Minimum system requirements:

  • Hardware: 1 vCPU/core with 2GB RAM (support for up to 1,000 users)
  • Database: PostgreSQL v13+
  • 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 on any 64-bit Linux system using the tarball. This is the most flexible installation method, but it comes with the highest effort, typically favored by advanced system administrators.

This Mattermost deployment includes the following steps: install PostgreSQL database, prepare the database, download the Mattermost server, install the server, and set up the server.

Step 1: Install PostgreSQL database or get database connection credentials

  • Install PostgreSQL locally on the same server by following the PostgreSQL installation documentation.

  • Use an external PostgreSQL database server. Ensure you have connection credentials, including hostname, port, database name, username, and password available.

  • Use a managed database service.

Step 2: Prepare the database

Follow the database preparation documentation to set up your PostgreSQL database for Mattermost.

Step 3: Download

In a terminal window, ssh onto the system that will host the Mattermost Server. Using wget, download the Mattermost Server release you want to install using one of the following commands. Replace amd64 with the appropriate architecture (e.g., arm64 for ARM-based systems) in the link as needed.

wget https://releases.mattermost.com/10.11.1/mattermost-10.11.1-linux-amd64.tar.gz

wget https://releases.mattermost.com/10.11.1/mattermost-10.11.1-linux-amd64.tar.gz

If you are looking for an older release, Enterprise and Team Edition releases can be found in our version archive documentation.

Step 4: Install Mattermost server

Install the Mattermost Server by extracting the tarball, creating users and groups, and setting file/folder permissions.

  1. First extract the tarball:

tar -xvzf mattermost*.gz

  1. Move the entire folder to the /opt directory (or whatever path you require):

sudo mv mattermost /opt

  1. Create the default storage folder. By default the Mattermost Server uses /opt/mattermost/data as the folder for files. This can be changed in the System Console during setup (even using alternative storage such as S3):

sudo mkdir /opt/mattermost/data

Note

If you choose a custom path, ensure this alternate path is used in all steps that follow.

  1. Set up a user and group called mattermost:

sudo useradd --system --user-group mattermost

Note

If you choose a custom user and group name, ensure it is used in all the steps that follow.

  1. Set the file and folder permissions for your installation:

sudo chown -R mattermost:mattermost /opt/mattermost

  1. Give the mattermost group write permissions to the application folder:

sudo chmod -R g+w /opt/mattermost

You will now have the latest Mattermost Server version installed on your system. Starting and stopping the Mattermost Server is done using systemd.

  1. Create the systemd unit file:

sudo touch /lib/systemd/system/mattermost.service

  1. As root, edit the systemd unit file at /lib/systemd/system/mattermost.service to add the following lines:

[Unit]
Description=Mattermost
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=notify
ExecStart=/opt/mattermost/bin/mattermost
TimeoutStartSec=3600
KillMode=mixed
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
WorkingDirectory=/opt/mattermost
User=mattermost
Group=mattermost
LimitNOFILE=49152

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Note

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.

  1. Save the file and reload systemd using sudo systemctl daemon-reload. Mattermost Server is now installed and is ready for setup.

Step 5: Set up the server

Before you start the Mattermost Server, you need to edit the configuration file. A default configuration file is located at /opt/mattermost/config/config.json. We recommend taking a backup of this default config ahead of making changes:

sudo cp /opt/mattermost/config/config.json /opt/mattermost/config/config.defaults.json

Configure the following properties in this file:

  • Under SqlSettings, set DriverName to "postgres". This is the default and recommended database for all Mattermost installations.

  • Under SqlSettings, 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.

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

We recommend configuring the Support Email under SupportSettings, set "SupportEmail". This is the email address your users will contact when they need help.

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.

Step 6: Update the server

Updating your Mattermost Server installation when using the tarball requires several manual steps. See the upgrade Mattermost Server documentation for details.

Remove Mattermost

To remove the Mattermost Server for any reason, you must stop the Mattermost Server, back up all important files, and then run this command:

sudo rm - rf /opt/mattermost

Note

Depending on your configuration, there are several important folders in /opt/mattermost to backup. These are config, logs, plugins, client/plugins, and data. We strongly recommend you back up these locations before running the rm command.

You may also remove the Mattermost systemd unit file and the user/group created for running the application.