docker-osticket

Introduction

Docker image for running version 1.17 of osTicket.

Important! If upgrading from images <1.17.0, read the upgrade instructions below, as images 1.17.0 and later have plugin-related breaking changes.

This image has been created from the original docker-osticket image by Petter A. Helset.

It has a few modifications:

• Documentation added, hurray!
• Base OS image fixed to Alpine Linux
• AJAX issues fixed that made original image unusable
• Now designed to work with a linked MySQL docker container.
• Automates configuration file & database installation
• EMail support

osTicket is being served by nginx using PHP-FPM with PHP 8.1. PHP mail function is configured to use msmtp to send out-going messages.

Quick Start

Ensure you have a MySQL 5 container running that osTicket can use to store its data.

docker run -d \
    -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=secret \
    -e MYSQL_USER=osticket \
    -e MYSQL_PASSWORD=secret \
    -e MYSQL_DATABASE=osticket \
    --name osticket_mysql\
    mysql:5

Now run this image and link the MySQL container.

docker run -d --name osticket --link osticket_mysql:mysql -p 8080:80 devinsolutions/osticket

Wait for the installation to complete then browse to your osTicket staff control panel at http://localhost:8080/scp/. Login with default admin user & password:

• username: ostadmin
• password: Admin1

Now configure as required. If you are intending on using this image in production, please make sure you change the passwords above and read the rest of this documentation!

Note (1): If you want to change the environmental database variables on the osTicket image to run, you can do it as follows.

docker run -d \
    -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=new_root_password \
    -e MYSQL_USER=new_root_user \
    -e MYSQL_PASSWORD=new_secret \
    -e MYSQL_DATABASE=osticket \
    --link osticket_mysql:mysql \
     --name osticket\
     -p 8080:80 \
     devinsolutions/osticket

Note (2): osTicket automatically redirects http://localhost:8080/scp to http://localhost/scp/. Either serve this on port 80 or don't omit the trailing slash after scp/!

Upgrading

Upgrading from image tag 1.16.3 or earlier

There are breaking changes in images tagged 1.17.0 and later, related to how plugins are shipped. When upgrading from image tag 1.16.3 or earlier, and plugins are used on the installation, manual intervention may be required.

Breaking changes are:

• Plugins auth-oauth and auth-cas are no longer included in this image. Plugin auth-oauth was superseded by a new plugin auth-oauth2.
• Plugins are no longer installed as directories. Instead, they are installed as .phar archives.

Manual upgrade steps:

1. As a precaution (as before any upgrade), perform a full DB backup.

2. If you are using one of the auth plugins that are no longer available in this image, and want to migrate to auth-oauth2:

   • Before upgrading, create a temporary user with Admin privileges that can authenticate via username/password.

   • If you can remove the old plugin now, do so. If that's not possible, we will remove it later, but those steps are more difficult.

   • Switch to tag 1.17.x

   • Log in, and run the osTicket upgrader.

   • Set up the auth-oauth2 plugin.

   • If you haven't removed the old plugin previously, let's do so now. Since it is not present in the image, it will show as "(defunct — missing)". Attempting to remove it will lead to Error 500, as the removal process requires the plugin to be present. We will have to remove it from the DB manually.

     • Open a shell to MariaDB / MySQL osTicket database.
     • List contents of the ost_plugin table (SELECT * FROM ost_plugin;).
     • Delete the missing plugin: DELETE FROM ost_plugin WHERE id=<id>; (replace <id> with the one corresponding to the plugin to be removed).

3. Switch to tag 1.17.x (if you skipped step 2).

4. If you are using any of audit auth-2fa auth-ldap auth-passthru auth-password-policy storage-fs or storage-s3 plugins:

   • These are no longer installed as folders but are installed as .phars. We need to update osTicket database so that entry in the plugins table points to the new location.
   • Open a shell to MariaDB / MySQL osTicket database.
   • List contents of the ost_plugin table (SELECT * FROM ost_plugin;)
   • If any of the plugins mentioned above are installed, for each one do: UPDATE ost_plugin SET install_path="<original-path>.phar", isphar=1 WHERE id=<id>; (replace <original-path> and <id> by values from install_path and id columns. For example, for plugin installed as id 3, with install path plugins/auth-passthru, the UPDATE statement will be UPDATE ost_plugin SET install_path="plugins/auth-passthru.phar", isphar=1 WHERE id=3;)

5. Run the osTicket upgrader (if you skipped step 2).

Note: If you upgraded to 1.17.x and can't log in (because auth plugins no longer work and you have not yet created a user that can log in with username/password), and you have not yet run osTicket upgrader (this image does not run it automatically, it has to be run manually after the first Admin login), it is should be safe to roll back to 1.16.3.

MySQL connection

The recommended connection method is to link your MySQL container to this image with the alias name mysql. However, if you are using an external MySQL server then you can specify the connection details using environmental variables.

osTicket requires that the MySQL connection specifies a user with full permissions to the specified database. This is required for the automatic database installation.

