OTOBO Staging System – Migration and Secure Test Environment

OTOBO Staging System – Migration and Secure Test Environment

A staging system is the perfect environment for safely testing changes to your ticket system – whether for OTOBO or Znuny. It is an exact copy of the production system where features, configurations, and data are migrated, tested, and validated – without affecting the live system.

🗾 Compatibility: The steps described in this article apply equally to OTOBO 11.x and Znuny 6.x+. Differences in configuration files are minimal and are noted where necessary.

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🔄 Overview: Staging System Migration Workflow

1. Prepare development system
2. Set up staging system
3. Copy production data
4. Test staging
5. Deploy staging to production (optional)

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✅ Benefits of a Staging System

• Safe testing of configuration, custom code & packages
• Automated end-to-end tests using tools like Playwright
• GDPR-compliant testing after anonymization
• Recovery tests & backup verification

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🛠 Prerequisites

• Ubuntu 20.04+ or Debian 10+
• Docker (recommended) or manual Linux installation
• Sufficient system resources (8 GB RAM, 4 CPUs)
• Access to current production data (DB & file system)
• Ability to disable email sending (e.g., via dummy SMTP)

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flowchart TD
    A[Feature ready for test] --> B[Clean up dev system, delete tickets]
    B --> C[Copy dev -> staging]
    C --> D[Wait for maintenance window]
    D --> E[Back up production data DB & files]
    E --> F[Transfer production data to staging]
    F --> G[Adjust configuration in staging]
    G --> H[Disable email sending]
    H --> I[Perform test run]
    
    I -->|Tests successful| J[Optional: Copy staging -> production]
    I -->|Tests failed| K[Fix errors and re-test]

    J --> L[Activate production]
    L --> M[Done, deployment complete]

    style D fill:#a9a,stroke:#333,stroke-width:1px
    style I fill:#aae,stroke:#333,stroke-width:1px
    style J fill:#9a9,stroke:#333,stroke-width:1px
    style K fill:#a99,stroke:#333,stroke-width:1px

🧱 Step-by-Step Guide

1. Set up Staging System

A Docker installation is recommended:

sudo apt install docker.io docker-compose
cd /opt
git clone https://github.com/RotherOSS/otobo-docker.git --branch rel-11_0
cd otobo-docker
cp .docker_compose_env_https .env
nano .env   # Set OTOBO_DB_ROOT_PASSWORD

2. Clean up Dev System

If you are using a dev system as a base:

# Delete tickets and attachments
bin/otobo.Console.pl Admin::Delete::Tickets --older 1d --state closed --really
rm -rf /opt/otobo/var/article/*

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3. Copy Production Data

# Back up database (production system)
mysqldump -u root -p otobo > /tmp/otobo_prod.sql

# Back up articles & Kernel
rsync -avz /opt/otobo/Kernel /tmp/Kernel
rsync -avz /opt/otobo/var/article /tmp/article

Import into staging:

# Import DB
mysql -u root -p otobo_staging < /tmp/otobo_prod.sql

# Copy file system
rsync -avz /tmp/Kernel /opt/otobo/Kernel
rsync -avz /tmp/article /opt/otobo/var/article

🔐 Data Privacy: Anonymize all production customer data, e.g., in the customer_user table, or remove email addresses using an SQL script.

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4. Adjust Configuration

Kernel/Config.pm

$Self->{'Database'}{'Name'} = 'otobo_staging';
$Self->{'Database'}{'User'} = 'otobo';
$Self->{'Database'}{'Password'} = 'STAGING_PASSWORD';

5. Disable Email Sending

In SysConfig:

• Set SendmailModule to Kernel::System::Email::DoNotSendEmail
• Alternatively: Change SMTP server to 127.0.0.1 and port to 1

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🔬 Tests in Staging

• Use Playwright or Cypress scripts for UI tests
• Use bin/otobo.Console.pl Maint::Test::System
• Check data integrity & UI behavior
• Disable integrations like LDAP or web services, or redirect them to a test server

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🔐 Secure Staging

• Restrict access via VPN or IP whitelist
• Set robots.txt to prevent indexing
• If necessary, implement Basic Auth via Nginx
• Secure SSL via SAN or wildcard certificate (*.staging.example.com)

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🔄 Optional: Deploy Staging to Production

Once testing is complete in staging:

1. Stop production server
2. Copy staging database and directories to production
3. Adjust Config.pm
4. Restart production

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🧪 Example Tools for Automation

• Playwright (for E2E tests)
• rsync for fast data transfer
• docker-compose for orchestrated environment
• cron or systemd for regular backups
• Python scripts for anonymization or structural migration

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Conclusion

An OTOBO or Znuny staging system provides maximum security when introducing changes. Through structured migration, anonymized test data, and automated tests, you avoid downtime and ensure stable deployments.

🔁 Tip: Integrate staging processes into your CI/CD pipeline for automated quality assurance with every change.