How to Install TestLink on CentOS 7

TestLink is an open-source web based test management execution system. It enables quality assurance teams to create and manage their test cases as well as to organize them into test plans. These test plans allow team members to execute test cases and track
test results dynamically.

In this tutorial, we will be installing TestLink version 

1.9.16

 (the latest version
at the time this article was written) on CentOS 7.

Prerequisites

A CentOS 7 x64 server instance.
A sudo user.

I'll reference the main IP of my CentOS 7 server as 

203.0.113.1

.

Step 1: Update the system

Log in to your server via SSH using the sudo user to install 

epel

, update the
system, and restart to apply the updates.

sudo yum install epel-release -y
sudo yum update -y && sudo shutdown -r now

Step 2: Install a web server—Apache

sudo yum install httpd -y

It is recommended to remove/disable the Apache default welcome page in production environments.

sudo sed -i 's/^/#&/g' /etc/httpd/conf.d/welcome.conf

Prevent Apache from listing web directory files to visitors:

sudo sed -i "s/Options Indexes FollowSymLinks/Options FollowSymLinks/" /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Start the Apache service and enable it to auto-start on boot

sudo systemctl start httpd.service
sudo systemctl enable httpd.service

Step 3: Install database software—MariaDB 10.1

As required by TestLink 1.9.16, you need to install MariaDB 10.1 or later on your system.

3.1 Create the MariaDB 10.1 YUM repo file

cat <<EOF | sudo tee -a /etc/yum.repos.d/MariaDB.repo
# MariaDB 10.1 CentOS repository list - created 2017-01-14 03:11 UTC
# http://downloads.mariadb.org/mariadb/repositories/ [mariadb]
name = MariaDB
baseurl = http://yum.mariadb.org/10.1/centos7-amd64 gpgkey=https://yum.mariadb.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB
gpgcheck=1
EOF

3.2 Install MariaDB 10.1 using YUM

sudo yum install MariaDB-server MariaDB-client -y

3.3 Start the MariaDB service and set it as running at system startup

sudo systemctl start mariadb.service
sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service

3.4 Secure the MariaDB installation

sudo /usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation

Answer questions on the screen as instructed below, and remember to use your own MariaDB root password:
Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the 

Enter

 button
Set root password? [Y/n]: 

Y

New password: 

your-root-password

Re-enter new password: 

your-root-password

Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: 

Y

Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: 

Y

Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]: 

Y

Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]: 

Y

3.5 Create a MariaDB database for TestLink

Log into the MySQL shell as 

root

:

mysql -u root -p

Type the MariaDB root password you set earlier and then press 

Enter

.

In the MySQL shell, create a database 

testlink

, a database user 

testlinkuser

,
and the database user's password 

yourpassword

 as follows.

Note: For security purposes, remember to replace the sample password 

yourpassword

 with
your own password.

CREATE DATABASE testlink;
CREATE USER 'testlinkuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'yourpassword';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON testlink.* TO 'testlinkuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'yourpassword' WITH GRANT OPTION;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Step 4: Install PHP 7.1 and some extensions

TestLink requires PHP 5.5 or later. In order to get better performance, we will install PHP 7.1 and all the necessary extension for TestLink as follows:

sudo rpm -Uvh https://mirror.webtatic.com/yum/el7/webtatic-release.rpm sudo yum install mod_php71w php71w-mysqlnd php71w-common php71w-gd php71w-ldap php71w-cli php71w-mcrypt php71w-xml -y

We will need to modify PHP settings to meet TestLink’s requirements as follows:

sudo cp /etc/php.ini /etc/php.ini.bak
sudo sed -i "s/session.gc_maxlifetime = 1440/session.gc_maxlifetime = 2880/" /etc/php.ini
sudo sed -i "s/max_execution_time = 30/max_execution_time = 120/" /etc/php.ini

Step 5: Install TestLink 1.9.16

5.1 Download the TestLink 1.9.16 archive from the official TestLink GitHub repo, and then unzip the archive to the 

/var/www/html

 directory:

cd
wget https://github.com/TestLinkOpenSourceTRMS/testlink-code/archive/1.9.16.tar.gz sudo tar -zxvf 1.9.16.tar.gz -C /var/www/html
sudo chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/testlink-code-1.9.16

5.2 Create a custom configuration file for TestLink:

sudo cp /var/www/html/testlink-code-1.9.16/custom_config.inc.php.example /var/www/html/testlink-code-1.9.16/custom_config.inc.php

5.3 Modify the custom TestLink configuration file:

Use the 

vi

 text editor to open this configuration file:

sudo vi /var/www/html/testlink-code-1.9.16/custom_config.inc.php

Find the following lines:

// $tlCfg->log_path = '/var/testlink-ga-testlink-code/logs/'; /* unix example */
// $g_repositoryPath = '/var/testlink-ga-testlink-code/upload_area/';  /* unix example */

Replace them with:

$tlCfg->log_path = '/var/www/html/testlink-code-1.9.16/logs/';
$g_repositoryPath = '/var/www/html/testlink-code-1.9.16/upload_area/';

Save and quit:

:wq!

5.4 Create a virtual host for TestLink:

cat <<EOF | sudo tee -a /etc/httpd/conf.d/testlink.conf
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin admin@example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/testlink-code-1.9.16/
ServerName testlink.example.com
ServerAlias www.testlink.example.com
<Directory /var/www/html/testlink-code-1.9.16/>
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory>
ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/testlink.example.com-error_log
CustomLog /var/log/httpd/testlink.example.com-access_log common
</VirtualHost>
EOF

5.5 Restart Apache in order to apply all above settings:

sudo systemctl restart httpd.service

5.6 Modify firewall rules in order to allow web access:

sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-service=http
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

5.7 Finishing the installation

When you visit 

http://203.0.113.1

 for the first time, you will be presented with
the TestLink installation wizard.

On the first page, Click the 

New installation

 link.

On the 

Acceptance of License

 page, check 

I
agree to the terms set out in this license.

, and then click the 

Continue

 button.

On the 

Verification of System and configuration requirements

 page, make sure that
all requirements (excluding requirements on 

Postgres

 and 

MSSQL

)
are satisfied, and then click the 

Continue

 button.

On the 

Database Configuration

 page, provide database configuration info as follows,
and then click the 

Process TestLink Setup

 button to finish the installation:
Database Type: 

MySQL/MariaDB (5.6+ / 10.+)

Database host: 

localhost

Database name: 

testlink

Table prefix: 

<LEAVE IT EMPTY>

Database admin login: 

root

Database admin password: 

<your-MariaDB-root-password>

TestLink DB login: 

testlinkuser

TestLink DB password: 

yourpassword

You can point your web browser to 

http://203.0.113.1

 to start using TestLink,
and you need to use the default credentials below to log in:
Login Name: 

admin

Password: 

admin

Note: Remember to change your password after logging in.

5.8 Security measures after the installation:

For security purposes, you should restrict the 

apache

 user's permissions after
the installation:

sudo chown -R root:root /var/www/html/testlink-code-1.9.16
sudo chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/testlink-code-1.9.16/{gui,logs,upload_area}
sudo systemctl restart httpd.service

Additionally, you should remove the 

/var/www/html/testlink-code-1.9.16/install

 directory:

sudo rm -rf /var/www/html/testlink-code-1.9.16/install

That's it. Thanks for reading.