Install and Configure iTop (ITSM/CMDB) on CentOS or RHEL

— ny_wk

iTop — IT Operational Portal — is a free, open-source web app for running the day-to-day of an IT environment: a CMDB to document your assets plus incident, request, and change management. It's built with ITIL best practices in mind but stays flexible — use it loosely or align it strictly to ITIL. Here's how to get it running on CentOS/RHEL.

What you can do with iTop

• Document your whole IT estate — servers, applications, network devices, VMs, contacts (the CMDB).
• Manage incidents, user requests, and planned outages.
• Track IT services and contracts with external providers.

Prerequisites: a LAMP stack

iTop is a PHP web application backed by MySQL/MariaDB, so you need:

• Apache (or another web server)
• MySQL/MariaDB database
• PHP with the modules iTop requires (mysqli, ldap, gd, xml, etc.)

Step 1 — Install the LAMP components

Update the system, then install Apache, MariaDB, and PHP with its extensions via yum/dnf. Start and enable httpd and mariadb, and run mysql_secure_installation to lock down the database.

Step 2 — Create the iTop database

Log into MariaDB and create a database and a dedicated user for iTop, granting that user privileges on the new database. iTop's setup wizard will populate the schema.

Step 3 — Deploy the iTop files

Download the iTop release archive, extract it into your web root (e.g., /var/www/html/itop), and set ownership to the Apache user so the installer can write config. Open the firewall for HTTP/HTTPS.

Step 4 — Run the web installer

Browse to http://<server>/itop/setup. The wizard checks PHP modules, asks for the database details you created, lets you pick which ITIL modules to enable, and creates the admin account. Finish, and your portal is live.

Step 5 — First login and tidy up

Log in as the admin you set, then start defining organizations, contacts, and configuration items (CIs). For production, secure it behind HTTPS and remove/lock the setup page.

Key takeaways

• iTop is an open-source ITSM + CMDB portal aligned to (but not forcing) ITIL.
• It needs a LAMP stack — Apache, MariaDB/MySQL, PHP with the right modules.
• Create a dedicated DB + user, deploy files to the web root, then run the web setup wizard.
• Secure it with HTTPS and lock the setup page after install.

Frequently asked questions

Is iTop free?

Yes — it's open source. Paid support and some extensions are available, but the core is free.

What database does iTop use?

MySQL or MariaDB.

Does iTop force ITIL processes on me?

No — it's built with ITIL in mind but is flexible enough for informal or strictly ITIL-aligned workflows.

What PHP modules are required?

Common ones include mysqli, ldap, gd, xml, and mbstring — the setup wizard checks and tells you what's missing.

Stand up a LAMP stack, create the database, drop in the files, and let the wizard do the rest — you'll have a working CMDB and service desk in an afternoon.