Knowledgebase

Introduction

Vtiger CRM is an open-source, PHP-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software for businesses to facilitate support, sales, marketing, collaboration, and organization. It also includes project management, inventory, email, and other tools to enhance business management tasks. Some features of Vtiger CRM are:

• Role-based access control.
• Support tickets to automate customer support.
• Workflows, tasks, and project management.
• Reporting and statistics.
• Inventory automation.
• Social media integration and Gmail, Outlook, Thunderbird, Firefox plugins.
• Data import & export.

In this article, you will learn how to install Vtiger CRM on Ubuntu 18.04 or 20.04 server.

Prerequisites

• Deploy a fully updated Rcs Ubuntu 18.04 or 20.04 Server.
• Create a non-root user with sudo access.

1. Install LAMP Server

Update system package manager.

$ sudo apt update

Add the ppa:ondrej/php PPA repository.

$ sudo apt -y install software-properties-common

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

Update system package manager.

$ sudo apt update

Install PHP 7.4 and additional packages.

$ sudo apt install apache2 mariadb-server php7.4 libapache2-mod-php7.4 php7.4-common php7.4-sqlite3 php7.4-json php7.4-curl php7.4-intl php7.4-mbstring php7.4-xmlrpc php7.4-mysql php7.4-gd php7.4-xml php7.4-cli php7.4-zip php7.4-soap php7.4-imap php7.4-bcmath wget unzip -y

List available time zones and choose your preference.

$ sudo timedatectl list-timezones

Edit the PHP configuration file.

$ sudo nano /etc/php/7.4/apache2/php.ini

Modify the following values, and replace Africa/Nairobi with your timezone save and close the file:

To search for a specific line, use Control + W, enter search phrase then press Enter.

memory_limit = 256M
upload_max_filesize = 100M
display_errors = On
date.timezone = Africa/Nairobi

2. Create Vtiger CRM Database

Log in to MySQL shell. Then, at the password prompt, just press Enter to continue.

$ sudo mysql -u root -p

Create a MySQL database named vtiger.

CREATE DATABASE vtiger;

Create a database user named vtiger with a password.

CREATE USER 'vtiger'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPassword';

Grant the user full access to the database.

GRANT ALL ON vtiger.* TO 'vtiger'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Save the changes.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Exit the shell.

EXIT;

3. Install Vtiger CRM

Download the latest version of Vtiger. To find the latest version, go to the download page.

$ wget https://tenet.dl.sourceforge.net/project/vtigercrm/vtiger%20CRM%207.4.0/Core%20Product/vtigercrm7.4.0.tar.gz

Extract the archive.

$ sudo tar xvf vtigercrm7.4.0.tar.gz

Create installation directory /var/www/vtigercrm.

$ sudo mkdir /var/www/vtigercrm

Move extracted folder to the installation directory.

$ sudo mv vtigercrm/* /var/www/vtigercrm

Change ownership of the installation directory.

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

Change access permissions for the directory.

$ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/vtigercrm

4. Configure Apache2

Create Apache Virtual host file for Vtiger.

$ sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/vtigercrm.conf

Add the following code to the file, save and close the file:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@example.com
    ServerName example.com
    ServerAlias www.example.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/vtigercrm/

     <Directory /var/www/vtigercrm/>
        Options +FollowSymlinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
     </Directory>

     ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/vtigercrm_error.log
     CustomLog /var/log/apache2/vtigercrm_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Verify file syntax.

$ sudo apachectl -t

Change to Apache configs directory.

$ cd /etc/apache2/sites-available/

Disable Apache default configuration file.

$ sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf

Enable Vtiger CRM Apache configuration file.

$ sudo a2ensite vtigercrm.conf

Enable Apache rewrite mode.

$ sudo a2enmod rewrite

Restart Apache service.

$ sudo systemctl restart apache2

5. Access Vtiger CRM Web Interface

To access the Vtiger CRM Web Interface, go to your browser and visit http://Server_IP/. For example:

http://192.0.2.10/

Conclusion

You have successfully installed Vtiger CRM on your server. Next, you will access the Installation Wizard screen, where you will need to complete installation by connecting to the database you created, creating an administrator account, and other additional settings. You can now access the Dashboard and configure it to begin managing your business.

More Information

To learn more about using Vtiger CRM, go to the official documentation page.