[SOLVED]*kinda - openSUSE Installation Error

[tmoore82]

I recently set up OTRS on some CentOS servers, and I wanted to do a similar setup on my openSUSE server at home to do some additional testing. I can't get past the part of the web installer that creates the database. It appears to create the database ok, but then it times out. I get the following error, and I have no idea how to diagnose it:

[Mon Jan 27 22:19:45.731539 2014] [cgi:error] [pid 2904] [client 192.168.1.10:51541] AH01215: [Mon Jan 27 22:19:45 2014] installer.pl: Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at /opt/otrs/bin/cgi-bin/../../Kernel/Modules/Installer.pm line 619., referer: http://svr-clptest/otrs/installer.pl

I'm using openSUSE 13.1.

[wurzel]

Hi,

did you use the rpm? or the tar.gz?

Flo

[tmoore82]

I used the RPM via http://ftp.otrs.org/pub/otrs/RPMS/suse/ ... noarch.rpm.

[schulmann]

I can't get past the part of the web installer that creates the database. It appears to create the database ok, but then it times out.
I'm using openSUSE 13.1.

For me it works this way (openSUSE 13.1 in Virtualbox):
zypper in otrs-3.3.4-01.noarch.rpm gcc make mysql-community-server perl-Crypt-SSLeay perl-JSON-XS perl-YAML-LibYAML
zypper in perl-Text-CSV_XS perl-PDF-API2 perl-GDGraph perl-Encode-HanExtra postfix perl-DBD-mysql
cd ~otrs && bin/otrs.SetPermissions.pl --otrs-user=otrs --web-user=wwwrun --otrs-group=www --web-group=www /opt/otrs
rcmysql start
systemctl start apache2.service
mysqladmin --user=root password geheim

But I think not all of the above steps are really necessary.

[tmoore82]

Thanks, schulmann. I tried your method, and now I'm getting a timeout error at the same point in the process. I get to the part of the web installer that creates the database, and it times out. The script successfully creates the database and updates the Config.pm file with the new password. I can't tell from 'installer.pl' what it tries to do next.

Here's the error from /var/log/apache2/error_log:

[Tue Jan 28 20:53:23.136306 2014] [cgi:warn] [pid 6856] [client 192.168.1.10:52732] AH01220: Timeout waiting for output from CGI script /opt/otrs/bin/cgi-bin/installer.pl, referer: http://svr-clptest/otrs/installer.pl
[Tue Jan 28 20:53:23.136470 2014] [cgi:error] [pid 6856] [client 192.168.1.10:52732] Script timed out before returning headers: installer.pl, referer: http://svr-clptest/otrs/installer.pl

The browser displays the following:

The gateway did not receive a timely response from the upstream server or application.

This is on a local network at home. I'm accessing the Linux server using PuTTY from a Windows 8 machine. I'm using a wireless connection from the Windows 8 machine, but the server has a hard line connection to the router, if that makes any difference. I don't have any trouble executing anything from PuTTY or accessing the index page through the browser. I've spent a couple of hours researching the error, and I can't figure out what the next step should be.

[schulmann]

I get to the part of the web installer that creates the database, and it times out.

Here's the error from /var/log/apache2/error_log:
[Tue Jan 28 20:53:23.136306 2014] [cgi:warn] [pid 6856] [client 192.168.1.10:52732] AH01220: Timeout waiting for output from CGI script /opt/otrs/bin/cgi-bin/installer.pl, referer: http://svr-clptest/otrs/installer.pl

The above-mentioned apache error messages I've never seen.

I guess it's not important but where runs your browser and which browser is it?

Just some more information:
I installed openSUSE with all patches on a new virtual machine.
The database and OTRS were on the same machine.

The important question is: Did you a fresh installation of openSUSE, apache2 and mysql?

[tmoore82]

I'm using Firefox 26 from the Windows 8 machine. I've tried two different Windows 8 machines--one on my network, and one outside my network.

This was a completely fresh installation of everything. I can start over. Right now, a text-only version of openSUSE and OTRS are the only things running on the machine. I haven't done anything else with it. I'll try starting from scratch tonight. I'm thinking it has something to do with my firewall settings, but I'm not a network guy. Really have no idea how to diagnose all this.

[schulmann]

I'm using Firefox 26 from the Windows 8 machine. I've tried two different Windows 8 machines--one on my network, and one outside my network.

This was a completely fresh installation of everything. I can start over. Right now, a text-only version of openSUSE and OTRS are the only things running on the machine. I haven't done anything else with it. I'll try starting from scratch tonight. I'm thinking it has something to do with my firewall settings, but I'm not a network guy. Really have no idea how to diagnose all this.

To verify this there is a simple solution: Install KDE or GNOME and Firefox on your Linux box und use the Linux Firefox to install/configure your OTRS database.

Otherwise you should configure your Windows firewall appropriate or disable it while you install your OTRS database.

On Linux you can watch the network traffic in a PuTTY session with

• zypper in wireshark
• tshark -n -t a -i xx 'host x.x.x.x' where xx is the appropriate network interface and x.x.x.x is the ip address of e. g. your Windows box

The configured network interfaces are typically shown with "ifconfig".

[tmoore82]

Ok. Started from scratch. Reinstalled openSUSE but included KDE so I could walk through the web installation on the server. Same error, same place.

When I installed on CentOS, there were a couple of things I had to do that weren't in the manual. First, I had to disable SELinux to access the web installer. As far as I can tell, openSuSE doesn't have SELinux enabled by default. After all, I'm able to get to the web installer. Am I right about this?

