How to Install Observium on Linux Mint

This tutorial will guide you through the steps to download and install Observium on Linux Mint.

Prerequisites

Before you start installing, ensure that the following prerequisites are already installed on your system:

• PHP (version 5.4 or later)
• Apache or Nginx web server
• MySQL or MariaDB database server

Step 1: Download Observium

Run the following command in your terminal to download the Observium installer:

wget http://www.observium.org/observium-community-latest.tar.gz

After the download, extract the downloaded file with the command:

tar xzf observium-community-latest.tar.gz

Step 2: Install Required Packages

Run the following commands to install required packages:

apt-get update
apt-get -y install libapache2-mod-php php-cli php-mysql php-gd php-snmp snmp graphviz subversion 

Step 3: Create Database and User

Create a new database and user in MySQL for Observium:

mysql -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE observiumdb;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON observiumdb.* TO 'observiumuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'observiumpassword';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 4: Configure Observium

Copy the default configuration file with the following command:

cp ~/observium-community-*/config.php.default ~/observium-community-*/config.php

Edit the configuration file with your database details:

vi ~/observium-community-*/config.php

$config['db_extension'] = 'mysqli';
$config['db_host'] = 'localhost';
$config['db_user'] = 'observiumuser';
$config['db_pass'] = 'observiumpassword';
$config['db_name'] = 'observiumdb';

Step 5: Install Observium

Execute the following command to install Observium:

cd ~/observium-community-*
./discovery.php -u
./discovery.php -h localhost
./poller.php -h localhost -r -f -d
./adduser.php admin observiumpassword 10

Step 6: Configure Web Server

The last step is to configure the web server to serve Observium. First, create a VirtualHost for Apache or Nginx. Here is an example Apache VirtualHost:

vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/observium.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName observium.local
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/observium
    <Directory /var/www/html/observium>
        AllowOverride All
        <IfModule mod_authz_core.c>
            Require all granted
        </IfModule>
    </Directory> 
</VirtualHost>

Then, enable the VirtualHost and restart Apache service:

a2ensite observium.conf
systemctl restart apache2

Step 7: Access Observium

Now, you can access the Observium installation by browsing the server's IP/domain name in your web browser:

http://SERVER_IP/observium/

Default username is 'admin' and password is 'observiumpassword'.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully installed Observium on Linux Mint.

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!