Rocket.Chat

Deploy Rocket.Chat, the ultimate open source web chat platform, with Ansible!

Notes

master has been rebased on v2.0 and is now the most current code of the role (Instead of it being the 1.9-compatible version.) If you want the latest code, just don't include any version at all and ansible-galaxy will pull in the latest tag, or you can include version: master to always be current with development.
v1.9 users can continue to use tags v1.9 and v1.9.0, and an ansible_1.9 branch remains, though little if any backports will be made there.

Features

Optional full stack deployment: Fully deploy Rocket.Chat, including MongoDB & an Nginx reverse SSL proxy. Or, deploy Rocket.Chat and integrate with your existing MongoDB and/or Nginx instances/deployment methods.
Optional automatic SSL cert generation: Automatically generate SSL certs for HTTPS connectivity via an Nginx reverse proxy. Or, deploy your own SSL certs!
Optional automatic upgrades [requires Ansible 2.0]: If a new version of Rocket.Chat is released, or if you want to follow development for testing purposes, simply update the rocket_chat_version to whichever release you wish to deploy (see the Rocket.Chat releases page, set rocket_chat_automatic_upgrades to true and let this role do the rest! If there's a change to the code deployed to your Rocket.Chat server (either because of a remote change to the rocket_chat_version you're following, 'latest' or 'develop' for instance, or because you set a new rocket_chat_version to fetch), this role will handle the upgrade and redeployment of the Rocket.Chat service, keeping your data in tact. Note: This functionality requires Ansible 2.0. See how to fetch the 2.0 version of this role in the Install from Ansible Galaxy section

Supported Platforms

Debian

Strect (9)
Buster (10)

Ubuntu

Bionic Beaver: 18.04 LTS
Xenial: 16.04 LTS
Trusty: 14.04 LTS

EL (RHEL/CentOS)

If you'd like to see your distribution/operating system supported, please raise an issue!

Running into problems?

Please be sure you've read the FAQ and all documentation before raising an issue.

