System Requirements

This page outlines the minimum and recommended system requirements for running HelpDesk Pro effectively.

Server Requirements

Minimum Requirements

Recommended Requirements

PHP Extensions

HelpDesk Pro requires the following PHP extensions:

Required Extensions

• BCMath - For arbitrary precision mathematics
• Ctype - For character type checking
• cURL - For HTTP requests and API calls
• DOM - For XML/HTML processing
• Fileinfo - For file type detection
• JSON - For JSON data handling
• Mbstring - For multibyte string handling
• OpenSSL - For secure communications
• PCRE - For regular expressions
• PDO - For database abstraction
• Tokenizer - For PHP tokenization
• XML - For XML processing

Optional Extensions (Recommended)

• GD - For image processing
• Imagick - For advanced image manipulation
• Redis - For caching and sessions
• Memcached - For caching
• Zip - For file compression
• Intl - For internationalization

Check PHP Extensions

You can check if required extensions are installed:

# Check all extensions
php -m

# Check specific extension
php -m | grep curl

# Or use PHP info
php -i | grep -i extension

Database Requirements

MySQL/MariaDB

Minimum Version: MySQL 8.0+ or MariaDB 10.4+

Recommended Configuration:

-- Character set
SET NAMES utf8mb4;
SET CHARACTER SET utf8mb4;

-- InnoDB engine
SET default_storage_engine = InnoDB;

-- Time zone support
SET time_zone = '+00:00';

Required Privileges:

• CREATE
• DROP
• ALTER
• INSERT
• UPDATE
• DELETE
• SELECT
• INDEX
• REFERENCES

Database Size Estimates

Web Server Configuration

Apache

Minimum Version: 2.4+

Required Modules:

• mod_rewrite
• mod_ssl (for HTTPS)
• mod_headers (recommended)

Configuration Example:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName helpdesk.yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/helpdesk-pro/public
    
    <Directory /var/www/html/helpdesk-pro/public>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
    
    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/helpdesk_error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/helpdesk_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Nginx

Minimum Version: 1.18+

Configuration Example:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name helpdesk.yourdomain.com;
    root /var/www/html/helpdesk-pro/public;
    index index.php;
    
    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }
    
    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
    
    location ~ /\.ht {
        deny all;
    }
}

Development Requirements

Node.js

Version: 18.0+ (LTS recommended)

Check Version:

node --version
npm --version

Composer

Version: Latest stable

Installation:

# Download and install Composer
curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

Check Version:

composer --version

Git

Version: 2.0+

Check Version:

git --version

Performance Considerations

Memory Requirements

Storage Requirements

CPU Requirements

Security Requirements

SSL/TLS

Recommended: TLS 1.2+ with strong ciphers

Certificate: Valid SSL certificate (Let's Encrypt recommended)

Firewall

Required Ports:

• 80 (HTTP)
• 443 (HTTPS)
• 22 (SSH) - for administration

Optional Ports:

• 3306 (MySQL) - if external access needed
• 6379 (Redis) - if using Redis

File Permissions

# Application files
chmod -R 755 /path/to/helpdesk

# Storage and cache
chmod -R 775 storage/
chmod -R 775 bootstrap/cache/

# Ownership
chown -R www-data:www-data /path/to/helpdesk

Cloud Hosting Recommendations

Shared Hosting

Minimum Requirements:

• PHP 8.2+
• MySQL 8.0+
• 512MB RAM
• mod_rewrite enabled

Recommended Providers:

• SiteGround
• A2 Hosting
• InMotion Hosting

VPS/Dedicated Servers

Recommended Specifications:

• 2GB+ RAM
• 2+ CPU cores
• 20GB+ SSD storage
• Ubuntu 20.04+ or CentOS 8+

Recommended Providers:

• DigitalOcean
• Linode
• Vultr
• AWS EC2

Managed Hosting

Laravel-Specific Hosts:

• Laravel Forge
• Laravel Vapor
• Ploi
• ServerPilot

Browser Compatibility

Supported Browsers

Required JavaScript Features

• ES6+ support
• Fetch API
• WebSocket support (for real-time features)
• Local Storage
• Session Storage

Third-Party Services

Required Services

Optional Services

System Check Script

You can use this PHP script to check if your server meets the requirements:

<?php
// requirements-check.php
echo "HelpDesk Pro Requirements Check\n";
echo "===============================\n\n";

// PHP Version
$phpVersion = PHP_VERSION;
echo "PHP Version: $phpVersion ";
if (version_compare($phpVersion, '8.2.0', '>=')) {
    echo "✓\n";
} else {
    echo "✗ (Requires 8.2+)\n";
}

// Required Extensions
$requiredExtensions = [
    'bcmath', 'ctype', 'curl', 'dom', 'fileinfo',
    'json', 'mbstring', 'openssl', 'pcre', 'pdo', 'tokenizer', 'xml'
];

echo "\nRequired Extensions:\n";
foreach ($requiredExtensions as $ext) {
    echo "- $ext: ";
    if (extension_loaded($ext)) {
        echo "✓\n";
    } else {
        echo "✗\n";
    }
}

// Memory Limit
$memoryLimit = ini_get('memory_limit');
echo "\nMemory Limit: $memoryLimit\n";

// Upload Limits
echo "Upload Max Filesize: " . ini_get('upload_max_filesize') . "\n";
echo "Post Max Size: " . ini_get('post_max_size') . "\n";
echo "Max Execution Time: " . ini_get('max_execution_time') . "s\n";

echo "\nCheck complete!\n";
?>

Next Steps

Once you've verified your system meets the requirements:

1. Proceed to Installation Guide
2. Review Configuration Guide
3. Check Troubleshooting Guide if you encounter issues

Need Help? If you're unsure about any requirements, please contact our support team for assistance.