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Dolibarr is an open source web-based ERP and CRM application released under GNU General Public License 3.0.

Mainly targeting small and medium companies, foundations or freelancers.

It includes all important features for an ERP/CRM suite except accounting. It designed in modular way so we can choose which feature to enable and use and also easy to install. You can learn more details about Dolibarr features from Dolibarr features page.

Objective

In this tutorial we’ll learn how to Dolibarr on Ubuntu 14.04. We will also install and configure its prerequisites.

Prerequisites

We will install Dolibarr on a fresh installation of Ubuntu Server 14.04. We also need these applications to be able to run Dolibarr:

Apache 2
MySQL 5
PHP > 5.3.1
Dolibarr also require the following php libraries
- php5-gd
- php5-curl
- php5-mcrypt

Update Base System

Before we install Dolibarr, let’s update the system to the latest update.

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get -y upgrade

Install Apache 2

After applying the latest update to our base system, Lets’s start installing Apache 2 and required libraries.

$ sudo apt-get -y install apache2 apache2-bin apache2-data apache2-mpm-prefork libaio1 libapache2-mod-php5 libapr1 libaprutil1 libdbd-mysql-perl libdbi-perl libhtml-template-perl libmysqlclient18 libterm-readkey-perl libwrap0 ssl-cert tcpd

We can check Apache 2’s service status using command below:

sudo service apache2 status
 * apache2 is running

We can also check whether Apache 2 listen on which port using command below.

 sudo netstat -naptu | grep apache
tcp6       0      0 :::80                   :::*                    LISTEN      14873/apache2

Install MySQL 5.6

We will install and use MySQL 5.6 fpr the Dolibarr database.

We will use MySQL Server 5.6 since MySQL 5.6 is the most up to date version of MySQL shipped with Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr.

$ sudo apt-get -y install mysql-server-5.6

We need to setup MySQL root password. Please input password for MySQL root user.

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Verify root password.

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Securing MySQL Installation.

We will secure MySQL installation by running mysql_secure_installation.

Enter root password that we set on installation.

$ mysql_secure_installation 
NOTE: RUNNING ALL PARTS OF THIS SCRIPT IS RECOMMENDED FOR ALL MySQL
      SERVERS IN PRODUCTION USE!  PLEASE READ EACH STEP CAREFULLY!

In order to log into MySQL to secure it, we'll need the current
password for the root user.  If you've just installed MySQL, and
you haven't set the root password yet, the password will be blank,
so you should just press enter here.

Enter current password for root (enter for none): 
OK, successfully used password, moving on...

Since we already have root password set, answer this part with n.

Setting the root password ensures that nobody can log into the MySQL
root user without the proper authorisation.

You already have a root password set, so you can safely answer 'n'.

Change the root password? [Y/n] n
 ... skipping.

Remove the anonymous user to improve security. This will make sure people or applications have correct username and password to login to MySQL. Answer with Y.

By default, a MySQL installation has an anonymous user, allowing anyone
to log into MySQL without having to have a user account created for
them.  This is intended only for testing, and to make the installation
go a bit smoother.  You should remove them before moving into a
production environment.

Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] Y
 ... Success!

We also want remove root login from remote machine. Answer with Y

Normally, root should only be allowed to connect from 'localhost'.  This
ensures that someone cannot guess at the root password from the network.

Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] Y
 ... Success!

Previously the test database was created automatically by the MySQL installation, but MySQL 5.6 does not create test database. We can still choose Y, it will throw error but that’s fine.

By default, MySQL comes with a database named 'test' that anyone can
access.  This is also intended only for testing, and should be removed
before moving into a production environment.

Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n] Y
 - Dropping test database...
ERROR 1008 (HY000) at line 1: Can't drop database 'test'; database doesn't exist
 ... Failed!  Not critical, keep moving...
 - Removing privileges on test database...
 ... Success!

The last step is to reload MySQL privilege table.

Reloading the privilege tables will ensure that all changes made so far
will take effect immediately.

Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] Y
 ... Success!


All done!  If you've completed all of the above steps, your MySQL
installation should now be secure.

Thanks for using MySQL!


Cleaning up...

Create a Database for Dolibarr

Now we have a secure MySQL installation, time to create database and user for dolibarr itself.

$ mysql -u root -p
Enter password: 
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 58
Server version: 5.6.30-0ubuntu0.14.04.1 (Ubuntu)

Copyright (c) 2000, 2016, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql>

Create a new database named dolibarr using command below:

mysql> CREATE DATABASE dolibarr;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

Create a User for Dolibarr

The database for Dolibarr is ready, let’s create username and password and grant privileges to dolibarr database.

Don’t forget to change the password dolibarr123secret below with a better password.

mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `dolibarr`.* TO 'dolibarr'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'dolibarr123secret';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

We need to run the FLUSH PRIVILEGES command so that the privileges table will be reloaded by MySQL and we can use new credentials.

mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Exit from MySQL console by typing \q.

mysql> \q

Install PHP 5

The last component that we have to install before we can install dolibarr is PHP 5. We will install PHP 5 and several common PHP libraries.

$ sudo apt-get -y install php5-cli php5-common php5-json php5-mysql php5-readline

Install additional php libraries:

$ sudo apt-get -y install php5-gd php5-curl

Restart Apache 2 process so the changes will be applied:

$ sudo service apache2 restart

Install Dolibarr

All prerequisites is already installed. We’re ready to install dolibarr. The latest stable version of dolibarr is available Dolibarr download page.

