How to Install Focalboard on Debian Latest

Focalboard is an open-source self-hosted alternative to Trello and Asana. It allows you to manage your tasks, notes, and projects all in one place. In this tutorial, we will guide you on how to install Focalboard on Debian Latest.

Prerequisites

Before we dive into the installation process, you will need:

• A Debian Latest server
• A user account with sudo privileges
• SSH client such as PuTTY

Step 1: Update your System

Start by updating your system to ensure that you have the latest packages installed.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Step 2: Install Required Dependencies

To run Focalboard, you will need to have the following dependencies installed:

• MongoDB (version 4.0 or later)
• Go programming language (version 1.15 or later)
• Make utility
• C compiler

To install these dependencies, run the following command:

sudo apt install -y mongodb-org golang-go make build-essential

Step 3: Install Focalboard

The next step is to download and install Focalboard. Open your terminal and run the following commands:

cd /tmp
wget https://github.com/mattermost/focalboard/releases/download/v0.9.0/focalboard-server-linux-amd64.tar.gz
tar xf focalboard-server-linux-amd64.tar.gz
mv focalboard /opt/focalboard

Step 4: Set Up MongoDB

Focalboard uses MongoDB as a backend database. You need to create a new database user for Focalboard to use. Start by accessing the MongoDB shell as follows:

mongo

Create a new database user for Focalboard by running the following commands:

use admin
db.createUser({
    user: 'focalboard-user',
    pwd: 'focalboard-pass',
    roles: [{role: 'userAdminAnyDatabase', db: 'admin'}]
});

Now you need to enable MongoDB authentication by editing the configuration file. Open the MongoDB configuration file at /etc/mongod.conf and uncomment the following line:

security:
  authorization: enabled

Restart the MongoDB service to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart mongod

Step 5: Configure and Run Focalboard

Configure Focalboard by creating a configuration file at /opt/focalboard/config.json with the following content:

{
  "SiteURL": "http://localhost:8000",
  "ListenAddress": "0.0.0.0:8000",
  "DatabaseSettings": {
    "Type": "mongodb",
    "ConnectionString": "mongodb://focalboard-user:focalboard-pass@localhost/focalboard",
    "Automigrate": true,
    "PoolSize": 100
  }
}

Start Focalboard by running the following command:

cd /opt/focalboard
./focalboard-server

You can now access Focalboard by opening your web browser and navigating to http://<server-IP>:8000.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have shown you how to install Focalboard on Debian Latest. Once you have completed the steps above, you can start using Focalboard to manage your tasks, projects, and notes. Enjoy!