Docker Chatwoot Production deployment guide

Link: https://www.developers.chatwoot.com/docs/self-hosted/deployment/docker/docker

Pre-requisites​

Before proceeding, make sure you have the latest version of docker and docker-compose installed.

As of now[now [at the time of writing this doc], we recommend a version equal to or higher than the following.

$ docker --version
Docker version 20.10.10, build b485636
$ docker compose version
Docker Compose version v2.14.1

Note Container name uses dashes instead of underscores by default with new docker/compose versions. If you are using an older version of docker/compose, replace - with _. Also, use docker-compose instead of docker compose.

Steps to deploy Chatwoot using docker-compose

1. Install Docker on your VM

# example in ubuntu
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh
apt install docker-compose-plugin

2. Download the required files

# Download the env file template
wget -O .env https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chatwoot/chatwoot/develop/.env.example
# Download the Docker compose template
wget -O docker-compose.yaml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chatwoot/chatwoot/develop/docker-compose.production.yaml

# example in ubuntu
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh
apt install docker-compose-plugin

# update redis and postgres passwords
nano .env
# update docker-compose.yaml same postgres pass
nano docker-compose.yaml

docker compose run --rm rails bundle exec rails db:chatwoot_prepare

5. Start the services

docker compose up -d

If you want to verify whether the installation is working, try curl -I localhost:3000/api to see if it returns 200. Also, you could temporarily drop the 127.0.0.1:3000:3000 for rails to 3000:3000 in the compose file to access your instance at http://<your-external-ip>:3000. It'It’s recommended to revert this change back and use Nginx or some proxy server in the front.

Additional Steps​

Configure Nginx and Let'Let’s Encrypt

1. Configure Nginx to serve as a frontend proxy.

sudo apt-get install nginx
cd /etc/nginx/sites-enabled
nano yourdomain.com.conf

server {
  server_name <yourdomain.com>;

  # Point upstream to Chatwoot App Server
  set $upstream 127.0.0.1:3000;

  # Nginx strips out underscore in headers by default
  # Chatwoot relies on underscore in headers for API
  # Make sure that the config is set to on.
  underscores_in_headers on;
  location /.well-known {
    alias /var/www/ssl-proof/chatwoot/.well-known;
  }

  location / {
    proxy_pass_header Authorization;
    proxy_pass http://$upstream;
    proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
    proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Ssl on; # Optional

    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;

    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_set_header Connection “”;
    proxy_buffering off;

    client_max_body_size 0;
    proxy_read_timeout 36000s;
    proxy_redirect off;
  }
  listen 80;
}

nginx -t
systemctl reload nginx

apt install certbot
apt-get install python3-certbot-nginx
mkdir -p /var/www/ssl-proof/chatwoot/.well-known
certbot --webroot -w /var/www/ssl-proof/chatwoot/ -d yourdomain.com -i nginx

Steps to build images yourself​

We publish our base images to the Docker hub. You should be able to build your Chatwoot web/worker images from these base images.

Web

Web

FROM chatwoot/chatwoot:latest
RUN chmod +x docker/entrypoints/rails.sh
ENTRYPOINT ["docker/entrypoints/rails.sh"]
CMD bundle exec bundle exec rails s -b 0.0.0.0 -p 3000

Worker

worker​

FROM chatwoot/chatwoot:latest
RUN chmod +x docker/entrypoints/rails.sh
ENTRYPOINT ["docker/entrypoints/rails.sh"]
CMD bundle exec sidekiq -C config/sidekiq.yml

The app servers will run available on port 3000. Ensure the images connect to the same database and Redis servers. Provide the configuration for these services via environment variables.

Initial database setup​

To set up the database for the first time, you must run rails db:chatwoot_prepare. You may get errors if you try to run rails db:migrate at this point.

Upgrading

Upgrading

If you'you’re not using the latest or latest-ce tag, you first need to change the desired tag in your docker-compose filefile.

After that you can pull the new image and start using them:

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Finally you may need to update the database:

docker compose run --rm rails bundle exec rails db:chatwoot_prepare

Running Rails Console​

docker exec -it $(basename $(pwd))-rails-1 sh -c 'RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rails c'

Chatwoot CE edition docker images​

If you want to run Chatwoot CE edition, replace the docker image tag with equivalent foss version tag. Docker tag for current master would be latest-ce. Version specific tags would follow the pattern v*-ce. For example the docker ce edition tag for Chatwoot v2.3.2 would be v2.3.2-ce.