How to Install Kanboard on Fedora 29

Introduction

Kanboard is a free and open source project management software program which is designed to facilitate and visualize team work-flow using the Kanban methodology.

This article will show you how to setup Kanboard on Fedora 29.

Prerequisites

• A Vultr Fedora 29 server instance, we will use 203.0.113.1 as an example IP address.
• A sudo user.

Step 1: Update the system

Log into the server as a sudo user from an SSH terminal, update the Fedora 29 system and install git.

sudo dnf upgrade -y
sudo dnf install -y git
sudo reboot

After the reboot, log back in as the same sudo user and continue to the next step.

Step 2: Install Apache

Install the Apache web server for Kanboard.

sudo dnf install -y httpd

Start and enable the Apache service.

sudo systemctl enable --now httpd.service

Step 3: Install MariaDB

By default, Kanboard uses SQLite to store its data. Alternatively, you can use MariaDB (MySQL) to enhance performance in a production environment.

Install MariaDB.

sudo dnf install -y mariadb-server mariadb

Start and enable the MariaDB service.

sudo systemctl enable --now mariadb.service

Secure the installation.

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Reply to the questions on the screen as shown below. For security purposes, you should always setup a private and strong MariaDB root password.

Enter current password for root (enter for none): Enter
Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
New password: <your-password>
Re-enter new password: <your-password>
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]: Y
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]: Y

Step 4: Install PHP 7

Kanboard requires PHP 5.3.9 or greater. We will be using PHP 7.2 (and several extensions), which is the default version available in official Fedora repositories.

sudo dnf install -y php php-mysqlnd php-gd php-mbstring php-common php-opcache php-cli php-xml php-json

Step 5: Install Kanboard

Download and install the latest release of Kanboard.

cd /var/www/html
sudo git clone https://github.com/kanboard/kanboard.git
sudo chown -R apache:apache kanboard/data

Setup a MySQL database and a database user for Kanboard.

mysql -u root -p -e "CREATE DATABASE kanboard;"
mysql -u root -p kanboard < /var/www/html/kanboard/app/Schema/Sql/mysql.sql
mysql -u root -p -e "CREATE USER 'kanboarduser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'yourpassword';"
mysql -u root -p -e "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON kanboard.* TO 'kanboarduser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'yourpassword' WITH GRANT OPTION;"
mysql -u root -p -e "FLUSH PRIVILEGES;"

Note: When prompted, input the MariaDB root password you had setup earlier. You should also choose a strong user password other than the one shown above.

Update the Kanboard configuration file in order to switch to MySQL.

cd /var/www/html/kanboard
sudo mv config.default.php config.php

Open config.php with a text editor of your choice.

sudo vi config.php

Find the following lines.

// Database driver: sqlite, mysql or postgres (sqlite by default)
define('DB_DRIVER', 'sqlite');

// Mysql/Postgres username
define('DB_USERNAME', 'root');

// Mysql/Postgres password
define('DB_PASSWORD', '');

// Mysql/Postgres hostname
define('DB_HOSTNAME', 'localhost');

// Mysql/Postgres database name
define('DB_NAME', 'kanboard');

Modify them as follows.

// Database driver: sqlite, mysql or postgres (sqlite by default)
define('DB_DRIVER', 'mysql');

// Mysql/Postgres username
define('DB_USERNAME', 'kanboarduser');

// Mysql/Postgres password
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'yourpassword');

// Mysql/Postgres hostname
define('DB_HOSTNAME', 'localhost');

// Mysql/Postgres database name
define('DB_NAME', 'kanboard');

Restart Apache.

 sudo systemctl restart httpd.service

Allow HTTP traffic through the firewall.

sudo firewall-cmd --add-service http --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Finally, point your web browser to http://203.0.113.1/kanboard to start using Kanboard. Use the following default credentials to log in:

• Username: admin
• Password: admin

Note: For security purposes, remember to modify admin's password using the users management link from the upper right-hand admin drop-down menu.

Step 6 (Optional): Setup Zend OpCache

In order to achieve best performance on your Kanboard server, you can adjust the settings of Zend OpCache, which has been enabled by default.

For example, when using Kanboard on a single-node setup in production as we intended in this article, you can use the following settings as a starter to optimize Zend OpCache.

Open the Zend OpCache configuration file.

sudo vi /etc/php.d/10-opcache.ini

Modify the file in accordance with the following settings.

zend_extension=opcache.so;
opcache.enable=1;
opcache.file_cache=/tmp/opcache
opcache.validate_timestamps=0
opcache.revalidate_freq=0
opcache.memory_consumption=192
opcache.interned_strings_buffer=16
opcache.fast_shutdown=1

Restart the Apache service to put your changes into effect.

sudo systemctl restart httpd.service

Step 7 (Optional): Setup a daily cron job for reports and analytics

In order to generate accurate reports and analytics, you need to setup a daily cron job using the apache user.

sudo crontab -u apache -e

Populate the crontab file with the following cronjob.

0 3 * * * cd /var/www/html/kanboard && ./cli cronjob >/dev/null 2>&1

Save and quit.

With this cron job, all of the reports and analytics will be updated at 3:00 AM everyday.