Snipe-IT Deployment on Linux (Ubuntu) via Docker, Apache & Nginx

Snipe-IT is web-based open-source software for asset management.

Table of contents

What is Snipe-IT?
Introduction
Features
Video Guides
Installation
Install Snipe-IT via Docker
1. Install Docker Engine
2. Install Snipe-IT via Docker
Install Snipe-IT via Apache
Install Snipe-IT via Nginx
Pre-Flight
Screenshots

What is Snipe-IT?

Snipe-IT was made for asset management, to enable departments to track who has which asset, when it was purchased, which software licenses and accessories are available, and so on.

Snipe-IT is a Free Open Source (FOSS) web based project built on Laravel and it follows a standard Laravel MVC file structure.

This project is actively developed and they release quite frequently. Check out the Snipe-IT website for a demo, a comprehensive list of features, screenshots and announcements for updates on new versions.

Website Documentation Demo GitHub

Snipe-IT Dashboard

I made a step-by-step guide of Snipe-IT installation, configuration, and its features for the Ministry of Technology Sri Lanka’s official website. I will provide links to each section of that documentation as follows:

Introduction

Overview, introduction, and getting started guide to the Snipe-IT asset management system.

Snipe-IT Introduction

Features

Main features available on the system and a guide on how to use them correctly.

Snipe-IT Features

Video Guides

This video guide includes feature reviews, configurations, and how to use the functionalities of the Snipe-IT system; it also includes the mobile application configuration and its features.

Snipe-IT Videos Guides

Installation

The installation guide covers how to deploy Snipe-IT software on a Linux (Ubuntu) system via Docker, Apache, and Nginx services.

This guide was created in June 2022, and later updates of Snipe-IT may make this guide’s configuration steps slightly different.

Install Snipe-IT via Docker

Install Docker Engine

Note
Find the official guide here. Follow this official guide for install Docker on other Linux distribution systems.

1. Uninstall old versions

sudo apt-get remove docker docker-engine docker.io containerd runc

2. Set up the repository

Update the apt package index and install packages to allow apt to use a repository over HTTPS:
```
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl gnupg lsb-release
```

Add Docker’s official GPG key:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings

curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

Use the following command to set up the repository:

echo \"deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \$(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

3. Install Docker Engine

Update the apt package index, and install the latest version of Docker Engine, containerd, and Docker Compose, or go to the next step to install a specific version:
```
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io
```
Verify that Docker Engine is installed correctly;
```
sudo systemctl is-active docker
```

Install Snipe-IT via Docker

1. Update/Upgrade installed packages

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

2. Create directories for mount with Docker containers.

Create main directories

sudo mkdir /var/config /var/config/snipeit

Change the working directory to newly created snipeit directory.
```
cd /var/config/ snipeit
```
Create directories for mount with MySQL container and Snipe-IT container.
```
sudo mkdir snipe-mysql snipe-conf snipe-backup
```

3. Create a MySQL container with MySQL version 5.6

Replace the placeholders with your preference.

sudo docker run \
	--name snipe-mysql \
	-d \
	-e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD= <MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD> \
	-e MYSQL_DATABASE=snipe \
	-e MYSQL_USER=snipe \
	-e MYSQL_PASSWORD= <MYSQL_USER_PASSWORD> \
	-e TZ=Asia/Colombo \
	-p 127.0.0.1:3306:3306 \
	-v /var/config/snipeit/snipe-mysql:/var/lib/mysql \
	mysql:5.6 --sql-mode=""

4. Create a Snipe-IT Docker image

Option 01:
Generate a new snipe-it container with the latest version.
sudo docker run --rm snipe/snipe-it

Option 02:
Generate a new Snipe-IT container with specified version. Find the latest Snipe-IT docker image version here.
sudo docker run --rm snipe/snipe-it:v6.0.2

After the downloading, output should look like this;

Please re-run this container with an environment variable $APP_KEYAn example APP_KEY you could use is:base64:D5oGA+zhFSVA3VwuoZoQ21RAcwBtJv/RGiqOcZ7BUvI=

Copy the APP_KEY (“based64:D5…”) and replace it with the placeholder at the next step (step 5).

