How to Install RackTables on macOS

This tutorial will guide you through the process of installing RackTables on your macOS computer. RackTables is a free, open-source data center management and asset tracking system.

Requirements

Before we get started, make sure you have the following requirements:

  • macOS computer running 10.8 or later
  • Apache web server installed and running
  • PHP 5.5 or higher installed and running
  • MySQL 5.5 or higher installed and running

Step 1: Download RackTables

You can download the latest version of RackTables from the official website. Make sure you download the appropriate version for your macOS computer.

Step 2: Extract the Files

After you've downloaded RackTables, navigate to the directory where it was downloaded and extract the files.

tar -zxvf racktables-0.21.1.tar.gz

Step 3: Move Files to Web Server

Now that the files are extracted, move them to your Apache web server directory. Depending on your setup, this may be /var/www/html, /Library/WebServer/Documents/ or another directory.

sudo mv racktables-0.21.1 /var/www/html/racktables

Step 4: Change Permissions

You need to change the permissions of the var directory to allow RackTables to write to it.

cd /var/www/html/racktables/
sudo chown -R _www:_www var/
sudo chmod -R 775 var/

Step 5: Create a Database

Next, create a new database for RackTables to use. You can do this through phpMyAdmin, or through the terminal:

mysql -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE racktablesdb;
CREATE USER 'racktablesuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON racktablesdb.* TO 'racktablesuser'@'localhost';
exit

Note: Replace racktablesdb, racktablesuser, and password with your desired names and passwords.

Step 6: Configure RackTables

In the RackTables folder, make a copy of the config.php.dist file and rename it to config.php.

cd /var/www/html/racktables/
cp inc/config.php.dist inc/config.php

Open up config.php in a text editor and edit the following lines:

# Database Configuration
$config['dbUser']   = 'racktablesuser';
$config['dbPassword']   = 'password';
$config['dbName']   = 'racktablesdb';
$config['dbHost']   = 'localhost';

Step 7: Test RackTables

Navigate to your web server's IP address or hostname followed by /racktables. You should see the RackTables login page. Log in with the default username admin and password admin.

Congratulations! You've successfully installed RackTables on your macOS computer.