Installing Sentrifugo (Open Source HR Software) on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr)

Sentrifugo is an open source human resource management system or system that does what most enterprise class software will do. However, installation can be a bit tricky, so in this post I’m going to take you through the basic steps on installing Sentrifugo on an Ubuntu 14.04 LTS server.

Sentrifugo is a web based application so it can be installed in any operating system that has web server functionality. The installation file can be downloaded at www.sentrifugo.com/download

I’m assuming your Ubuntu 14.04 LTS server is has web server functionality. If it doesn’t then I’d recommend reading the tutorial on install LAMP stack on Ubuntu at DigitalOcean.com

I’m also assuming that you already are logged in as root user. You can do this by typing the following command.

sudo -i

Now, assuming that you’ve already downloaded Sentrifugo then extract the zip file to /var/www/html/. This is done with the command:

unzip sentrifugo_file.zip –d /var/www/html/

Of course, you have to replace sentrifugo_file with the name of your archived installation file.

Now activate the mod_rewrite by typing

a2enmod rewrite

The next thing to do is to ensure AllowOveride is enabled in the configuration file.

nano /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

…and change AllowOveride All

Now, navigate to the html folder cd /var/www/html/ and type:

chown –R www-data:www-data sentrifugo

…[sentrifugo] being your installation folder.

The next thing you need to do is create a database. Type:

mysql –u root –p

…and enter your password.

In my mysql type:

Create database hrmis;

Now grant user properties by typing:

grant all on hrmis.* to ‘hrmis'@'localhost' identified by 'your_password';

Make sure to replace ‘your_password’ with the actual password that you would like to use.Type exit to exit.

Once that is done, you can now proceed to the installation procedure by typing the IP address of your server/sentrifugo in your favorite web browser.

If everything went well then you should land at the prerequisites page and everything should have a green check. If it something is amiss then go back and check the steps shown before.

Next, you will enter the database information you just created.

Then you will be asked for an application name an email address. This email should be the address of person who will administer the system.This email address will also receive a test email when the configuration is complete.

You will now be presented with mail server settings. In my work environment, we use an Exchange server so it will be SMTP. However, yours may vary depending on your network. If you are unsure, check with your network or systems administrator.

Now, if you chose true for authentication, then you will have to put a valid username and email to ensure that proper authentication takes place. I opted for false so I didn’t have to.

If there are no problems then you should come to the final check page. However, if there are issues you will receive and error message. Simply go back and start the install again.

When you click the finish button, an email will be sent to the administrator with their login details. Note that username and password are generated by the system.

A screen will also show the same information and and link will be provided for you to download your install information i.e. database settings, application settings, mail server settings etc.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Sentrifugo on an Ubuntu 14.04 LTS server. However, you are quite done yet.

Sentrifugo will still need to be configured to your specific needs. This is done when you first login, but from this point on, it’s a stroll in the park.