Table of Contents

iTop ITSM / CMDB

iTop (IT Operational Portal), by Combodo, is an open-source, web-based ITSM (IT Service Management) and CMDB (Configuration Management Database) platform. It combines a configuration database of your IT assets and their relationships with ITIL-aligned processes — incident, problem, change, and service management — plus a service portal, ticketing, notifications, a REST API, and data synchronization.

This section focuses on running iTop in containers with Docker: deployment, configuration, using the CMDB/ITSM features, integrations, security, backups, and monitoring.

Architecture

iTop is a classic LAMP-style PHP web application backed by a relational database. A containerized deployment therefore has two core services plus a scheduler:

flowchart LR
    U[Users / Service Portal] -- HTTPS --> RP[Reverse Proxy<br/>TLS termination]
    RP --> W[iTop<br/>Apache + PHP]
    W -- SQL --> DB[(MySQL / MariaDB)]
    Cron[cron.php scheduler] --> W
    W -. REST/JSON API .- Ext[Collectors / Integrations]
Component Role
iTop application Apache (or Nginx) + PHP serving the web UI, portal, and REST API
Database MySQL 8.0 / MariaDB — stores the entire data model, tickets, and CMDB
Cron (cron.php) Runs background tasks: async notifications, escalation/SLA, data synchronization
Reverse proxy (recommended) TLS termination and access control in front of iTop

Editions and Versions

Notes
Community Edition Free, open-source (AGPL). The full CMDB and core ITIL processes.
Essential / Professional Paid Combodo subscription adding extra features, extensions, and support.
iTop 3.x The current line (3.2 is recent). iTop 3.2 requires PHP 8.1+ and MySQL 5.7+/8.0 or MariaDB 10.x. Always match the PHP/DB versions to your iTop release.

Core Concepts

Concept Meaning
CI (Configuration Item) Any managed object — server, PC, application, network device, contact, service
Class / data model iTop's object schema (Server, Person, Organization, Service, ticket classes). Extensible via the Toolkit/Designer
Relationship "Impacts" / "depends on" links between CIs that power impact analysis
Ticket A request/incident/change/problem object with a workflow (state machine)
Organization The tenant/company a CI or ticket belongs to (iTop is multi-organization)
Synchro Data Source A definition for importing/synchronizing objects from an external source

In This Section

  • Deployment — Docker Compose (iTop + MariaDB), volumes, and the first-run setup wizard
  • Configuration — config-itop.php, the cron scheduler, modules/extensions, and the Toolkit
  • CMDB and ITSM — the data model, configuration management, and the incident/problem/change/service processes
  • Integration — the REST/JSON API, data synchronization and collectors, and LDAP authentication
  • Security — reverse proxy and TLS, authentication, and hardening
  • Backup and Recovery — backing up the database and configuration, restoring, and upgrading iTop
  • Monitoring and Troubleshooting — logs, cron monitoring, and common issues

Resources

Edit this page