First steps with self-hosted Rocket Chat: Watch the holes (bugs)!

Written by Claudio Kuenzler - 0 comments

Published on February 11th 2023 - last updated on February 11th 2023 - Listed in Cloud Linux

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As I am evaluating alternatives for Slack as communication method, I came across Rocket.Chat. This service is available as SaaS in the Cloud but also available as self-hosted installation. The latter is a must for me, personally, as I want to know where the data (chat history for example) resides.

The installation looks pretty straightforward, but there are a couple of bugs to watch out for! In my case I've used a Debian 11 (Bullseye) as Operating System.

The installation methods

Rocket.Chat can be installed using three installation methods:

1. snap package (on a physical or virtual server)
2. manual installation from a release (on a physical or virtual server)
3. docker installation

I decided for the manual installation as it tells me more about the internals and dependencies of an application.

The documentation for the manual installation is pretty good and conclusive. As I am writing this blog post, the installation guide mentions the following version compatibilities/environment:

The first question mark already pops up here: Rocket.Chat 4.6.0? When looking at the Rocket.Chat releases, the newest/latest version is currently 5.4.2:

Whoa, so that installation guide hasn't been updated since April 2022 when 4.6.0 was released. Anyway, let's assume the guide is still correct and move on with the installation.

Installing a specific Node (NodeJS) and NPM version

Both the installation guide and the release notes mention Node (Node JS) 14.x and NPM 6.x. The problem: These versions are outdated.

Node release 14.x is pretty old and the current LTS version is 18.x. To find earlier releases, such as the 14.x branch, you need to find the specific Node version under the previous releases downloads.

Luckily I already made my own experiences with installing a specific Node/NodeJS version on Debian, so this wouldn't take me too long. As mentioned by the Rocket.Chat 5.4.2 release notes, I downloaded and installed Node 14.19.3. Maybe newer versions would work, too, but I didn't want to risk compatibility problems at the very first Rocket.Chat installation.

root@rocketchat:~# wget https://nodejs.org/download/release/v14.19.3/node-v14.19.3-linux-x64.tar.xz
root@rocketchat:~# tar -xf node-v14.19.3-linux-x64.tar.xz
root@rocketchat:~# cd node-v14.19.3-linux-x64
root@rocketchat:~# cp -p bin/node /usr/local/bin/
root@rocketchat:~# update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/node node /usr/local/bin/node 1
root@rocketchat:~# node -v
v14.19.3

Voilà, NodeJS is now installed with the needed version.

For NPM it's a similar story: The latest version (right now) is 9.4.2 and far off the needed version of 6.14.17. However once NPM is installed (through the install.sh), a different version can be installed using the npm command:

root@rocketchat:~# curl -L https://www.npmjs.com/install.sh | sh
root@rocketchat:~# npm install -g npm@6
root@rocketchat:~# npm -v
6.14.18

Now we're off one minor release but that can be ignored.

Installation of MongoDB

I won't go into details here as the installation of MongoDB is well documented and straightforward. Just one advise: Do not change the default listener. Make sure MongoDB is listening on localhost only, as the default installation should be. MongoDB doesn't do authentication (by default) so keep that in mind for security. Check out some older but (some) still relevant MongoDB gotchas and security advice.

Installation of Rocket.Chat

Same here, no notes to be added. The official Rocket.Chat manual installation guide tells it all. Just follow the guide and you will have a running Rocket.Chat listening on port 3000.

You can now use your browser and enter the IP of your server and port 3000. Note that Rocket.Chat is running on http.

Using a reverse proxy and using TLS encryption (https)

Of course if you use Rocket.Chat over the Internet, the communication should be encrypted. This can be achieved by using a reverse proxy. The Rocket.Chat documentation (Configuring SSL Reverse Proxy) also covers this part.

