Installing Helpy on Fedora Server

Helpy is an open source helpdesk software that allows businesses and organizations to provide a better customer support experience. In this tutorial, you will learn how to install Helpy on a Fedora Server operating system.

Prerequisites

Before installing Helpy, you must have the following:

• A Fedora Server (version 34 as of this writing)
• Root access to the server
• A working internet connection

Step 1: Install Required Packages

We need to install some packages that are required for running Helpy in our system. You can do that by running the following command:

sudo dnf install -y git gcc-c++ make centos-release-scl

Step 2: Install Ruby

Helpy runs on Ruby on Rails, so let's install the latest version of Ruby using the following commands:

sudo dnf install -y rh-ruby27 rh-nodejs14
sudo systemctl enable --now rh-nodejs14
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/node /usr/local/bin/node

To make sure you're using the newly-installed version of Ruby:

scl enable rh-ruby27 bash

Your command prompt will change slightly indicating that rh-ruby27 is enabled.

Step 3: Install Helpy

Clone the Helpy Git repository with the following command:

git clone https://github.com/helpyio/helpy.git

Once cloned, navigate to the Helpy directory:

cd helpy

To install all the required gems, run the following commands:

gem install bundler
gem install mysql2
bundle install --without development test postgresql sqlite

Step 4: Set Up Database

Helpy supports either MySQL or PostgreSQL as a database. Here we focus on MySQL.

First, install MySQL:

sudo dnf install -y mariadb mariadb-server mariadb-devel
sudo systemctl enable --now mariadb

Then create a new user and database for Helpy:

mysql -u root -p

# Run the following MySQL commands:
CREATE USER 'helpy'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
CREATE DATABASE helpy_production;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON helpy_production.* TO 'helpy'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit;

Step 5: Initialize the Database

To create the database tables and populate them with initial data, run:

bundle exec rake db:setup RAILS_ENV=production

Step 6: Run Helpy

To start Helpy after installtion, run:

rails server -e production

Now you should be able to access Helpy by navigating to http://localhost:3000 in your web browser.

Conclusion

You have successfully installed Helpy on a Fedora Server. You can now start configuring and customizing the software for your business needs.

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