How to Install Alerta on Ubuntu Server

Alerta is an open-source alert management system designed to consolidate and forward alerts from different sources to help you quickly spot and respond to critical technical issues. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to install Alerta on your Ubuntu server.

Prerequisites

Before you proceed with the installation process, ensure you have the following:

  • Ubuntu Server 20.04 or later version
  • Root or sudo user access
  • Installed packages: virtualenv, pip, python3-venv, and git

Step 1: Install Required Dependencies

First, login to your Ubuntu server and update the package list using the following command:

sudo apt update

Next, install the required packages for Alerta:

sudo apt install virtualenv python3-venv pip git

Step 2: Clone the Alerta Git Repository

After installing the required dependencies, clone the Alerta Git repository using the following command:

git clone https://github.com/alerta/alerta.git

Navigate to the Alerta clone directory using the command:

cd alerta

Step 3: Create a Python Virtual Environment

Inside the Alerta directory, create a virtual environment using the command:

python3 -m venv alerta

Then, activate the virtual environment:

source alerta/bin/activate

Step 4: Install Alerta

With your virtual environment activated, use pip to install Alerta:

pip install -e .

This command will install Alerta and its dependencies.

Step 5: Set Up the Alerta Environment

Create a new configuration file for Alerta called config.py using the nano editor:

nano alerta/config.py

Add the following configuration settings to the config.py file:

SECRET_KEY = 'your-secret-key-here'

# Database settings
DATABASE_URL = 'sqlite:////tmp/alerta.db'
DATABASE_NAME = None
DATABASE_URI = 'sqlite:///alerta.db'

# Authentication settings
AUTH_REQUIRED = False

Replace your-secret-key-here with a strong, unique secret key.

Step 6: Run Alerta

Run Alerta using the following command:

alerta run

This command will launch Alerta on your server.

Conclusion

You have successfully installed Alerta on your Ubuntu server. You can now monitor and manage your alerts through Alerta’s web interface. To access the interface, simply navigate to http://<your-server-ip>:8080 in your web browser.