However what could be confusing is that you need to adjust the Systemd Service Unit file once you've configured your reverse proxy. Replace the ROOT_URL with the domain configured on the reverse proxy. Also add an additional environment variable HTTP_FORWARDED_COUNT with the number of reverse proxies in front of your Rocket.Chat. In most setups this is probably 1, unless you use multiple reverse proxies.

root@rocketchat:~# cat /lib/systemd/system/rocketchat.service
[Unit]
Description=The Rocket.Chat server
After=network.target remote-fs.target nss-lookup.target nginx.service mongod.service
[Service]
#Environment=ROOT_URL=http://localhost:3000
Environment=ROOT_URL=https://chat.example.com
Environment=HTTP_FORWARDED_COUNT=1
Environment=PORT=3000
Environment=MONGO_URL=mongodb://localhost:27017/rocketchat?replicaSet=rs01
Environment=MONGO_OPLOG_URL=mongodb://localhost:27017/local?replicaSet=rs01
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/node /opt/Rocket.Chat/main.js
StandardOutput=syslog
StandardError=syslog
SyslogIdentifier=rocketchat
User=rocketchat
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then restart Rocket.Chat:

root@rocketchat:~# systemctl restart rocketchat

E-Mail links contain wrong URL

Rocket.Chat sends out e-mails to users, for example when they register. However once Rocket.Chat was placed behind a reverse proxy, the links in the e-mail are wrong and still point to the old ROOT_URL (localhost:3000).

To fix this, you need to change the SITE_URL in the settings. In the administration go to Settings -> General and change the Site URL:

Two factor tokens not working

By default Rocket.Chat uses Two Factor Authentication (2FA) and sends a verification token to a new user. But the created token doesn't work and shows token expired- reason unknown.

This seems to be caused by a bug already reported a while ago (for Rocket.Chat version 4.8.1), back in July 2022.

For the evaluation phase I had to disable two factor authentication. This can be done under Settings -> Accounts -> Two Factor Authentication:

A similar problem also happens when trying to reset the password using the "Forgot your password?" link. The "token expired" error shows up when trying to reset the password and it looks like password reset has failed. The password reset has worked though and the user can log in with the new password (when 2FA is disabled).

App installations don't work (workspace missing)

After Rocket.Chat was initially installed through the setup assistant, your Rocket.Chat setup connects and registers itself  with the Rocket.Chat Cloud. Your own Rocket.Chat installation then shows up as a "workspace".

In the Rocket.Chat administration this is called "Connectivity Services".

When trying to install an App from the Marketplace (in the Administration of your Rocket.Chat installation), no app can be installed. Instead an error shows up:

Request ID: 34ae582d-3734-4c16-b428-3b85ad82f3fd
Error Code: 264
Error: workspace is missing

This seems to be caused by a wrong registration during the setup phase. Or it could be caused by setting up a reverse proxy and therefore changing the ROOT_URL and Site URL of the chat. It is not sure what causes this problem.

This bug has been reported a long time ago (August 2021) and a lot of users have confirmed the bug to exist in several Rocket.Chat versions.

To fix this, the connectivity services need to be reset. Use the following steps:

1. Connectivity Services -> Logout of Rocket.Chat Cloud
2. Connectivity Services -> Disconnect (if available)
3. Go to Cloud Console and remove your current workspace
4. Open mongosh and run:
   use rocketchat, followed by db.rocketchat_settings.remove( {"_id": /Cloud_/} ).
   In my case it deleted 14 entries.
   
5. Still in mongosh run:
   db.rocketchat_settings.update({"_id":"Show_Setup_Wizard"},{$set: {"value":["Pending"]}});
6. Restart Rocket Chat systemctl restart rocketchat
7. Refresh browser, back in your own Rocket.Chat go to Settings -> Setup Wizard -> Cloud Info -> Accept the Cloud Service Privacy Terms Agreement
8. In Cloud Console click on Register self-managed and copy the token
9. Go to Connectivity Services -> Click here to register your workspace -> Enter the token from the Cloud Console
10. Connectivity Services -> Log in, then Sync

This should fix the workspace is missing bug and you should be able to install apps from the Marketplace, such as Jitsi:

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