At the time of this writing, the latest stable version is version 5.0.0, let’s download dolibarr compressed file using wget.

$ wget -c https://sourceforge.net/projects/dolibarr/files/Dolibarr%20ERP-CRM/5.0.0/dolibarr-5.0.0.tgz/download -O dolibarr-5.0.0.tgz

Extract dolibarr compressed file:

$ tar xzf dolibarr-5.0.0.tgz

Rename extracted directory as dolibarr:

$ mv dolibarr-5.0.0 dolibarr

Move dolibarr folder to Apache directory:

$ sudo mv dolibarr /var/www

Change ownership of dolibarr directory to www-data user and group:

$ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/dolibarr

The Dolibarr files are ready, now let’s create Apache Virtual Host configuration to serve dolibarr.

Configure Apache Virtual Host for http Only

Create new apache configuration file on /etc/apache2/sites-available/dolibarr.conf with contents below.

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName dolibarr.exampleserver.xyz

    DocumentRoot /var/www/dolibarr/htdocs

    <Directory /var/www/dolibarr/htdocs>
        Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks +MultiViews
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/dolibarr.exampleserver.xyz-error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/dolibarr.exampleserver.xyz-access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

Don’t forget to change dolibarr.exampleserver.xyz above with the domain name that you use for your dolibarr installation.

Enable the site using a2ensite command.

$ sudo a2ensite dolibarr

Reload apache2 process so it read the new virtualhost configuration:

$ sudo service apache2 reload

Dolibarr Setup Wizard

Now point your browser to Dolibarr URL, you will be redirected tothe Dolibarr setup wizard.

We can choose setup language on first page. After choosing installation language click Next Step

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The next step is requirements check. We should already pass all Dolibarr installation requirements. CLick Start

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This step creates configuration config for us. Click Next Step

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In this step we can configure Dolibarr directory and database credential. Input database credential we created before for Dolibarr. CLick Next Step

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Dolibarr configuration is ready. Click Next Step to start installation

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Now input Dolibarr admin credential. Click Next Step

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Dolibar installation finished and ready to use. There is a link to dolibarr setup area.

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When we go to Dolibarr setup area we need to enter admin credential we created on setup wizard.

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There are two mandatory setup for Dolibarr. Company / Organization and Modules. Click on Company/Organization menu.

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Input details about your company here, then click Save

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Then Go to Modules and activate the Dolibarr modules that you plan to use. Since Dolibarr is modular you only need to activate modules that your company really need and plan to use.

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Securing Dolibarr Installation

To lock Dolibarr setup wizard we need to create file install.lock on documents directory.

$ sudo touch /var/www/dolibarr/documents/install.lock

Configure https only site for dolibarr

A secure connection is now a requirement for web applications. The last step that we will do in this tutorial is changing the connection to only use https. We assume that you already have SSL certificate and private key.

Let’s create new apache virtual host configuration on /etc/apache2/sites-available/dolibarr-ssl.conf with contents below. Don’t forget to change:

ServerName
SSLCertificateFile
SSLCertificateChainFile
SSLCertificateKeyFile

<VirtualHost *:80>
   ServerName dolibarr.exampleserver.xyz
   Redirect permanent / https://dolibarr.exampleserver.xyz/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>

    ServerName dolibarr.exampleserver.xyz

    DocumentRoot /var/www/dolibarr/htdocs

    <Directory /var/www/dolibarr/htdocs>
        Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks +MultiViews
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/dolibarr.exampleserver.xyz-error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/dolibarr.exampleserver.xyz-access.log combined

    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile      /etc/apache2/ssl/dolibarr.exampleserver.xyz.crt
    SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/apache2/ssl/dolibarr.exampleserver.xyz.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile   /etc/apache2/ssl/dolibarr.exampleserver.xyz.key

    # Uncomment the following directive when using client certificate authentication
    #SSLCACertificateFile    /path/to/ca_certs_for_client_authentication


    # HSTS (mod_headers is required) (15768000 seconds = 6 months)
    Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=15768000"

</VirtualHost>

 # intermediate configuration, tweak to your needs
SSLProtocol             all -SSLv2 -SSLv3
SSLCipherSuite          ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:AES128-GCM-SHA256:AES256-GCM-SHA384:AES128-SHA256:AES256-SHA256:AES128-SHA:AES256-SHA:DES-CBC3-SHA:!DSS
SSLHonorCipherOrder     on

We will also disable the dolibarr http only virtual host and enable the new virtual host config.

$ sudo a2dissite dolibarr
$ sudo a2ensite dolibarr-ssl

The new virtual host configuration need Apache mod_ssl and mod_headers modules. We need to enable those modules.

$ sudo a2enmod ssl
$ sudo a2enmod headers

Now, restart Apache 2 service so it will reload its configuration. We need to restart instead of reload since we enable new module.

$ sudo service apache2 restart

No additional config on Dolibarr is required.

Summary

In this tutorial we learned how to install dolibarr on Ubuntu 14.04.

We installed all the prerequisites, created a user and database on MySQL for Dolibarr and also configure Apache 2 virtual hosts to be able to serve dolibarr.

We also configure https settings for dolibarr so we run Dolibarr securely.

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