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21/10/23, 19:22 Install Wekan Kanban Board system on Ubuntu 20.04|18.

04 | ComputingForGeeks

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Install Wekan Kanban Board system on Ubuntu
20.04|18.04
By Josphat Mutai - September 22, 2021

This guide aims to cover complete installation of Wekan on Ubuntu 20.04/18.04 LTS.
Wekan is a free and open source Trello-style Kanban Board system that helps you
manage tasks and keep your stuff organized, plan for holidays, prepare a personal todo
list, managing other people e.t.c.

Below are some key features of Wekan Kanban Board system:

You can list of all your public and private boards using shortcuts at top of page

Has a full screen or window on a desktop and full screen on mobile Firefox without a
need for browser buttons

You have Keyboard shortcuts button at the bottom right corner

User management module


You can restore an archived board

You add, star, watch, archive and delete boards

Import Trello board: Text, labels, images, comments, checklists. Not imported yet:
stickers, etc.

Export Wekan board


Clipboard and drag and drop functions

Provides a REST API

Authentication, Admin Panel, SMTP Settings, and many others.

Step 1: Install Snap on Ubuntu 20.04/18.04


The easiest way to install Wekan Kanban board tool on Ubuntu 20.04/18.04 is by
using snap . If you’re new to Snap, check our guide on Installing Snap on Linux

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···
Installation of snap on Ubuntu should be as easy as running

···

sudo apt update


sudo apt install snap

For CentOS users, check Install Wekan Open source Kanban on CentOS with Lets’s
Encrypt

Step 2: Install Wekan on Ubuntu 20.04/18.04 with snap


Once the snap package is installed, install wekan by running the command:

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$ sudo snap install wekan


wekan 5.30 from Lauri Ojansivu (xet7) installed

You need to configure a web URL root for wekan:

···

sudo snap set wekan root-url="https://wekan.example.com"

You can run Wekan on standard http port 80 or on a different port like. 3001 A
custom port is useful when running Wekan behind a proxy like Nginx

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sudo snap set wekan port='3001'


sudo systemctl restart snap.wekan.mongodb
sudo systemctl restart snap.wekan.wekan

Check for status

$ sudo ss -tunelp | grep 3001


tcp LISTEN 0 128 0.0.0.0:3001
0.0.0.0:* users:(("node",pid=5703,fd=14)) ino:29462 sk:6 <->

Its systemd service unit file


is /etc/systemd/system/snap.wekan.wekan.service. To check service status,
use:

$ systemctl status snap.wekan.wekan


● snap.wekan.wekan.service - Service for snap application
wekan.wekan
Loaded: loaded
(/etc/systemd/system/snap.wekan.wekan.service; enabled; vendor
preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Sat 2021-06-05 15:09:29 UTC;
47s ago
Main PID: 7615 (wekan-control)
Tasks: 12 (limit: 2344)
Memory: 135.5M
CGroup: /system.slice/snap.wekan.wekan.service
├─7615 /bin/bash /snap/wekan/1518/bin/wekan-control
└─8164 /snap/wekan/1518/bin/node main.js

Jun 05 15:09:30 ubuntu wekan.wekan[7615]: RESULTS_PER_PAGE=


(default value)
Jun 05 15:09:30 ubuntu wekan.wekan[7615]:
MONGO_URL=mongodb://127.0.0.1:27019/wekan
Jun 05 15:09:33 ubuntu wekan.wekan[8164]: Note: you are using a
pure-JavaScript implementation of bcrypt.
Jun 05 15:09:33 ubuntu wekan.wekan[8164]: While this
implementation will work correctly, it is known to be
Jun 05 15:09:33 ubuntu wekan.wekan[8164]: approximately three
times slower than the native implementation.

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Jun 05 15:09:33 ubuntu wekan.wekan[8164]: In order to use the


native implementation instead, run
Jun 05 15:09:33 ubuntu wekan.wekan[8164]: meteor npm install --
save bcrypt
Jun 05 15:09:33 ubuntu wekan.wekan[8164]: in the root directory
of your application.
Jun 05 15:09:34 ubuntu wekan.wekan[8164]: Presence started
serverId=warKZo7PYy9G4fxtc
Jun 05 15:09:37 ubuntu wekan.wekan[8164]:
{"line":"87","file":"percolate_synced-
cron.js","message":"SyncedCron: Scheduled
\"notification_cleanup\" next run @Sat >

How To Disable and enable wekan service

Use the following snap commands to enable wekan service on Ubuntu 20.04/18.04 to
start on boot.

···

sudo snap enable wekan

To disable the service, use:

sudo snap disable wekan

MongoDB service port can also be changed to a custom one:

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sudo snap set wekan mongodb-port=27019

Accessing MongoDB CLI for Administration

To use MongoDB CLI, you need to install MongoDB 3.2.x tools, and run on CLI:

···

$ sudo apt install mongodb-clients -y


$ mongo --port 27019
MongoDB shell version v3.6.8
connecting to: mongodb://127.0.0.1:27019/
WARNING: No implicit session: Logical Sessions are only supported

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on server versions 3.6 and greater.


