• Bugzero server has to reside on the same computer where J2SE™ (i.e., Java SDK) and Servlet/J2EE™ are installed (both of them are required).
• A database is required, but it does not need to be on the same computer on which Bugzero is installed.
• A SMTP mail server is optional, but required for sending email notifications (it can be anywhere if wanted).
• A front web server such as Apache or IIS is optional (it can be anywhere if wanted).
• CVS server is for source control integration, it is not required.

The following details how to install these required dependent software. Please note that, if you plan to install Bugzero in a virtual host environment within a hosting company, then you do not need to worry about these, and all you need to do is to install Bugzero onto your virtual host.   The following is for a complete in-house installation.

1. Installing J2SE: You can download Java SDK 1.4 (or whatever the latest version) from java.sun.com (j2se/downloads.html). Make sure that you download the Java Standard Development Kit (SDK), instead of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). A servlet container such like Tomcat needs Java SDK to compile the JSP pages.

After installation, you need add java/bin (such as c:\jdk1.4.1_03\bin) in the system PATH (note, there is \bin) and add an environment variable JAVA_HOME pointing to the pathname where Java SDK is installed, such as c:\jdk1.4.1_03 (note, \bin should not be there).

It is always a good idea to run 'java -version' to confirm that you are using the correct java, and type 'set' to confirm that JAVA_HOME is set up properly.

2. Installing Apache Tomcat: If you do not have a Servlet/J2EE server installed, you need install one (on the same computer where Bugzero will be installed). Below we use Tomcat as an example, you have many other options.

You can download the latest standard full binary Tomcat 4/5 (a zip, exe, or tar file) from www.apache.org (project Tomcat). After installation, you can launch Tomcat by typing 'catalina run' in its bin directory. On Windows, a Tomcat service might be installed during the installation process. In such a case, you can also use this service to start tomcat. You should launch a browser and type in the url 'http://localhost:8080/' and make sure all the jsp/servlet samples work properly.

NOTE: We recommend you to install Tomcat in a directory path that has no blank spaces (it may cause problem otherwise). The default directory path, on Windows, is, C:\Program Files\Apache Group\... which has spaces and should be avoided. See detail here. Also note that, Tomcat 5.5 requires JDK 1.5. If you use JDK1.4, please install Tomcat 5.0 instead.

3. Installing MySQL: If you do not have a database, you need install one. If you already have a database server somewhere, then you might need only create a user account for Bugzero (and probably an empty database instance for it). Below we use MySQL as an example, you have many other options.

You can downalod the lastest stable binary MySQL from www.mysql.com for either Linux or Windows. After installation, you should first create a database instance, 'bugzero_db', and then create a user account, 'bugzero'. [The user and database name can be any valid name, we use bugzero and bugzero_db only for the convenience of discussion]:

If you use localhost, you need also do

Note that, on Linux, you might want install mysql using the rpm package. On Windows, for MySQL 4.0 or earlier, to use password, you need explicitly turn it on in the my.cnf file, otherwise, leave the password empty. More details on MySQL on Windows.

If you still have a connection problem, please see MySql connection problem for more detail.

3b. MySQL UTF-8 support: For MySQL 4.1 or later, if you want UTF-8 support, you must create the bugzero database use the utf8 charset or must alter the database before any bugzero tables were created there. Below is the command:

mysql> CREATE DATABASE bugzero_db CHARACTER SET utf8;

or, if you create the database without the character set, you can alter it by

mysql> ALTER DATABASE bugzero_db CHARACTER SET utf8;

Of course, if you are using utf8 as the default charset for your mysql server already, then you do not need so anything to the bugzero_db database. Also note that, this is only for MySQL 4.1 or later.    After alter your database charset, you will need remove all the tables and re-create them with the right charset, or alter table to set the charset.

To see what is the charset of an existing database, use command

mysql> SHOW CREATE DATABASE `bugzero_db`;

3c. Data Migration issues: If you are migrating from Mysql 4 to later versions using mysqldump, the table charset could be in a inconsistent state with the database charset. Use

mysql> SHOW CREATE TABLE `project`;

1. Query results become case-sensitive.
2. Problem in saving unicode characters, errors like java.sql.SQLException: General error message from server: "Illegal mix of collations (latin1_swedish_ci,IMPLICIT) and (utf8_general_ci,COERCIBLE) for operation '='"

mysql> ALTER TABLE table_name CHARACTER SET charset_name;

4. Installing Bugzero: Once Java SDK, Tomcat, and MySQL are installed, you are ready to install Bugzero. It involves two steps with no particular order of which one first.

• Deployment: move the entire bugzero directory into Tomcat's webapps directory.
• Run the setup program under the directory ../bugzero/WEB-INF/. It will guide you through to configure and set up the system.

5. Starting Bugzero: You must restart Tomcat (if you run the setup program after deployment). Bugzero server is started by Tomcat automatically. In your browser, enter the url http://localhost:8080/bugzero/
You should see the welcome page. Otherwise, please look into the Tomcat log file and make sure Bugzero is deployed and started.