{% hint style="info" %} As of December 15, 2023, Rocket.Chat has ceased support for connections from cloud services and official mobile/desktop apps to workspaces running legacy versions outside our support window. Users on unsupported legacy servers are advised to upgrade to the latest Rocket.Chat version to ensure continued access to cloud, mobile, and desktop applications. Each Rocket.Chat version is supported for six months post-release. {% endhint %}
Deploying Rocket.Chat with Docker and Docker Compose is a straightforward and highly recommended deployment method due to its simplicity and flexibility. This guide will walk you through the essential steps, whether you're a seasoned Docker expert or new to containerization, ensuring a smooth deployment for your Rocket.Chat workspace.
In this guide, you'll learn how to:
- Install Docker and Docker Compose
- Deploy Rocket.Chat on Docker
- Update Rocket.Chat on Docker
- Enable HTTPs with Docker deployment
- Backup and Restore Docker Mongo
Installing Docker and Docker Compose
- Ensure you have Docker and Docker-compose (v2 is required) installed and operational. If you don't have them installed, you can conveniently set them up using Docker's official helper script:
curl -L https://get.docker.com | sh
- To run Docker commands without using sudo, add the current user to the Docker group and then reboot using the following commands:
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
sudo reboot
Fetching Compose file
- Navigate to your preferred directory and create a
compose.yml
file following our example. Alternatively, you can use thecurl
command to download the examplecompose.yml
file by executing this command:
curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RocketChat/Docker.Official.Image/master/compose.yml -O
Editing Environment Variables
Modifying the configurations in the compose file directly is strongly discouraged. Instead, use environment variables. You can set environment variables using a .env
file.
{% hint style="warning" %}
Remember to uncomment the variables you are updating in the .env
file.
{% endhint %}
- In your project directory, create a
.env
file with this command and paste the contents of this example file
sudo nano .env
{% hint style="info" %}
If you cloned the GitHub repository, you can copy the .env.example
to .env
with this command:
cp env.example .env
{% endhint %}
- Set the
RELEASE
variable in the.env
to your desired Rocket.Chat version.
{% hint style="info" %}
See our releases page and available docker images. Keeping the default release aslatest
is not recommended.
{% endhint %}
- Edit
ROOT_URL
from the defaulthttp://localhost:3000
to match your domain name or IP address. - If you have a registration token to register the workspace automatically, you can add it to the
.env
file like this:
REG_TOKEN={your token here}
- If you are using MongoDB Atlas as the database provider, edit the value of the
MONGO_URL
variable to be your connection string in this format:
MONGO_URL=mongodb://<user>:<pass>@host1:27017,host2:27017,host3:27017/<databaseName>?replicaSet=<replicaSet>&ssl=true&authSource=admin
- Save the
.env
file and start up the container by executing this command:
docker compose up -d
This command will:
- Start a MongoDB service named
mongodb
. - Start a service
rocketchat
, which will also wait formongodb
to be ready.
{% hint style="info" %} MongoDB ensures continuous 24 x 7 operations and live backup, reducing the need for frequent restarts. Refer to the MongoDB documentation for proper server operation and management. Optionally, manage messages and configurations by uncommenting the volume mounts, and ensuring a data subdirectory is available for data storage and mounting. {% endhint %}
Once the container is running, visit http://localhost:3000 on your browser. You can now explore your Rocket.Chat workspace and invite other users.
Start & Stop Docker Compose
To stop your workspace from running, execute this command:
docker compose down
To start your docker-compose container, run this command:
docker compose up -d
To see the log/status of your Rocket.Chat container, execute this command:
docker compose logs -f rocketchat
Official image (stable and tested)
The Official Docker Images Repository is responsible for maintaining and controlling Rocket.Chat's official stable image through Docker. It is also reviewed by the Docker committee.
docker pull registry.rocket.chat/rocketchat/rocket.chat
Latest Release Image
This is an image that holds the latest stable Rocket.Chat updates on the docker repository. The release may be from the develop
or master
branch.
docker pull registry.rocket.chat/rocketchat/rocket.chat:latest
Preview Image
The Rocket.Chat preview image deploys a container with a database inside. It's useful for quickly trying or running tests, not requiring a dedicated database installation.