Role Variables

All variables have sane defaults set in defaults/main.yml

Defaults

Name	Default Value	Description
`rocket_chat_automatic_upgrades`	false	A boolean value that determines whether or not to upgrade Rocket.Chat upon source code changes
`rocket_chat_upgrade_backup`	true	A boolean value that determines whether or not to back up the current Rocket.Chat version when upgrading
`rocket_chat_upgrade_backup_path`	`"{{ rocket_chat_application_path }}"`	The path to store the back up of Rocket.Chat when `rocket_chat_upgrade_backup` is `true`
`rocket_chat_application_path`	`/var/lib/rocket.chat`	The destination on the filesystem to deploy Rocket.Chat to
`rocket_chat_version`	`latest`	The version of Rocket.Chat to deploy; see the Rocket.Chat releases page for available options
`rocket_chat_tarball_remote`	See `defaults/main.yml`	The remote URL to fetch the Rocket.Chat tarball from (uses `rocket_chat_version`)
`rocket_chat_tarball_sha256sum`	See `defaults/main.yml`	The SHA256 hash sum of the Rocket.Chat tarball being fetched
`rocket_chat_tarball_fetch_timeout`	100	The time (in seconds) before the attempt to fetch the Rocket.Chat tarball fails
`rocket_chat_tarball_validate_remote_cert`	true	A boolean value that determines wether or not to validate the SSL certs for the Rocket.Chat tarball remote
`rocket_chat_service_user`	`rocketchat`	The name of the user that will run the Rocket.Chat server process
`rocket_chat_service_group`	`rocketchat`	The name of the primary group for the `rocket_chat_service_user` user
`rocket_chat_service_host`	`"{{ ansible_fqdn }}"`	The FQDN of the Rocket.Chat system
`rocket_chat_service_port`	3000	The TCP port Rocket.Chat listens on
`rocket_chat_service_extra_instances`	`[]`	List of TCP port numbers for additional rocketchat service instances to handle more users on one machine
`rocket_chat_node_version`	`4.5.0`	The version of NodeJS to install that `n` understands
`rocket_chat_node_prefix`	`/usr/local/n/versions/node/{{ rocket_chat_node_version }}`	The path to the `node` binary directory that n installs
`rocket_chat_npm_dist`	`/usr/bin/npm`	The path to the original `npm` binary, before n installs any Node versions
`rocket_chat_include_mongodb`	true	A boolean value that determines whether or not to deploy MongoDB
`rocket_chat_mongodb_keyserver`	keyserver.ubuntu.com	The GPG key server to use when importing the MongoDB repo key
`rocket_chat_mongodb_gpg_key`	`7F0CEB10`	The GPG key fingerprint to import for the MongoDB repo
`rocket_chat_mongodb_user`	not used by default	Username to be used when connecting to MongoDB. If you set this, you should also define `rocket_chat_mongodb_password`, otherwise no user/pass is used to connect to MongoDB
`rocket_chat_mongodb_password`	not used by default	Password to be used when connecting to MongoDB. If you set this, you should also define `rocket_chat_mongodb_user`, otherwise no user/pass is used to connect to MongoDB
`rocket_chat_mongodb_server`	127.0.0.1	The IP/FQDN of the MongoDB host
`rocket_chat_mongodb_port`	27017	The TCP port to contact the MongoDB host host via
`rocket_chat_mongodb_database`	rocketchat	The MongoDB database to be used for Rocket.Chat
`rocket_chat_mongodb_use_tls`	false	Whether or not to use TLS to connect to the MongoDB DB
`rocket_chat_mongodb_packages`	`mongodb`	The name of the MongoDB package(s) to install (differs for different distros - see `vars/`)
`rocket_chat_mongodb_config_template`	`mongod.conf.j2`	The `/etc/mongod.conf` template to deploy
`rocket_chat_mongodb_org_pkgs`	false \| true (Debian/Ubuntu)	Use official MongoDB.org community edition packages or not
`rocket_chat_mongodb_org_version`	3.4	Version string of official packages to install
`rocket_chat_mongodb_service_name`	`mongod`	The name of the systemd service unit and mongodb config file in /etc
`rocket_chat_include_nginx`	true	A boolean value that determines whether or not to deploy Nginx
`rocket_chat_ssl_generate_certs`	true	A boolean value that determines whether or not to generate the Nginx SSL certs
`rocket_chat_ssl_key_path`	`/etc/nginx/rocket_chat.key`	The destination path for the Nginx SSL private key
`rocket_chat_ssl_cert_path`	`/etc/nginx/rocket_chat.crt`	The destination path for the Nginx SSL certificate
`rocket_chat_ssl_deploy_data`	false	A boolean value that determines whether or not to deploy custom SSL data (cert/key files)
`rocket_chat_ssl_key_file`	`~`	If not using SSL cert generation, this is the path to the Nginx SSL private key on the Ansible control node, for deployment
`rocket_chat_ssl_cert_file`	`~`	If not using SSL cert generation, this is the path to the Nginx SSL cert on the Ansible control node, for deployment
`rocket_chat_nginx_enable_pfs`	true	A boolean value that determines whether or not to enable PFS when deploying Nginx
`rocket_chat_nginx_generate_pfs_key`	true	A boolean value that determines whether or not to generate a PFS key file
`rocket_chat_nginx_pfs_key_numbits`	2048	Numbits to pass to OpenSSL when generating a PFS key file
`rocket_chat_nginx_pfs_key_path`	`/etc/nginx/rocket_chat.pem`	The destination path for the Nginx PFS key file
`rocket_chat_nginx_pfs_file`	`~`	If not using PFS key generation, this is the path to the Nginx PFS key on the Ansible control node, for deployment
`rocket_chat_nginx_listen_ssl_port`	`443`	The SSL port on which Ngnix listens to
`rocket_chat_nginx_listen_port`	`80`	The port on which Ngnix listens to

Some variables differ between operating systems/distributions. These are set in the vars/ directory, typically in a file named after the distribution.