5. Start the Snipe-IT container

Option 01: SSL Disabled

Replace the placeholders with your MySQL details (Step 3) and APP_KEY (* without an APP_KEY it won’t work).

sudo docker create \  
--name=snipe-it \  
--link snipe-mysql:db \  
-e PUID=1000 \  
-e PGID=1000 \  
-e DB_CONNECTION=mysql \  
-e DB_HOST=snipe-mysql \  
-e DB_DATABASE=snipe \  
-e DB_USERNAME=snipe \  
-e DB_PASSWORD=[MYSQL_USER_PASSWORD] \  
-e APP_KEY=[APP_KEY] \  
-p 8082:80 \  
-v /var/config/snipeit/snipe-conf:/config \  
-v /var/config/snipeit/snipe-backup:/var/www/html/storage/app/backups \  
--restart unless-stopped \  
snipe/snipe-it
#snipe/snipe-it:v6.0.2

Option 02: SSL Enabled
Replace the placeholders with your MySQL details (Step 3), SSL Port and APP_KEY (* without an APP_KEY it won’t work).
Later, place the SSL Key and SSL Certificate inside the snipe-it docker container using the docker cp command, at /var/lib/snipeit/ssl/snipeit-ssl.crt and /var/lib/snipeit/ssl/snipeit-ssl.key.
sudo docker create \ 
--name=snipe-it \ 
--link snipe-mysql:db \ 
-e PUID=1000 \ 
-e PGID=1000 \ 
-e DB_CONNECTION=mysql \ 
-e DB_HOST=snipe-mysql \ 
-e DB_DATABASE=snipe \ 
-e DB_USERNAME=snipe \ 
-e DB_PASSWORD=[MYSQL_USER_PASSWORD] \ 
-e APP_KEY=[APP_KEY] \ 
-p 8082:80 \ 
-p [SSL_PORT]:443 \ 
-v /var/config/snipeit/snipe-conf:/config \ 
-v /var/config/snipeit/snipe-backup:/var/www/html/storage/app/backups \ 
--restart unless-stopped \ 
snipe/snipe-it
# snipe/snipe-it:v6.0.2 

6. Start the container.

sudo docker start snipe-it

7. Update the .env file with the site details and email configurations.

Get the docker containers details.
```
sudo docker ps
```
Get into the Snipe-IT container.
```
sudo docker exec -it CONTAINER_ID /bin/bash
```
Default docker containers come with VI editor. If you want, you can install VIM or NANO editors using the following commands.
```
apt-get update  apt-get install vim nano
```
Open .env file with an editor.
```
vi .env
```

Uncomment and update the basic app settings. Replace the APP_KEY placeholder with your APP_KEY (Step 4) and APP_URL with your site domain (http://example.com:8082).

#--------------------------------------------  
# REQUIRED: BASIC APP SETTINGS  
# --------------------------------------------  
APP_ENV=production  
APP_DEBUG=false  
APP_KEY=<APP_KEY>  
APP_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8082  
APP_TIMEZONE=Asia/Colombo  
APP_LOCALE=en

Update the outgoing email server settings.

# --------------------------------------------
# REQUIRED: OUTGOING MAIL SERVER SETTINGS
# --------------------------------------------
MAIL_DRIVER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=${MAIL_PORT_587_TCP_ADDR}
MAIL_PORT=${MAIL_PORT_587_TCP_PORT}
MAIL_USERNAME=${MAIL_ENV_USERNAME}
MAIL_PASSWORD=${MAIL_ENV_PASSWORD}
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=${MAIL_ENV_ENCRYPTION}
MAIL_FROM_ADDR=${MAIL_ENV_FROM_ADDR}
MAIL_FROM_NAME=${MAIL_ENV_FROM_NAME}
MAIL_REPLYTO_ADDR=${MAIL_ENV_FROM_ADDR}
MAIL_REPLYTO_NAME=${MAIL_ENV_FROM_NAME}

Example with a Gmail

Required to enable “Less secure app” settings at Gmail and generated password. email address only use to send the test email.*

# --------------------------------------------
# REQUIRED: OUTGOING MAIL SERVER SETTINGS
# --------------------------------------------
MAIL_DRIVER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
MAIL_PORT=587
MAIL_USERNAME=[email protected]
MAIL_PASSWORD=your_generated_password
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=tls
MAIL_FROM_ADDR=[email protected]
MAIL_FROM_NAME=’ANY NAME’
MAIL_REPLYTO_ADDR=[email protected]
MAIL_REPLYTO_NAME=’ANY NAME’

Save the changes and restart the Snipe-IT container.
```
exit
sudo docker restart snipe-it
```

8. Snipe-IT pre-flight setup

Browse to the IP address of your Ubuntu server and you should see the pre-flight page (http://example.com:8082).