Implicit session: dummy session
MongoDB server version: 3.2.22
WARNING: shell and server versions do not match
Server has startup warnings:
2021-06-05T15:09:26.343+0000 I CONTROL [initandlisten] **
WARNING: You are running this process as the root user, which is
not recommended.
2021-06-05T15:09:26.344+0000 I CONTROL [initandlisten]
>

Restarting Wekan after changes

If you need to restart Wekan whenever you make changes, use the command:

sudo systemctl restart snap.wekan.wekan

Step 3: Set Snap Auto-updates


Install all Snap updates automatically between 02:00 AM and 04:00 AM

snap set core refresh.schedule=02:00-04:00

Automatic upgrades happen sometime after Wekan is released, or at a scheduled time,


or with:

$ sudo snap refresh


2021-06-05T15:23:10Z INFO Waiting for automatic snapd restart...
snapd 2.50.1 from Canonical✓ refreshed

Step 4: Configure Wekan Email Settings (Optional)


Configure Admin notification email. This is optional since Wekan doesn’t need email
configurations to function.

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···

sudo snap set wekan mail-


url='smtps://user:pass@mailserver.example.com:453'
sudo snap set wekan mail-from='Wekan Boards <wekan@example.com>'

Step 5: Configure Nginx without SSL


Install nginx web server:

sudo apt install nginx -y

For the default Nginx configuration, /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

$ sudo vim /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Here are the recommended settings:

user www-data;
worker_processes auto;
pid /run/nginx.pid;
include /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/*.conf;

events {
worker_connections 1024;
# multi_accept on;
}

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http {

##
# Basic Settings
##

sendfile on;
tcp_nopush on;
tcp_nodelay on;
types_hash_max_size 2048;
server_tokens off;
set_real_ip_from 0.0.0.0/32; # All addresses get a real
IP.
real_ip_header X-Forwarded-For;
limit_conn_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=arbeit:10m;
client_body_timeout 60;
client_header_timeout 60;
keepalive_timeout 10 10;
send_timeout 60;
reset_timedout_connection on;

# server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
# server_name_in_redirect off;

include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
default_type application/octet-stream;

##
# SSL Settings
##

ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.1 TLSv1; # Dropping SSLv3,


ref: POODLE
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:30m;
ssl_session_timeout 1d;
ssl_ciphers
ECDH+aRSA+AESGCM:ECDH+aRSA+SHA384:ECDH+aRSA+SHA256:ECDH:EDH+CAMEL
LIA:EDH+aRSA:+CAMELLIA256:+AES256:+CAMELLIA128:+AES128:+SSLv3:!aN

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ULL:!eNULL:!LOW:!3DES:!MD5:!EXP:!PSK:!SRP:!DSS:!RC4:!SEED:!ECDSA:
CAMELLIA256-SHA:AES256-SHA:CAMELLIA128-SHA:AES128-SHA;
ssl_ecdh_curve secp384r1;
ssl_stapling on;
ssl_stapling_verify on;
add_header X-XSS-Protection '1; mode=block';
add_header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN;
add_header Strict-Transport-Security 'max-age=31536000';
add_header X-Content-Options nosniff;
add_header X-Micro-Cache $upstream_cache_status;

##
# Logging Settings
##

access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;

##
# Gzip Settings
##

gzip on;
gzip_disable "msie6";
gzip_buffers 16 8k;
gzip_comp_level 1;
gzip_http_version 1.1;
gzip_min_length 10;
gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json
application/javascript text/xml application/xml
application/xml+rss text/javascript image/x-icon
application/vnd.ms-fontobject font/opentype application/x-font-
ttf;
gzip_vary on;
gzip_proxied any; # Compression for all requests.

##
# Virtual Host Configs
##

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include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}

If you want to use SSL, check step 6. For http only service, create Nginx Virtual Host for
Wekan.

···

sudo vim /etc/nginx/conf.d/wekan.conf

Add the following contents to the file.

# This section is needed to proxy web-socket connections


map $http_upgrade $connection_upgrade {
default upgrade;
'' close;
}

# HTTP
server {
listen 80;
server_name wekan.example.com;

# If your application is not compatible with IE <= 10, this


will redirect visitors to a page advising a browser update
# This works because IE 11 does not present itself as MSIE

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anymore
if ($http_user_agent ~ "MSIE" ) {
return 303 https://browser-update.org/update.html;
}

# Pass requests to Wekan.


# If you have Wekan at https://example.com/wekan, change the
location to:
# location /wekan {
location / {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3001;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade; # allow
websockets
proxy_set_header Connection $connection_upgrade;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr; # preserve
client IP

# this setting allows the browser to cache the


application in a way compatible with Meteor
# on every applicaiton update the name of CSS and JS file
is different, so they can be cache infinitely (here: 30 days)
# the root path (/) MUST NOT be cached
#if ($uri != '/wekan') {
# expires 30d;
#}
}
}

Don’t forget to substitute wekan.example.com with your actual domain.

