Snaps FAQ

Snaps are one of our biggest install base. They are also auto-updating. As a result, we like to spend more time testing before releasing. Updated Snaps are usually released around the 15th of the month - around two weeks after a new release. This gives us time to look for issues, so you don't have to. If you have special requirements and need to use the latest release immediately, please consider another installation method, e.g., Docker.

You can change the default port (3000) to something else by changing the port configuration option. For example, if you wanted to change the HTTP port to 8080 instead of 3000:

sudo snap set rocketchat-server port=8080

Ensure you restart the rocketchat-service service afterward for the change to take effect. You only need to restart the Rocket.Chat application itself, not the database or Caddy.

To enable TLS/SSL, check out our guide for enabling Caddy here.

Make sure you're using x64 or amd64 (or armhf) images, especially on VPS or VMs. x86 (32-bit) is not supported.

While updates happen automatically, usually within 6 hours from the time of release, you can update manually by issuing this command:

sudo snap refresh rocketchat-server

sudo snap revert rocketchat-server

The Rocket.Chat Snap provides three services. Outside of the snap context, globally, each service is named like snap.<SnapName>.<SnapServiceName>. Look at the table to have a better understanding.

You can check the list of services yourself with:

snap info rocketchat-server

Look for the services section.

You can check whether either or all of them are running or not with the following command:

snap services rocketchat-server

Look into the third column (Current) that logs the current state of the services.

Another option is to use the systemctl command. To quickly check if a service is active or not, use the is-active subcommand or the more well-known status subcommand. See the table above to know the name of the service you want to inspect.

systemctl is-active snap.rocketchat-server.rocketchat-mongo
systemctl is-active snap.rocketchat-server.rocketchat-caddy
systemctl is-active snap.rocketchat-server.rocketchat-server

Or use the status subcommand:

systemctl status snap.rocketchat-server.rocketchat-mongo
systemctl status snap.rocketchat-server.rocketchat-caddy
systemctl status snap.rocketchat-server.rocketchat-server

You can either use the snap logs command, or the systemd alternative, journalctl. Always refer to the table above to know which service name to use where.

Using snap logs:

sudo snap logs -f rocketchat-server.rocketchat-server
sudo snap logs -f rocketchat-server.rocketchat-mongo
sudo snap logs -f rocketchat-server.rocketchat-caddy

To see the logs from Rocket.Chat using journalctl:

sudo journalctl -fu snap.rocketchat-server.rocketchat-server

To see the logs from Mongo or Caddy:

sudo journalctl -fu snap.rocketchat-server.rocketchat-mongo
sudo journalctl -fu snap.rocketchat-server.rocketchat-caddy

If you don't want Snaps just updating when available, you can set when your Snaps will update.

The following example asks the system only to update snaps between 4.00 am and 7.00 am, and 7.00 pm and 10:10 pm.

sudo snap set system refresh.timer=4:00-7:00,19:00-22:10

You can find more about your options in the snapcraft documentation.

This follows a similar structure as many of the previous questions. You can use both the snap command or systemctl to restart Rocket.Chat.

With snap you get the added benefit of restarting all of the services with a single command:

sudo snap restart rocketchat-server

You can also restart each service individually:

sudo snap restart rocketchat-server.rocketchat-server
sudo snap restart rocketchat-server.rocketchat-mongo
sudo snap restart rocketchat-server.rocketchat-caddy

To restart Rocket.Chat using systemctl:

sudo systemctl restart snap.rocketchat-server.rocketchat-server

Mongo and Caddy can similarly be restarted:

sudo systemctl restart snap.rocketchat-server.rocketchat-mongo 
sudo systemctl restart snap.rocketchat-server.rocketchat-caddThis follows the similar structure as many of the previous questions. You can use both the snap command or systemctl to restart RocketChat.
With snap you get the added benefit of restarting all of the services with a single command:
sudo snap restart rocketchat-server
You can also restart each service individually:
sudo snap restart rocketchat-server.rocketchat-server
sudo snap restart rocketchat-server.rocketchat-mongo
sudo snap restart rocketchat-server.rocketchat-caddy
To restart Rocket.Chat using systemctl:
sudo systemctl restart snap.rocketchat-server.rocketchat-server
Mongo and Caddy can similarly be restarted:
sudo systemctl restart snap.rocketchat-server.rocketchat-mongo 
sudo systemctl restart snap.rocketchat-server.rocketchat-cadd

Snap's policy is to restart on failure.

See Snap backup and restore.

You might want to access the Mongo shell shipped with our Rocket.Chat Snap. To do so, run:

rocketchat-server.mongo

You can find the mongod configuration file in /var/snap/rocketchat-server/current/mongod.conf.

The interface providing the ability to access removable media is not automatically connected upon installation, so if you'd like to use external storage (or otherwise use a device in /media for data), you need to give Snap permission to access removable media by connecting that interface:

sudo snap connect rocketchat-server:removable-media

• Your actual Snap files for each version of Rocket.Chat are copied to: /var/lib/snapd/snaps and they are mounted in read-only mode.

• Your Snap common directory is: /var/snap/rocketchat-server/common/; file uploads to disk and the database are stored here.

• Your Snap data directory is /var/snap/rocketchat-server/<version>; this is a versioned folder.

• You can access the current Snap data directory at /var/snap/rocketchat-server/current.

You can do this by issuing the following command, where N is the desired version:

snap remove --revision=N rocketchat-server

snapcraft prime
snap try prime --devmode
cp /usr/bin/strace prime
snap run <snap.app> --shell
sudo ./strace

Starting from release 0.73, it is possible to configure these environmental variables through Snap hooks like this:

sudo snap set rocketchat-server port=<another-port>
sudo snap set rocketchat-server mongo-url=mongodb://<your-url>:<your-port>/<your-db-name>
sudo snap set rocketchat-server mongo-oplog-url=mongodb://<your-url>:<your-port>/local

Remember to restart Rocket.Chat service after setting new values:

sudo systemctl restart snap.rocketchat-server.rocketchat-server.service

This is an example of running Rocket.Chat on port 4000 instead of 3000 and setting the database name to rocketchat instead of parties:

sudo snap set rocketchat-server port=4000
sudo snap set rocketchat-server mongo-url=mongodb://localhost:27017/rocketchat
sudo systemctl restart snap.rocketchat-server.rocketchat-server.service

Starting from release 0.73, it is possible to overwrite any Rocket.Chat environmental variables dropping files ending in .env in $SNAP_COMMON directory (/var/snap/rocketchat-server/common/), for example, you can create a file to change SMTP settings:

cat /var/snap/rocketchat-server/common/overwrite-smtp.env
OVERWRITE_SETTING_SMTP_Host=my.smtp.server.com

Remember to restart Rocket.Chat service after creating .env files:

sudo systemctl restart snap.rocketchat-server.rocketchat-server.service

More than one .env file is allowed, and more than one environmental variable defined per file is allowed.

To set a registration token for your server, create any file ending in .env under /var/snap/rocketchat-server/current/ with content:

REG_TOKEN=<your token>

Then restart your server:

sudo systemctl restart snap.rocketchat-server.rocketchat-server