Deploying Rocket.Chat on Ubuntu

Recommended Fastest Server Install via Snaps

This is the easiest way for you to get your server up and running on all supported Linux (Ubuntu, etc).

Installing using:

sudo snap install rocketchat-server

Snaps are secure. Rocket.Chat and all of its dependencies are isolated from the rest of your system. Snaps also auto update when we release a new version. So no need more hassle updating.

Find out more information about snaps here

If you would like to enable https://yoursite.com using the snap please see here

Manual install

If coming from Rocket.Chat 0.x.x to 0.40.0 please see our update notes

This guide explains how to deploy your own Rocket.Chat instance to a Ubuntu Linux machine using the command line.

Dependencies

• Node.js
• MongoDB
• curl
• graphicsmagick

System Configuration

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv 7F0CEB10
echo "deb http://repo.mongodb.org/apt/ubuntu trusty/mongodb-org/3.0 multiverse" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-3.0.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y mongodb-org curl graphicsmagick

We have to also install npm, which is the Node.js package manager. You can do this by typing:

sudo apt-get install npm

If you encountered some errors when trying to install npm try to install nodejs first.

The nodejs package contains the nodejs binary as well as npm, so you don’t need to install npm separately.

sudo apt-get install nodejs

In order for some npm packages to work (such as those that require building from source) you will need to install the build-essentials package:

sudo apt-get install build-essential

Install a tool to let us change the node version.

sudo npm install -g n

The recommended Node.js version for using Rocket.Chat is 4.8.4. Using n we are going to install that version:

sudo n 4.8.4

More on nodejs installation

Setup MongoDB Replica Set

Rocket.Chat uses the MongoDB replica set OPTIONALLY to improve performance via Meteor Oplog tailing. First off, restart the instance/machine.

To configure the replica set:

For older MongoDB versions (2.4 and below)

Append replSet=001-rs into mongod.conf file:

$ echo replSet=001-rs >> /etc/mongod.conf

And restart Mongo:

service mongod restart

For new MongoDB versions (2.6 and above)

Using YAML syntax add this section into mongod.conf:

replication:
      replSetName:  "001-rs"

Restart Mongo:

service mongod restart

Start the MongoDB shell and initiate the replica set:

mongo
> rs.initiate()

The result should look like this

{
  "info2" : "no configuration explicitly specified -- making one",
  "me" : "localhost:27017",
  "info" : "Config now saved locally.  Should come online in about a minute.",
  "ok" : 1
}

Note the “ok” value should be 1. Any other value, i.e. 93, means something is wrong. Make sure to edit the /etc/hosts and /etc/hostname (and restart) to the network accessible DNS name of the machine.

After a few seconds, you should see your prompt turn into 001-rs:PRIMARY>, this indicates the replica set is being used. Type exit to get back to your regular shell.

After you configured replica set, you MUST add the following environment variable before restarting Rocket.Chat server for it to take effect:

MONGO_OPLOG_URL=mongodb://localhost:27017/local?replicaSet=001-rs

You may also consider (alternatively) including this value in your ~/.bashrc file:

export MONGO_OPLOG_URL=mongodb://localhost:27017/local?replicaSet=001-rs

Install

Download Stable version of Rocket.Chat (or pick a version from our releases page):

curl -L https://download.rocket.chat/stable -o rocket.chat.tgz

Then untar the binary release:

tar zxvf rocket.chat.tgz

This will expand everything into a bundle directory.

Next, make sure MongoDB server is already up and running. Then, set environment variables and run the Rocket.Chat server:

mv bundle Rocket.Chat
cd Rocket.Chat/programs/server
npm install
cd ../..

export ROOT_URL=http://your-host-name.com-as-accessed-from-internet:3000/
export MONGO_URL=mongodb://localhost:27017/rocketchat
export PORT=3000

node main.js

If you used the replica set, you MUST use following line to indicate the usage of the replica set.

export MONGO_URL=mongodb://localhost:27017/rocketchat?replicaSet=001-rs

You MUST set the ROOT_URL environment variable to the Internet accessible URL to your server.

This will start the Rocket.Chat server running.

If you would like to start Rocket.Chat on an alternative port, use the environment variable PORT.

If using port 80 you will have to run as root. This is because it is a privileged port.

If you choose to do this. You need to do something like this:

sudo ROOT_URL=http://your-host-name.com-as-accessed-from-internet/ \
    MONGO_URL=mongodb://localhost:27017/rocketchat \
    PORT=80 \
    node main.js

Or…

sudo su
export ROOT_URL=http://your-host-name.com-as-accessed-from-internet/
export MONGO_URL=mongodb://localhost:27017/rocketchat
export PORT=80

node main.js

If you need to keep the server up and running across reboots, use a task manager such as forever, PM2 or write your own shell management scripts.

Configure

Rocket.Chat is installed and will run, but needs to be configured behind a web server to be accessible. Follow these guides to properly configure everything your instance needs:

1. Run Rocket.Chat behind a SSL Reverse Proxy

Update

In summary do the following:

1. Make sure server is down
2. Change into the directory where you have the Rocket.Chat directory
3. Remove the old server executables
   • rm -rf Rocket.Chat
4. Repeat Installation step

You can always update directly to the newest version, the database migrations will execute from the old version to the new version.