Setup OpenProject on Ubuntu 20.04

OpenProject is another web based project management tool written in Ruby and Angular available under GPLv3 license. If you want to give it a try and know what it offer, follow this article to setup OpenProject on Ubuntu 20.04.

If you want to have a look at Leantime, similar(less features) but lighter application for project management.

Install Leantime on Ubuntu

It has two editions, community and enterprise as paid with extra features. We will install the community edition(deb package).

It has three installation methods: DEB/RPM, Docker and Univention.

Highlighted features

Task management and issue tracking
Project planning and scheduling
Agile, Scrum & Kanban
Time tracking, cost reporting, budgeting
Team collaboration
Product roadmap and release planning
Workflows and customization
Integrations with third party apps like Nextcloud
REST API
Security(2FA, SSO, E2E encryption)

*Some of these are enterprise features

What you will need?

Ubuntu 20.04
VPS(or local machine) with minimum 4GB RAM and 20GB disk space
SMTP credentials(for sending out mails, we will skip it in this tutorial but will explain how to configure it)
If you want to use SSL, point your domain or sub domain to the server IP

This setup can support up to 200 users on a single node.

What tools are required?

Apache as a reverse proxy
PostgreSQL database
SSL certificate(from Let’s Encrypt)

As I mentioned above we will use DEB package for installation, but you are free to use docker if that’s your thing.

Also we will not use the default web server for external requests, ssl certificate and PostgreSQL database. We will set these up separately to have more control over our installation and setup.

PostgreSQL

apt install postgresql postgresql-contrib

Check if after installation PostgreSQL is started.

systemctl status postgresql

If not, start it with:

systemctl start postgresql

Enable it at boot time:

systemctl enable postgresql

Enter to PostgreSQL space as postgres(default and super user for PostgreSQL) user for creating users and databases easily.

sudo -i -u postgres

PostgreSQL provides built-in scripts for creating users and databases. Let’s just use that.

createuser openproject
createdb openproject

You can use dropdb and dropuser for deleting databases and users. But be careful when doing any delete operations.

You may also want to setup password for this user and assign it to the database.

psql

ALTER USER openproject PASSWORD 'testpassword';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE openproject TO openproject;

Apache installation

apt install apache2

Enable required Apache modules.

a2enmod ssl rewrite headers proxy proxy_http deflate cache proxy_wstunnel http2 proxy_fcgi env expires

Restart and enable at boot time.

systemctl restart apache2
systemctl enable apache2

OpenProject installation

Import the PGP key:

wget -qO- https://dl.packager.io/srv/opf/openproject/key | sudo apt-key add -

Add the package repository:

wget -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openproject.list \
  https://dl.packager.io/srv/opf/openproject/stable/12/installer/ubuntu/20.04.repo

Update the system and install OpenProject:

apt update
apt install openproject

It will automatically install all the required tools and dependencies.

OpenProject configuration

sudo openproject configure

If you want to cancel the setup process, press ctlr+c to do so. You can restart anytime by either configure or reconfigure.

What does configure option do?

From the project page:

Every time you will run the OpenProject wizard, your choices will be persisted in a configuration file at /etc/openproject/installer.dat and subsequent executions of sudo openproject configure will re-use these values, only showing you the wizard steps for options you have not yet been asked for.

What does reconfigure option do?

In case you want to run through all the wizard options again, you can do so by executing sudo openproject reconfigure. This will show all wizard steps, but again keep values you entered before showing in the input fields. You can skip dialogs you do not want to change simply by confirming them with ENTER.

Installation steps

1- On the 1st screen choose default(OpenProject)

2- For PostgreSQL choose reuse and enter the database name and other values when asked

3- Choose skip on the Apache screen

4- Select no for SSL certificate part

5- If you have SMTP values ready, choose it and enter the values. If you do not have yet, skip it for now. You can always comeback to this step using configure or reconfigure

6- For Memcached part, choose install

With that, the OpenProject installation wizard will complete, and apply all the configurations.

Apache virtual host

At this point OpenProject is installed and working but we need a proxy to forward all the outside(external) requests internally to OpenProject.

cd /etc/apache2/sites-available
vim openproject.conf

Paste/enter the following in it, change text in bold.