Install Snipe-IT via Apache

1. Update and upgrade installed packages on Linux server.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

**2. Install Apache, MySQL, PHP, PHP-FPM and PHP dependencies.**

Install Apache.
```
sudo apt install apache2
```
Install MySQL.
```
sudo apt install mysql-server
```

Install PHP and PHP-FPM.

sudo add-apt-repository universesudo apt install php-fpm php-mysql

Install PHP-Dependencies.

sudo apt-get install -y git unzip php php-curl php-mysql php-gd php-ldap php-zip php-mbstring php-xml php-bcmath php-tokenizer

Check the packages are installed correctly.
MySQL server version & status mysql –V or service mysql status
PHP Version php --version
Apache version & status apache2 -V or systemctl status apache2

3. Configure MySQL Server

Run MySQL secure installation command line wizard and secure the installation.
```
sudo mysql_secure_installation
```

Tips
Do you want to Install Validate Password Plugin? : Better use Yes
Change the MySQL root user password. : Enter same password twice
Do you want to remove anonymous users? : Yes
Do you want to stop root login remotely? : Better use No
Do you want to reload privileges table: Yes

Tips
If you get the following error while between the secure installation process, kill the current process and follow these steps; Failed! Error: SET PASSWORD has no significance for user ‘root’@’localhost’ as the authentication method used doesn’t store authentication data in the MySQL server.
Login to MySQL sudo mysql
Run This ALTER Query to change the authentication parameters. Replace placeholder (newpassword) with your preference. ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password by 'newpassword';
And now, you are able to run mysql_secure_installation command.

4. Create an initial database and a user for the Snipe-IT

Login to MySQL server, provide password for MySQL root user when it prompts;
```
sudo mysql -u root -p
```
Create new database named snipeit_db.
```
CREATE DATABASE snipeit_db;
```
Create a new user named snipeit_user. Replace the password placeholder with your own.
```
CREATE USER 'snipeit_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
```
Grant permissions to the user (snipeit_user) on the database (snipeit_db).
```
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON snipeit_db.* TO 'snipeit_user'@'localhost';
```
Flush the privileges
```
flush privileges;
```
Exit from the MySQL server.
```
quit;
```
Restart MySQL service
```
sudo service mysql restart
```

5. Download the Snipe-IT latest version.

Change working directory to “/var/www/”
```
cd /var/www/
```
Clone recent version of the Snipe-IT from GIT into a local folder (snipeit).
```
sudo git clone https://github.com/snipe/snipe-it snipeit
```

6. Update the `.env` file with the site, database and email configuration details.

Change working directory to “/var/www/snipeit/”
```
cd /var/www/snipeit/
```
Make a copy of .env environmental file
```
sudo cp .env.example .env
```
Open .env file with a text editor.
```
sudo vi .env or sudo nano .env
```

Update the basic app settings. Replace the APP_URL with your domain (http://example.com).

#--------------------------------------------  
# REQUIRED: BASIC APP SETTINGS  
# --------------------------------------------  
APP_ENV=production  
APP_DEBUG=false  
APP_KEY=<APP_KEY>  
APP_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8082  
APP_TIMEZONE=Asia/Colombo  
APP_LOCALE=en

Update the database settings. Replace the “DB_PASSWORD” placeholder with your MySQL snipeit user’s password.

# --------------------------------------------
# REQUIRED: DATABASE SETTINGS
# --------------------------------------------
DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_DATABASE=snipeit_db
DB_USERNAME=snipeit_user
DB_PASSWORD=<password>
DB_PREFIX=null
DB_DUMP_PATH='/usr/bin'
DB_CHARSET=utf8mb4
DB_COLLATION=utf8mb4_unicode_ci

Update the outgoing email server settings.

# --------------------------------------------
# REQUIRED: OUTGOING MAIL SERVER SETTINGS
# --------------------------------------------
MAIL_DRIVER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=${MAIL_PORT_587_TCP_ADDR}
MAIL_PORT=${MAIL_PORT_587_TCP_PORT}
MAIL_USERNAME=${MAIL_ENV_USERNAME}
MAIL_PASSWORD=${MAIL_ENV_PASSWORD}
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=${MAIL_ENV_ENCRYPTION}
MAIL_FROM_ADDR=${MAIL_ENV_FROM_ADDR}
MAIL_FROM_NAME=${MAIL_ENV_FROM_NAME}
MAIL_REPLYTO_ADDR=${MAIL_ENV_FROM_ADDR}
MAIL_REPLYTO_NAME=${MAIL_ENV_FROM_NAME}

Save the changes and exit.

7. Update folder permissions in the Snipe-IT root directory to the user of the Apache.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/snipeit/
sudo chmod -R 755 storage public/uploads

8. Download & Install composer.

Change working directory to the Snipe-IT install directory.
```
cd /var/www/snipeit
```

Download the composer.

