How to install WebERP on CentOS 8

webERP is a free, open source, complete web-based accounting and business management system. You only need a web browser and PDF reader to use webERP. Using webERP, you can manage many things, including purchase orders, online stores, manufacturing, sales, general ledger, and shipping. It is written in PHP and uses MariaDB as the database backend. This tutorial will show you how to install webERP on Apache and encrypt SSL on CentOS 8.

prerequisites

• Server running CentOS 8.
• A valid domain name pointing to the server IP.
• The root password is configured on the server.

Install LAMP server

First, install Apache, MariaDB, PHP and other PHP extensions using the following commands:

dnf install httpd mariadb-server php php-mysqli php-curl php-json php-cgi php-xmlrpc php-gd php-mbstring unzip -y

After installing all the packages, use the following commands to start the Apache and MariaDB services and enable them to start when the system reboots:

systemctl start httpd mariadbsystemctl enable httpd mariadb

Once completed, you can proceed to the next step.

Configure MariaDB

Next, you will need to set the MariaDB root password and ensure the security of the MariaDB installation. You can use the following commands to do so:

mysql_secure_installation

Answer all questions as follows:

Enter current password for root (enter for none): 
Set root password? [Y/n] Y
New password: 
Re-enter new 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

All done!  If you've completed all of the above steps, your MariaDB
installation should now be secure.

Thanks for using MariaDB!

Next, log in to the MariaDB shell using the following command:

mysql -u root -p

After connecting, use the following command to create a database and user for webERP:

MariaDB [(none)]> create database weberp;MariaDB [(none)]> create user [email protected] identified by 'password';

Next, use the following command to grant all privileges to the webERP database:

MariaDB [(none)]> grant all privileges on weberp.* to [email protected] identified by 'password';

Next, refresh the privileges and exit from MariaDB using the following command:

MariaDB [(none)]> flush privileges;MariaDB [(none)]> exit;

Once completed, you can proceed to the next step.

Install webERP

First, use the following command to download the latest version of webERP:

wget https://sourceforge.net/projects/web-erp/files/webERP_4.15.zip

After the download is complete, use the following command to extract the downloaded file to the Apache Web root directory:

unzip webERP_4.15.zip -d /var/www/html

Next, use the following commands to set the appropriate permissions and ownership:

chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/webERPchmod -R 755 /var/www/html/webERP

Once completed, you can proceed to the next step.

Configure Apache for WebERP

Next, you will need to create a new Apache virtual host configuration file to host webERP. You can create it with the following command:

nano /etc/httpd/conf.d/weberp.conf

Add the following line:

<VirtualHost *:80> 
ServerAdmin [email protected]
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/webERP
ServerName weberp.example.com
<Directory /var/www/html/webERP/> 
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory> 
ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/weberp.org-error_log
CustomLog /var/log/httpd/weberp.org-access_log common
</VirtualHost> 

Save and close the file when you are done. Next, restart the Apache service to apply the changes:

systemctl restart httpd

Now, use the following command to verify the status of Apache:

systemctl status httpd

You should get the following output:

? httpd.service - The Apache HTTP Server
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
  Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service.d
           ??php-fpm.conf
   Active: active (running) since Sat 2021-05-01 05:57:27 EDT; 13s ago
     Docs: man:httpd.service(8)
 Main PID: 4896 (httpd)
   Status: "Running, listening on: port 80"
    Tasks: 213 (limit: 25014)
   Memory: 24.8M
   CGroup: /system.slice/httpd.service
           ??4896 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ??4898 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ??4899 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ??4900 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ??4901 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND

May 01 05:57:27 centos8 systemd[1]: Stopped The Apache HTTP Server.
May 01 05:57:27 centos8 systemd[1]: Starting The Apache HTTP Server...

At this point, the Apache web server has been configured to host webERP. You can now proceed to the next step.

Let’s encrypt SSL to protect webERP

Next, you will need to install the Certbot client to install “Let’s Encrypt SSL” for WebERP. You can use the following command to install:

dnf install letsencrypt python3-certbot-apache

Next, use the following command to obtain and install an SSL certificate for your domain:

certbot --apache -d weberp.example.com

You will be asked to provide your email address and accept the terms of service:

Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log
Plugins selected: Authenticator apache, Installer apache
Enter email address (used for urgent renewal and security notices)
 (Enter 'c' to cancel): [email protected]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Please read the Terms of Service at
https://letsencrypt.org/documents/LE-SA-v1.2-November-15-2017.pdf. You must
agree in order to register with the ACME server. Do you agree?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(Y)es/(N)o: Y

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Would you be willing, once your first certificate is successfully issued, to
share your email address with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a founding
partner of the Let's Encrypt project and the non-profit organization that
develops Certbot? We'd like to send you email about our work encrypting the web,
EFF news, campaigns, and ways to support digital freedom.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(Y)es/(N)o: Y
Account registered.
Requesting a certificate for weberp.example.com
Performing the following challenges:
http-01 challenge for weberp.example.com
Waiting for verification.
Cleaning up challenges
Deploying Certificate to VirtualHost /etc/httpd/conf.d/weberp.conf
Redirecting all traffic on port 80 to ssl in /etc/httpd/conf.d/weberp.conf

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Congratulations! You have successfully enabled https://weberp.example.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Subscribe to the EFF mailing list (email: [email protected]).


IMPORTANT NOTES:
 - Congratulations! Your certificate and chain have been saved at:
   /etc/letsencrypt/live/weberp.example.com/fullchain.pem
   Your key file has been saved at:
   /etc/letsencrypt/live/weberp.example.com/privkey.pem
   Your certificate will expire on 2021-06-09. To obtain a new or
   tweaked version of this certificate in the future, simply run
   certbot again with the "certonly" option. To non-interactively
   renew *all* of your certificates, run "certbot renew"
 - If you like Certbot, please consider supporting our work by:

   Donating to ISRG / Let's Encrypt:   https://letsencrypt.org/donate
   Donating to EFF:                    https://eff.org/donate-le

You can now use the URL to safely visit your website https://weberp.example.com.

Configure firewall

Next, you will need to allow ports 80 and 443 to pass through the firewall. You can allow them with the following command:

firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=httpfirewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=https

Next, reload the firewall to apply the changes:

firewall-cmd --reload

Access webERP web interface

Now, open your web browser and use the URL to access the webERP web interface https://weberp.example.com. You should see the following page:

Choose your language and click Next step. You should see the following page:

Provide your database name, user, password, and click Next step. You should see the following page:

Provide your company name, time zone, administrator username, password, and click installation Button. After the installation is complete, you should see the following page:

Provide your administrator username and password, and click log in Button. You will be redirected to the webERP dashboard:

in conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully installed webERP using Apache and let us encrypt SSL on CentOS 8. Now, you can explore webERP to get more features and implement them in a production environment.