The other thing I had to do was modify the zzz_otrs.conf file. There's a directive in there that reads <IfModule mod_perl.c>. For some reason, I had to change this to <IfModule mod_perl.so> or else apache wouldn't restart. It would send back the following message:

[Mon Dec 09 15:59:42 2013] [error] Can't locate /opt/otrs/scripts/apache2-perl-startup.pl in @INC

Since I'm not seeing anything like that message during this installation, I've assumed that's not the problem here. Plus, I tried it. Didn't help.

I thought it was a network problem because of the nature of the error, but now that I'm doing everything on the host machine, I'm guessing it can't be a network problem. It could be a problem with Apache, but I don't know enough to feel confident about making that assertion. I've tried flushing iptables and turning the host machine's firewall off completely. Still no luck.

I really appreciate the suggestions so far. Anything else I can look at next?

[jojo]

can you connect to the mysql server locally? any errors in the mysql log?

please also have a look on http://doc.otrs.org

[tmoore82]

I have no problems accessing MySQL locally or remotely. Plus, like I said, OTRS creates the database and updates the Config file with database info just fine. At least I think it does. When I delete the database to try again, it tells me it has deleted 91 rows. Should I have more than that?

I've read the documentation. Following that route got me the error I started with originally. Schulmann's commands got me past that problem, at least. I tried again with a fresh install of openSuSE and OTRS tonight. Same error, same place. At least it's consistent.

[tmoore82]

I was reviewing all of the hardware/software requirements for OTRS and openSuSE last night, just to see what I might be missing. I can't imagine that this is the problem, but OTRS says it requires 2 GB of RAM. My netbook has only 1 GB. I know that some hardware requirements are there to guarantee speed and stability more than operability. Is there any reason to suspect, based on the error I'm seeing, that insufficient RAM is the problem? Is there a way I could diagnose that?

[schulmann]

I was reviewing all of the hardware/software requirements for OTRS and openSuSE last night, just to see what I might be missing. I can't imagine that this is the problem, but OTRS says it requires 2 GB of RAM.

Ah, interesting.

My documentation for test installations contains: The virtual OTRS machine should have at least 1.5 GB of RAM because otherwise not all Apache processes can get enough RAM.

In addition I always (not only for test installations) obeyed viewtopic.php?f=17&t=23333#p91973:
We have specified a rule of thumb for OTRS on Linux with Apache:

• KeepAlive Off
• 5 Apache processes (MaxClients)
• For every 5 concurrent agents 1 additional Apache process
• For every Apache process 250 MB of RAM

Is this a reasonable rule of thumb?

Until now there was no feedback.
I don't understand why.

[crythias]

Fresh openSUSE 13 DVD on virtualbox (512MB RAM, 8GB HD btw) (With KDE):

Code: Select all

wget http://ftp.otrs.org/pub/otrs/RPMS/suse/11.0/otrs-3.3.4-01.noarch.rpm
sudo zypper install perl-Net-DNS apache2 apache2-mod_perl perl-ldap perl-DBD-mysql
sudo rpm -Uvh otrs-3.3.4-01.noarch.rpm
sudo /usr/sbin/rcmysql start
sudo /usr/sbin/rcapache2 restart
sudo /usr/sbin/rcotrs start-force

Firefox:
http://localhost/otrs/installer.pl
Next, Accept license, Mysql, Create a new database, Next
root/no password
accept defaults after check database
next
[Step 3] .. FQDN localhost (next)
Mail config [skip]

grab root and password

login and ... go

[tmoore82]

I may have found a catch-22 here. Following crythias' instructions, I noticed that the otrs service wouldn't start. The error indicated that otrs couldn't connect to the database. Of course it can't, because the otrs database hasn't been created yet. So the error also suggests using the web installer to set up the database.

I run the web installer, get the same error in the same place. But now that the database is created, the otrs service starts. The problem is, now I can't complete the installer because the database already exists. If I try to create a new database, it tells me 'otrs' already exists. If I try to use the existing database, it tells me 'Database already contains data - it should be empty!' If I use an empty database called 'otrs,' my otrs error log spits out the following:

[Fri Jan 31 20:45:01 2014][Error][Kernel::System::PID::PIDGet][181] Table 'otrs.process_id' doesn't exist, SQL: '
SELECT process_name, process_id, process_host, process_create, process_change
FROM process_id
WHERE process_name = ? LIMIT 1'
[Fri Jan 31 20:45:32 2014][Error][/opt/otrs/bin/otrs.CheckDB.pl][57] Table 'otrs.valid' doesn't exist, SQL: 'SELECT * FROM valid'

If I start the service, then delete the database, the service immediately spits out an error

[Fri Jan 31 21:05:38 2014][Error][Kernel::System::PID::PIDGet][181] Table 'otrs.process_id' doesn't exist, SQL: '
SELECT process_name, process_id, process_host, process_create, process_change
FROM process_id
WHERE process_name = ? LIMIT 1'
[Fri Jan 31 21:05:38 2014][Error][Kernel::System::DB::new][223] Unknown database 'otrs'

If the otrs service is supposed to be started before I run the web installer, but the service won't start until the database is created, I think I'm stuck.

[crythias]

OK. honestly, I started the otrs service after I did the web install because scheduler wasn't started. I was trying to minimize steps, but I actually started the otrs service after finishing the web install

[tmoore82]

Ok. Well, the web installer just didn't work. I deleted the database, went back and followed the steps for configuring the database manually, and now it's working. I don't know why I didn't just do that three days ago. Stubborn, I guess.

Before I restarted the otrs service, though, I did try to login and see what happened. I got the same timeout error as before. I don't know where the glitch in my setup was, but not having that service going would seem to be the source of most of the errors. Thanks for all the help!