mattermost-ansible

This is an Ansible Playbook that installs a standalone version of Mattermost, which is an open-source Slack alternative. This playbook installs Mattermost version 3.5.1 (Team Edition) by default.

It downloads the binary from mattermost.org. If you need to install the Enterprise edition, consult the Mattermost documentation. This playbook installs

• postgresql - Database Server
• nginx - Web Server (acts as a reverse proxy)
• SSL certificates are automatically generated from the letsencrypt project. A cron job is created that automatically renews the SSL certificates once a month.

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This playbook currently works with

• Ubuntu 14.04.4 Trusty Tahr (DigitalOcean)
• Ubuntu 16.04.1 Xenial Xerus (DigitalOcean)
• CentOS 6.8 (DigitalOcean)
• CentOS 7.2 (DigitalOcean)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.8 (Santiago) (Installed from RedHat DVD on a Vultr VPS)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 (Maipo) (Installed from RedHat DVD on a Vultr VPS)
• Debian 7.11 Wheezy
• Debian 8.6 Jessie (thanks fgbreel!)
• Fedora 23
• Fedora 24

Debian and Fedora are coming soon.

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I have no reason to think that versions of these operating systems installed locally or by other providers will not work, but I have not tested them. If you are going to run into an issue, it will probably be with the firewall, as DigitalOcean has very permissive firewall rules by default. If you are having an issue, try opening port 80 and 443.

Distro Specific Instructions/Info

Ubuntu 16.04

Ubuntu 16.04 does not ship with a system python installed (why this is true, I don't think I will ever understand.) You must install it manually with apt-get install python before you run the playbook.

RHEL 6.8

The playbook completely disables the iptables firewall. This is not strictly necessary, but I hate iptables with my whole body and I was tired of fighting with it. If you want or need it, you should re-enable it, but none of the required ports will be open. Even better, submit a PR that fixes this issue (so I don't have to do it).

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Usage

• Install ansible with your package manager of choice. Ansible can also be installed via pip. This playbook was written and tested with Ansible 2.1.1. If you can, I would recommend running the most recent version of ansible.

• Clone this repository.

• Make sure that the server you are installing Mattermost is properly configured with a FQDN. You should also have root access via ssh. Reverse DNS should also be properly configured for letsencrypt to work. If you are using a cloud hosting provider, this should be trivial.

• Edit play.yml and change the vars to reflect any changes you may want to make for your system. This playbook does not do a complete installation with full configuration of all of the Mattermost options, but rather installs it to the point where you can edit the relevant settings from within the web browser.

• You should always edit the email address and db_password fields.

• Create a hosts file in the project directory. It only needs to contain one line, which is the IP address of the server you wish to install Mattermost on.

• Run ansible-playbook play.yml -i hosts from the top of level of the project directory.

• Navigate to the FQDN of your server in a web browser. Consult the Mattermost documentation for further configuration options.

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Post-Install

If you are planning to use MatterMost for any length of time, you should probably change the location of the data directory. A large volume of attached block storage would not be a bad idea. A working email server should also be configured for email notifications and invites. You can do most of this from within the browser without manually editing configuration files.

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Contributing

Please submit pull requests! They make my day.

Moving Forward

I am currently working on porting this standalone playbook into a more defined Ansible role with a complete implementation of all the options in the Mattermost config file. You can check on the status of this project here.