How to Install Rocket.Chat on Ubuntu 16.04

How to Install Rocket.Chat on Ubuntu 16.04

Rocket.Chat is a self-hosted and open source web chat server. It offers a chat, file sharing, video calls, helpdesk and voice services which makes it a great alternative to Slack. This tutorial provides step-by-step instructions for installing Rocket.Chat on an Ubuntu 16.04 VPS.

Rocket.Chat comes with tons of useful features, such as:
– Public and private channels
– Live chat / Messaging call center / Audio Calls
– Different APIs
– File Upload and sharing
– Remote Video Monitoring
– Custom emojis, sounds, and company assets
– Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, and web applications

and many more…

Prerequisites

The following prerequisites need to be met in order to install and run Rocket.Chat
– It is recommended to have at least 2 GB of memory for Rocket.Chat, so we will use our SSD 2 VPS hosting plan
– SSH root access which comes by default with all our VPS hosting plans
– Node.js – JavaScript run-time environment
– MongoDB database server
– GraphicsMagick and curl

Step 1: Login via SSH and update the server

Login to your Ubuntu 16.04 VPS via SSH as user root

ssh root@IP_Address

Before we start with the installation, make sure that all installed packages are updated to the latest version

apt update && apt upgrade

Step 2: Install MongoDB database server

Rocket.Chat requires a MongoDB database, so we will have to install MongoDB database server. It can be installed from the official Ubuntu repositories using the apt package manager, but it is not the latest version maintained by the MongoDB team. MongoDB has their own repositories and provides the latest version of the database server.

In order to install MongoDB from their official released packages, we will have to import the MongoDB public key as shown below

apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv 9DA31620334BD75D9DCB49F368818C72E52529D4

Once the key is added, we can proceed and add the official MongoDB repository

echo "deb http://repo.mongodb.org/apt/ubuntu trusty/mongodb-org/4.0 multiverse" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-4.0.list

And finally, update the local package database and install MongoDB and its dependencies

apt update
apt install -y mongodb-org curl graphicsmagick

You can check the version of MongoDB using the following command

mongo -version
MongoDB shell version v4.0.1

In order to start MongoDB as a service, we will create a unit file with the following content

nano /etc/systemd/system/mongodb.service

[Unit]
Description=High-performance, schema-free document-oriented database
After=network.target

[Service]
User=mongodb
ExecStart=/usr/bin/mongod --quiet --config /etc/mongod.conf

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Save the file, start the MongoDB server and enable it to start upon server restart

systemctl start mongodb
systemctl enable mongodb

Step 3: Install Node.js and npm

Next, we will install Node.js and npm package manager on the server. Run the following command

apt -y install npm nodejs

We will also need to install build-essential in order to install some npm packages

apt -y install build-essential

It is recommended to use Node.js version 8.9.3 in order to run Rocket.Chat . We will install a tool simply called ‘n’ so we can change the Node.js version.

npm install -g n

Run the following command to install Node.js version 8.9.3

n 8.9.3

Output:

     install : node-v8.9.3
       mkdir : /usr/local/n/versions/node/8.9.3
       fetch : https://nodejs.org/dist/v8.9.3/node-v8.9.3-linux-x64.tar.gz
######################################################################## 100.0%
   installed : v8.9.3

To confirm that the installed version is 8.9.3 you can run the following command

node --version
v8.9.3

Step 4: Install Rocket.Chat

Go to Rocket.Chat’s official website and download the latest stable release of the application

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

Unpack the downloaded archive

tar zxvf rocket.chat.tgz

The content of the application will be stored in a new directory named ‘bundle’. We will rename the directory

Need a fast and easy fix?
✔ Unlimited Managed Support
✔ Supports Your Software
✔ 2 CPU Cores
✔ 2 GB RAM
✔ 50 GB PCIe4 NVMe Disk
✔ 1854 GeekBench Score
✔ Unmetered Data Transfer
NVME 2 VPS

Now just $43 .99
/mo

GET YOUR VPS
mv bundle rocketchat

Next, install all necessary packages listed in the packages.json file provided by Rocket.Chat

cd rocketckat/programs/server
npm install

Set the environment variables accordingly and start Rocket.Chat by executing the following commands

cd /opt/rocketckat/
export ROOT_URL=http://domain.com:3000/
export MONGO_URL=mongodb://localhost:27017/rocketchat
export PORT=3000

node main.js

Step 5: Verify Rocket.Chat installation and finalize the installation vie web browser

If Rocket.Chat is successfully started you should get the following output

➔ +----------------------------------------------------+
➔ |                   SERVER RUNNING                   |
➔ +----------------------------------------------------+
➔ |                                                    |
➔ |  Rocket.Chat Version: 0.68.5                       |
➔ |       NodeJS Version: 8.9.3 - x64                  |
➔ |             Platform: linux                        |
➔ |         Process Port: 3000                         |
➔ |             Site URL: http://domain.com:3000/  		|
➔ |     ReplicaSet OpLog: Disabled                     |
➔ |          Commit Hash: e412d018f8                   |
➔ |        Commit Branch: HEAD                         |
➔ |                                                    |
➔ +----------------------------------------------------+

And you will be able to access Rocket.Chat setup wizard with your favorite web browser at http://domain.com:3000/

Install Rocket.Chat on Ubuntu 16.04

where you can create your administrative account and configure Rocket.Chat according to your needs. For more information on how to use and configure Rocket.Chat please check their official documentation.


Installing Rocket.Chat on Ubuntu 16.04Of course, you don’t have to install Rocket.Chat on Ubuntu 16.04, if you use one of our Managed Ubuntu Hosting plans, in which case you can simply ask our expert Linux admins to install Rocket.Chat on Ubuntu 16.04 for you. They are available 24×7 and will take care of your request immediately.

PS. If you liked this post on how to install Rocket.Chat on Ubuntu 16.04, please share it with your friends on the social networks using the buttons on the left or simply leave a reply below. Thanks.

Leave a Comment