How to Install Focalboard on CentOS 9 Stream

by cobra_admin
February 21, 2025
58

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

Log in to PostgreSQL.
```
 $ sudo -iu postgres psql
```
Create a new database.
```
 # CREATE DATABASE focalboardb;
```

Set up a new database user with a strong password.

 # CREATE USER exampleuser WITH PASSWORD 'choose_a_strong_password';

Grant the user rights to use the database.

 # GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE focalboardb TO exampleuser;

Exit PostgreSQL.
```
 # \q
```

Installation

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

Extract files from the archive.

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

Move the extracted files to /opt.
```
 $ sudo mv focalboard /opt/
```
Change to the Focalboard directory.
```
 $ cd /opt/focalboard/
```
Using a text editor of your choice, edit the config.json file.
```
 $ sudo nano config.json
```

Find the following lines:

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

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",
```
Save and close the file.

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

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

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

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

Verify the system SELinux mode.
```
 $ sudo getenforce
```
Set the SELinux mode from enforcing to permissive.
```
 $ sudo setenforce 0
```

Configure Nginx as a Reverse Proxy

Create a new Nginx configuration file.

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

Edit the file.

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

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;
 }
 }

Save and close the file.
Test the Nginx configuration for errors.
```
 $ sudo nginx -t
```
Restart Nginx.
```
 $ sudo systemctl restart nginx
```

Configure the Firewall

Allow HTTP port 80 through the firewall.

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

Allow the HTTPS port 443.

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

Restart the Firewall to save changes.
```
 $ sudo firewall-cmd --reload
```

Install a Let’s Encrypt TLS/SSL Certificate

Install the EPEL repository.

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

Install snap.
```
 $ sudo dnf install snapd
```

Enable and start snap.

 $ sudo systemctl enable snapd
 $ sudo systemctl start snapd

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

Install Certbot.
```
 $ sudo snap install --classic certbot
```

Enable Certbot.

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

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
```

Edit the Nginx configuration file.

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

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;

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;
    }

 }

Test Nginx for errors.
```
  $ sudo nginx -t
```
Restart Nginx.
```
  $ sudo systemctl restart nginx
```

Configure Focalboard as a System Service

Create a new system service file.

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

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.

Restart the systemd daemon.
```
 $ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
```

Enable the Focalboard service file.

 $ sudo systemctl enable focalboard.service

Start Focalboard.
```
 $ sudo systemctl start focalboard
```
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.

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.…

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.…

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