Rocket Chat
Maintainer
Maintainer: RequestedDeletion
About
"Rocket.Chat, the ultimate webchat platform. From group messages and video/audio calls all the way to helpdesk killer features. Our goal is to become the number one cross-platform open source chat solution"
- Messaging Direct and group messages, public or private.
- Video Conference Chat with your colleagues and friends face-to-face over audio and video. See details. Test your device here.
- Helpdesk chat Have your website visitors contact you in real-time and increase conversions.
- File sharing Drag-and-drop files or select them from your computer or mobile device.
- Screen sharing Select any window to share with your audience.
- Voice messages Record and transmit voice messages to a channel, group or private conversation.
- Link preview Post a link and immediately view its content. YouTube, Twitter, Gifs!
- API Integrate your chat to multiple services: GitHub, GitLab, JIRA, Confluence and others.
- Extendability Want a killer new feature? Add a new package. It's as simple as that.
- Native applications Native client applications available for download on Linux, Windows and OSX.
- Mobile applications Mobile client applications available for iOS and Android on their respective stores.
In short, a Slack, HipChat, Jabber (XMMP), IRC or even a Skype alternative, completely and securely self hosted and controlled. Great for closed (company/family/friends/community) teams.
This how-to can be discussed on the forums here
RocketChat for SME Server 9.x 64-bit only!
Latest Rocket.Chat version tested: 0.37.1 (please see the change log here).
Installation SCL environment
Add the epel repository
/sbin/e-smith/db yum_repositories set epel repository \ Name 'Epel - EL6' \ BaseURL 'http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/$basearch' \ MirrorList 'http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/mirrorlist?repo=epel-6&arch=$basearch' \ EnableGroups no \ GPGCheck yes \ GPGKey http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/RPM-GPG-KEY-EPEL \ Exclude perl-Razor-Agent \ Visible no \ status disabled
Add centos-sclo-rh repository
/sbin/e-smith/db yum_repositories set centos-sclo-rh \ repository Name 'Centos-RH Software collections' \ BaseURL 'http://mirror.centos.org/centos/$releasever/sclo/$basearch/rh/' \ EnableGroups no Visible yes status disabled
Expand the new repo's
signal-event yum-modify
Install Software Collections applications
Before you can install any of the Software Collections applications, you must install the Software Collections tools first. Please see Software Collections how to install and enable Software Collections.
yum install rh-python34-python rh-mongodb26-mongodb rh-mongodb26-mongodb-server \ nodejs010 GraphicsMagick --enablerepo=centos-sclo-rh,epel
Update NodeJS modules
using NodeJS package manager NPM to install/update (additional) NodeJS packages:
scl enable nodejs010 bash npm install -g npm ws inherits n n 0.10.40 exit
Create the SME Server MongoDB service
(please note the usage of mongod and NOT mongodb)
ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/e-smith-service /etc/rc.d/rc7.d/S99rh-mongodb26-mongod config set rh-mongodb26-mongod service config setprop rh-mongodb26-mongod status enabled config setprop rh-mongodb26-mongod access private config setprop rh-mongodb26-mongod TCPPort 27017 signal-event remoteaccess-update
Create boot scripts for the Software Collections applications
nano -w /etc/profile.d/scls-rh-mongodb26.sh
#!/bin/sh source /opt/rh/rh-mongodb26/enable export X_SCLS="`scl enable rh-mongodb26 'echo $X_SCLS'`"
nano -w /etc/profile.d/scls-rh-python34.sh
#!/bin/sh source /opt/rh/rh-python34/enable export X_SCLS="`scl enable rh-python34 'echo $X_SCLS'`"
nano -w /etc/profile.d/scls-rh-java-common.sh
#!/bin/sh source /opt/rh/rh-java-common/enable export X_SCLS="`scl enable rh-java-common 'echo $X_SCLS'`"
nano -w /etc/profile.d/scls-nodejs010.sh
#!/bin/sh source /opt/rh/nodejs010/enable export X_SCLS="`scl enable nodejs010 'echo $X_SCLS'`"
A reboot at this point is required to load all of the Software Collections profile/config files.
