Deploy Mattermost via Docker

Available on all plans

self-hosted deployments

Install Docker

If you don’t have Docker installed, follow the instructions below based on your operating system:

macOS

Install Docker for Mac.

Windows 10

Install Docker for Windows.

Ubuntu

Follow the Install Docker Engine on Ubuntu documentation, or you can use the Docker package from the Ubuntu repositories:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install docker.io
sudo systemctl start docker

Fedora

Follow the Install Docker Engine on Fedora documentation, or you can use the Moby package (Moby is the FOSS upstream project to Docker) from the Fedora repositories:

sudo dnf install moby-engine
sudo systemctl start docker

Deploy Mattermost on Docker for production use

You’ll need Docker Engine and Docker Compose (release 1.28 or later).

Important

• The production configuration results in two separate containers: one for the database and one for the application. An optional third container results when using NGINX for reverse proxy.

• Encountering issues with your Docker deployment? See the Docker deployment troubleshooting documentation for details.

To deploy Mattermost on Docker:

1. In a terminal window, clone the repository and enter the directory.

   git clone https://github.com/mattermost/docker
   cd docker
   

2. Create your .env file by copying and adjusting the env.example file.

   cp env.example .env
   

Important

At a minimum, you must edit the DOMAIN value in the .env file to correspond to the domain for your Mattermost server.

3. Create the required directories and set their permissions.

   mkdir -p ./volumes/app/mattermost/{config,data,logs,plugins,client/plugins,bleve-indexes}
   sudo chown -R 2000:2000 ./volumes/app/mattermost
   

4. Configure TLS for NGINX (optional). If you’re not using the included NGINX reverse proxy, you can skip this step.

   If creating a new certificate and key:

   bash scripts/issue-certificate.sh -d <YOUR_MM_DOMAIN> -o ${PWD}/certs
   

   To include the certificate and key, uncomment the following lines in your .env file and ensure they point to the appropriate files.

   #CERT_PATH=./certs/etc/letsencrypt/live/${DOMAIN}/fullchain.pem
   #KEY_PATH=./certs/etc/letsencrypt/live/${DOMAIN}/privkey.pem
   

   If using a pre-existing certificate and key:

   mkdir -p ./volumes/web/cert
   cp <PATH-TO-PRE-EXISTING-CERT>.pem ./volumes/web/cert/cert.pem
   cp <PATH-TO-PRE-EXISTING-KEY>.pem ./volumes/web/cert/key-no-password.pem
   

   To include the certificate and key, ensure the following lines in your .env file points to the appropriate files.

   CERT_PATH=./volumes/web/cert/cert.pem
   KEY_PATH=./volumes/web/cert/key-no-password.pem
   

5. Configure SSO with GitLab (optional). If you want to use SSO with GitLab, and you’re using a self-signed certificate, you have to add the PKI chain for your authority. This is required to avoid the Token request failed: certificate signed by unknown authority error.

   To add the PKI chain, uncomment this line in your .env file, and ensure it points to your pki_chain.pem file:

   #GITLAB_PKI_CHAIN_PATH=<path_to_your_gitlab_pki>/pki_chain.pem
   

   Then uncomment this line in your docker-compose.yml file, and ensure it points to the same pki_chain.pem file:

   # - ${GITLAB_PKI_CHAIN_PATH}:/etc/ssl/certs/pki_chain.pem:ro
   

6. Deploy Mattermost.

   Without using the included NGINX:

   sudo docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.without-nginx.yml up -d
   

   To access your new Mattermost deployment, navigate to http://<YOUR_MM_DOMAIN>:8065/ in your browser.

   To shut down your deployment:

   sudo docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.without-nginx.yml down
   

   Using the included NGINX:

   sudo docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.nginx.yml up -d
   

   To access your new Mattermost deployment via HTTPS, navigate to https://<YOUR_MM_DOMAIN>/ in your browser.

   To shut down your deployment:

   sudo docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.nginx.yml down
   

7. Create your first Mattermost system admin user, invite more users, and explore the Mattermost platform.

Upgrade from mattermost-docker

The mattermost-docker GitHub repository is deprecated. Visit the mattermost/docker GitHub repository to access the official Docker deployment solution for Mattermost.

To migrate from an existing mattermost/mattermost-prod-app image, we recommend migrating to either mattermost/mattermost-enterprise-edition or mattermost/mattermost-team-edition images, which are the official images supported by Mattermost. These images support PostgreSQL 11+ databases, which we know has been a long-running challenge for the community, and you will not lose any features or functionality by moving to these new images.

For additional help or questions, please refer to this issue.

Installing a different version of Mattermost

1. Shut down your deployment.

2. Run git pull to fetch any recent changes to the repository, paying attention to any potential env.example changes.

3. Adjust the MATTERMOST_IMAGE_TAG in the .env file to point your desired enterprise or team image version.

4. Redeploy Mattermost.

Troubleshooting your production deployment

Docker

If deploying on an M1 Mac and encountering permission issues in the Docker container, redo the third step and skip this command:

sudo chown -R 2000:2000 ./volumes/app/mattermost

If having issues deploying on Docker generally, ensure the docker daemon is enabled and running:

sudo systemctl enable --now docker

To remove all data and settings for your Mattermost deployment:

sudo rm -rf ./volumes

PostgreSQL

You can change the Postgres username and/or password (recommended) in the .env file.

TLS & NGINX

For an in-depth guide to configuring the TLS certificate and key for Nginx, please refer to this document in the repository.

Further help

If you encounter other problems while installing Mattermost, please refer to our troubleshooting guide.

Trial Mattermost using Docker Preview

Looking to a way to evaluate Mattermost in a non-production environment using Docker? We recommend using the Mattermost Docker Preview Image to install Mattermost in Preview Mode.

See the trial Mattermost using Docker documentation for details.