DebianLinuxTutorials

How To Install Mattermost on Debian 11

Install Mattermost on Debian 11

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Mattermost on Debian 11. For those of you who didn’t know, Mattermost is a self-hosted and open-source online chat service designed to be used as an internal chat platform for companies and organizations. It offers secure communication between teams and easier collaboration between individuals and groups. Mattermost makes data available between developers allowing them to access the source code and contribute directly to it in different locations because it is cloud-based.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step-by-step installation of Mattermost open-source platform for developer collaboration on a Debian 11 (Bullseye).

Prerequisites

  • A server running one of the following operating systems: Debian 11 (Bullseye).
  • It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
  • A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install Mattermost on Debian 11 Bullseye

Step 1. Before we install any software, it’s important to make sure your system is up to date by running the following apt commands in the terminal:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Step 2. Installing the LEMP stack.

A Debian 11 LEMP server is required. If you do not have LAMP installed, Please read our previous tutorial to install LEMP Server on Debian 11.

Step 3. Configuring MariaDB for Mattermost.

By default, MariaDB is not hardened. You can secure MariaDB using the mysql_secure_installation script. you should read and below each step carefully which will set a root password, remove anonymous users, disallow remote root login, and remove the test database and access to secure MariaDB:

mysql_secure_installation

Configure it like this:

- Set root password? [Y/n] y
- Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] y
- Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] y
- Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n] y
- Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] y

Next, we will need to log in to the MariaDB console and create a database for the Mattermost. Run the following command:

mysql -u root -p

This will prompt you for a password, so enter your MariaDB root password and hit Enter. Once you are logged in to your database server you need to create a database for Mattermost installation:

MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE DATABASE mattermost_db;
MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE USER 'mattermost_user' IDENTIFIED BY 'your-strong-password';
MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON mattermost_db.* TO 'mattermost_user';
MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
MariaDB [(none)]> EXIT;

Step 4. Installing Mattermost on Debian 11.

Before installing Mattermost, create a new user and group that will run our Mattermost server:

sudo useradd --system --user-group mattermost

By default, Mattermost is not available on Debian 11 base repository. So, now we download the latest stable version of Mattermost from the official page:

wget wget https://releases.mattermost.com/6.0.2/mattermost-6.0.2-linux-amd64.tar.gz

Next, extract the downloaded file:

tar xvzf mattermost-6.0.2-linux-amd64.tar.gz -C /opt/
sudo mkdir /opt/mattermost/data

We will need to change some folder permissions:

chown -R mattermost:mattermost /opt/mattermost
chmod -R g+w /opt/mattermost

Step 5. Configure Mattermost.

Now we have to define certain parameters in the Mattermost configuration. Edit the Mattermost configuration file and define your site URL and database settings:

nano /opt/mattermost/config/config.json

Change the following lines:

"SiteURL": "http://mattermost.your-domian.com", 
"DriverName": "MySQL", 
"DataSource": "mmuser:your-strong-passwdD@tcp(localhost:3306)/mattermost?charset=utf8mb4,utf8&readTimeout=30s&writeTimeout=30s",

Step 6. Create a Systemd Service File for Mattermost.

We will set up systemd a service to start and stop the Mattermost service:

nano /lib/systemd/system/mattermost.service

Add the following lines:

[Unit]
Description=Mattermost
After=network.target
After=mysql.service
Requires=mysql.service

[Service]
Type=notify
User=mattermost
Group=mattermost
ExecStart=/opt/mattermost/bin/mattermost
TimeoutStartSec=3600
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
WorkingDirectory=/opt/mattermost
LimitNOFILE=49152

[Install]
WantedBy=mariadb.service

Save and close the file, then reload the systemd daemon to apply the configuration changes:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start mattermost
sudo systemctl enable mattermost

Step 6. Configure Nginx as a Reverse Proxy.

Now create an Nginx virtual host configuration file with the following command:

nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/mattermost.conf

Add the following lines:

upstream mattermost {
   server localhost:8065;
   keepalive 32;
}

proxy_cache_path /var/cache/nginx levels=1:2 keys_zone=mattermost_cache:10m max_size=3g inactive=120m use_temp_path=off;

server {
   listen 80;
   server_name mattermost.your-domain;

   location ~ /api/v[0-9]+/(users/)?websocket$ {
       proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
       proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
       client_max_body_size 50M;
       proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
       proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
       proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
       proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
       proxy_set_header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN;
       proxy_buffers 256 16k;
       proxy_buffer_size 16k;
       client_body_timeout 65;
       send_timeout 200;
       lingering_timeout 5;
       proxy_connect_timeout 80;
       proxy_send_timeout 300;
       proxy_read_timeout 80s;
       proxy_pass http://mattermost;
   }

   location / {
       client_max_body_size 50M;
       proxy_set_header Connection "";
       proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
       proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
       proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
       proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
       proxy_set_header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN;
       proxy_buffers 256 16k;
       proxy_buffer_size 16k;
       proxy_read_timeout 600s;
       proxy_cache mattermost_cache;
       proxy_cache_revalidate on;
       proxy_cache_min_uses 2;
       proxy_cache_use_stale timeout;
       proxy_cache_lock on;
       proxy_http_version 1.1;
       proxy_pass http://mattermost;
   }
}

Save and close the file, then activate the virtual host configuration with the following command:

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/mattermost.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/mattermost.conf
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Step 7. Secure Mattermost with Let’s Encrypt SSL.

First, install Certbot to your Debian system using the following command below:

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx

Then, generate the certificates, with the following command:

certbot --nginx -d mattermost.your-domian.com

You will then be prompted to enter an email address for the certificate. After you have entered that you must agree to the T&C’s and decide if you want to share your email address with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. This last step is optional. Once successfully, Reload Apache again to load all the new configurations.

Step 8. Accessing Mattermost Web Interface.

Once successfully installed, open your web browser and type the URL https://mattermost.your-domian.com to access the Mattermost web UI. You should see the following screen:

Install Mattermost on Debian 11 Bullseye

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Mattermost. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing the latest version of Mattermost open-source platform for developer collaboration on Debian 11 Bullseye. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official Mattermost website.

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r00t

r00t is a seasoned Linux system administrator with a wealth of experience in the field. Known for his contributions to idroot.us, r00t has authored numerous tutorials and guides, helping users navigate the complexities of Linux systems. His expertise spans across various Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, CentOS, and Debian. r00t's work is characterized by his ability to simplify complex concepts, making Linux more accessible to users of all skill levels. His dedication to the Linux community and his commitment to sharing knowledge makes him a respected figure in the field.
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