Production Install on Windows Server (Unofficial)¶

Install & Configure MySQL¶

2. Download the MySQL 5.6+ installer, or (PostgreSQL 9.3+). For the purposes of this guide, we’ll be downloading and installing the latest version of MySQL Community Server Edition MSI-installer (version 5.7 at the time of writing this guide). Note that the appropriate link refers to 32-bit (as shown in the figure below); however, this installer is 32-bit but is capable of installing the 64-bit version of MySQL.
3. Launch the installer.
4. On the License Agreement page, Check the box to accept the license terms and press Next.
5. On the Choosing a Setup Type choose Custom so you can decide exactly which packages to install. This is the only place where you can specify whether to install 32-bit or 64-bit MySQL Server.
6. On the Select Products and Features page, select the 64bit version of MySQL Server.
7. On the Check Requirements page, install any missing requirements by pressing the Execute button, or go back to the previous page and change the packages that will be installed to remove the requirement. Once all of the requirements are met, press the Next button.
8. On the Installation page, you will be shown a list of software that will be installed. Press the Execute button to begin the installation. Once the installations have completed, press the Next button.
9. On the Product Configuration page, press the Next button to begin the MySQL Server Configuration Wizard.
   1. On the Type and Networking page, select the appropriate Config Type based on your desired usage.
   2. On the Accounts and Roles page, enter a MySQL Root password and press the Next button.
   3. On the Windows Service page, keep the defaults and press the Next button.
   4. On the Plugins and Extensions page, keep the defaults and press the Next button.
   5. On the Apply Server Configuration page, press the Execute button to configure the MySQL Server installation.
10. Returning to the Product Configuration page, press the Next button.
11. On the Installation Complete page, press the Finish button.

Configure Windows PATH¶

Adding MySQL to the Windows PATH variable will allow you run various commands from the console, and allow 3rd party applications to execute various MySQL commands.

12. Press the WIN + PAUSEBREAK key combination to open the System Control Panel Applet.
13. Select the Advanced System Settings link.
14. Select the Advanced tab.
15. Press the Environment Variables button.
16. In the System Variables section, select the Path variable in the list, then press the Edit button.
17. Append the path to your MySQL Server bin directory (make sure to add a semi-colon after any existing items in the path before appending the new path). The default path for a 64-bit installation is C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.7\bin.

Create Mattermost Database¶

Now that MySQL has been installed and configured, a database and user account must be provisioned for Mattermost to utilize.

18. Open a command prompt and enter mysql -u root -p to connect to the MySQL server

19. When prompted, enter the password created in step 9.a.

20. At the mysql> prompt, execute the following commands to create the database and user account

    CREATE DATABASE mattermost;
    CREATE USER mmuser IDENTIFIED BY 'mmuser_password';
    GRANT ALL ON mattermost.* TO mmuser;
    exit
    

21. To confirm the database and user were configured correctly

    1. Connect to the MySQL server/datbase by executing mysql -u mmuser -p mattermost
    2. When prompted, entering mmuser_password
    3. If If successful, you will be at the mysql> prompt
    4. Type exit to finish

Configure the Firewall¶

6. Open a command prompt as an administrator

7. Execute the following command to allow inbound traffic to Mattermost

   netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Mattermost" dir=in action=allow program="C:\mattermost\bin\platform.exe" enable=yes
   

Establish a Windows Service¶

Establishing a windows service to supervise the Mattermost process is recommended to prevent the need to manually start/stop Mattermost. The included binary cannot be directly registered as a windows service; therefore, a wrapper-utility must be used.

8. Download the latest version of NSSM (Non-Sucking Service Manager).

9. From the downloaded zip-file, extract win64\nssm.exe to C:\mattermost\bin\

10. Open a command line as an administrator

11. To create the windows service, execute the following

    cd c:\mattermost\bin
    nssm install mattermost c:\mattermost\bin\platform.exe
    

12. Start the service by executing the following

    net start mattermost
    tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq platform.exe"
    

Verify Mattermost Connectivity¶

To verify all steps executed thus far, we’ll attempt to access Mattermost through standard HTTP traffic. To perform this step, you’ll need access to a client machine with a compatible browser (e.g. Safari, Firefox, IE11, Chrome, etc).

