Mattermost is an open-source alternative to slack. It is easily installed on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS but apache2 configuration needs tricking a bit to set up SSL encryption properly. Here is my solution.

  1. Step 1: Mattermost installation is well described at this link. I have installed it with a mysql database and I simply followed the instructions described in sections
    1. Installing Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS
    2. Installing MySQL Database Server
    3. Installing Mattermost Server
  2. Step 2: At this step, to properly run mattermost, I needed to open the proper tcp port (8065) for shorewall. This was performed by editing (as root) the file /etc/shorewall/rules and adding the line 
    ACCEPT          net             $FW             tcp     8065

    shorewall then needs a restart with 

    sudo service shorewall restart

    mattermost can be started with 

    sudo service mattermost start

    At this step, you should have access to mattermost at http://your-domain.org:3065. You can create a first user that will be the administrator (choose a strong password for that user).</li>

  3. Step 3: Configuring the apache2 redirection with a proper SSL encryption is performed as follows:
    1. first, the following apache2 modules must be enabled: ssl, proxy, proxy_http, proxy_wstunnel. You can load then using the following command lines: 
      sudo a2enmod ssl proxy proxy_http proxy_wstunnel
sudo service apache2 reload
    2. second, create the virtual user in /etc/apache2/sites-available/mattermost.conf as follows:
      mattermost-vhost.png
      where the SSL certificates are created as described in this previous post. Finally, enable its use with</p> 
      sudo a2ensite mattermost
sudo service apache2 reload

      mattermost can be accessed at https://mattermost.my-domain.org and you can proceed with the mattermost configuration as described in Configuring Mattermost Server.</li> </ol> </li> </ol> </div>