How to Install Mattermost Collaboration Platform

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Getting Started with Mattermost: Open Source Team Collaboration with Podman

Introduction

If you are looking for an open-source alternative to Slack or Microsoft Teams, Mattermost is a great choice. It is a self-hosted chat and collaboration platform designed for developers, DevOps teams, and businesses that want full control over their communication and data.

In this beginner-friendly guide, we will walk through what Mattermost is, why it is powerful, and how to install it using Podman or Podman Compose.

What is Mattermost?

Mattermost is an open-source collaboration platform that allows you to chat, share files, and integrate tools across your organization – all while maintaining full control of your infrastructure.

Some key features include:

• Self-hosted or cloud deployment options
• Channels, direct messages, and group conversations
• Integrations with GitLab, GitHub, Jenkins, Jira, and more
• Secure data storage and customizable user management

Because it is open source, you can review, modify, and contribute to the code on GitHub.

Installing Mattermost with Podman

Podman is a daemonless container engine that is compatible with Docker commands and ideal for running Mattermost in isolated environments.

Below is a basic example of installing and running Mattermost using Podman Compose.

1. Create a project directory

mkdir mattermost-podman
cd mattermost-podman

2. Create a ‘podman-compose.yml’ file

version: "3"

services:
  db:
    image: postgres:15
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: mmuser
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: mmuser-password
      POSTGRES_DB: mattermost
    volumes:
      - ./volumes/db:/var/lib/postgresql/data

  app:
    image: mattermost/mattermost-team-edition:latest
    depends_on:
      - db
    environment:
      MM_SQLSETTINGS_DRIVERNAME: postgres
      MM_SQLSETTINGS_DATASOURCE: postgres://mmuser:mmuser-password@db:5432/mattermost?sslmode=disable&connect_timeout=10
    ports:
      - "8065:8065"
    volumes:
      - ./volumes/app/mattermost:/mattermost/data

3. Start Mattermost

podman-compose up -d

4. Access Mattermost

Once the containers are up, open your web browser and go to:

http://localhost:8065

From here, you can create your admin account and start using Mattermost.

📷 Screenshots & 📽️ Screencast

Learn More About Programming

If you want to expand your programming skills, check out my other resources:

• Programming Books – Edward Ojambo on Amazon
• Programming Courses – Ojambo Shop
• One-on-One Online Tutorials – Contact via Ojambo.com
• Mattermost Installation or Migration Help – Ojambo Services

Conclusion

Mattermost is a fantastic open-source team collaboration tool that puts you in control of your data and integrations. Using Podman, you can deploy it quickly in a secure, containerized environment.

If you would like help installing or migrating your Mattermost setup, feel free to contact me for assistance.