Decentralized social networking platforms like Mastodon have gained popularity in recent years. Although similar to Twitter, this open-source platform is not hosted in one place. Each individual Mastodon dedicated server is an access point to a different community, also called an “instance”. With this tutorial, we are going to install Mastodon on Ubuntu, a Linux distribution.
If you plan to host a Mastodon dedicated server and create a community of your own, you will need to install Mastodon and also register a domain to get started. Mastodon is mainly written in Ruby and Javascript, which is what you will see in the steps below. This social platform offers some exciting features and is designed to provide a more user-controlled and community-driven experience. Let’s get started!
Install Mastodon on Ubuntu
Let’s dive into the steps to download and install Mastodon on an Ubuntu server.
Installing Dependencies
Our first step is installing dependencies, but before executing this step, it is highly recommended that you update your system to the latest version of Ubuntu. To do this you can run the below command.
| sudo apt-get update -y sudo apt-get upgrade -y |
Once you’re done with the update, restart your system and login as a sudo user.
Now it’s time to install the required dependencies for Mastodon to your Ubuntu server. Follow the below command.
| sudo curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_4.x | sudo bash – sudo apt-get install imagemagick ffmpeg libpq-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev nodejs -y sudo npm install -g yarn |
After installing the dependencies for Mastodon successfully, It’s time to install the Redis server in your system. Use the following command to install.
| sudo apt-get install redis-server redis-tools -y |
Once this is done, let’s move on to the next step.
Installing and Configuring PostgreSQL
Mastodon uses a PostgreSQL database. So, it’s essential to install PostgreSQL on your server. The following command will install PostgreSQL in your system.
| sudo apt-get install postgresql pidentd -y |
Once the installation is done, you need to start the ident daemon using the following command.
| sudo systemctl start pidentd |
After that you can create a user for Mastodon on PostgreSQL.
| sudo su – postgres psql CREATE USER mastodon CREATEDB; exit |
The following command will allow users to log in without requiring a password.
| sudo sed -i ‘/^local.*postgres.*peer$/a host all all 127.0.0.1/32 ident’ /etc/postgresql/9.?/main/pg_hba.conf |
When you’re done with installing and configuring PostgreSQL, restart it for the changes to take effect.
| sudo systemctl postgresql restart |
Installing Ruby
As Mastodon is a Ruby-based application, you also need to install Ruby with the required dependencies onto your dedicated server.
| sudo apt-get install autoconf bison build-essential libssl-dev libyaml-dev libncurses5-dev libffi-dev libgdbm3 libreadline6-dev zlib1g-dev libgdbm-dev -y |
After all packages are successfully installed, it’s time to create a user for Mastodon without a password. Let’s call this user “mastodon”.
| sudo adduser –disabled-password –disabled-login mastodon |
Next, login with the Mastodon user that we created recently and install the rbenv and rbenv-build by following the below command.
| su – mastodon git clone https://github.com/rbenv/rbenv.git ~/.rbenv echo ‘export PATH=”$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH”‘ >> ~/.bashrc echo ‘eval “$(rbenv init -)”‘ >> ~/.bashrc source ~/.bashrc |
To apply the bash modification you made, logout from the Mastodon user and login again.
| exit su – mastodon git clone https://github.com/rbenv/ruby-build.git ~/.rbenv/plugins/ruby-build |
Lastly, install Ruby for Mastodon using the following command.
| rbenv install 2.4.1 rbenv global 2.4.1 |
Installing Mastodon
Now you’ve installed all required dependencies to make your server ready for running Mastodon.
It’s time to install Mastodon in your system. For this, we are going to download the latest version of Mastodon from the Git repository by using the following lines of command.
| git clone https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon.git live cd live git checkout $(git tag | tail -n 1) |
Now install a bundler to manage the dependencies and disable the gem documentation:
| echo “gem: –no-document” > ~/.gemrc gem install bundler –no-ri |
Install Mastodon with the below command
| bundle install –deployment –without development test yarn install |
Next create a configuration file for Mastodon
| cp .env.production.sample .env.production nano .env.production |
Add the following codes in the configuration file
| REDIS_HOST=localhost REDIS_PORT=6379 DB_HOST=/var/run/postgresql DB_USER=mastodon DB_NAME=mastodon_production DB_PASS= DB_PORT=5432 # Federation LOCAL_DOMAIN=yourdomain.com LOCAL_HTTPS=true |
Don’t forget to save the file when you’re done with it.