The osTicket configuration file is re-created from the template every time the container is started. This ensures the MySQL connection details are always kept up to date automatically in case of any changes.

Linked container Settings

There are no mandatory settings required when you link your MySQL container with the alias mysql as per the quick start example.

External MySQL connection settings

The following environmental variables should be set when connecting to an external MySQL server.

MYSQL_HOST

The host name or IP address of the MySQL host to connect to. This is not required when you link a container with the alias mysql. This must be provided if not using a linked container.

MYSQL_PASSWORD

The password for the specified user used when connecting to the MySQL server. By default will use the environmental variable MYSQL_PASSWORD from the linked MySQL container if this is not explicitly specified. This must be provided if not using a linked container.

MYSQL_PREFIX

The table prefix for this installation. Unlikely you will need to change this as customisable table prefixes are designed for shared hosting with only a single MySQL database available. Defaults to 'ost_'.

MYSQL_DATABASE

The name of the database to connect to. Defaults to 'osticket'.

MYSQL_USER

The user name to use when connecting to the MySQL server. Defaults to 'osticket'.

Mail Configuration

The image does not run a MTA. Although one could be installed quite easily, getting the setup so that external mail servers will accept mail from your host & domain is not trivial due to anti-spam measures. This is additionally difficult to do from ephemeral docker containers that run in a cloud where the host may change etc.

Hence this image supports osTicket sending of mail by sending directly to designated a SMTP server. However, you must provide the relevant SMTP settings through environmental variables before this will function.

To automatically collect email from an external IMAP or POP3 account, configure the settings for the relevant email address in your admin control panel as normal (Admin Panel -> Emails).

SMTP Settings

SMTP_HOST

The host name (or IP address) of the SMTP server to send all outgoing mail through. Defaults to 'localhost'.

SMTP_PORT

The TCP port to connect to on the server. Defaults to '25'. Usually one of 25, 465 or 587.

SMTP_FROM

The envelope from address to use when sending email (note that is not the same as the From: header). This must be provided for sending mail to function. However, if not specified, this will default to the value of SMTP_USER if this is provided.

SMTP_TLS

Boolean (1 or 0) value indicating if TLS should be used to create a secure connection to the server. Defaults to true.

SMTP_TLS_CERTS

If TLS is in use, indicates file containing root certificates used to verify server certificate. Defaults to system installed ca certificates list. This would normally only need changed if you are using your own certificate authority or are connecting to a server with a self signed certificate.

SMTP_USER

The user identity to use for SMTP authentication. Specifying a value here will enable SMTP authentication. This will also be used for the SMTP_FROM value if this is not explicitly specified. Defaults to no value.

SMTP_PASSWORD

The password associated with the user for SMTP authentication. Defaults to no value.

IMAP/POP3 Settings

CRON_INTERVAL

Specifies how often (in minutes) that osTicket cron script should be ran to check for incoming emails. Defaults to 5 minutes. Set to 0 to disable running of cron script. Note that this works in conjuction with the email check interval specified in the admin control panel, you need to specify both to the value you'd like!

Environmental Variables

INSTALL_SECRET

Secret string value for osTicket installation. A random value is generated on start-up and persisted in /var/lib/osticket/secret.txt if this is not provided.

If using in production you should specify this so that re-creating the container does not cause your installation secret to be lost!

INSTALL_CONFIG

If you require a configuration file for osTicket with custom content then you should create one and mount it in your container as a volume. The placeholders for the MySQL connection must be retained as these will be populated automatically when the container starts. Set this environmental variable to the fully qualified file name of your custom configuration. If not specified, the default osTicket sample configuration file is used.

INSTALL_EMAIL

Helpdesk email account. This is placed in the configuration file as well as the DB during installation. Defaults to '[email protected]'

INSTALL_URL

The full URL of the osTicket installation that will be set in the DB during installation. This should be set to match the public facing URL of your osTicket site. For example: https://help.example.com/osticket. Defaults to http://localhost:8080/.

This has no effect if the database has already been installed. In this case, you should change the Helpdesk URL in System Settings and Preferences in the admin control panel.

Database Installation Only

The remaining environmental variables can be used as a convenience to provide defaults during the automated database installation but most of these settings can be changed through the admin panel if required. These are only used when creating the initial database.

INSTALL_NAME

The name of the helpdesk to create if installing. Defaults to "My Helpdesk".

ADMIN_FIRSTNAME

First name of automatically created administrative user. Defaults to 'Admin'.

ADMIN_LASTNAME

Last name of automatically created administrative user. Defaults to 'User'.

ADMIN_EMAIL

Email address of automatically created administrative user. Defaults to '[email protected]'.

ADMIN_USERNAME

User name to use for automatically created administrative user. Defaults to 'ostadmin'.

ADMIN_PASSWORD

Password to use for automatically created administrative user. Defaults to 'Admin1'.

Modifications

This image was put together relatively quickly and could probably be improved to meet other use cases.

Please feel free to open an issue if you have any changes you would like to see. All pull requests are also appreciated!

License

This image and source code is made available under the MIT licence. See the LICENSE file for details.