Faveo Helpdesk Pro Installation on Windows Server 2012 R2

Introduction

This walkthrough will list steps with screenshots on how to install Faveo Helpdesk advanced on a new Windows Server 2012 R2. And if you don't have Windows Server 2012 R2. Download it from here.

We will install following dependencies in order to make Faveo Help Desk work

• Web Platform Installer
• PHP 7.1 for IIS Express
• MySQL Server
• UrlRewrite
• Task Scheduler

Step 1: Install IIS server

To install IIS, open windows manager and go to Manage button on top. Click add/remover role and select IIS in server Roles and click next..

Select the Server Roles

• File and Storage Services
• Web Server(IIS)

Select the Features

• .NET Framework 3.5 (Full package)
• .NET Framework 4.5 (Full Package)

Click Next and confirm the settings. It will get the IIS installed on the server. To verify the installation, you can type the following url in the browser

http://localhost

Step 2: Download & install Web platform installer

To make the installation easy and smooth, we will be using Web platform Installer. It is a special tool provided by Microsoft for quick installation of most of our requirement. You can download it from following link

• Click here to download Web platform installer

Step 3: Installation of Packages

Open the Web Platform Installer and search the following Extensions to add

• PHP 7.1
• PHP Manager for IIS
• URLRewrite
• MySQL for Windows 5.5
• MySQL Connector/Net

• Alternative Link For Downloading PHP Manager

Click on install. It will ask you to set password for mysql ‘root’ user. Enter some strong password and remember it for later use.

The installation should take few minutes to complete

Step 4: Enable Cacert.pem file in php.ini file

Step 4(a): Download and extract the pem file save it inside your php directory

(C:\Program Files\iis express\PHP\v7.1)

• Alternative Link For Downloading pem file

Step 4(b): Uncomment the below line and add the directory of the file in your php.ini file

curl.cainfo = "C:\Program Files\iis express\PHP\v7.1\cacert.pem"

Note: The location of PHP 7.1 in IIS Server is following. You will need this location to add extensions in your websites.

Step 5: Install Ioncube Loader

Step 5(a): Download the Ioncube loader from the below link and extract

• Alternative Link For Downloading IonCube

Step 5(b): Copy the ioncube folder contents and paste it in your document root and ext folder inside your php folder

Step 5(c): Add the below line in your php.ini file

zend_extension = "C:\Program Files\iis express\PHP\v7.1\ext\ioncube/ioncube_loader_win_7.1.dll"

Uncomment the below MySQL extension's in php.ini file

extension=php_mysqli.dll
extension=php_pdo_mysql.dll 

Step 5(d): Run the below URL

your_domain_name/loader-wizard.php

Step 6: Create Database

Open MySQL 5.5 Command Line Client and run the below commands.

CREATE DATABASE faveo;

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON faveo.* TO 'faveouser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'faveouserpass';

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

quit 

Step 7: Downloading Faveo

You need to download Faveo Helpdesk from Faveo billing account. Extract the Faveo content to some folder.

Copy the Faveo folder to c:/inetpub/wwwroot/

Step 8: Configure web.config file for IIS

Copy the Contents Below and save the file under /faveo/public/ as web.config.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<configuration>

    <system.webServer>

        <rewrite>

            <rules>

                <rule name="Imported Rule 1" stopProcessing="true">

                    <match url="^" ignoreCase="false" />

                    <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll">

                        <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" ignoreCase="false" negate="true" />

                        <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" ignoreCase="false" negate="true" />

                    </conditions>

                    <action type="Rewrite" url="index.php" />

                </rule>

            </rules>

        </rewrite>

    </system.webServer>

</configuration>

Step 9: Give Permissions to the Faveo folder

We need to give full write permission to following folders

Faveo folder

/storage

/bootstrap/cache

Step 10: Configure IIS Hosting

Open IIS and go to default website.

Click on Basic Setting on the right pane. And set the path of root folder to following

C:\inetpub\wwwroot\faveo\public

To Open the Faveo on your your domain , you must set the binding.

Go to Bindings option on right pane and select “HTTP” and edit the hostname to your concern.

Now you can open the browser and enter the IP or Domain Name to open Faveo

Step 11: Configure Task Scheduler

In Windows there is a task scheduler. You open it by pressing + R and Type "taskschd.msc".

To Setup Schedule task for Faveo. Open Task scheduler on server and follow this steps

Right click Task scheduler and select “create basic task” and enter a name

Select the Task Running options Daily

In program/script field enter the following value:

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe

Add following value in Argument :

/c php "c:\inetpub\wwwroot\faveo\artisan" schedule:run

After that, the schedule task would appear on the list. Right click the task and go to properties -> Triggers

Select the schedule and click Edit and set the cron to run every 10 minutes. You can change according to your needs.

Step 12: Start Installation

Now you can install Faveo via GUI Wizard or CLI.

You can access Faveo url in the browser

PS:

• You have to reset the firewall and iptables to your specifications
• You need to follow steps yourself to harden the security of your server, server security is not covered in this article
• Redis is recommended for messaging que and improving system performance
• Always use SSL/HTTPS URL for Faveo