meshcentral Installation Guide Installation Guide

meshcentral is a free and open-source remote management. MeshCentral provides full computer management over web

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 2+ cores

RAM: 2GB minimum

Storage: 10GB for data

Network: HTTP/WebSocket

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port 443 (default meshcentral port)

None

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install meshcentral
sudo dnf install -y meshcentral

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now meshcentral

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=443/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
meshcentral --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install meshcentral
sudo apt install -y meshcentral

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now meshcentral

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 443

# Verify installation
meshcentral --version

bash

# Install meshcentral
sudo pacman -S meshcentral

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now meshcentral

# Verify installation
meshcentral --version

bash

# Install meshcentral
apk add --no-cache meshcentral

# Enable and start service
rc-update add meshcentral default
rc-service meshcentral start

# Verify installation
meshcentral --version

bash

# Install meshcentral
sudo zypper install -y meshcentral

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now meshcentral

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=443/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
meshcentral --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install meshcentral

# Start service
brew services start meshcentral

# Verify installation
meshcentral --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install meshcentral

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'meshcentral_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service meshcentral start

# Verify installation
meshcentral --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install meshcentral

# Or using Scoop
scoop install meshcentral

# Verify installation
meshcentral --version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/meshcentral

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
meshcentral --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable meshcentral

# Start service
sudo systemctl start meshcentral

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop meshcentral

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart meshcentral

# Check status
sudo systemctl status meshcentral

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u meshcentral -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add meshcentral default

# Start service
rc-service meshcentral start

# Stop service
rc-service meshcentral stop

# Restart service
rc-service meshcentral restart

# Check status
rc-service meshcentral status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'meshcentral_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service meshcentral start

# Stop service
service meshcentral stop

# Restart service
service meshcentral restart

# Check status
service meshcentral status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start meshcentral
brew services stop meshcentral
brew services restart meshcentral

# Check status
brew services list | grep meshcentral

powershell

# Start service
net start meshcentral

# Stop service
net stop meshcentral

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service meshcentral
Stop-Service meshcentral
Restart-Service meshcentral

# Check status
Get-Service meshcentral

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream meshcentral_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:443;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name meshcentral.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name meshcentral.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/meshcentral.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/meshcentral.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://meshcentral_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName meshcentral.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://meshcentral.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName meshcentral.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/meshcentral.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/meshcentral.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:443/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:443/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend meshcentral_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/meshcentral.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend meshcentral_backend

backend meshcentral_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server meshcentral1 127.0.0.1:443 check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R meshcentral:meshcentral /etc/meshcentral
sudo chmod 750 /etc/meshcentral

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=443/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status meshcentral

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u meshcentral -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep meshcentral)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/meshcentral"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/meshcentral-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/meshcentral /var/lib/meshcentral

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/meshcentral-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop meshcentral

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/meshcentral/meshcentral-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start meshcentral

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u meshcentral -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/meshcentral/meshcentral.log

# Check configuration
meshcentral --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/meshcentral

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 443

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 443

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep meshcentral)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep meshcentral)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 443

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  meshcentral:
    image: meshcentral:latest
    ports:
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/meshcentral
      - ./data:/var/lib/meshcentral
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update meshcentral

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade meshcentral

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu meshcentral

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade meshcentral

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update meshcentral

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade meshcentral

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/meshcentral-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/meshcentral

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart meshcentral

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/meshcentral

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/meshcentral -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/meshcentral

Official Documentation: https://docs.meshcentral.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/meshcentral/meshcentral

Community Forum: https://forum.meshcentral.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.meshcentral.org/best-practices

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Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources

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