RHEL/CentOS variables

Set in vars/RedHat.yml

Name	Default Value	Description
`rocket_chat_dep_packages`	- git	A list of Rocket.Chat dependencies to install
	- GraphicsMagick
	- nodejs
	- npm
	- make
`rocket_chat_mongodb_packages`	- mongodb	A list of MongoDB server packages to install
	- mongodb-server
`rocket_chat_mongodb_repl_lines`	`'replSet=001-rs'`	The value for the MongoDB replica set
`rocket_chat_mongodb_fork`	`true`	A boolean value that sets whether or not to fork the MongoDB server process
`rocket_chat_mongodb_pidfile_path`	`/var/run/mongodb/mongodb.pid`	The path to the pidfile for the MongoDB server process
`rocket_chat_mongodb_logpath`	`/var/log/mongodb/mongod.log`	The log file path for the MongoDB server
`rocket_chat_mongodb_unixsocketprefix`	`/var/run/mongodb`	The path for the MongoDB UNIX socket prefix
`rocket_chat_mongodb_dbpath`	`/var/lib/mongodb`	The path for MongoDB to store its databases
`rocket_chat_nginx_process_user`	`nginx`	The user for that will be used to spawn the Nginx server process

RHEL/CentOS 7 variables

Set in vars/RedHat_7.yml

Name	Default Value	Description
`rocket_chat_service_update_command`	`systemctl daemon-reload ; systemctl restart rocketchat`	The command to use to inform the service management system when a service manifest has changed
`rocket_chat_service_template`
`src`	`rocketchat.service.j2`	The source template to deploy for the Rocket.Chat service manifest
`dest`	`/usr/lib/systemd/system/rocketchat.service`	The destination to deploy the Rocket.Chat service manifest to
`rocket_chat_tarball_validate_remote_cert`	false	A boolean value that determines wether or not to validate the SSL certs for the Rocket.Chat tarball remote

Debian variables

Set in vars/Debian.yml

Name	Default Value	Description
`rocket_chat_dep_packages`	- git	A list of Rocket.Chat dependencies to install
	- graphicsmagick
	- nodejs
	- npm
	- make
`rocket_chat_mongodb_packages`	- mongodb-server	A list of MongoDB server packages to install
	- mongodb-shell
`rocket_chat_mongodb_repl_lines`	`replication:`	The value for the MongoDB replica set
	`replSetName: "001-rs"`
`rocket_chat_nginx_process_user`	`www-data`	The user for that will be used to spawn the Nginx server process

Debian 8 variables

Set in vars/Debian_8.yml

Name	Default Value	Description
`rocket_chat_service_update_command`	`systemctl daemon-reload ; systemctl restart rocketchat`	The command to use to inform the service management system when a service manifest has changed
`rocket_chat_service_template`
`src`	`rocketchat.service.j2`	The source template to deploy for the Rocket.Chat service manifest
`dest`	`/etc/systemd/system/rocketchat.service`	The destination to deploy the Rocket.Chat service manifest to
`rocket_chat_mongodb_apt_repo`	`deb http://repo.mongodb.org/apt/debian wheezy/mongodb-org/3.0 main`	The APT repository for MongoDB

Ubuntu variables

Set in vars/Ubuntu.yml

Name	Default Value	Description
`rocket_chat_dep_packages`	- git	A list of Rocket.Chat dependencies to install
	- graphicsmagick
	- nodejs
	- npm
	- make
`rocket_chat_mongodb_packages`	- mongodb-server	A list of MongoDB server packages to install
	- mongodb-shell
`rocket_chat_mongodb_repl_lines`	`replication:`	The value for the MongoDB replica set
	`replSetName: "001-rs"`
`rocket_chat_nginx_process_user`	`www-data`	The user for that will be used to spawn the Nginx server process

Ubuntu 16 variables

Set in vars/Ubuntu_15.yml

Name	Default Value	Description
`rocket_chat_service_update_command`	`systemctl daemon-reload ; systemctl restart rocketchat`	The command to use to inform the service management system when a service manifest has changed
`rocket_chat_service_template`
`src`	`rocketchat.service.j2`	The source template to deploy for the Rocket.Chat service manifest
`dest`	`/etc/systemd/system/rocketchat.service`	The destination to deploy the Rocket.Chat service manifest to
`rocket_chat_mongodb_apt_repo`	`deb http://repo.mongodb.org/apt/debian wheezy/mongodb-org/3.0 main`	The APT repository for MongoDB

