser.
  • __password__ with the password you chose for the MariaDB user rackuser.
  • __db__ with the database name racktables.
sudo nano /var/www/html/racktables/inc/config.php

Save and close the file.

Step 8: Set permissions

We need to set the file and folder permissions for RackTables. Run the following commands:

sudo chown -R http:http /var/www/html/racktables/
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/racktables/
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/php/session
sudo chown -R http:http /var/lib/php/session
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/lib/php/session

Step 9: Restart services

We need to restart Apache and PHP-FPM services:

sudo systemctl restart httpd
sudo systemctl restart php-fpm

Step 10: Access RackTables

To access RackTables, open a web browser and go to http://localhost/racktables/. You should see the RackTables login page.

Enter the default username admin and password admin to log in. You should now see the RackTables dashboard.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed and configured RackTables on EndeavourOS.