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php

For local composer installations.

php composer.phar install --no-dev --prefer-source

For global composer installations.

composer install --no-dev --prefer-source

9. Generate an APP_Key for the `.env` file.

```
sudo php artisan key:generate
```
Verify the generated APP_Key by opening the .env file and check “APP_KEY” value.
```
cat /var/www/snipeit/.envornano /var/www/snipeit/.env
```

10. Apache server configurations

Create a new site configuration file with your preferred name.

sudo cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/snipeit.conf

Open the configuration file.

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/snipeit.conf

Add site content as follows, Replace Server Name to your Ubuntu Server’s IP address, and Document root and directory locations to Snipe-IT installation directory public folder (…/snipeit/public/).

<VirtualHost *:80>
   <Directory /var/www/snipeit/public/>
      Allow From All
      AllowOverride None
      Options None
   </Directory>

   DocumentRoot /var/www/snipeit/public/
   ServerName 127.0.0.1

   # Other directives here
   RewriteEngine On
   # From public/.htaccess
   RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}%{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (.+)/$
   RewriteRule ^ %1 [L,R=301]
   RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}%{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}%{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   RewriteRule ^ /index.php [L]
</VirtualHost>

Disable the default site
```
sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf
```
Enable the new site.
```
sudo a2ensite snipeit.conf
```
Restart the Apache service
```
sudo systemctl reload apache2
```

11. Snipe-IT pre-flight setup

Browse to IP address of your Ubuntu server and you should see the pre-flight page (http://example.com).

Install Snipe-IT via Nginx

1. Update and upgrade installed packages on Linux server.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

**2. Install NGINX, MySQL, PHP, PHP-FPM and PHP dependencies.**

Install NGINX.
```
sudo apt install nginx
```
Install MySQL.
```
sudo apt install mysql-server
```

Install PHP and PHP-FPM.

sudo add-apt-repository universesudo apt install php-fpm php-mysql

Install PHP-Dependencies.

sudo apt-get install -y git unzip php php-curl php-mysql php-gd php-ldap php-zip php-mbstring php-xml php-bcmath php-tokenizer

Check that the packages are installed correctly.

3. Configure MySQL Server

Run MySQL secure installation command line wizard and secure the installation.
```
sudo mysql_secure_installation
```

4. Create an initial database and a user for the Snipe-IT

Login to MySQL server, provide password for MySQL root user when it prompts;
```
sudo mysql -u root -p
```
Create new database named snipeit_db.
```
CREATE DATABASE snipeit_db;
```
Create a new user named snipeit_user. Replace the password placeholder with your own.
```
CREATE USER 'snipeit_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
```
Grant permissions to the user (snipeit_user) on the database (snipeit_db).
```
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON snipeit_db.* TO 'snipeit_user'@'localhost';
```
Flush the privileges
```
flush privileges;
```
Exit from the MySQL server.
```
quit;
```
Restart MySQL service
```
sudo service mysql restart
```

5. Download the Snipe-IT latest version.

Change working directory to “/var/www/”
```
cd /var/www/
```
Clone recent version of the Snipe-IT from GIT into a local folder (snipeit).
```
sudo git clone https://github.com/snipe/snipe-it snipeit
```

6. Update the `.env` file with the site, database and email configuration details.

Change working directory to “/var/www/snipeit/”
```
cd /var/www/snipeit/
```
Make a copy of .env environmental file
```
sudo cp .env.example .env
```
Open .env file with a text editor.
```
sudo vi .env or sudo nano .env
```

Update the basic app settings. Replace the APP_URL with your domain (http://example.com).

#--------------------------------------------
# REQUIRED: BASIC APP SETTINGS
# --------------------------------------------
APP_ENV=production
APP_DEBUG=false
APP_KEY=ChangeMe
APP_URL=http://127.0.0.1
APP_TIMEZONE='UTC'
APP_LOCALE=en
MAX_RESULTS=500

Update the database settings. Replace the “DB_PASSWORD” placeholder with your MySQL snipeit user’s password.

# --------------------------------------------
# REQUIRED: DATABASE SETTINGS
# --------------------------------------------
DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_DATABASE=snipeit_db
DB_USERNAME=snipeit_user
DB_PASSWORD=<password>
DB_PREFIX=null
DB_DUMP_PATH='/usr/bin'
DB_CHARSET=utf8mb4
DB_COLLATION=utf8mb4_unicode_ci

Update the outgoing email server settings.

