How to Install Focalboard on CentOS 9 Stream

Introduction

Focalboard is a free, open-source collaboration and productivity tool that lets you organize and manage projects. This article explains how to install Focalboard on a CentOS 9 Stream server.

Prerequisites

• Launch a new CentOS 9 Stream server on Vultr.
• Create a DNS "A" record pointing to the server's IP address, like board.example.com.
• Log in to the server with SSH as a non-root user with sudo privileges.
• Install PostgreSQL.
• Install Nginx.

Create the Focalboard Database

1. Log in to PostgreSQL.

    $ sudo -iu postgres psql

2. Create a new database.

    # CREATE DATABASE focalboardb;

3. Set up a new database user with a strong password.

    # CREATE USER exampleuser WITH PASSWORD 'choose_a_strong_password';

4. Grant the user rights to use the database.

    # GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE focalboardb TO exampleuser;

5. Exit PostgreSQL.

    # \q

Installation

1. Download the latest Focalboard release file.

    Latest=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/mattermost/focalboard/releases/latest|grep tag_name | cut -d '"' -f 4) wget https://github.com/mattermost/focalboard/releases/download/${Latest}/focalboard-server-linux-amd64.tar.gz

2. Extract files from the archive.

    $ tar -xvf focalboard-server-linux-amd64.tar.gz

3. Move the extracted files to /opt.

    $ sudo mv focalboard /opt/

4. Change to the Focalboard directory.

    $ cd /opt/focalboard/

5. Using a text editor of your choice, edit the config.json file.

    $ sudo nano config.json

6. Find the following lines:

    "dbconfig": "./focalboard.db",
    "postgres_dbconfig": "dbname=focalboard sslmode=disable",

7. Change them to reflect your Postgres database as shown below. Change exampleuser and choose_a_strong_password to the values you set in the first section.

    "dbtype": "postgres",
    "dbconfig": "postgres://exampleuser:choose_a_strong_password@localhost/focalboardb?sslmode=disable&connect_timeout=10",

8. Save and close the file.

9. Copy config.json to /opt/focalboard/bin.

    $ sudo cp /opt/focalboard/config.json  /opt/focalboard/bin/

10. Copy the pack directory to /opt/focalboard/bin.

     $ sudo cp -r /opt/focalboard/pack  /opt/focalboard/bin/

11. Verify the system SELinux mode.

     $ sudo getenforce

12. Set the SELinux mode from enforcing to permissive.

     $ sudo setenforce 0

Configure Nginx as a Reverse Proxy

1. Create a new Nginx configuration file.

    $ sudo touch /etc/nginx/conf.d/board.example.com.conf

2. Edit the file.

    $ sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/board.example.com.conf

3. Copy and paste the following configurations to the file. Replace board.example.com with the DNS "A" record you created in the Prerequisite section.

    server {
    listen 80;
    server_name board.example.com;
   
    location ~ /ws/* {
    proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
    proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    client_max_body_size 50M;
    proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    proxy_set_header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN;
    proxy_buffers 256 16k;
    proxy_buffer_size 16k;
    client_body_timeout 60;
    send_timeout 300;
    lingering_timeout 5;
    proxy_connect_timeout 1d;
    proxy_send_timeout 1d;
    proxy_read_timeout 1d;
    proxy_pass http://localhost:8000;
    }
   
    location / {
    client_max_body_size 50M;
    proxy_set_header Connection "";
    proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    proxy_set_header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN;
    proxy_buffers 256 16k;
    proxy_buffer_size 16k;
    proxy_read_timeout 600s;
    proxy_cache_revalidate on;
    proxy_cache_min_uses 2;
    proxy_cache_use_stale timeout;
    proxy_cache_lock on;
    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_pass http://localhost:8000;
    }
    }

4. Save and close the file.

5. Test the Nginx configuration for errors.

    $ sudo nginx -t

6. Restart Nginx.

    $ sudo systemctl restart nginx

Configure the Firewall

1. Allow HTTP port 80 through the firewall.

    $ sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=80/tcp

2. Allow the HTTPS port 443.

    $ sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=443/tcp

3. Restart the Firewall to save changes.

    $ sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Install a Let's Encrypt TLS/SSL Certificate