<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerName      DOMAIN.COM
        ServerAdmin     [email protected]
        DocumentRoot    /opt/openproject/public

        ProxyRequests off
        ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:6000/ retry=0
        ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:6000/

        <LocationMatch "^/sys">
                <IfModule mod_authz_core.c>
                        Require local
                </IfModule>

                <IfModule !mod_authz_core.c>
                        Order Deny,Allow
                        Deny from all
                        Allow from 127.0.0.1
                </IfModule>
        </LocationMatch>

        Alias /assets /opt/openproject/public/assets
        Alias /uploads /opt/openproject/public/uploads
        <Directory "/opt/openproject/public">
                Options -Indexes
                <IfModule mod_authz_core.c>
                        Require all granted
                </IfModule>

                <IfModule !mod_authz_core.c>
                        Order deny,allow
                        Allow from all
                </IfModule>
        </Directory>

        ProxyPass /assets/ !
        <Location /assets/>
                FileETag Size
                ExpiresActive On ExpiresDefault "access plus 1 year"
        </Location>

        <FilesMatch "\.(ico|pdf|flv|jpg|jpeg|png|gif|js|css|swf)$">
                ExpiresActive On
                ExpiresDefault "access plus 1 year"
        </FilesMatch>

        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/css application/x-javascript application/javascript

        ErrorLog    /var/log/apache2/DOMAIN.COM-error.log
</VirtualHost>

Save and enable:

a2dissite 000-default.conf
a2ensite openproject.conf

Test if the configuration is correct.

apachectl -t

If everything is good, restart Apache.

systemctl restart apache2

Till here the base setup is completed. Open it in the browser and see how it goes. Initial load may take sometime.

openproject-main-default-page — Project page

Default login username is admin and password is admin. You will be asked to change it after login.

SSL certificate and Apache vhost for 443

snap install certbot --classic

Check the link below for more about Certbot.

How to install Certbot on Ubuntu

Get a certificate:

certbot certonly --webroot -w /opt/openproject/public -d DOMAIN.COM

If you have successfully retrieved a certificate, it’s time to make use of it.

cd /etc/apache2/sites-available
vim openproject-ssl.conf

Paste the following in it. Change DOMAIN.COM, the rest are fine unless you have other changes to make.

<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerName DOMAIN.COM
        redirect permanent / https://DOMAIN.COM/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>

        SSLEngine On
        SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/DOMAIN.COM/privkey.pem
        SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/DOMAIN.COM/fullchain.pem

        RequestHeader set X_FORWARDED_PROTO 'https'
        
        ServerName      DOMAIN.COM
        ServerAdmin     [email protected]
        DocumentRoot    /opt/openproject/public

        ProxyRequests off
        ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:6000/ retry=0
        ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:6000/

        <LocationMatch "^/sys">
                <IfModule mod_authz_core.c>
                        Require local
                </IfModule>

                <IfModule !mod_authz_core.c>
                        Order Deny,Allow
                        Deny from all
                        Allow from 127.0.0.1
                </IfModule>
        </LocationMatch>

        Alias /assets /opt/openproject/public/assets
        Alias /uploads /opt/openproject/public/uploads
        <Directory "/opt/openproject/public">
                Options -Indexes
                <IfModule mod_authz_core.c>
                        Require all granted
                </IfModule>

                <IfModule !mod_authz_core.c>
                        Order deny,allow
                        Allow from all
                </IfModule>
        </Directory>

        ProxyPass /assets/ !
        <Location /assets/>
                FileETag Size
                ExpiresActive On ExpiresDefault "access plus 1 year"
        </Location>

        <FilesMatch "\.(ico|pdf|flv|jpg|jpeg|png|gif|js|css|swf)$">
                ExpiresActive On
                ExpiresDefault "access plus 1 year"
        </FilesMatch>

        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/css application/x-javascript application/javascript

        ErrorLog    /var/log/apache2/DOMAIN.COM-error.log
</VirtualHost>

Disable openproject.conf and enable this one:

a2dissite openproject.conf
a2ensite openproject-ssl.conf

apachectl -t

If there no errors, you can restart Apache. Otherwise check the error message and fix it accordingly(sometime they are just syntax issues).

systemctl restart apache2

Congratulations, you have installed OpenProject with SSL successfully.

Linux

Setup OpenProject on Ubuntu 20.04

PostgreSQL

Apache installation

OpenProject installation

OpenProject configuration

Apache virtual host

SSL certificate and Apache vhost for 443

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PostgreSQL

Apache installation

OpenProject installation

OpenProject configuration

Apache virtual host

SSL certificate and Apache vhost for 443

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