How to install Vtiger CRM on Debian/Ubuntu

Vtiger CRM is an open-source CRM application forked from the SugarCRM project with the intention of creating a tool with functionality similar to Salesforce, but open source. Its free version offers a reporting tool, a customer portal, and an Outlook plugin, options found in the paid versions of other applications.

This article explains how to install Vtiger, first installing and configuring Apache with PHP and MySQL, with a Let's Encrypt certificate obtained using Certbot for the CRM website.

Official recommended requirements

• Operating system: Linux or Windows.
• Web server: Apache2.
• RAM: 4 GB or more.
• PHP compatibility: For the latest versions of Vtiger, 7.4+ or higher
• Processor: Frequency of one Ghz or higher.
• MySQL version: 5.2 or higher.
• PHP IMAP, PHP cURL & PHP XML.

More information about requirements is available in the official documentation; you can click here to review it.

Installing packages

First, update the repositories and install updates:

# apt update && apt upgrade

Next, install the necessary packages:

# apt install mysql-server apache2 php-cli php-fpm php-common php-mbstring php-swiftmailer php-gd php-xml php-json php-gmp php-curl php-intl php-xmlrpc php-mysql php-imap php-mailparse certbot python3-certbot-apache

Then configure security for the database:

# mysql_secure_installation

Creating the database

To create a database for Vtiger, we can run the following command:

# mysqladmin -u root --verbose create vtiger

Then create a user (replace password with the desired password):

# mysql -u root --verbose -e "create user 'vtiger'@'localhost' identified by 'password';"

Finally, assign the user permissions on the database:

# mysql -u root --verbose -e "grant all on vtiger.* to 'vtiger'@'localhost' with grant option; flush privileges;"

Obtaining and preparing Vtiger

First, download Vtiger from the official project in the sourceforge repository:

# wget https://sourceforge.net/projects/vtigercrm/files/vtiger%20CRM%207.5.0/Core%20Product/vtigercrm7.5.0.tar.gz

You can check the latest version at: https://sourceforge.net/projects/vtigercrm/files/ 

Then extract the downloaded file (installation of tar beforehand is included):

# apt install -y tar && tar -xf vtiger*.tar.gz

Finally, create the web directory for the CRM and synchronize it with the extracted folder:

# mkdir /var/www/vtiger/ && rsync -rtv vtiger*/ /var/www/vtiger/ && chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/vtiger

Configuring Apache and FPM

Create the site configuration file for Vtiger using an editor. For example, the nano editor:

# nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/vtiger.conf

And enter the following content (remember to change the example domain):

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName vtiger.ejemplo.com
  ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
  DocumentRoot /var/www/vtiger
  ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/vtiger_error.log
  CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/vtiger_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Save the changes, exit the editor, and enable the site:

# a2ensite vtiger

Next, enable the relevant fpm configuration and enable the required modules:

# a2enconf php8.1-fpm && a2enmod proxy proxy_fcgi

Restart or reload the Apache configuration to apply the changes:

# systemctl reload apache2

And finally, obtain the certificate and configure it automatically with the Certbot script:

# certbot --redirect --apache -d vtiger.ejemplo.com

Remember to replace the example domain with the one configured on the server.

Installing VTiger

Once everything is configured, open a browser and enter the site's URL. The start of the Vtiger installation wizard will appear:

Follow the wizard's instructions to complete the installation; if the following error appears when attempting to install it: 

MySQL Server should be configured with:
sql_mode = ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO,NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER,NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION

NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER was removed in MySQL 8.0; if MySQL 8.0+ is used, this mode will cause an error

Run the following to modify the SQL mode in MySQL:

# echo 'sql_mode = ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO' >> /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf && systemctl restart mysql

We hope this article has helped you. If you still have questions about this or any other issue related to your servers on Clouding, email us at soporte@clouding.io. We're here to help! 😉