signal-event reboot
Installation of Rocket.Chat
Create the SME Server Rocket.Chat service
config set rocketchat service config setprop rocketchat status enabled config setprop rocketchat TCPPort 3000 config setprop rocketchat access public signal-event remoteaccess-update
Get Rocket.Chat from their downloads repository
cd /root curl -L https://rocket.chat/releases/latest/download -o rocket.chat.tgz tar zxvf rocket.chat.tgz mv bundle /opt/Rocket.Chat
Install NodeJS dependencies for Rocket.Chat
cd /opt/Rocket.Chat/programs/server npm install
Set environment variables for Rocket.Chat
export ROOT_URL=http://yourserver.com/ export MONGO_URL=mongodb://localhost:27017/rocketchat export PORT=3000 export MAIL_URL=smtp://localhost:25
Start Rocket.Chat for the first time
cd /opt/Rocket.Chat node main.js &
Browse to http://yourserver:3000 and create the first admin user.
The Rocket.Chat log files are at /var/log/rocketchat.log
Make Rocket.Chat available on a sub domain
Install the Webapps-common contrib.
To create your sub domain (e.g. https://chat.yourserver.com)
db domains set chat.mycompany.local domain Description "RocketChat" Nameservers internet \ TemplatePath WebAppVirtualHost RequireSSL enabled ProxyPassTarget http://localhost:3000/ ProxyPreserveHost yes
The 'ProxyPassTarget' property could also point to another host (IP) that has Rocket.Chat installed, e.g. a virtual SME Server on the same LAN. In that case, also LDAP and open/close ports have to be taken into consideration. To expand and activate:
signal-event webapps-update
If your server' default FQDN is already chat.yourserver.com, there is no need to create a new subdomain. Instead of the above command, you can enter the following:
db domains setprop chat.yourserver.com TemplatePath WebAppVirtualHost RequireSSL enabled ProxyPassTarget http://localhost:3000/ ProxyPreserveHost yes
To disable the default access on port 3000, for we now access our chat platform via the subdomain, and for security we close the default access method.
config setprop rocketchat access private signal-event remoteaccess-update
You can now visit Rocket.Chat at https://chat.yourserver.com. Rocket.Chat will notice that the URL that is being used to access Rocket.Chat has been changed, and will propose to change it to the new URL.
Auto start Rocket.Chat at boot
To be able to auto start Rocket.Chat one could use the /etc/rc.d/rc.local file, but using the init system is cleaner and much more controlled. Nodejs has small utilities (modules) that can create the correct init script based on your specific Rocket.Chat setup.
To install these Nodejs modules issue:
npm install -g forever npm install -g forever-service
Since SME Server has put it's name in /etc/system-release, the forever utility will not be able to detect the main distribution name (e.g. CentOS) and will exit with an error. To add 'SME Server' to the list of recognised distributions so that the forever-service tool will run properly, is to execute the following command (don't be disturbed by the Oracle mentioning, it's just to locate the correct position):
sed -i -e 's/(Oracle Linux)/(Oracle Linux)|(SME Server)/' \ /opt/rh/nodejs010/root/usr/lib/node_modules/forever-service/templates/sysvinit/installer.js
Generate the Rocket.Chat init script
Generate the init script 'rocketchat' that will automatically be placed into /etc/rc.d/init.d:
cd /opt/Rocket.Chat forever-service install -s main.js -e "ROOT_URL=https://chat.mycompany.local/ \ MONGO_URL=mongodb://localhost:27017/rocketchat PORT=3000 MAIL_URL=smtp://mycompany.local:25" \ -p "/opt/rh/nodejs010/root/usr/lib/node_modules/forever/bin" rocketchat
Please use the correct values in the command above from your specific setup.
The created init script '/etc/rc.d/init.d/rocketchat' is not aware that we use Software Collections, so we have to add a directive to the init script that we do:
sed -i '26 a source /etc/profile.d/scls-nodejs010.sh' /etc/rc.d/init.d/rocketchat
Create SME Server service link
Now we can create a link to the SME Server way of starting services automatically at boot time or manually:
ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/e-smith-service /etc/rc.d/rc7.d/S99rocketchat
and you can start/stop/status your rocketchat service e.g.:
service rocketchat status service rocketchat start service rocketchat stop service rocketchat restart
Please note that it may take a little while, up to a minute, for rocketchat to become available. In the mean time you can be shown a HTTP error 503. Please try again in a minute or a bit longer. Why this is? No Idea for now, other that it may be related to MongoDB processes.
