Overview

This article describes the required web server configuration such as the PHP and MySQL versions along with the system requirements to install or upgrade the Kayako Classic Download.

 

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Information

 

Requirements

 

PHP

PHP version 8.2.1 is required by Kayako Classic versions 4.99+ (It won't work with PHP 7)

PHP version 7.3 is fully supported by Kayako Classic versions 4.93.0 to 4.98.9

 

MySQL Server

MySQL version 5.6.31 or MariaDB 10+ is the minimum requirement. 

 

Web Server

You can use any web server daemon – such as Apache, Nginx, IIS – as long as it is fully compatible with the required PHP configuration (detailed in the below sections).

 

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Recommended PHP/MySQL Parameters:

PHP

These settings are done in the PHP configuration file php.ini of the server on which you are installing the helpdesk:

Configuration Setting	Value
max_execution_time	600
max_input_time	600
memory_limit NOTE: This varies if you plan on using the Kayako Classic import tool, or if the web server is shared, a higher limit is required.	512M
output_buffering	4096
file_uploads	On
upload_max_filesize	20M
post_max_size	20M
max_file_uploads	20
open_basedir	Off
always_populate_raw_post_data	-1

 

Apache

If you have ModSecurity installed on your Apache web server, you must either disable it or whitelist your Kayako Classic files (so they are exempt from all mod_security rules).

 

MySQL

• sql-mode :  Set to not strict.
  • Refer to Disabling MySQL Strict Mode on the Server to know how to disable MySQL Strict Mode.
• max_allowed_packet: 64M (minimum)
• connect_timeout: 300 (minimum)
• optimizer_search_depth: 7 (4 minimum,17 max)

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PHP Caches and Accelerators

• Kayako Classic accesses many scripts spread across many files for each connection.
• If you do not have a PHP cache unless your web server is very finely tuned, you will find the application to be less responsive.
• We recommend enabling OpCache, which is readily available with your PHP 7 installation.

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Required PHP Modules

Most of these modules are included by default. However, we have compiled a list of those which are definitely required by Kayako Classic for good measure:

Multibyte String

OpenSSL (mandatory for PHP 7)

GD with FreeType support

cURL

MySQL

MySQLi

Mysqlnd (required for PHP 5.x only)

PDO

PDO_MYSQL

SimpleXML

Filter

JSON

IMAP

Sockets

XML Parser

DOM

intl

Fileinfo

 

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Server Hardware Requirements/Configuration Changes:

It is challenging to quantify server hardware requirements for running Kayako Classic. Our customers run their helpdesks on a mix of dedicated hardware, shared hardware, and virtualized environments with restricted resource access.

Whichever environment you choose, assuming your database server will be run from the same hardware, the minimum hardware requirements for a small scale Kayako deployment installation are:

• 2 GB RAM (allowing for operating system processes).

• 20 GB hard disk space available for your helpdesk (realistically, you should allow more than this for future growth).

• Access to the equivalent of a 2 GHz CPU core.

 

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So, What Is Recommended?

The web application element of Kayako Classic is platform-independent, so the server requirements remain the same for Windows as well as Unix/Linux servers. What works best for you depends on a variety of factors - including resources, expertise, and what fits within your organization.

That said, we do have our favorite configuration:

Component	What we use	Why
Operating System	CentOS	It is well-supported, secure, fast, and easily configurable.
Web Server	Nginx (with PHP-FPM)	Nginx is lightning fast and much more lightweight than Apache and IIS.
PHP Version	PHP 7.x	We use PHP version 7.x
PHP Cache/Accelerator	OpCache	It is readily available with your PHP 7 installation.

 

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