Configuring MantisBT

Once you're done Installing MantisBT, the web interface is available.  However, in order to create/reset user accounts, you need to have email configured so emails can be sent out.  I did the following:

vi /opt/mantisbt-1.2.11/config_defaults_inc.php
search for "g_smtp_host"
change the following settings (I used one of my existing email accounts):

    $g_phpMailer_method = PHPMAILER_METHOD_SMTP;
    $g_smtp_host = 'smtp.example.com';
    $g_smtp_username = 'account@mailserver.com';
    $g_smtp_password = 'THIS_IS_CLEAR_TEXT';
    $g_smtp_connection_mode = 'ssl';
    $g_smtp_port = 465;

At this point, I was able to send email to my account and get logged in with an account other than the default administrator account.

While MantisBT did well at the install, the configuration interface leaves a few things to be desired.  First, there are settings beyond getting the system to use the web server or database that cannot be configured in the web gui.  Secondly, while all of the possible settings are well documented, grep is your friend; there is no clear indication where they are located.

Total score for ease of administrative configuration: 3/10
Major failing: unable to edit full config from the web interface.

Installing MantisBT

from a fresh CentOS 6 install (don't forget yum -y update and a reboot), run the following commands:

1. cd /tmp
2. wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/mantisbt/files/mantis-stable/1.2.11/mantisbt-1.2.11.tar.gz/download
3. wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/mantisbt/files/mantis-stable/1.2.11/mantisbt-1.2.11.tar.gz.digests/download
4. md5sum -c mantisbt-1.2.11.tar.gz.digests
5. tar -xzf mantisbt-1.2.11.tar.gz
6. mv mantisbt-1.2.11/ /opt/mantisbt-1.2.11
7. chown -R apache:apache /opt/mantisbt-1.2.11
8. ls -n /opt/mantisbt-1.2.11/ /var/www/html/mantisbt
9. yum -y install httpd mysql mysql-server php php-mysql
10. vi /etc/php.ini
11. change line 946 to match:
• date.timezone = "America/New_York" (should match cat /etc/sysconfig/clock output)
12. chkconfig httpd on
13. chkconfig mysqld on
14. service httpd start
15. service mysqld start
16. mysqladmin -u root password 'newPassword'
17. mysqladmin -u root -p -h localhost.localdomain password 'newPassword' (enter newPassword from above when prompted)
18. iptables -I INPUT 5 -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
19. iptables -I INPUT 6 -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT
20. now open your browser, and point it to:
• http://yourServerOrIPHere/mantisbt/admin/install.php
21. add newPassword from above in the password field
22. click the "Install" button.

Total time with Cobbler from PXE boot to creating your first project: ~20 - 25 mins.  This includes the time to install the OS from scratch, update it, reboot, and go through the commands above manually.  For those interested in specs, this was run on my setup.

Once you're done here, you'll want to start Configuring MantisBT.

Total score for ease of install: 8/10