{% embed url="https://hub.docker.com/r/rocketchat/rocket.chat.preview" %}
Specific Release Image
You can set up your Rocket.Chat workspace with a specific release image. Select the release you need from the docker hub tags and use it to run the following command:
docker pull registry.rocket.chat/rocketchat/rocket.chat:<release-tag>
Bleeding-edge untested develop build image
This is an image maintained at Rocket.Chat's docker repository was updated from the develop
(untested) branch, containing the latest updates for those who want to work with the newest features.
docker pull registry.rocket.chat/rocketchat/rocket.chat:develop
{% hint style="info" %} Before you proceed, see the general guidelines for updating Rocket.Chat. {% endhint %}
{% hint style="warning" %} Updating the Rocket.Chat image doesn't affect your data since it exists in the Mongo image. Ensure that the version of your MongoDB is compatible with the intended release before proceeding with the update. {% endhint %}
Using Docker & Docker compose, you can update your rocketchat
docker image to the latest or preferred version of Rocket.Chat.
To update your Rocket.Chat version,
- For a specific version, modify the
RELEASE
variable in the.env
file to point to the docker image tag of that version. Alternatively, you can edit thecompose.yml
file to point to the desired Rocket.Chat version.
Changing version in .env
In the .env
file, change the RELEASE
value to your specified version.
RELEASE=<desired version>
Changing version in compose.yml
In the compose.yml
file, change the rocketchat
service image
value to point to an image in the rocketchat registry image with a tag of your desired version.
services:
rocketchat:
image:registry.rocket.chat/rocketchat/rocket.chat:<desired version>
- For the latest version, use
latest
as theRELEASE
variable in the.env
file. Alternatively, you can pull the Rocket.Chat image directly with thelatest
tag with this command:
docker pull registry.rocket.chat/rocketchat/rocket.chat:latest
- Now, stop, remove and restart the existing container with these commands:
docker compose stop rocketchat
docker compose rm rocketchat
docker compose up -d rocketchat
{% hint style="info" %} See #rocket.chat-docker-images for more details on Rocket.Chat docker images. {% endhint %}
You can secure your Rocket.Chat docker instance with TLS certificates from Let's Encrypt. Using Traefik as a reverse proxy, the certificates are automatically generated, enabling safe access to your Rocket.Chat instance via HTTPS on your specified domain.
To get HTTPS, ensure the correct A record (optionally CNAME) is set for your domain going to your server IP.
- Update the following variables in your
.env
file. If you don't have one, create a .env file following our example.LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL
: Your required email for the TLS certificates.DOMAIN
: Your domain or subdomain name only. Avoid adding https:// or any trailing slashes. Confirm that this domain resolves to the server IP address.RELEASE
: Your preferred Rocket.Chat release. See the releases page to know more about our releases.DOMAIN
: Set the value to "https://your-domain.com," replacing "your-domain.com" with the domain name you want to use.BIND_IP
: Set to127.0.0.1
.
LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL= # your email, required for the tls certificates
# set this to your domain name or subdomain, not trailing slashes or https://, just the domain
# make sure it actually resolves to your droplet ip
DOMAIN=
RELEASE= # pin the rocketchat version, at the time of writing, prefer 6.0.0
ROOT_URL= # set this to https://${DOMAIN} replace ${DOMAIN} with the actual domain
BIND_IP=127.0.0.1
- Download the traefik template by running the following command:
curl -LO \
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RocketChat/Docker.Official.Image/master/traefik.yml
- Recreate the existing Rocket.Chat container
docker compose up -d rocketchat --force-recreate
- Star traefik
docker compose -f traefik.yml up -d
Wait for the TLS certificates to generate and Rocket.Chat to restart. Then, access your Rocket.Chat instance securely at https://your-domain.com, using the actual domain name you configured.
To back up your MongoDB database in docker,
- Run the following command on your terminal to list out all running containers:
docker ps -a
{% hint style="warning" %} Take note of your mongo container name. {% endhint %}
- Run this command to dump the database into a binary file
db.dump
docker exec <container_name> sh -c 'mongodump --archive' > db.dump
When successful, you should see db.dump
file in the current directory.
To restore the backup, run the following command:
docker exec -i <container_name> sh -c 'mongorestore --archive' < db.dump
{% hint style="info" %} You can export your database dump directly to MongoDB Atlas by simply running
mongorestore --uri mongodb+srv://<user>:<password>@cluster0.w2btl.mongodb.net --archive=db.dump
{% endhint %}
Congratulations on successfully deploying Rocket.Chat using Docker! You can now communicate effortlessly with your team members on your workspace. Visit the accessing your workspace guide to configure your workspace and onboard other team members.