[[!img media/mattermost.png width="100px" class="noFancy" style="float: right"]]

[[!summary declarative mattermost with nixcloud-webservices]]
[[!meta date="2023-08-25 09:47"]]
[[!tag nixcloud mattermost]]
[[!series nixcloud]]

# motivation

in 2018 we packaged [mattermost](https://mattermost.com/) in [nixcloud-webservices](https://github.com/nixcloud/nixcloud-webservices) for declarative setup support.

so if you ever want to get rid of [imperative container setup using docker compose (@andrewzigler)](https://youtu.be/20KSKBzZmik?t=88), then nixcloud-webservices might be for you!

using *nixcloud-webservices* with **nixcloud.webservices.mattermost**, **nixcloud.email** and **nixcloud.TLS** it is possible to setup a complete chat system without much effort.

<div class="alert alert-info" role="alert">
please note: since we gave up on nixcloud in ~2019/2020 we stopped all development. however, the idea is still valid in 2023, so i will document it here.
</div>

## setup

so using nixcloud-webservices you can setup a complete chat system with these few lines of code:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ {.nix}
nixcloud.webservices.mattermost.ncchat = {
  enable = true;
  EmailSettings = {
    SendEmailNotifications = true;
    ConnectionSecurity = "STARTTLS";
    EnableSMTPAuth = true;
    SMTPPort = 587;
    SMTPServer = "mail.nixcloud.io";
    SMTPUsername = "info@nixcloud.io";
    SMTPPassword = "xxxxxxxxxxxxx";
    RequireEmailVerification = true;
    FeedbackEmail = "info@nixcloud.io";
    FeedbackName = "nixcloud";
  };
  proxyOptions = {
    domain = "mattermost.nixcloud.io";
    port = 8080;
  };
};

nixcloud.email= {
  enable = true;
  domains = [ "nixcloud.io" ];
  ipAddress = ipAddress;
  ip6Address = ip6Address;
  fqdn = "mail.lastlog.de";
  enableGreylisting = false;
  users = [ ... ];
};

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

## used resources

the setup from above will install mattermost on the local system and start it using systemd. it will also create a database and a user for the database.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ {.bash}
root@mail ~# cd /var/lib/nixcloud/webservices/mattermost-ncchat
root@mail /v/l/n/w/mattermost-ncchat# ls -la
total 28
drwxrwxr-x+  4 root              root              4096 May 11  2019 .
drwx--x--x  13 root              root              4096 Jul  4  2019 ..
-rw-rw-r--+  1 root              root                 0 May 11  2019 .database-create-mattermost
drwxrwxr-x+  3 root              root              4096 Nov 29  2018 postgresql
drwxrwxr-x+  6 mattermost-ncchat mattermost-ncchat 4096 Aug 22 07:34 www

du -sh .
570M    .
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

so if you wanted to do a backup of this particular mattermost instance, you would need the nix code above and all the files in /var/lib/nixcloud/webservices/mattermost-ncchat

# summary

i like to point out that the postgresql database is part of the service and all the files are stored in one directory **/var/lib/nixcloud/webservices/mattermost-ncchat**.

this makes it easy to backup and restore the service and it also makes it easy to run several such services.