13. From a client workstation meeting the criteria above, launch your favorite web browser.

14. Navigate to http://10.0.0.2:8065. If successful, you should reach an initialization web-page similar to the screenshot below.

    

15. Assuming your test was successful, close the browser as we’ll finish initializing Mattermost later in this guide.

Install IIS¶

3. On the Start page, click the Server Manager tile, and then click OK.
4. In Server Manager, select Dashboard, and click Add roles and features.
5. In the Add Roles and Features Wizard, on the Before you begin page, click Next.
6. On the Select installation type page, select Role-based or feature-based installation, and click Next.
7. On the Select destination server page, select Select a server from the server pool, select your server, and click Next.
8. On the Select server roles page, select Web Server (IIS).
9. Expand Web Server (IIS) > Web Server > Application Development and select WebSockets Protocol, and then click Next.
10. On the Add Roles and Features Wizard popup dialog, click Add Features, and then click Next.
11. On the Select features page, click Next.
12. On the Web Server Role (IIS) page, click Next.
13. On the Select role services page, accept the default selections, and click Next.
14. On the Summary of Features to Install page, click Install.
15. On the Installation progress page, confirm that your installation of the Web Server (IIS) role and required role services completed successfully, and then click Close.
16. To verify that IIS installed successfully, navigate to http://localhost in a web browser on the server, and confirm the default IIS Welcome page is displayed.

Configure Reverse Proxy¶

Reverse proxying involves rewriting an HTTP request and relaying it to a back-end server. IIS does not natively support this; however, Microsoft provides a URL Rewrite module and an Application Request Routing module which, when combined, are capable of performing these functions. We’ll start by installing these module, and then configure the proxy.

17. Download the URL Rewrite 2.0 x64 module.

18. Download the Application Request Routing 3.0 x64 module.

19. Install the modules (trivial installers with no customizations or options to select).

20. On the Start page, click the Server Manager tile, and then click OK.

21. Expand the Tools menu, and select Information Information Services (IIS) Manager.

    

22. In the left-hand navigation tree, expand the server node, expand Sites, and select Default Web Site.

23. Double-click the URL Rewrite feature, as shown below.

    

24. In the actions pane (far-right), select Add Rule(s)...

25. Select Reverse Proxy and press OK.

26. If prompted to enable proxy functionality, press OK.

27. In the Add Reverse Proxy Rules dialog,

    1. Enter 10.0.0.2:8065 in the Enter the server name or IP address where HTTP requests will be forwarded field.
    2. Ensure the Enable SSL Offloading option is checked.
    3. Check Rewrite the domain names of the links in HTTP responses
    4. Enter 10.0.0.2:8065 in the From field.
    5. Enter mattermost.example.com in the To field.
    6. Press OK

28. At this point, your configuration will relay all incoming traffic from http://mattermost.example.com to http://10.0.0.2:8065/. To confirm this, open your favorite browser and attempt to access http://mattermost.example.com, and upon success, you’ll see the Mattermost initialization screen.

Configure SSL¶

29. Within the IIS Manager, select the server node in the left-hand connections pane.
30. Double-click the Server Certificates option.
31. Select Import... from the list of actions on the right-hand-side.
32. Press the ... button to locate your PFX formatted certificate.
33. Enter the password to the certificate file.
34. Select the Web Hosting certificate store, and press OK.
35. In the left-hand navigation tree, expand the server node, expand Sites, and select Default Web Site.
36. In the right-hand-side Actions pane, select Bindings....
37. Press Add
38. In the Add Site Binding dialog, Set the type to https and set the SSL Certificate to the certificate loaded previously. Press OK.

Redirect HTTP to HTTPS¶

39. In the left-hand navigation tree, expand the server node, expand Sites and select Default Web Site.

40. Double-click to open the Url Rewrite feature.

41. In the actions-pane (far-right), select Add Rule(s)..

42. Under the Inbound Rules section, select Blank rule and press OK.

43. Populate the fields in the rule to match the screenshot below

    

44. Press Apply and then press Back to Rules.

45. Ensure that the HTTP to HTTPS Redirect rule is at the top of the list of inbound rules. If nceessary, you can select a rule and use the Move Up and Move Down actions to reorganize.

46. On a client workstation, open your favorite browser and navigate to http://mattermost.example.com and confirm that you are redirected to https://mattermost.example.com.