WebRTC configuration
Rocket.Chat uses WebRTC to make voice/video calls. This requires the additional Apache module proxy_wstunnel. This is available from the fws repository.
yum install mod_proxy_wstunnel --enablerepo=fws
A custom template is required to load the proxy_wstunnel module by default and in the correct order:
mkdir -p /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf nano -w /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf/20LoadModule60
and paste the following content and save:
{
$OUT .= load_modules(qw(
proxy_wstunnel
));
}
Then expand httpd.conf and restart Apache:
expand-template /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf service httpd-e-smith restart
To show if the module is correctly loaded:
apachectl -M |grep wstunnel
it should be listed as proxy_wstunnel_module (shared)
LDAP Authentication
As the Rocket.Chat admin go into administration -> LDAP, and use the following settings (please use your server details):
Enable: True Host: 127.0.0.1 Port: 389 Domain base: ou=Users,dc=mycompany,dc=local Domain search user: uid=admin,ou=Users,dc=mycompany,dc=local Domain search password: admin password of your server Doamin search user ID: uid Sync data: True Default domain: chat.yourserver.com (as per the subdomain)
Save the settings and use the test button to test the connection to the LDAP directory. Then 'Sync users'. For more specific details on Rocket.Chat and LDAP user authentication please see their documentation.
Upgrade Rocket.Chat
Interestingly there is not much information on upgrading your Rocket.Chat version. It does not help either that the Rocket.Chat team closed their wiki and took it off-line in favour of a new doc system which is not populated with info as much.
The preferred way as it seems is completely remove /opt/Rocket.Chat...
service rocketchat stop rm -rf /opt/Rocket.Chat
and then repeat the download, unpack and move get Rocket.Chat procedure above. Then start Rocket.Chat:
service rocketchat start
Please note it can take a bit for the Rocket.Chat service to become available for the MongoDB structure version is being checked and automatically updated according to the Rocket.Chat version.
Backup Rocket.Chat
To be able to backup Rocket.Chat data with the default SME Server backup mechanisms, the data should be available within the backup paths. In this case we will place the Rocket.Chat backup data in /home/e-smith/files.
To dump the Rocket.Chat data:
mongodump --dumpDbUsersAndRoles -d rocketchat -o /home/e-smith/files
(Documentation) and to restore the Rocket.Chat data:
mongorestore --restoreDbUsersAndRoles -d rocketchat -dir /home/e-smith/files/rocketchat --quiet
You may want to automate the execution of the above mongodump command by means of a cron job. For easy management of this, you could use the excellent Crontab Manager contrib.
Remove Rocket.Chat
TBA
Desktop clients
Next to your browser, you can use Rocket.Chat desktop clients for Linux, Windows and Mac.
Please see:
https://github.com/RocketChat/Rocket.Chat.Electron/releases
Mobile clients
Obviously there are mobile clients for both Android and iOS. Please search for 'Rocket chat' in either app store.
Security
TO DO
Auto start Rocket.Chat- Backup and how to manage Rocket.Chat data (e.g. mongodb and FS options)
- Include the push server config for both Android and iOS
Fine tune various things (e.g. Security)Enable LDAP authenticationCreate subdomain e.g. https://chat.yourdomain.com using the webapps-common contribActiviation/Notification emails are not sent, despite test successUpgrade Rocket.Chat- Remove Rocket.Chat
- Watch developments such as using PostgreSQL/MariaDB opposed to MongoDB
- Test, test, test
Create a contrib- Showcase SME Server, contribs and software collections.
Tips & Tricks
- Nice website for 'Cartoonish' avatars that can be used to replace your initials in all your Rocket.Chat conversations. Pick a face
- Test/troubleshoot your device for WebRTC capabilities WebRTC Troubleshooter