3.1. Quick Start (Ubuntu Linux 22.04)

This quick start guide makes installing Bugzilla as simple as possible for those who are able to choose their environment. It creates a system using Ubuntu Linux 22.04 LTS, Apache and MariaDB. It requires a little familiarity with Linux and the command line.

3.1.1. Obtain Your Hardware

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Server requires a 64-bit processor. Bugzilla itself has no prerequisites beyond that, although you should pick reliable hardware. You can also probably use any 64-bit virtual machine or cloud instance that you have root access on.

3.1.2. Install the OS

Get Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS and follow the installation instructions. Here are some tips:

You do not need an encrypted lvm group, root or home directory.
Choose all the defaults for the “partitioning” part (excepting of course where the default is “No” and you need to press “Yes” to continue).
Choose any server name you like.
When creating the initial Linux user, call it bugzilla, give it a strong password, and write that password down.
From the install options, choose “OpenSSH Server”.

Reboot when the installer finishes.

3.1.3. Become root

ssh to the machine as the ‘bugzilla’ user, or start a console. Then:

sudo su

3.1.4. Install Prerequisites

apt install git nano

apt install apache2 build-essential mariadb-server libcgi-pm-perl libdigest-sha-perl libtimedate-perl libdatetime-perl libdatetime-timezone-perl libdbi-perl libdbix-connector-perl libtemplate-perl libemail-address-perl libemail-sender-perl libemail-mime-perl liburi-perl liblist-moreutils-perl libmath-random-isaac-perl libjson-xs-perl libgd-perl libchart-perl libtemplate-plugin-gd-perl libgd-text-perl libgd-graph-perl libmime-tools-perl libwww-perl libxml-twig-perl libnet-ldap-perl libauthen-sasl-perl libnet-smtp-ssl-perl libauthen-radius-perl libsoap-lite-perl libxmlrpc-lite-perl libjson-rpc-perl libtest-taint-perl libhtml-parser-perl libhtml-scrubber-perl libencode-perl libencode-detect-perl libemail-reply-perl libhtml-formattext-withlinks-perl libtheschwartz-perl libdaemon-generic-perl libapache2-mod-perl2 libapache2-mod-perl2-dev libfile-mimeinfo-perl libio-stringy-perl libcache-memcached-perl libfile-copy-recursive-perl libfile-which-perl libmariadb-dev perlmagick lynx graphviz python3-sphinx rst2pdf

This will take a little while. It’s split into two commands so you can do the next steps (up to step 7) in another terminal while you wait for the second command to finish. If you start another terminal, you will need to sudo su again.

3.1.5. Configure MariaDB

Put in the server settings that Bugzilla needs:

cp docker/mysql/bugzilla.cnf /etc/mysql/conf.d/bugzilla.cnf

Then, add a user to MariaDB for Bugzilla to use:

mariadb -u root -e "CREATE USER bugs@localhost IDENTIFIED BY '$db_pass'"

Replace $db_pass with a strong password you have generated. Write it down. You should make $db_pass different than your login password.

Next, give the Bugzilla user access to create and manage the Bugzilla database:

mariadb -u root -e "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON bugs.* TO bugs@localhost"

Restart MariaDB:

systemctl restart mariadb

3.1.6. Configure Apache

nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/bugzilla.conf

Paste in the following and save:

Alias /bugzilla /var/www/webapps/bugzilla
<Directory /var/www/webapps/bugzilla>
  AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
  Options +ExecCGI
  DirectoryIndex index.cgi index.html
  AllowOverride All
</Directory>

This configuration sets up Bugzilla to be served on your server under /bugzilla path. For more in depth setup instructions, refer to Apache section of this documentation.

a2ensite bugzilla

a2enmod cgid headers expires rewrite

service apache2 restart

3.1.7. Download Bugzilla

Get it from our Git repository:

mkdir -p /var/www/webapps

cd /var/www/webapps

git clone --branch release-X.X-stable https://github.com/bugzilla/bugzilla bugzilla

(where “X.X” is the 2-digit version number of the stable release of Bugzilla that you want - e.g. 5.2)

3.1.8. Install Additional Perl Modules

Bugzilla requires newer versions than Ubuntu ships of a few Perl modules. Bugzilla includes a install-module.pl script which will install them locally inside your Bugzilla directory without affecting your system-wide Perl installation.

cd /var/www/webapps/bugzilla

./install-module.pl Template Email::Sender Email::Address::XS DBD::MariaDB

3.1.9. Check Setup

Bugzilla comes with a checksetup.pl script which helps with the installation process. It will need to be run twice. The first time, it generates a config file (called localconfig) for the database access information, and the second time (step 10) it uses the info you put in the config file to set up the database.

./checksetup.pl

3.1.10. Edit `localconfig`

nano localconfig

You will need to set the following values:

Line 29: set $webservergroup to www-data
Line 50: set db_driver to mariadb
Line 67: set $db_pass to the password for the bugs user you created in MariaDB a few steps ago

3.1.11. Check Setup (again)

Run the checksetup.pl script again to set up the database.

./checksetup.pl

It will ask you to give an email address, real name and password for the first Bugzilla account to be created, which will be an administrator. Write down the email address and password you set.

3.1.12. Test Server

./testserver.pl http://localhost/bugzilla

All the tests should pass. You will get a warning about failing to run gdlib-config; just ignore it.

3.1.13. Access Via Web Browser

Access the front page:

lynx http://localhost/bugzilla

It’s not really possible to use Bugzilla for real through Lynx, but you can view the front page to validate visually that it’s up and running.

You might well need to configure your DNS such that the server has, and is reachable by, a name rather than IP address. Doing so is out of scope of this document. In the mean time, it is available on your local network at http://<ip address>/bugzilla, where <ip address> is (unless you have a complex network setup) the address starting with 192 displayed when you run hostname -I.

3.1.14. Accessing Bugzilla from the Internet

To be able to access Bugzilla from anywhere in the world, you don’t have to make it internet facing at all, there are free VPN services that let you set up your own network that is accessible anywhere. One of those is Tailscale, which has a fairly accessible Quick Start guide.

If you are setting up an internet facing Bugzilla, it’s essential to set up SSL, so that the communication between the server and users is encrypted. For local and intranet installation this matters less, and for those cases, you could set up a self signed local certificate instead.

There are a few ways to set up free SSL thanks to Let’s Encrypt. The two major ones would be Apache’s mod_md and EFF’s certbot, but we don’t cover the exact specifics of this here, as that’s out of scope of this guide.

3.1.15. Configure Bugzilla

Once you have worked out how to access your Bugzilla in a graphical web browser, bring up the front page, click Log In in the header, and log in as the admin user you defined in step 10.

Click the Parameters link on the page it gives you, and set the following parameters in the Required Settings section:

urlbase: http://<servername>/bugzilla/ or http://<ip address>/bugzilla/
ssl_redirect: on if you set up an SSL certificate

Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

There are several ways to get Bugzilla to send email. The easiest is to use Gmail, so we do that here so you have it working. Visit https://gmail.com and create a new Gmail account for your Bugzilla to use. Then, open the Email section of the Parameters using the link in the left column, and set the following parameter values:

mail_delivery_method: SMTP
mailfrom: new_gmail_address@gmail.com
smtpserver: smtp.gmail.com:465
smtp_username: new_gmail_address@gmail.com
smtp_password: new_gmail_password
smtp_ssl: On