1. Install the EPEL repository.

    $ sudo dnf install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm

2. Install snap.

    $ sudo dnf install snapd

3. Enable and start snap.

    $ sudo systemctl enable snapd
    $ sudo systemctl start snapd

4. Install snap core, and create necessary links.

    $ sudo snap install core
    $ sudo ln -s /var/lib/snapd/snap /snap
    $ sudo echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/var/lib/snapd/snap/bin' > /etc/profile.d/snap.sh

5. Install Certbot.

    $ sudo snap install --classic certbot

6. Enable Certbot.

    $ sudo ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot

7. Request a Let's Encrypt certificate. Replace board.example.com with the DNS "A" record you created in the Prerequisite section and make sure the webroot directory /usr/share/nginx/html is accessible.

    $ sudo certbot certonly --webroot -w /usr/share/nginx/html -d board.example.com

8. Edit the Nginx configuration file.

    $ sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/board.example.com

9. Paste the following configurations after the listen 80; directive. Again, replace board.example.com with your server name.

    listen       443 ssl http2;
    listen       [::]:443 ssl http2;
   
    server_name  board.example.com;
   
    # redirect all requests to https
    if ($scheme = http) {
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
    }
   
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/board.example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/board.example.com/privkey.pem;
    ssl_trusted_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/board.example.com/chain.pem;
    ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:1m;
    ssl_session_timeout  10m;
    ssl_ciphers PROFILE=SYSTEM;
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

10. Save and close the file.

    Your completed Nginx configuration file should look similar to the one below, with your domain names.

     server {
        listen 80;
        listen       443 ssl http2;
        listen       [::]:443 ssl http2;
    
        server_name  example.com;
    
        # redirect requests to https
        if ($scheme = http) {
        return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
        }
    
        ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
        ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;
        ssl_trusted_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/chain.pem;
        ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:1m;
        ssl_session_timeout  10m;
        ssl_ciphers PROFILE=SYSTEM;
        ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
    
    
        location ~ /ws/* {
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        client_max_body_size 50M;
        proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_set_header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN;
        proxy_buffers 256 16k;
        proxy_buffer_size 16k;
        client_body_timeout 60;
        send_timeout 300;
        lingering_timeout 5;
        proxy_connect_timeout 1d;
        proxy_send_timeout 1d;
        proxy_read_timeout 1d;
        proxy_pass 127.0.0.1:8000;
        }
    
        location / {
        client_max_body_size 50M;
        proxy_set_header Connection "";
        proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_set_header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN;
        proxy_buffers 256 16k;
        proxy_buffer_size 16k;
        proxy_read_timeout 600s;
        proxy_cache_revalidate on;
        proxy_cache_min_uses 2;
        proxy_cache_use_stale timeout;
        proxy_cache_lock on;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_pass 127.0.0.1:8000;
        }
    
     }

11. Test Nginx for errors.

      $ sudo nginx -t

12. Restart Nginx.

      $ sudo systemctl restart nginx

Configure Focalboard as a System Service

1. Create a new system service file.

    $ sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/focalboard.service

2. Add the following contents to the file.

    [Unit]
    Description=Focalboard
   
    [Service]
    Type=simple
    Restart=always
    ExecStart=./opt/focalboard/bin/focalboard-server
    WorkingDirectory=/opt/focalboard
   
    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target

Save the file.

1. Restart the systemd daemon.

    $ sudo systemctl daemon-reload

2. Enable the Focalboard service file.

    $ sudo systemctl enable focalboard.service

3. Start Focalboard.

    $ sudo systemctl start focalboard

4. Verify that Focalboard is running.

    $ sudo systemctl status focalboard

Test Focalboard

Visit your server in a web browser.

    https://board.example.com

Create a new account and complete your Focalboard setup.

More Information

For more information, refer to the following articles.

• Focalboard documentation
• Nginx documentation
• Let’s Encrypt documentation