Install Mattermost Server on Ubuntu 

Available on all plans

Self-hosted deployments

Minimum system requirements:

  • Operating System: 18.04 LTS, 20.04 LTS, 22.04 LTS
  • Hardware: 1 vCPU/core with 2GB RAM (support for up to 1,000 users)
  • Database: PostgreSQL v11+
  • Network:
    • Application 80/443, TLS, TCP Inbound
    • Administrator Console 8065, TLS, TCP Inbound
    • SMTP port 10025, TCP/UDP Outbound

You can install the Mattermost Server using our .deb signed packages using the Mattermost PPA (Personal Package Archive). Using the Mattermost Personal Package Archive (PPA) not only provides the quickest way to install a Mattermost Server, but also provides automatic updates. This install method is used for both single and clustered installations.

Tip

If you are running the Mattermost Server and database on a single system, we recommend the Mattermost Omnibus install method as this greatly reduces setup and ongoing maintenance.

On this page

Note

You need a PostgreSQL database. See the database preparation documentation for details on this prerequisite.

A Mattermost deployment includes 4 steps: add the PPA repository, install, setup, and update.

Add the Mattermost Server PPA repository 

In a terminal window, run the following command to add the Mattermost Server repositories:

curl -o- https://deb.packages.mattermost.com/repo-setup.sh | sudo bash -s mattermost Copied to clipboard

Install 

Ahead of installing the Mattermost Server, it’s good practice to update all your repositories and, where required, update existing packages by running the following command:

  sudo apt update

After any updates, and any system reboots, are complete, installing the Mattermost Server is now a single command:

sudo apt install mattermost -y Copied to clipboard

You now have the latest Mattermost Server version installed on your system.

The installation path is /opt/mattermost. The package will have added a user and group named mattermost. The required systemd unit file has also been created but will not be set to active.

Note

Since the signed package from the Mattermost repository is used for mulitple installation types, we don’t add any dependencies in the systemd unit file. If you are installing the Mattermost server on the same system as your database, you may want to add both After=postgresql.service and BindsTo=postgresql.service to the [Unit] section of the systemd unit file.

Setup 

Before you start the Mattermost Server, you need to edit the configuration file. A sample configuration file is located at /opt/mattermost/config/config.defaults.json.

Rename this configuration file with correct permissions:

sudo install -C -m 600 -o mattermost -g mattermost /opt/mattermost/config/config.defaults.json /opt/mattermost/config/config.json

Configure the following properties in this file:

  • Set DriverName to "postgres". This is the default and recommended database for all Mattermost installations.

  • Set DataSource to "postgres://mmuser:<mmuser-password>@<host-name-or-IP>:5432/mattermost?sslmode=disable&connect_timeout=10" replacing mmuser, <mmuser-password>, <host-name-or-IP> and mattermost with your database name.

  • Set "SiteURL": The domain name for the Mattermost application (e.g. https://mattermost.example.com).

After modifying the config.json configuration file, you can now start the Mattermost Server:

sudo systemctl start mattermost

Verify that Mattermost is running: curl http://localhost:8065. You should see the HTML that’s returned by the Mattermost Server.

The final step, depending on your requirements, is to run sudo systemctl enable mattermost.service so that Mattermost will start on system boot.

Updates 

When a new Mattermost version is released, run: sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade to download and update your Mattermost instance.

Note

When you run the sudo apt uprade command, mattermost-server will be updated along with any other packages. We strongly recommend you stop the Mattermost Server before running the apt command using sudo systemctl stop mattermost-server.

Remove Mattermost 

If you wish to remove the Mattermost Server for any reason, you can run this command:

  sudo apt remove --purge mattermost

Frequently asked questions 

Why doesn’t Mattermost start at system boot? 

To have the Mattermost Server start at system boot, the systemd until file needs to be enabled. Run the following command:

  sudo systemctl enable mattermost.service

Why does Mattermost fail to start at system boot? 

If your database is on the same system as your Mattermost Server, we recommend editing the default /lib/systemd/system/mattermost.service systemd unit file to add After=postgresql.service and BindsTo=postgresql.service to the [Unit] section.

Note

We recommend the Mattermost Omnibus install method over the deb signed package if you are running the Mattermost Server and database on a single system as this greatly reduces setup and ongoing maintenance.