In this article, we want to teach you How To Install and Configure Mattermost on Debian 11.
Mattermost is an open-source workplace messaging system for the web, PCs, and phones which provides archiving, search, and integration with hundreds of line-of-business applications.
Incorporating 1-1 and group messaging, file sharing, and custom emojis, as well as webhooks, slash commands, and multi-language support, Mattermost aims to deliver a simple workplace messaging solution.
How To Install and Configure Mattermost on Debian 11
Before you start to install Mattermost on Debian 11, you need to log in to your server as a non-root user with sudo privileges. To do this, you can follow our article the Initial Server Setup with Debian 11.
Now you can follow the steps below to set up Mattermost on Debian 11.
Install MariaDB on Debian 11
To install Mattermost on Debian 11, you need to have MariaDB or MySQL installed on your server.
First, update your local package index with the following command:
sudo apt update
Then, you can use the following command to install MariaDB on Debian 11:
sudo apt install mariadb-server
Now you can run the script below to secure your MariaDB installation:
sudo mysql_secure_installation
This script will be asked you some questions, you can answer them as shown below:
Enter current password for root (enter for none): Press [Enter] since no password is set by default Set root password? [Y/n]: N (Optional) 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
At this point, you need to create a database for the Mattermost.
Log in to your MariaDB shell with the command below:
sudo mysql -u root -p
You need to enter your root user password if you have set it before. And you will see the MariaDB console.
Now run the following commands from your MariaDB shell to create your Mattermost database and user:
MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE DATABASE mattermost; MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE USER 'orca'@'%'; MariaDB [(none)]> SET PASSWORD FOR 'orca'@'%' = PASSWORD('strongpassword');
Here we named the database Mattermost and choose orca for our user. You can choose your own names.
You need to give all the privileges to the Mattermost database with the command below:
MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL ON mattermost.* TO 'orca'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'strongpassword' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Next, flush the privileges:
MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Now you can exit from your MariaDB console:
MariaDB [(none)]> EXIT;
Set up Mattermost on Debian 11
To download and install Mattermost on your server, first, you need to create a user and group that will run on your Mattermost server.
To do this, you can run the following command:
sudo useradd --system --user-group mattermost
At the time of writing this article, the latest version of Mattermost is 6.0.2. You can check the latest version from the Mattermost Downloads page. And use the wget command to download it:
sudo wget https://releases.mattermost.com/6.0.2/mattermost-6.0.2-linux-amd64.tar.gz
Then, extract your downloaded file to the opt directory with the command below:
sudo tar xvzf mattermost-6.0.2-linux-amd64.tar.gz -C /opt/
Next, make a directory to store your Mattermost files on Debian 11 with the following command:
sudo mkdir /opt/mattermost/data
Change the ownership of the Mattermost with the command below:
sudo chown -R mattermost:mattermost /opt/mattermost
After that, set the correct permissions with the following command:
sudo chmod -R g+w /opt/mattermost
Here you need to edit the Mattermost configuration file. Open the file with your favorite text editor, here we use vi:
sudo vi /opt/mattermost/config/config.json
At the file you need to define your site URL and database settings as shown below:
"SiteURL": "http://mattermost.example.com", "DriverName": "MySQL", "DataSource": "orca:strongpassword@tcp(localhost:3306)/mattermost?charset=utf8mb4,utf8&readTimeout=30s&writeTimeout=30s",
When you are done, save and close the file.
Now reload the systemd service to apply the changes:
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
Next, use the following commands to start and enable your service to start at boot:
sudo systemctl start mattermost sudo systemctl enable mattermost
Verify that your Mattermost service is active and running on Debian 11:
sudo systemctl status mattermost
In your output you will see:
Output mattermost.service - Mattermost Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mattermost.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: active (running) since Tue 2021-12-28 04:38:36 EST; 1min 1s ago Main PID: 5027 (mattermost) Tasks: 33 (limit: 2340) Memory: 268.2M CPU: 12.306s CGroup: /system.slice/mattermost.service ├─5027 /opt/mattermost/bin/mattermost ├─5054 plugins/com.mattermost.plugin-channel-export/server/dist/plugin-linux-amd64 ├─5055 plugins/com.mattermost.nps/server/dist/plugin-linux-amd64 └─5068 plugins/focalboard/server/dist/plugin-linux-amd64
Configure Apache as a Reverse Proxy for Mattermost
At this point, that you have installed Mattermost on Debian 11, you need to configure Apache as a reverse proxy for Mattermost.
First, install Apache on Debian 11 with the following command:
sudo apt install apache2
Then, you need to enable Apache modules with the commands below:
sudo a2enmod rewrite sudo a2enmod proxy sudo a2enmod proxy_http sudo a2enmod proxy_wstunnel
Next, you need to create an Apache virtual host configuration file. Create and open the file with your favorite text editor, here we use vi:
sudo vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/mattermost.conf
Add the following contents to the file:
<VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin [email protected] ServerName mattermost.example.com ProxyPreserveHost On RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /api/v[0-9]+/(users/)?websocket [NC] RewriteCond %{HTTP:UPGRADE} ^WebSocket$ [NC] RewriteCond %{HTTP:CONNECTION} \bUpgrade\b [NC] RewriteRule .* ws://127.0.0.1:8065%{REQUEST_URI} [P,QSA,L] <Location /> Require all granted ProxyPass http://127.0.0.1:8065/ ProxyPassReverse http://127.0.0.1:8065/ ProxyPassReverseCookieDomain 127.0.0.1 mattermost.example.com </Location> </VirtualHost>
Remember to replace the domain names with your own at the file.
When you are done, save and close the file.
Now activate Apache virtual host file with the following command:
sudo ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/mattermost.conf /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/mattermost.conf
Restart Apache to apply the changes:
sudo systemctl restart apache2
Access Mattermost
At this point, you can access the Mattermost web interface by typing your server’s IP address or your domain name in your web browser:
http://your-domain-name
You will see the Mattermost create account screen, fill the options and click on the create account:
In the next window, you can create a team or go to your system console:
If you click on the system console you will see your Mattermost system console:
Conclusion
At this point, you learn to set up and configure Mattermost on Debian 11.
Hope you enjoy using it.