Ubuntu 14 variables

Set in vars/Ubuntu_14.yml

Name	Default Value	Description
`rocket_chat_service_update_command`	`initctl reload-configuration ; service rocketchat restart`	The command to use to inform the service management system when a service manifest has changed
`rocket_chat_service_template`
`src`	`rocketchat_upstart.j2`	The source template to deploy for the Rocket.Chat service manifest
`dest`	`/etc/init/rocketchat.conf`	The destination to deploy the Rocket.Chat service manifest to
`rocket_chat_mongodb_apt_repo`	`deb http://repo.mongodb.org/apt/ubuntu trusty/mongodb-org/3.0 multiverse`	The APT repository for MongoDB
`rocket_chat_tarball_validate_remote_cert`	false	A boolean value that determines wether or not to validate the SSL certs for the Rocket.Chat tarball remote

Install this role from Ansible Galaxy

This role is available for download from Ansible Galaxy. To install this role, and track it in your Ansible code-base, use something similar to the following in your requirements.yml:

- src: RocketChat.Server
  version: v1.9.0
  path: roles/external/

Note: you must specify version as v1.9.0 if you're still using Ansible 1.9.4

Install the Ansible 2.0 version of this role

With the release of Ansible 2.0, this role is officially supported with some performance enhancements and extra features (automatic upgrades, for instance). To use the Ansible 2.0 version of this role, you can install it using the ansible-galaxy command line tool using a requirements.yml (both mentioned above) to specify the version you wish to use.

Here's an example requirements.yml file to install via ansible-galaxy will fetch the Ansible 2.0 code:

  - src: RocketChat.Server
    path: roles/external

Note: `master` has been rebased on v2.0 and is now the most current code of the role. If you want the latest just don't include any version at all and `ansible-galaxy` will pull in the latest tag, or you can include `version: master` to always be current.

Example Playbook

A simple playbook to run this role on all chat_servers systems:

  - hosts: chat_servers
    roles:
     - RocketChat.Server

A playbook to deploy Rocket.Chat to chat_servers but exclude the deployment of MongoDB and use an external instance. Also permit automatic upgrades of Rocket.Chat (Ansible 2.0 required for rocket_chat_automatic_upgrades! See the Install from Ansible Galaxy secion):

  - hosts: chat_servers

    vars:
      rocket_chat_automatic_upgrades: true
      rocket_chat_include_mongodb: false
      rocket_chat_mongodb_server: 10.19.3.24

    roles:
      - RocketChat.Server

FAQ

When I try to deploy using this role, it fails on the Fetch the Rocket.Chat binary tarball task If deployment fails with a message similar to the following, this is because the role hasn't been updated to reflect the SHA256 hash sum of the latest Rocket.Chat release tarball

TASK [RocketChat.Server : Fetch the Rocket.Chat binary tarball] ****************
fatal: [chat1]: FAILED! => {"changed": false, "failed": true, "msg": "The checksum for /var/lib/rocket.chat/rocket.chat-latest.tgz did not match e6caca890c86f79595da14398dd3ab0c0d3222932d6a8a1b38c6e5082531acd2; it was 21ef5ee220671e5f514f240d1423514c5780d81d6ffba8720d19660079099925."}

Right now, maintenance of this variable is a manual process. In the meantime you can simply set this variable's value yourself; via host_vars, group_vars, vars in your playbook, or with -e when running ansible-playbook, etc.

Available tags

To run a specific set of plays, with the --tags flag, the available tags are:

vars
build
mongodb
repo
nginx
upgrade
service

Management of the Rocket.Chat service

This role will deploy a service named rocketchat. You can use your native service management system to start/stop/reload/restart the service.

Testing via Vagrant

To test this role, you'll find a Vagrantfile and provision.yml playbook in the tests/ directory. This is, as you might have guessed, for running test deployments via Vagrant.

If you'd like to test some changes, or simply see how the role works/provision a little play Rocket.Chat server locally, you can cd into tests/ and run vagrant up (provided you have Vagrant & VirtualBox installed).

If you take a look at the Vagrantfile, you'll see there's a deployment for each currently supported platform - simply comment out any you don't want to deploy (don't forget their Ansible config at the bottom, either!). Once deployment is finished, if you want to try Rocket.Chat out, you can visit http://localhost:4000 in your browser (the port 4000 varies here, based on which platform you're deploying, see the forwarded_port value for your platform).

TODO

Use Let's Encrypt for SSL

License

MIT

Issues/Contributions

Feel free to: Raise an issue Contribute

robincafolla/Rocket.Chat.Ansible