RT 4.2.x + Ubuntu 14.04: package backport? native install? etc

RT Users
1

I want to run RT 4.2.x on Ubuntu 14.04 (trusty). Ubuntu utopic, which
is not yet released, includes RT 4.2.4
http://packages.ubuntu.com/utopic/request-tracker4. I don’t see any
backports to 14.04 (trusty), which runs 4.0.19:
http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/request-tracker4

Questions:

  1. Does 14.04/trusty’s dpkg (ie, pre-packaged) install of 4.0.19 offer
    me benefits towards an install of 4.2.x? Possibly as an upgrade
    path? (eg: trusty’s apt-get install of RT 4.0.19 installs a -long-
    list of package dependencies. I’m wondering if this will save me a
    bunch of work over #3, below?)
  2. Are there any trust backports of RT 4.2.x available for me to download?
  3. Should I just skip all of the above and install from the 4.2.6
    source/tarball?
  4. Can some combination of #1 and #3 (getting #1 to handle all the
    dependencies, #3 to install the actual core binaries/etc) possibly
    help me?

I have a relatively-seasoned team to sysadmin the install for #3 and
maybe #4, but I’m trying to leverage the “Ubuntu package/dependency”
magic for #1 or #2, if I can.

I’m seeking comments from RT server admins with experience on Ubuntu or
Debian, preferably on Ubuntu 14.04/trusty.

Thanks for any help.

2

I want to run RT 4.2.x on Ubuntu 14.04 (trusty). Ubuntu utopic, which is not
yet released, [1]includes RT 4.2.4. I don’t see any backports to 14.04
(trusty), which runs 4.0.19:
http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/request-tracker4

Ubuntu generally does a horrid job of importing the excellent debian
packages. For a long time, they were ignoring security releases. The
Debian 4.2 packages are available in testing over there, you may need to
vote for them to come over.

While you can use the deps from 4.0.19 to get some deps for 4.2, you
won’t get all of them.

Generall Best Practical installs from source, even on our Ubuntu
machines.

-kevin

3

Ubuntu generally does a horrid job of importing the excellent debian
packages. For a long time, they were ignoring security releases. The
Debian 4.2 packages are available in testing over there, you may need to
vote for them to come over.
While you can use the deps from 4.0.19 to get some deps for 4.2, you
won’t get all of them.
Generall Best Practical installs from source, even on our Ubuntu
machines.

Thanks Kevin. I built + installed RT 4.2.6 from source on Ubuntu 14.04
and, in short: it basically just worked. No reliance on Ubuntu
‘request-tracker’ package. Good show. I’ve never experienced a
perl-based system to be installed so easily, but maybe I’ve been jaded
from installing things like Bugzilla and others many (many) moons ago.
Further, you provide an Apache-independent web server, for (at least)
sanity-check testing.

All of this impressive. Kudos to Best Practical.

Details.

For those interested, here’s our (current, immature) Python Fabric code
running as root (and therefore auth-limits-bugs probably exist) for
installing a sqlite-based RT web server on a relatively-lean Ubuntu
14.04 server–without mysql server, but maybe some other basic things
already installed–to get things up-and-going quickly, but NOT in
production mode (eg, no database password):

env.apt_yes = ‘apt-get -y --force-yes’
env.apt_force_confnew=“-o Dpkg::Options::=–force-confnew”
env.debian_frontend_noninteractive=“DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive”

def aptget_core(directive,pkgname=“”):
sudo(env.debian_frontend_noninteractive + " " +
env.apt_yes + " " +
directive + " " +
env.apt_force_confnew + " " +
pkgname)

def aptget_install(pkgname):
aptget_core(“install”,pkgname)

def install_request_tracker__ubuntu():
sudo(“PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT=1 cpan App::cpanminus”)
aptget_install(“libxml-rss-perl”)
with cd(“~”):
run(“wget
http://download.bestpractical.com/pub/rt/release/rt-4.2.6.tar.gz”)
run(“tar xvzf rt-4.2.6.tar.gz”)
with cd(“~/rt-4.2.6”):
run(“./configure --with-db-type=SQLite”)
run(“PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT=1 make fixdeps”)
run(“make install”)
run(“make initialize-database”)

Then run the Apache-independent webserver to sanity check:

/opt/rt4/sbin/rt-server

None of the above attempts email-systems integration. Do not read
this as a full install procedure.

4

Thanks Kevin. I built + installed RT 4.2.6 from source on Ubuntu 14.04 and,
in short: it basically just worked. No reliance on Ubuntu
‘request-tracker’ package. Good show. I’ve never experienced a perl-based
system to be installed so easily, but maybe I’ve been jaded from installing
things like Bugzilla and others many (many) moons ago. Further, you provide
an Apache-independent web server, for (at least) sanity-check testing.

I’m glad it went smoothly. The perl webserver can probably serve
small sites fine (as long as you don’t want SSL). It’s primary use is
development and the test suite.

I did notice one problem

    run("./configure --with-db-type=SQLite")

SQLite is not a production database, there really isn’t a tested way
to move to Postgres or MySQL or Oracle once you decide to go live. I
suggest picking a real database to start.

Search for SQLite here for more.
http://bestpractical.com/docs/rt/latest/README.html

-kevin