Install MyCollab on CentOS 7 – Complete Step-by-Step Guide

MyCollab is a free and open-source collaboration platform, commonly adopted by small and medium-sized businesses for managing projects and maintaining documentation workflows.

This tutorial will walk you through the process of installing MyCollab on a CentOS 7 system.

Prerequisites

• A CentOS 7 server with a minimum of 1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended)
• A user account with sudo privileges
• Access to the EPEL repository
• Java installed on the system

Step 1: System Update

Start by logging into your server with a sudo user, enable the EPEL repository, and update your packages:

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

Step 2: Java Installation

MyCollab requires Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 8 or later. Install OpenJDK and JRE using:

sudo yum install -y java-1.8.0-openjdk

Confirm the Java installation:

java -version

Expected output:

openjdk version "1.8.0_111"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_111-b15)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.111-b15, mixed mode)

Step 3: Download the Latest MyCollab Release

Switch to your home directory, download the current MyCollab release, and extract it:

cd
wget https://github.com/MyCollab/mycollab/releases/download/Release_5.4.5/MyCollab-All-5.4.5.zip
sudo yum install unzip -y
unzip MyCollab-All-5.4.5.zip

Note: Version 5.4.5 is current at the time of writing. You can check the MyCollab GitHub releases for updates.

Step 4: MariaDB Installation and Configuration

MyCollab requires MySQL 5.5 or later. MariaDB is a performant alternative and can be installed as follows:

sudo yum install mariadb mariadb-server -y
sudo systemctl start mariadb.service
sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service

Secure the installation of MariaDB:

sudo /usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation

Recommended responses:

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

Step 5: Configure a MySQL Database for MyCollab

Login to MySQL as root:

mysql -u root -p

Create the database and user:

CREATE SCHEMA mycollab DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4;
CREATE USER 'mycollabuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'yourpassword';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON mycollab.* TO 'mycollabuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'yourpassword' WITH GRANT OPTION;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Security tip: Choose a strong and unique username/password combination.

Step 6: Launch MyCollab

Run the MyCollab startup script:

cd ~/MyCollab-5.4.5/bin
./startup.sh

Allow incoming traffic on port 8080 through the firewall:

sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-port=8080/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Navigate to http://203.0.113.1:8080 in your browser to access the MyCollab setup interface. Complete the wizard with the following details:

Site Configuration

• Site name: Your Site Name
• Server address: 203.0.113.1 or example.com

Database Settings

• Database name: mycollab
• User name: mycollabuser
• Password: yourpassword
• Server address: localhost

Email Settings (Optional)

• SMTP Username
• SMTP Password
• SMTP Server
• Port
• STARTTLS or SSL/TLS

Administrator Account

• Admin email: your-email-address
• Admin password: your-admin-password
• Timezone, date format, language preferences, etc.

Click the "Setup" button to finalize the configuration.

Conclusion

MyCollab is free, open-source team collaboration software. It is widely used by small and mid-size enterprises for project management and documentation.