Step by Step Guide: Installing osTicket Locally on Windows or Ubuntu 16.04

Procedure

1. Step 1: After downloading XAMPP, locate the file and install it.

   In my case the file name is; xampp-win32-5.6.24-1-VC11-installer.exe. This step is very straight forward.

2. Step 2: Extract OST installer files and copy to htdocs folder.

   Extract the zip file, and go to upload folder. And then duplicate the file named ost-sampleconfig.php and rename the copy as ost-config.php.

   Then create a new folder inside htdocs folder, and name it whatever you would want. In my case, I named it osticket. The htdocs folder is usually inside the xampp folder in c: drive. You can also access this folder through XAMPP’s Control Panel by clicking on the Explorer menu.

   Reference Image:

   

   Screenshot – XAMPP Control Panel on Windows

   After that, copy all the files and folder inside the upload folder and then paste inside osticket folder.

3. Step 3: Launch XAMPP Control Panel & Start Apache and MySQL.

   You should’ve launched the control panel after you installed XAMPP. In case you have closed down the control panel, launch it again and click on each Start button that corresponds to Apache and MySQL.

4. Step 4: Create a Database and Database User.

   Launch phpMyAdmin and create a user with the same name as the database name. You can easily do this from the phpMyAdmin Web GUI.

   Using your browser, navigate to localhost/phpmyadmin, no login required.

   Then navigate to User Accounts menu then Add user accounts. On this page you need to fill out; User name, Host name, Password, the most important of all – Create database with same name ang grant all privileges, check Grant all privileges, Global privileges – checked all, and finally click GO button on the bottom-right corner of the page.

5. Step 5: Open a browser and start the osTicket setup wizard.

   Fire up your favorite browser and navigate to localhost/osticket – or localhost/your-folder-name. The install wizard should load up, showing pre-requisties and recommended extensions. All should have a checked mark. In case PHP IMAP extension is marked with red X, then you should first enable the extension and then go back to this page.

   To enable PHP IMAP extension in XAMPP – you can simply click the config button for Apache, using the control panel. That should open your text editor like notepad.exe. Then hit ctrl + f to search for the string imap. You should see the line ;extension=php_imap.dll. Comment out this line by removing ; in front of extension, and save the file.

   Reference Image:

   Go back to XAMPP control panel, and stop and start Apache to let the config take effect. After that, go back to your browser and reload localhost/osticket – expected result; PHP IMAP extension should now have a green check mark.

   Next, go back to the Basic Installation Page and continue filling out the important fields; Database and Admin Credentials.

   After that, you are ready to install the software.

   Hit Install Now button.

6. Step 6: Login and configure.

   After seeing the Congratulations! page, you can now navigate to the frontend and backend of OST and configure it further. You can now make tests and experiment with the settings without limits.

7. Step 7: Installed!

   Now that osTicket was installed using XAMPP, you can play around and explore the settings. Take note again that this environment is for Demo and Testing purpose only.