ILIAS-7-Install-Tutorial for Ubuntu 20.04

Concepts and Config-Files

Choose a port - and with this a concept

  • A corporate firewall runs often between the internet and the institution where you want to use ILIAS, like schools and companies
  • In german: Die institutionelle Firewall wird meist vom Schultrรคger betrieben und dient dem Schutz vor Angriffen und Missbrauch
  • First you have to decide if the ILIAS chat should be reachable via firewall friendly port 443 or non friendly 8080 (or any other port)
    • 443: Should be chosen if you run ILIAS outside a corporate firewall but use it inside
    • 8080: Should be chosen if you run ILIAS inside a corporate firewall and use it in- or outside (port 8080 has to be opened in the corporate firewall which ich normally not)
  • Normally it makes no sense to use not 443. Anyway, if you use ILIAS behind a corporate firewall or proxy, this should be a way to consider, because some corporate firewalls do not like portforwardig from inner to outer
  • I will explain both ways
    • Way I: With redirect from port 8080 to port 443 using the subdomain chat.bbs-ilias.de
    • Way II: Directly with port 8080 without a subdomain (run ILIAS behind a corporate firewall or proxy)

Places of config informations

  • The node based chatserver has its config files here:
    • /opt/iliasdata/clientname/chatroom
      • client.cfg
        • Can be configured and with this created in ILIAS->Administration->Repository and Objects->Chat Room
      • server.cfg
        • Since ILIAS 7, there is no way to change or create this file via ILIAS->Administration->Repository and Objects->Chat Room. That means for theย  informations that has to be written to server.cfg and to the ILIAS database which are the same data, that we have to do this by manually copying. That means practically, that you first change the file server.cfg on disk and later transfer a copy of the content manually to the database. There are two ways to archive this since ILIAS 7:
          • With the JSON config file try this first)
          • By altering the database directly (via PHPMyAdmin, for the second try)
        • In principle the content of server.cfg is responsible for starting and running the chatserver. The content in the database is responsible, that the ILIAS-instance is able to find the running chatserver (port and FQDN or subdomain)
        • The server.cfg can be used for one chatserver that can run one ILIAS-instance. For n ILIAS-instances on your server, you use n server.cfg files with different ports and - only way one - subdomains.

How to edit the chatserver settings in the database since ILIAS 7?

Method I: JSON-File

  • Update the JSON file with the correct RPC information:
    • ย  ย ย  "chatroom" : {
      "address" : "chat.bbs-ilias.de",
      "port" : 443,
      "https" : {
      "cert" : "",
      "key " : "",
      "dhparam " : ""
      },

  • cd /var/www/html/ilias
  • php setup/setup.php update /opt/iliasdata/scripts/clients/my-configuration.json

Method II: PHPMyAdmin

  • For this I use PHPMyAdmin:
    • apt install phpmyadmin
      • Say always yes or press enter
    • Got to https://yourFQDN.de/phpmyadmin
      • Use the credentials in client.cfg or client.ini.php that resides in ilias/data/clientname/
      • And login
    • Browse to the table chatroom_adminconfig
    • There are two columns:
      • server settings
      • client settings
    • In both you can directly paste the content from the files server.cfg and -theoretically- client.cfg. Linebreaks do not matter
    • As I said above, you can edit the content of
      • client.cfg and the copy of these infos in database attribute
      • client settings
    • directly in the ILIAS Admin panel. PHPMyAdmin instead is only necessary for to copy the content of server.cfg to the database.
  • When you are finished, uninstall PHPMyAdmin for security reasons:
    • apt remove phpmyadmin
      • Delete the database: yes


Information Message
No comment has been posted yet.