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···

Validate nginx configuration:

$ sudo nginx -t
nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is
successful

Step 6: Wekan SSL encryption with Let’s Encrypt (optional)


This section demonstrates how to use Let’s Encrypt to secure access to your Wekan
Dashboard. Any other valid SSL certificates can be used and skipping Let’s Encrypt
certificates generation step.

To request for certbot SSL certificate, you need the port 80 open and not used by any
web service. If you have UFW firewall running, open the port using:

sudo ufw allow proto tcp from any to any port 80,443

We’ll request for a certificate using. certbot Provide a valid email address for expiry
notifications and a valid domain to be used for Wekan.

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sudo apt update


sudo apt install certbot -y
export DOMAIN="wekan.example.com"
export EMAIL="domain-manager@example.com"
sudo systemctl stop nginx
sudo certbot certonly --standalone -d $DOMAIN --preferred-
challenges http --agree-tos -n -m $EMAIL --keep-until-expiring

When done. configure Nginx Proxy

sudo vim /etc/nginx/conf.d/wekan.conf

Paste these contents into file wekan.conf:

# this section is needed to proxy web-socket connections


map $http_upgrade $connection_upgrade {
default upgrade;
'' close;
}

# HTTP
server {
listen 80;
server_name wekan.example.com;
# redirect non-SSL to SSL
location / {
rewrite ^ https://example.com$request_uri? permanent;
}
}

# HTTPS server
server {
listen 443 ssl http2; # we enable HTTP/2 here (previously
SPDY)
server_name example.com; # this domain must match Common Name
(CN) in the SSL certificate

ssl_certificate
/etc/letsencrypt/live/wekan.example.com/fullchain.pem;

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ssl_certificate_key
/etc/letsencrypt/live/wekan.example.com/privkey.pem;

# If your application is not compatible with IE <= 10, this


will redirect visitors to a page advising a browser update
# This works because IE 11 does not present itself as MSIE
anymore
if ($http_user_agent ~ "MSIE" ) {
return 303 https://browser-update.org/update.html;
}

# Pass requests to Wekan.


# If you have Wekan at https://example.com/wekan , change
location to:
# location /wekan {
location / {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3001;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade; # allow
websockets
proxy_set_header Connection $connection_upgrade;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr; # preserve
client IP

# this setting allows the browser to cache the


application in a way compatible with Meteor
# on every applicaiton update the name of CSS and JS file
is different, so they can be cache infinitely (here: 30 days)
# the root path (/) MUST NOT be cached
#if ($uri != '/wekan') {
# expires 30d;
#}
}
}

Replace all occurrences of wekan.example.com with your Wekan domain name.

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···

Start nginx service and enable it to start on boot:

$ sudo nginx -t
nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is
successful

If config is OK, take it into use by starting nginx service:

sudo systemctl restart nginx


sudo systemctl enable nginx

Confirm that nginx service is indeed running:

$ systemctl status nginx


● nginx.service - A high performance web server and a reverse
proxy server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service; enabled;
vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Sat 2021-06-05 15:40:16 UTC;
26s ago
Docs: man:nginx(8)
Main PID: 11710 (nginx)
Tasks: 2 (limit: 2344)
Memory: 3.0M
CGroup: /system.slice/nginx.service

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├─11710 nginx: master process /usr/sbin/nginx -g


daemon on; master_process on;
└─11711 nginx: worker process

Jun 05 15:40:16 ubuntu systemd[1]: Starting A high performance


web server and a reverse proxy server...
Jun 05 15:40:16 ubuntu systemd[1]: Started A high performance web
server and a reverse proxy server.

You can view wekan help page by running:

wekan.help

Step 7: Adding Wekan UI Users


Go to your Wekan URL like https://example.com/sign-up page. For a fresh installation,
you need to signup to get an admin account.

Register your username, email address, and password. The first user to be registered
have admin privileges, and the next one will be normal users. If you want other admins
too, you can change their permission to admin at Admin Panel.

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···

Note: If you get some error about email settings, you can ignore it. WORKING EMAIL IS
NOT REQUIRED. Wekan works without setting up email.

Once an account has been created. Login to Wekan at https://example.com/sign-in

Registering normal users:

By default, other users can register themselves by visiting the


page https://example.com/sign-up and creating an account. If you would like to disable
self-registration, navigate to Admin Panel > Settings > Registration > [X] Disable self-
registration. Then invite new users to selected boards by email address.

Conclusion
You should have been successful to install Wekan Kanban application on Ubuntu
20.04/18.04 LTS server. It is not a compulsory requirement to configure Nginx reverse
proxy with Letsencrypt SSL certificate.

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