RackTables is a web-based datacenter management software that helps you manage servers, networking hardware, and storage devices in a data center. It can track and manage physical and virtual servers, switches, and routers, storage devices, IP addresses, and more.
In this tutorial, we will learn how to install and configure RackTables on EndeavourOS, a lightweight Arch Linux-based operating system.
Before starting this tutorial, you need to have the following prerequisites:
Before installing any software on your EndeavourOS system, we recommend updating all the packages to their latest versions. You can do this by running the following command:
sudo pacman -Syu
RackTables requires a webserver to function properly; we will use Apache. To install Apache on EndeavourOS, run the following command:
sudo pacman -S apache
RackTables is written in PHP, so we need to install it on our system. To install PHP on EndeavourOS, run the following command:
sudo pacman -S php php-apache
RackTables requires a database to store its data. We can use either MySQL or MariaDB; we will use MariaDB here. To install MariaDB on EndeavourOS, run the following command:
sudo pacman -S mariadb
Now, we need to start and enable the MariaDB service:
sudo systemctl start mariadb
sudo systemctl enable mariadb
After that, run the following command to secure the MariaDB installation:
sudo mysql_secure_installation
Follow the prompts, and when prompted to enter the current MariaDB root password, press Enter as it is the default configuration.
We will now create a database and user for RackTables on our MariaDB installation. Run the following commands to create a database named racktables and a user named rackuser. Replace password with a strong password:
sudo mysql -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE racktables;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON racktables.* TO 'rackuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;
We will now download and install the latest version of RackTables. Run the following command to download and extract RackTables:
cd /tmp
wget https://sourceforge.net/projects/racktables/files/latest/download
tar -xvf download
Now, copy the extracted files to the /var/www/html/racktables directory:
sudo cp -r racktables-X.X.X/* /var/www/html/racktables
Replace X.X.X with the latest version of RackTables.
To configure RackTables, we need to create a config file by copying the example config file. Run the following command to copy the example config file:
sudo cp /var/www/html/racktables/inc/config-dist.php /var/www/html/racktables/inc/config.php
Open the config file in a text editor and replace the following values:
__user__ with the MariaDB username rackuser.__password__ with the password you chose for the MariaDB user rackuser.__db__ with the database name racktables.sudo nano /var/www/html/racktables/inc/config.php
Save and close the file.
We need to set the file and folder permissions for RackTables. Run the following commands:
sudo chown -R http:http /var/www/html/racktables/
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/racktables/
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/php/session
sudo chown -R http:http /var/lib/php/session
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/lib/php/session
We need to restart Apache and PHP-FPM services:
sudo systemctl restart httpd
sudo systemctl restart php-fpm
To access RackTables, open a web browser and go to http://localhost/racktables/. You should see the RackTables login page.
Enter the default username admin and password admin to log in. You should now see the RackTables dashboard.
Congratulations! You have successfully installed and configured RackTables on EndeavourOS.
If you want to self-host in an easy, hands free way, need an external IP address, or simply want your data in your own hands, give IPv6.rs a try!
Alternatively, for the best virtual desktop, try Shells!
