Installing GLPI on Linux: Complete ITSM Setup Guide

Introduction

GLPI is an open-source ITSM platform for asset management, helpdesk, and inventory. This guide focuses on a clean, secure, and maintainable deployment.

Prerequisites

A Linux server (Ubuntu LTS or Debian stable)
Root or sudo access
A domain name (recommended for SSL)
At least 2 GB RAM and 20 GB disk

Step 1: Install the LAMP Stack

terminal

$sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
$sudo apt install apache2 mariadb-server php php-{curl,gd,mbstring,xml,zip,intl,ldap,apcu,xmlrpc,cas,mysqli,bz2} -y

Step 2: Secure and Prepare MariaDB

bash

1sudo mysql_secure_installation

Create the database and user:

sql

1CREATE DATABASE glpi CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
2CREATE USER 'glpi'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPasswordHere';
3GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON glpi.* TO 'glpi'@'localhost';
4FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Step 3: Install GLPI

bash

1cd /tmp
2wget https://github.com/glpi-project/glpi/releases/latest/download/glpi.tgz
3sudo tar -xzf glpi.tgz -C /var/www/html/
4sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/glpi
5sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/glpi

Step 4: Apache Virtual Host

apache

1# /etc/apache2/sites-available/glpi.conf
2<VirtualHost *:80>
3    ServerName glpi.example.com
4    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/glpi/public
5 
6    <Directory /var/www/html/glpi/public>
7        AllowOverride All
8        Require all granted
9    </Directory>
10 
11    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/glpi_error.log
12    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/glpi_access.log combined
13</VirtualHost>

terminal

$sudo a2ensite glpi.conf
$sudo a2enmod rewrite
$sudo systemctl reload apache2

Step 5: SSL with Let's Encrypt

bash

1sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache -y
2sudo certbot --apache -d glpi.example.com

Step 6: Post-Installation Hardening

bash

1sudo rm -rf /var/www/html/glpi/install
2sudo chmod 600 /var/www/html/glpi/config/config_db.php

File Structure

/var/www/html/glpi
├── config
│   └── config_db.php
├── files
│   ├── _uploads
│   └── _documents
├── public
│   └── index.php
└── plugins

Conclusion

Your GLPI instance is ready. Change default credentials and set up backups for the database and the files/ directory.

GLPI

Apache

MariaDB

PHP

Linux

Written by

Corentin Tujague

Network & Security Engineer

Passionate about building secure, scalable infrastructure and sharing technical knowledge.