How to Install MyCollab on Ubuntu 16.04

MyCollab is a free and open-source project management web app that you can either self-host or run in the cloud.

This guide will teach you how to install the free community edition of MyCollab on a Ubuntu 16.04 server.

Requirements

Ubuntu (with root privileges) MySQL server (version 5.5+) 1 GB RAM minimum (2 GB RAM recommended)

Install Java Runtime Environment (JRE)

Update the package index and install the latest Java Runtime Environment

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install default-jre

Verify the installation

java -version

Create MyCollab user

For security reasons, it’s recommended that you create a new user to run MyCollab under

sudo adduser --disabled-login --gecos 'MyCollab Project Management' mycollab
sudo su - mycollab

Install MyCollab

Download the latest version of MyCollab (Make sure it’s not the Pro version)

curl -kLo ~/mycollab.zip https://github.com/MyCollab/mycollab/releases/download/Release_5.4.10/MyCollab-All-5.4.10.zip
unzip ~/mycollab.zip 
rm -rf ~/mycollab.zip 

Create MySQL database and user

Log into the MySQL server

mysql -u root -p

Create the MySQL database schema for MyCollab. Note that the character set is uft8mb4.

CREATE SCHEMA mycollab DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4;

Create database username and password

CREATE USER 'mycollab'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'my_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON mycollab.* TO 'mycollab'@'localhost';
EXIT;

Setup MyCollab

By default, MyCollab will run on port 8080. You can change the port by editing /home/mycollab/MyCollab-5.4.10/bin/mycollab.ini and changing the port variable.

Start MyCollab

/home/mycollab/MyCollab-5.4.10/bin/startup.sh

To setup MyCollab, navigate to http://server_IP:8080 and fill in the details

Click the Setup button and wait for MyCollab to finish setting itself up

You’ll now be asked to create a administrator account

Next you’ll be redirected to the project dashboard

Add MyCollab as a service

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/mycollab.service

Add the following

[Unit]
Description=MyCollab
After=network.target

[Service]
User=mycollab
Restart=always
Type=forking
ExecStart=/home/mycollab/MyCollab-5.4.10/bin/startup.sh
ExecStop=/home/mycollab/MyCollab-5.4.10/bin/shutdown.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and start MyCollab service

sudo systemctl enable mycollab
sudo systemctl start mycollab

Backups

If you’re installing MyCollab for anything other than testing purposes, then it would be smart to backup your data.

The data for MyCollab is located in two places: the MySQL database and the files directory ~/MyCollab-5.4.10/.mycollab.

Files directory

zip -rq ~/mycollab_files_`date +%y_%m_%d`.zip /home/mycollab/MyCollab-5.4.10/.mycollab

MySQL database

/usr/bin/mysqldump -u <username> -p<password> <mycollab_database> | gzip > ~/mycollab_database_`date +%y_%m_%d`.gz

Congratulations! You’ve successfully installed MyCollab. Did you install MyCollab and don’t really like it? Do you prefer Redmine over MyCollab? Let us know in the comments below!