Post-Installation Checklist

The Bugzilla Guide
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# 3.1. Post-Installation Checklist

After installation, follow the checklist below to ensure that you have a successful installation. If you do not see a recommended setting for a parameter, consider leaving it at the default while you perform your initial tests on your Bugzilla setup.

1. Bring up "editparams.cgi" in your web browser. For instance, to edit parameters at mozilla.org, the URL would be http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/editparams.cgi, also available under the "edit parameters" link on your query page.

2. Set "maintainer" to your email address. This allows Bugzilla's error messages to display your email address and allow people to contact you for help.

3. Set "urlbase" to the URL reference for your Bugzilla installation. If your bugzilla query page is at http://www.foo.com/bugzilla/query.cgi, your url base is http://www.foo.com/bugzilla/

4. Set "usebuggroups" to "1" only if you need to restrict access to products. I suggest leaving this parameter off while initially testing your Bugzilla.

5. Set "usebuggroupsentry" to "1" if you want to restrict access to products. Once again, if you are simply testing your installation, I suggest against turning this parameter on; the strict security checking may stop you from being able to modify your new entries.

6. Set "shadowdb" to "bug_shadowdb" if you will be running a *very* large installation of Bugzilla. The shadow database enables many simultaneous users to read and write to the database without interfering with one another.

   > Note: Enabling "shadowdb" can adversely affect the stability of your installation of Bugzilla. You may frequently need to manually synchronize your databases, or schedule nightly syncs via "cron"

   Once again, in testing you should avoid this option -- use it if or when you need to use it, and have repeatedly run into the problem it was designed to solve -- very long wait times while attempting to commit a change to the database.

   If you use the "shadowdb" option, it is only natural that you should turn the "queryagainstshadowdb" option "On" as well. Otherwise you are replicating data into a shadow database for no reason!

7. If you have custom logos or HTML you must put in place to fit within your site design guidelines, place the code in the "headerhtml", "footerhtml", "errorhtml", "bannerhtml", or "blurbhtml" text boxes.

   > Note: The "headerhtml" text box is the HTML printed out before any other code on the page. If you have a special banner, put the code for it in "bannerhtml". You may want to leave these settings at the defaults initially.

8. Add any text you wish to the "passwordmail" parameter box. For instance, many people choose to use this box to give a quick training blurb about how to use Bugzilla at your site.

9. Ensure "newemailtech" is "on". Your users will thank you. This is the default in the post-2.12 world, and is only an issue if you are upgrading.

10. Do you want to use the qa contact ("useqacontact") and status whiteboard ("usestatuswhiteboard") fields? These fields are useful because they allow for more flexibility, particularly when you have an existing Quality Assurance and/or Release Engineering team, but they may not be needed for smaller installations.

11. Set "whinedays" to the amount of days you want to let bugs go in the "New" or "Reopened" state before notifying people they have untouched new bugs. If you do not plan to use this feature, simply do not set up the whining cron job described in the README, or set this value to "0".

12. Set the "commenton" options according to your site policy. It is a wise idea to require comments when users resolve, reassign, or reopen bugs.

    > Note: It is generally far better to require a developer comment when resolving bugs than not. Few things are more annoying to bug database users than having a developer mark a bug "fixed" without any comment as to what the fix was (or even that it was truly fixed!)

13. Set "supportwatchers" to "On". This feature is helpful for team leads to monitor progress in their respective areas, and can offer many other benefits, such as allowing a developer to pick up a former engineer's bugs without requiring her to change all the information in the bug.

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