iTOP is a simple, Open source web based IT Service Management tool. It has all of ITIL functionality that includes with Service desk, Configuration Management, Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management and Service Management. iTop relays on Apache/IIS, MySQL and PHP, so it can run on any operating system supporting these applications. Since iTop is a web based application you don’t need to deploy any client software on each user’s PC. A simple web browser is enough to perform day to day operations of an IT environment with iTOP.
To install and configure iTOP we will be using CentOS 7 as base operating with basic LAMP Stack environment installed on it that will cover its almost all prerequisites.
### Downloading iTOP ###
iTop download package is present on SourceForge, we can get its link from their official website [link][1].
By using unzip command we will extract the downloaded packages in the document root directory of our apache web server in a new directory with name itop.
Now from the extracted web directory, moving through different data models we will migrate the required extensions from the datamodels into the web extensions directory of web document root directory with copy command.
Most of our server side settings and configurations are done.Finally we need to complete its web interface installation process to finalize the setup.
Open your favorite web browser and access the WordPress web directory in your web browser using your server IP or FQDN like.
http://servers_ip_address/itop/web/
You will be redirected towards the web installation process for iTop. Let’s configure it as per your requirements like we did here in this tutorial.
#### Prerequisites Validation ####
At the stage you will be prompted for welcome screen with prerequisites validation ok. If you get some warning then you have to make resolve it by installing its prerequisites.
After successful installation of php-mcrypt library we need to restart apache web service, then reload the web page and this time its prerequisites validation should be OK.
#### Install or Upgrade iTop ####
Here we will choose the fresh installation as we have not installed iTop previously on our server.
#### iTop License Agreement ####
Chose the option to accept the terms of the licenses of all the components of iTop and click "NEXT".
Here we the do Configuration of the database connection by giving our database servers credentials and then choose from the option to create new database as shown.
The options below allow you to configure the type of elements that are to be managed inside iTop like all the base objects that are mandatory in the iTop CMDB, Manage Data Center devices, storage device and virtualization.
Select from the choices that best describes the relationships between the services and the IT infrastructure in your IT environment. So we are choosing Service Management for Service Providers here.
From the different available options we will Select the ITIL Compliant Tickets Management option to have different types of ticket for managing user requests and incidents.
Select the type of tickets you want to use in order to manage changes to the IT infrastructure from the available options. We are going to choose ITIL change management option here.
Now we are ready to start installing the components that we choose in previous steps. We can also drop down these installation parameters to view our configuration from the drop down.
Once you are confirmed with the installation parameters click on the install button.
You can manage configuration of everything from here Servers, computers, Contacts, Locations, Contracts, Network devices…. You can create your own. Just the fact, that the installed CMDB module is great which is an essential part of every bigger IT.
ITOP is one of the best Open Source Service Desk solutions. We have successfully installed and configured it on our CentOS 7 cloud host. So, the most powerful aspect of iTop is the ease with which it can be customized via its “extensions”. Feel free to comment if you face any trouble during its setup.