Creating the Mastodon Systemd File
In this step, we’re going to create systemd web service, background service, and API service for Mastodon.
Let’s start by creating the web service file,
| nano /etc/systemd/system/mastodon-web.service |
Add the following lines:
| [Unit] Description=mastodon-web After=network.target [Service] Type=simple User=mastodon WorkingDirectory=/home/mastodon/live Environment=“RAILS_ENV=production” Environment=“PORT=3000” ExecStart=/home/mastodon/.rbenv/shims/bundle exec puma -C config/puma.rb TimeoutSec=15 Restart=always [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target |
Next, create the Background service file
| nano /etc/systemd/system/mastodon-sidekiq.service |
Add the following lines:
| [Unit] Description=mastodon-sidekiq After=network.target [Service] Type=simple User=mastodon WorkingDirectory=/home/mastodon/live Environment=“RAILS_ENV=production” Environment=“DB_POOL=5” ExecStart=/home/mastodon/.rbenv/shims/bundle exec sidekiq -c 5 -q default -q mailers -q pull -q push TimeoutSec=15 Restart=always [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target |
Lastly, create the API service file:
| nano /etc/systemd/system/mastodon-streaming.service |
Add the following lines for this file:
| [Unit] Description=mastodon-streaming After=network.target [Service] Type=simple User=mastodon WorkingDirectory=/home/mastodon/live Environment=“NODE_ENV=production” Environment=“PORT=4000” ExecStart=/usr/bin/npm run start TimeoutSec=15 Restart=always [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target |
Now enable the service files that we created by executing the following command,
| sudo systemctl enable /etc/systemd/system/mastodon-*.service sudo systemctl enable /etc/systemd/system//etc/systemd/system//etc/systemd/system/mastodon-web.service sudo systemctl enable /etc/systemd/system//etc/systemd/system/mastodon-streaming.service |
At the end, start the Mastodon instance:
| sudo systemctl start mastodon-web.service sudo systemctl start mastodon-sidekiq.service sudo systemctl start mastodon-streaming.service |
Configuring Nginx for Mastodon
This is our last step. Here you need to set up a reverse-proxy using Nginx to access Mastodon with your domain.
Let’s begin by installing Nginx with the following command:
| sudo apt-get install nginx -y |
Then create a Nginx virtual server block for Mastodon.
| sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/mastodon.conf |
Include the following lines,
| map $http_upgrade $connection_upgrade { default upgrade; ” close; } server { listen 80; listen [::]:80; server_name www.yourdomain.com yourdomain.com; return 301 https://votredomaine.com$request_uri; access_log /dev/null; error_log /dev/null; } server { listen 443 ssl http2; listen [::]:443 ssl http2; server_name www.yourdomain.com yourdomain.com; access_log /var/log/nginx/yourdomain.com-access.log; error_log /var/log/nginx/yourdomain.com-error.log; ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/fullchain.pem; ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/privkey.pem; ssl_protocols TLSv1.2; ssl_ciphers EECDH+AESGCM:EECDH+AES; ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on; add_header Strict-Transport-Security “max-age=15552000; preload”; keepalive_timeout 70; sendfile on; client_max_body_size 0; gzip off; root /home/mastodon/live/public; location / { try_files $uri @proxy; } location @proxy { proxy_set_header Host $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 https; proxy_pass_header Server; proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000; proxy_buffering off; proxy_redirect off; proxy_http_version 1.1; proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade; proxy_set_header Connection $connection_upgrade; tcp_nodelay on; } location /api/v1/streaming { proxy_set_header Host $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 https; proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:4000; proxy_buffering off; proxy_redirect off; proxy_http_version 1.1; proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade; proxy_set_header Connection $connection_upgrade; tcp_nodelay on; } error_page 500 501 502 503 504 /500.html; } |
Now restart Nginx,
| systemctl restart nginx |
Finally, you’ve completed all the steps to download and install Mastodon on your server. You can now open your web browser and type your domain URL to access your Mastodon install.
For more system administration guides, such as backing up your server or creating an API, visit Mastodon’s website.
Contact Us
If you’re looking for a dedicated server to host your Mastodon instance, we’re here to help. ReliableSite offers a wide range of dedicated hosting options to meet your needs and budget. Choose from our servers in three prime locations: New York City metro area, Miami, FL, and Los Angeles, CA. Get in touch with the ReliableSite team to get started!
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