Table of Contents

Deployment

iTop deploys as two services — the PHP application and a MySQL/MariaDB database — plus a scheduler that runs cron.php. A first-run setup wizard creates the configuration file and database schema.

Images

Combodo does not publish a single canonical Docker image, so options are:

  1. Build your own from a php:8.1-apache base with the iTop release extracted into the web root (most control; recommended for production).
  2. A maintained community image (for example vbkunin/itop) to get started quickly — audit what it bundles and its update cadence.

A minimal build-your-own image:

# Dockerfile
FROM php:8.1-apache

# iTop's required PHP extensions
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
        libzip-dev libpng-dev libldap2-dev libxml2-dev graphviz unzip && \
    docker-php-ext-configure ldap --with-libdir=lib/x86_64-linux-gnu && \
    docker-php-ext-install mysqli gd zip ldap soap opcache && \
    a2enmod rewrite && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

# Extract the iTop release into the web root
ADD https://sourceforge.net/projects/itop/files/itop/3.2.0/iTop-3.2.0.zip /tmp/itop.zip
RUN unzip -q /tmp/itop.zip -d /var/www/html && \
    mv /var/www/html/web/* /var/www/html/ 2>/dev/null || true && \
    chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html

# Recommended PHP settings for iTop
RUN { \
      echo 'memory_limit=256M'; \
      echo 'max_execution_time=300'; \
      echo 'upload_max_filesize=32M'; \
      echo 'post_max_size=32M'; \
    } > /usr/local/etc/php/conf.d/itop.ini
Note

graphviz is needed for iTop's impact-analysis diagrams, and the mysqli, ldap, soap, gd, and zip PHP extensions are required or strongly recommended. Match the iTop version in the ADD URL to a release that supports your PHP version (iTop 3.2 needs PHP 8.1+).

Docker Compose

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  db:
    image: mariadb:11
    container_name: itop-db
    environment:
      MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD_FILE: /run/secrets/db_root_password
      MARIADB_DATABASE: itop
      MARIADB_USER: itop
      MARIADB_PASSWORD_FILE: /run/secrets/db_password
    volumes:
      - itop-db:/var/lib/mysql
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "healthcheck.sh", "--connect", "--innodb_initialized"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5
    restart: unless-stopped
    secrets: [ db_root_password, db_password ]

  itop:
    build: .
    container_name: itop-app
    depends_on:
      db:
        condition: service_healthy
    volumes:
      - itop-conf:/var/www/html/conf          # config-itop.php (created by the wizard)
      - itop-data:/var/www/html/data          # attachments, backups, dumps
      - itop-env:/var/www/html/env-production # compiled data model
      - itop-log:/var/www/html/log
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:8080:80"                    # front with a reverse proxy for TLS
    restart: unless-stopped

  cron:
    build: .
    container_name: itop-cron
    depends_on: [ itop ]
    volumes:
      - itop-conf:/var/www/html/conf
      - itop-data:/var/www/html/data
      - itop-env:/var/www/html/env-production
      - itop-log:/var/www/html/log
    # Run iTop's background task scheduler every minute
    entrypoint: >
      sh -c 'while :; do
        php /var/www/html/webservices/cron.php --auth_user=admin --auth_pwd=$$(cat /run/secrets/itop_admin_pwd) >> /var/www/html/log/cron.log 2>&1;
        sleep 60; done'
    restart: unless-stopped
    secrets: [ itop_admin_pwd ]

volumes:
  itop-db:
  itop-conf:
  itop-data:
  itop-env:
  itop-log:

secrets:
  db_root_password:
    file: ./secrets/db_root_password.txt
  db_password:
    file: ./secrets/db_password.txt
  itop_admin_pwd:
    file: ./secrets/itop_admin_pwd.txt
Important

Persist the three writable iTop directories on volumes: conf/ (holds config-itop.php), data/ (attachments and backups), and env-production/ (the compiled data model). Losing conf/ or env-production/ means re-running setup; losing data/ loses attachments. The database volume holds everything else.

The Setup Wizard

On first launch, iTop serves an interactive installer:

  1. Browse to http://<host>:8080/setup/ (via the reverse proxy in production).
  2. Accept the license and let it run the prerequisites check — it flags any missing PHP extension or setting (fix these in the image, not by hand in a running container).
  3. Choose Install a new iTop (or upgrade an existing one).
  4. Enter the database connection: host db, the itop user and password, and database name itop.
  5. Create the iTop administrator account (username/password).
  6. Pick the language, ITIL modules, and sample data (skip sample data for production).
  7. Setup writes conf/production/config-itop.php and builds the schema.
# Watch the app come up and confirm the DB is reachable
docker compose up -d
docker logs -f itop-app
docker exec itop-app php -r "echo phpversion();"
Warning

After installation, iTop locks the setup wizard so it cannot be re-run by an anonymous visitor. Keep it that way — never leave /setup/ reachable from untrusted networks. Re-running setup (for upgrades) requires deliberately re-enabling it (see Backup and Recovery).

Verifying the Deployment

# Application reachable
curl -I http://localhost:8080/

# Database schema present
docker exec itop-db mariadb -uitop -p"$(cat secrets/db_password.txt)" \
  -e "SHOW TABLES;" itop | head

# Cron is running background tasks
docker logs itop-cron --tail 20

◄ Overview · iTop Overview · Configuration ►

Edit this page