# --------------------------------------------
# REQUIRED: OUTGOING MAIL SERVER SETTINGS
# --------------------------------------------
MAIL_DRIVER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=email-smtp.us-west-2.amazonaws.com
MAIL_PORT=587
MAIL_USERNAME=YOURUSERNAME
MAIL_PASSWORD=YOURPASSWORD
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=null
MAIL_FROM_ADDR=[email protected]
MAIL_FROM_NAME='Snipe-IT'
MAIL_REPLYTO_ADDR=[email protected]
MAIL_REPLYTO_NAME='Snipe-IT'
MAIL_AUTO_EMBED_METHOD='attachment'

Save the changes and exit.

7. Update folder permissions in the Snipe-IT root directory to the user of the Nginx.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/snipeit/sudo chmod -R 755 storage public/uploads

8. Download & Install composer.

Change working directory to the Snipe-IT install directory.
```
cd /var/www/snipeit
```

Download the composer.

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php

For local composer installations.

php composer.phar install --no-dev --prefer-source

For global composer installations.

composer install --no-dev --prefer-source

9. Generate an APP_Key for the `.env` file.

```
sudo php artisan key:generate
```
Verify the generated APP_Key by opening the .env file and check “APP_KEY” value.
```
cat /var/www/snipeit/.envornano /var/www/snipeit/.env
```

10. NGINX server configurations

Create a new site with your preferred name.

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

Add site content as follows, Replace Server Name to your Ubuntu Server’s IP address, root location to Snipe-IT installation directory public folder, and the PHP-FPM version (Ex: php-fpm7.4 as php7.4-fpm).

server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;

server_name  127.0.0.1;
root  /var/www/snipeit/public/;
index  index.php index.html index.htm;
access_log /var/log/nginx/site_name.access.log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/site_name.error.log;

location / {
   try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$is_args$args;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
   include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
   fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
   include fastcgi_params;
   fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
   fastcgi_intercept_errors on;
   }
}

Enable the new site.

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/site_name /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Disable default site

sudo unlink /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

Restart Nginx service
```
sudo service nginx restart
```

11. Snipe-IT pre-flight setup

Browse to IP address of your Ubuntu server and you should see the pre-flight page (http://example.com).

Pre-Flight

Snipe-IT Pre-Flight

Screenshots

Snipe-IT Dashboard

Snipe-IT Deployment on Linux (Ubuntu) via Docker, Apache & Nginx

What is Snipe-IT?

Introduction

Features

Video Guides

Installation

Install Snipe-IT via Docker

Install Docker Engine

1. Uninstall old versions

2. Set up the repository

3. Install Docker Engine

Install Snipe-IT via Docker

1. Update/Upgrade installed packages

2. Create directories for mount with Docker containers.

3. Create a MySQL container with MySQL version 5.6

4. Create a Snipe-IT Docker image

5. Start the Snipe-IT container

6. Start the container.

7. Update the .env file with the site details and email configurations.

8. Snipe-IT pre-flight setup

Install Snipe-IT via Apache

1. Update and upgrade installed packages on Linux server.

2. Install Apache, MySQL, PHP, PHP-FPM and PHP dependencies.

3. Configure MySQL Server

4. Create an initial database and a user for the Snipe-IT

5. Download the Snipe-IT latest version.

6. Update the .env file with the site, database and email configuration details.

7. Update folder permissions in the Snipe-IT root directory to the user of the Apache.

8. Download & Install composer.

9. Generate an APP_Key for the .env file.

10. Apache server configurations

11. Snipe-IT pre-flight setup

Install Snipe-IT via Nginx

1. Update and upgrade installed packages on Linux server.

2. Install NGINX, MySQL, PHP, PHP-FPM and PHP dependencies.

3. Configure MySQL Server

4. Create an initial database and a user for the Snipe-IT

5. Download the Snipe-IT latest version.

6. Update the .env file with the site, database and email configuration details.

7. Update folder permissions in the Snipe-IT root directory to the user of the Nginx.

8. Download & Install composer.

9. Generate an APP_Key for the .env file.

10. NGINX server configurations

11. Snipe-IT pre-flight setup

Pre-Flight

Screenshots

**2. Install Apache, MySQL, PHP, PHP-FPM and PHP dependencies.**

6. Update the `.env` file with the site, database and email configuration details.

9. Generate an APP_Key for the `.env` file.

**2. Install NGINX, MySQL, PHP, PHP-FPM and PHP dependencies.**

6. Update the `.env` file with the site, database and email configuration details.

9. Generate an APP_Key for the `.env` file.