OrangeHRM Deployment & Upgrade on Linux

OrangeHRM is an open-source human resource management system.

What is OrangeHRM?

OrangeHRM is an open-source human resource management (HRM) software that provides a comprehensive set of tools and features to manage various HR functions such as employee information, recruitment, performance management, time and attendance tracking, leave management, and more. OrangeHRM offers both cloud-based and on-premises deployment options, and it is designed to be user-friendly and customizable to meet the specific needs of different organizations.

Website Documentation SourceForge GitHub Demo

In this tutorial, we are going to install OrangeHRM with a web server (Nginx and Apache) on Linux and use Kali as the Linux distribution system.

Steps to follow

1. Install and Configure Prerequisites
   1. Install PHP and the required dependencies
   2. Install & configure MySQL Database
   3. Install & configure a web server (Apache or Nginx)
2. Deploy OrangeHRM software
3. Upgrade OrangeHRM software

Install and Configure Prerequisites

Step 01: Install PHP and the required dependencies

OrangeHRM version 4 required PHP 7.0 - 7.4 & OrangeHRM version 5 required PHP 7.4 or later.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install php7.4 php7.4-mysql php7.4-curl php7.4-xml php7.4-zip

Step 02: Install & configure MySQL Database

OrangeHRM required MySQL 5.5 or later/ MariaDB 5.5 or later

Installation

sudo apt install mysql-server

Configuration

Change the database root user password, if needed;

sudo mysql
ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password'; 
OR
ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password by '<new-password>';

You can create a database and user for the system in the web installation of the OrangeHRM. If you prefer that option, skip the following step of manually creating those.

Manually create a database and user for the OrangeHRM system;

sudo mysql -u root -p

CREATE DATABASE <db-name>;
CREATE USER '<db-user>'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '<password>';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON <db-name>.* TO '<db-user>'@'localhost';
flush privileges;
quit;

Add following lines to the my.cnf or my.ini file locate at /etc/mysql/.

[mysqld]
event_scheduler=ON

Restart MySQL service

sudo service mysql restart
OR
sudo systemctl restart mysql

Step 03: Install & configure a web server (Apache or Nginx)

Install and configure one of the web servers as you prefer. Don’t install both servers at the same time.😊

Installation

Nginx

sudo apt install nginx

Apache

sudo apt install apache2

Configuration

Nginx

Edit the root of the default nginx configuration file located at /etc/nginx/sites-available/default.

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Apache

Edit the DocumentRoot of the default apache configuration file located at /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf.

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf

sudo service apache2 restart
OR
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Deploy OrangeHRM Software

Download the latest or preferred version of the OrangeHRM system.

Go to the OrangeHRM GitHub repository and select releases from the right side panel. Then select your preferred version and right-click and copy the link on the orangehrm-<version>.zip file located in the Assets section.

Install Zip & Unzip on Linux (Debian)

sudo apt install zip unzip

Select Release	Copy the link

Then go to the web server directory and download the setup (replace the <url> with the copied link). After the download is complete, unzip the file to the web directory (replace <file-name> with the actual file name of the downloaded file).

cd /var/www/html
sudo wget <url>
sudo unzip <file-name>

Web Server Configurations

After unzipping the file, reconfigure the web server’s root location configurations to point to the unzipped directory.

Web Installation Process

Finally, Go to the domain/IP address mapped to the system using a web browser and start the web installation process. Please refer to the following video guide:

For further details, kindly consult the OrangeHRM Official Installation Guide.

Upgrade OrangeHRM Software

Backup the MySQL Database

Replace <db-user>, <db-name>, and <path> with your OrangeHRM database user, database name, and the path you want to save the backup file.

mysqldump -u <db-user> -p <dn-name> > <path>/sqldump.sql

If got an error use below;

mysqldump --column-statistics=0 -u <db-user> -p <db-name> > <path>/sqldump.sql

Download the latest or preferred version of the OrangeHRM system.

Go to the OrangeHRM GitHub repository and select releases from the right side panel. Then select your preferred version and right-click and copy the link on the orangehrm-<version>.zip file located in the Assets section.

Then go to the web server directory and download the setup (replace the <url> with the copied link). After the download is complete, unzip the file to the web directory (replace <file-name> with the actual file name of the downloaded file).

cd /var/www/html
sudo wget <url>
sudo unzip <file-name>

Web Server Configurations

There are two ways to do this.

The first way is to rename the old OrangeHRM directory to a different name and rename the newly created OrangeHRM directory to the previous name. And the second way is to reconfigure the web server (Nginx or Apache) to map to the newly created web directory.

Web Upgrade Process

Finally, Go to the domain/IP address mapped to the system using a web browser and start the web upgrade process. Please refer to the following video guide:

For further details, kindly consult the OrangeHRM Official Upgrade Guide.

Screenshots