How to Install Open Web Analytics on Linux Mint

Open Web Analytics (OWA) is a free, open-source web analytics software that helps to track and analyze your website traffic. In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Open Web Analytics on Linux Mint Latest.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding with this tutorial, make sure that you have the following prerequisites:

• A Linux Mint Latest distribution installed on your system
• LAMP stack (Apache, MySQL, PHP) installed and configured on your system
• A web browser installed on your system

Step 1: Download Open Web Analytics

The first step is to download the latest version of Open Web Analytics from its official website. To do that, open a web browser and navigate to the following link:

http://www.openwebanalytics.com/download/

Click on the "Download" button to download the OWA package.

Step 2: Install Open Web Analytics

Once the OWA package is downloaded, extract it into the Apache document root directory /var/www/html:

sudo tar -xvf owa-1.7.4.tar.gz -C /var/www/html/

Change the ownership of the OWA directory to the web server user:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/owa

Step 3: Create a MySQL Database

Next, we need to create a MySQL database and user for OWA. Log in to the MySQL shell with the root user:

sudo mysql -u root

Create a new database named owa:

CREATE DATABASE owa;

Create a new user named owauser and set a password:

CREATE USER 'owauser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

Grant privileges to the owa database:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON owa.* TO 'owauser'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Flush the privileges and exit from the MySQL shell:

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 4: Configure Open Web Analytics

OWA uses a configuration file named owa-config.php, which is located in the owa directory. Copy the owa-config.php.sample file to owa-config.php:

cd /var/www/html/owa
sudo cp owa-config.php.sample owa-config.php

Configure the OWA by editing the owa-config.php file:

sudo nano owa-config.php

Modify the following database settings in the file:

define('OWA_DB_HOST', 'localhost');
define('OWA_DB_NAME', 'owa');
define('OWA_DB_USERNAME', 'owauser');
define('OWA_DB_PASSWORD', 'password');

Save and close the file.

Step 5: Configure Apache Web Server

Now, we need to create a VirtualHost configuration file for OWA. Create a new configuration file named owa.conf:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/owa.conf

Add the following lines:

<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
        DocumentRoot /var/www/html/owa
        ServerName example.com
        <Directory /var/www/html/owa/>
            Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
            AllowOverride All
            Order allow,deny
            allow from all
        </Directory>
        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/owa_error.log
        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/owa_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Change the ServerName to your own server name. Save and close the file.

Enable the VirtualHost and Apache rewrite module:

sudo a2ensite owa.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite

Restart Apache:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 6: Access Open Web Analytics

Open a web browser and navigate to your server's IP address or domain name followed by /owa/:

http://server_IP_address_or_domain_name/owa/

The OWA installation page will appear. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Open Web Analytics on Linux Mint. You can now track and analyze your website traffic using OWA.