Team chat (Mattermost)

The team chat module installs Mattermost Team Edition platform inside NethServer Enterprise.

Mattermost is an Open Source, private cloud Slack-alternative. Check out the excellent official documentation: https://docs.mattermost.com/.

Configuration

Mattermost installation needs a dedicated virtual host, an FQDN like chat.nethserver.org.

Before proceeding with the configuration, make sure to create the corresponding DNS record. If NethServer Enterprise act as the DNS server of your LAN, please refer to DNS.

If your server is using a Let's Encrypt certificate as default, make also sure to have a corresponding public DNS record. See Certificates for more info.

Warning

Please note that the mobile app cannot connect to servers with self-signed certificates!

How to configure:

  1. Click on Settings button of Applications > Mattermost

  2. Check Enable Mattermost Team Edition, then enter a valid FQDN inside Virtual host name field (eg. chat.nethserver.org)

  3. Open the entered host name inside the browser, eg: https://chat.nethserver.org. At first access, a wizard will create the administrator user

The following features are enabled by default:

  • mail notifications

  • push notifications for mobile apps

  • redirect from HTTP to HTTPS

Authentication

Mattermost authentication is not integrated with any Account Provider. The Mattermost administrator should take care of users and teams creation.

Note

The administrator should always use Mattermost wizard to create the admin user, then send team invitation link to each user.

Importing users

If the system administrator still needs bulk user creation, he/she can rely on mattermost-bulk-user-create command.

The command will:

  • create a default team named as the Company from Organization details page

  • read all users from local or remote Account Providers and create them inside Mattermost

Please note that:

  • users disabled in the Server Manager or already existing in Mattermost will be skipped

  • a random password will be generated for each user

  • the first imported user will be set as administrator if no admin has been already created

Invocation example:

mattermost-bulk-user-create

...
Creating default team: example (Example Org) ... OK
Skipping locked user: 'goofy'
Skipping locked user: 'admin'
Creating user: 'pluto' with password '6aW221o7' ... OK
...

Note

Users are not automatically synced inside Mattermost. Each time a user is created or removed, remember to execute mattermost-bulk-user-create command or manually create the user using Mattermost administration web interface.

Forcing a common default password

It's possible to set a default password for each new Mattermost user, just append the default password to command invocation.

Example:

mattermost-bulk-user-create Password,1234