In today’s guide, we will discuss how to Install Rocket.Chat Server on Debian 10|Ubuntu 18.04. Rocket.Chat is a self-hosted chat platform that is open source and one of the most popular slack alternatives. Some cool features that come with Rocket.Chat free installation are file sharing, video conferencing, chats, audio messaging e.t.c. If you’re looking for an open-source messaging platform to host in a VPS running in the Cloud or your local data center, this solution is fit for you.

In this article, we will explain the complete steps required to Install and Configure Rocket.Chat Server on Debian 10 / Ubuntu 18.04. We will use the following tools during setup:

  • Nginx webserver
  • Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate
  • Node.js
  • MongoDB

If your server is on a private network, you can generate and use a self-signed certificate in place of Let’s Encrypt. This is more recommended as opposed to running Rocket.Chat server on plain http.

Launch a terminal on either server to get started.

Step 1: Update System

Start by updating all system packages on Ubuntu / Debian Linux server.

sudo apt -y update
sudo apt -y upgrade

Reboot the system after update/upgrade.

sudo shutdown -r now

Step 2: Install Required Dependencies

Here we will install all the dependencies required to run Rocker.Chat on Debian / Ubuntu server.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y build-essential curl software-properties-common npm nginx graphicsmagick 

Install Node.js

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_12.x | sudo bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

Confirm node version.

$ node --version

Install MongoDB.

On Ubuntu 18.04:

wget -qO - https://www.mongodb.org/static/pgp/server-4.4.asc | sudo apt-key add -
sudo add-apt-repository 'deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.mongodb.org/apt/ubuntu bionic/mongodb-org/4.4 multiverse'
sudo apt update
sudo apt -y install mongodb-org
sudo systemctl enable mongod.service && sudo systemctl start mongod.service

On Debian 10:

wget -qO - https://www.mongodb.org/static/pgp/server-4.4.asc | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb http://repo.mongodb.org/apt/debian buster/mongodb-org/4.4 main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-4.0.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt -y install mongodb-org
sudo systemctl enable mongod.service && sudo systemctl start mongod.service

Step 3: Download and Install Rocket.Chat

Download the latest Rocket.Chat version:

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

Extract downloaded archive file.

tar xvf rocket.chat.tgz

Install Rocket.Chat server

cd bundle/programs/server
npm install

Move the bundle directory to /srv/rocket folder

$ cd ../../..
$ sudo mv bundle /opt/Rocket.Chat
$ ls -lh /opt/Rocket.Chat
total 20K
-r--r--r-- 1 1001 116  535 Dec  5 20:59 README
-r--r--r-- 1 1001 116  192 Dec  5 20:59 main.js
drwxr-xr-x 5 1001 116 4.0K Dec  5 21:01 programs
drwxr-xr-x 2 1001 116 4.0K Dec  5 20:59 server
-r--r--r-- 1 1001 116  605 Dec  5 21:01 star.json

Step 3: Create rocketchat system user

We need a user that will be used to run Rocket.Chat server. Create one by running below commands.

sudo useradd -M rocketchat && sudo usermod -L rocketchat

Make sure the ownership of the folder is correct.

sudo chown -R rocketchat:rocketchat /opt/Rocket.Chat

Step 5: Create Systemd Unit file

We can now create a Systemd service unit file.

cat << EOF |sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/rocketchat.service
[Unit]
Description=The Rocket.Chat server
After=network.target remote-fs.target nss-lookup.target mongod.target
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node /opt/Rocket.Chat/main.js
StandardOutput=syslog
StandardError=syslog
SyslogIdentifier=rocketchat
User=rocketchat
Environment=MONGO_URL=mongodb://localhost:27017/rocketchat ROOT_URL=http://localhost:3000/ PORT=3000
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

If you’re using a valid domain in DNS, set it on ROOT_URL. example:

ROOT_URL=http://rocket.example.com

Update systemd units and start rocketchat service.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart rocketchat

Confirm service status

$ systemctl status rocketchat.service 
● rocketchat.service - The Rocket.Chat server
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/rocketchat.service; disabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sat 2019-07-20 09:38:14 CEST; 8s ago
 Main PID: 11264 (node)
    Tasks: 10 (limit: 4915)
   CGroup: /system.slice/rocketchat.service
           └─11264 /usr/local/bin/node /srv/rocket/Rocket.Chat/main.js

Jul 20 09:38:14 ubuntu18 systemd[1]: Started The Rocket.Chat server.

Screenshot.

install rocketchat debian ubuntu

Don’t forget to enable Rocket.Chat service to Start at boot.

sudo systemctl enable rocketchat

Step 6: Configure Nginx Reverse proxy

We can now create an Nginx configuration file for Rocket.Chat

sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/rocketchat.conf

Without SSL:

upstream rocket_backend {
  server 127.0.0.1:3000;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name rocketchat.example.com;
    access_log /var/log/nginx/rocketchat-access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/rocketchat-error.log;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://rocket_backend/;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_set_header Host $http_host;

        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forward-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forward-Proto http;
        proxy_set_header X-Nginx-Proxy true;

        proxy_redirect off;
    }
}

With Let’s Encrypt SSL:

# Upstreams
upstream rocket_backend {
  server 127.0.0.1:3000;
}

# HTTP server with redirect to https
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name rocket.example.com;
    return 301 https://rocket.example.com$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name rocket.example.com;
    # Configure SSL
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/rocket.example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/rocket.example.com/privkey.pem;
    ssl_trusted_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/rocket.example.com/chain.pem;
    include snippets/ssl.conf;
    # Logging
    access_log /var/log/nginx/rocketchat-access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/rocketchat-error.log;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://rocket_backend/;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_set_header Host $http_host;

        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forward-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forward-Proto http;
        proxy_set_header X-Nginx-Proxy true;
        proxy_redirect off;
    }
}

Quickly get Let’s Encrypt SSL

wget https://dl.eff.org/certbot-auto
sudo mv certbot-auto /usr/local/bin/
sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/certbot-auto

export DOMAIN="chat.domain.com"
export EMAIL_ALERT="admin@domain.com"
/usr/local/bin/certbot-auto certonly --standalone -d $DOMAIN  \
--preferred-challenges http --agree-tos -n -m  $EMAIL_ALERT --keep-until-expiring

Check configuration syntax:

$ sudo nginx  -t
nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

Start and enable Nginx service.

sudo systemctl restart nginx
sudo systemctl enable nginx.service

Service status should be “running“.

$ systemctl status nginx
● nginx.service - A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sat 2019-07-20 09:51:21 CEST; 5s ago
     Docs: man:nginx(8)
  Process: 11510 ExecStop=/sbin/start-stop-daemon --quiet --stop --retry QUIT/5 --pidfile /run/nginx.pid (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 11521 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/nginx -g daemon on; master_process on; (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 11511 ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/nginx -t -q -g daemon on; master_process on; (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 11534 (nginx)
    Tasks: 3 (limit: 4915)
   CGroup: /system.slice/nginx.service
           ├─11534 nginx: master process /usr/sbin/nginx -g daemon on; master_process on;
           ├─11535 nginx: worker process
           └─11536 nginx: worker process

Jul 20 09:51:21 ubuntu18 systemd[1]: Starting A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server...
Jul 20 09:51:21 ubuntu18 systemd[1]: Started A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server.

Visit Rocket.Chat URL on http://rocket.example.com and follow next prompts to finish the installation.

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