History: How to install WikiSuite

If you are a developer, you may prefer to go directly to the source code.

Requirements

• A server, being physical host or a virtual machine. https://www.vpsbenchmarks.com/ can help you pick a provider.
  • CPU
    • 1 core/thread is enough for a fresh website but we suggest to consider at least 2. And scale accordingly in the future.
  • RAM
    • To run Virtualmin and a few small Tiki instances, you should have at least 1GB of RAM.
  • STORAGE
    • 10GB can get you started with an OS and everything you need. But you should scale this or even over-provision if you plan for an intensive online activity with lots of files.
    • Do not forget about backups: start locally and move to remote as soon as possible. Virtualmin can help you make the best out of your available space, by rotating backups.
• A grade A GNU/Linux operating system, stable and suitable for servers
  • You need to pre-install a fresh minimal Debian 10 (soon 11) or Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (more distros will be supported later, Rocky Linux & CentOS 8.x are a given)
• A domain name (a sub-domain will also do fine), with the following options:
  • At the moment it is recommended to delegate fully a working sub-domain or domain to the server before your proceed, because your WikiSuite server will run flawlesly a BIND nameserver. In this case you will have the advantages of creating subdomains easily, locally, also with SPF records for example. And it offers flexibility for any future domains.
  • You can also point a wildcard subdomain if you don't want to deal with DNS on your server. For example, if we want all requests pointed to test.wikisuite.org or *.test.wikisuite.org as this makes it easy to create many projects, such as: abc.test.wikisuite.org, def.test.wikisuite.org, etc.
  • Last but not least, for a single (sub)domain just a simple A record from your DNS provider pointed to your IP. This is provider-dependent and not covered here.

You'll want something like this:

More info at Set up your domain name

How WikiSuite leverages Virtualmin / Webmin

Webmin is a web tool to facilitate server management. Virtualmin extends Webmin with a focus on shared hosting, which allows multiple instances of Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware that are clearly segmented.

Installing WikiSuite automatically installs all the necessary packages and Webmin which itself automatically installs Virtualmin (both configured for optimal settings for WikiSuite components, see here the Differences from the original script ).

You should have a fresh instance of Debian 10 or Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. It should work with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Debian 9 but this has not yet been tested. CentOS and Rocky Linux support is planned and we are following discussions about CentOS vs CentOS Stream support in Virtualmin. Expect full support for Debian 11 once the Virtualmin team adapts their software suite.

If you have an unreliable internet connection, you should use tmux or something similar. (So you can launch some commands, and they continue running even if you are disconnected).

Getting started

Log in to your server via SSH with the root user. In some cases, your host may not provide you a root access to directly login to. This is why commands which require root are pre-fixed by sudo.

Then:

sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

sudo apt-get install curl

hostnamectl set-hostname machine.name

curl -o install-virtualmin.sh https://gitlab.com/wikisuite/virtualmin-installer/-/raw/master/install-virtualmin.sh

nano install-virtualmin.sh

sudo bash install-virtualmin.sh

A web URL for accessing Virtualmin will be provided after installation is complete Ex: https://example.org:10000 (GUI is at port 10000)

If you are getting SSL errors: Virtualmin -> Select base domain -> Server Configuration -> SSL Certificate -> Let's Encrypt -> Request Certificate

Updates: The system default is to auto update weekly. You can change this in the Virtualmin admin panel.

sudo reboot

Create a Virtual Server for your Tiki

Go to Ex: https://example.org:10000
Virtualmin > Create Virtual Server
For more info: https://www.virtualmin.com/documentation/tutorial/virtual-server-basics
Fill in the appropriate fields and make sure you check the "Tiki Manager" feature! Then click the "Create Server" button and you are done

If a domain name is valid, free SSL (for https://) certificates from Let's Encrypt are automatically created. If you'll add the domain later, you can get SSL later: Virtualmin -> Select base domain -> Server Configuration -> SSL Certificate -> Let's Encrypt -> Request Certificate

So now, you should be able to visit both my.example.org and see a placeholder page. If domain name is not set up, you can Preview Website via Virtualmin

Virtualmin has many other features like domain alias, domain rename, etc. which we invite you to discover.

Installing Tiki via the included Tiki Manager feature

For more info, please see Tiki Manager docs.

To access everything related to our manager you have to navigate to

Just fill in the email address, note the password, choose the desired Tiki Version and hit install. The Tiki Manager will inform you that your instance is ready; you can visit it at your Virtual server URL and manage it using the username "admin" and your previously displayed password.

Alternative ways to automatically install Tiki

Just to be clear: you can install Tiki in more than one way! And WikiSuite is the recommended one of course, if you start from scratch and just want a good server. Here are a couple different scenarios outside the declared WikiSuite scope.

The Tiki Install script from Virtualmin Pro

We also have (for existing/regular Virtualmin deployments that didn't make use of our installer) an install script that can install a Tiki instance with minimal effort. Just select the database to be used, offer a path, and you are done. This can only be found in the Pro version of Virtualmin and not the GPL (for now).

Tiki Manager's web interface

More info: Documentation of Tiki Manager's web UI

As of 2021-07-17, the web interface can be used to install Tiki on Virtualmin but it is less stable. You may prefer to use the command line version.

Create Tiki Instance through Command Line

So now to install Tiki, you need a database. Virtualmin actually already created one for you.

Here is video to give you an idea of the process, how to get database details

Now, Tiki Manager will create a fresh Tiki instance fetching files from Git, and using database mentioned above.

For more info, please see the instance section of the documentation of Tiki Manager

So now, you need to log in using SSH with the user you just created (and not as root)

cd /home/example/tiki-manager

php tiki-manager.php instance:create

Recommended answers:

• Connection type: local (because Tiki Manager is installing on the same server, accessible to the same user.)
• WebURL: http://example.org (as above)
• Name: you can keep what it proposes. This is just cosmetic.
• Email: Your email so system can alert you of issues
• WebRoot: /home/example/domains/example.org/public_html
• You will get a warning (Target webroot folder is not empty). Installing a new Tiki instance, all files will be deleted. Do you want to continue? (yes/no): yes
• TempDir: /home/example/tmp/
• Backup user: (accept proposed value)
• Backup group: (accept proposed value)
• Backup file permissions: (accept proposed value)
• Branch: git : 21.x (this provides latest released version of branch 21 + bug fixes of upcoming 21.x release.
• Database host: (accept proposed value)
• Database user: username from the Virtual Server (not the Sub-Server)
• Database password: password from the Virtual Server (not the Sub-Server)
• Database name: name from the Sub-Server (not the Virtual Server)

Here is video to give you an idea of the process, but you should use recommended answers above

After you have answered all the questions, it will take quite some time to install your Tiki. Perhaps 20-30 minutes or more, depending on your context. Just be patient and let it run.

After Successfully Creating the Tiki Instance

You will get the Tiki HomePage as below.

Login with
u: admin
p: admin

And follow the instructions to set a strong password.

The Tiki Admin Dashboard looks like this:

Extras

Force all traffic to SSL / HTTPS

• Force all traffic to SSL

Email

• Set up email with Virtualmin and Cypht within Tiki