Install Rocket.Chat on a virtual machine from the App Market

Rocket.Chat is a team chat server you host yourself. The App Market has it as Rocket Chat, and installs it onto one of your virtual machines (VMs). After the install you finish Rocket.Chat’s own setup wizard in your browser.

Before you start

• A Doprax account with credit.
• A running VM. The App Market installs onto a VM you already have: it does not create one. See Create your first virtual machine.
• Choose the VM’s size from the system requirements in the Rocket.Chat documentation. Rocket.Chat runs together with a MongoDB database, so it needs more memory than a small website.
• Prefer a ProVM or OVH VM, where all ports are open. On a Hetzner VM only TCP ports 80, 443 and 19000 to 19100 can be reached from the internet, so an app that listens on another port cannot be opened in a browser.

Install the app

1. In the dashboard, open App Market.
2. Search for rocket and select View details on Rocket Chat.
3. Read the app’s page before you install. ABOUT, GUIDELINES and ACCESS are the publisher’s notes on what the app needs and how to reach it. REVIEWS and ISSUES show what other customers ran into.
4. In the bar at the bottom of the page, Install Rocket Chat, choose the VM and select Install.
5. A window opens with the steps and the log of the installation as it runs. Cancel install stops it. At the end the status is Success or Failed; a failed install shows the reason.

The general procedure, for any app, is on Explore apps in the App Market.

Open Rocket.Chat

When the status is Success, the window shows Access & setup: the address to open and any login details the app recorded. Select Open, or copy the address into your browser.

To see these details again later, open the app’s page in the App Market. Under Your installations, select Access & setup next to the VM.

If no address is listed, look in the app’s ACCESS section and in the install log. Rocket.Chat itself listens on port 3000 unless the app sets another one, which gives http://YOUR_VM_IP:3000.

Finish Rocket.Chat’s setup wizard

The first time you open Rocket.Chat, it asks you to set up the workspace. The steps are Rocket.Chat’s, and can differ between versions:

1. Administrator account: your name, a username, your email address and a password. This account manages the workspace, so use a strong password.
2. Organisation: its name, industry, size and country.
3. Register the workspace: an email address. Rocket.Chat sends a confirmation link to it.

After that the workspace opens. Invite people and create channels from Rocket.Chat’s administration pages. See the Rocket.Chat documentation.

Use your own domain

To reach Rocket.Chat under your own name, point the domain at the VM and add it on the VM’s Domains tab. See Add a domain to a VM.

Caution

An address that starts with http:// is not encrypted: passwords and messages can be read on the way. Before your team uses the workspace, serve it over HTTPS. Rocket.Chat’s documentation describes how.

If something does not work

• Select Report issue on the app’s page to tell the publisher. See Raise an issue on an app.
• The app runs on your VM, so you can look at it yourself over SSH or with Terminal on the VM’s page.