MeshCentral Installation on Ubuntu Server

These Instructions follow the steps of starting personal MeshCentral remote support server. Prerequisites require you to have set up ubuntu server, and have DNS record set up to point to this ip:443. It's good idea to use cloudflare tunnel or other type of tunneling service so you don't need to do port forwarding.

Installing Steps for MeshCentral

1. Update Server

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

2. Install Node.js

curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo bash -
sudo apt install -y nodejs   

3. Create MesCentral Directory

sudo mkdir /opt/meshcentral
cd /opt/meshcentral   

4. Install MeshCentral

sudo npm install meshcentral   

5. Create Dedicated User

sudo useradd -r -d /opt/meshcentral -s /sbin/nologin meshcentral
sudo chown -R meshcentral:meshcentral /opt/meshcentral   

6. Grant Port 443 Access

sudo setcap 'cap_net_bind_service=+ep' $(which node)   

7. Start MeshCentral

sudo -u meshcentral node node_modules/meshcentral   

8. Configure for Port 443

sudo nano /opt/meshcentral/meshcentral-data/config.json   

Replace in json file:

{
  "settings": {
    "cert": "remote.cyberclaw.org",
    "port": 443,
    "redirPort": 80,
    "wanonly": true
  },
  "domains": {
    "": {
      "title": "My MeshCentral",
      "newAccounts": true
    }
  }
}   

9. Create Systemd Service

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/meshcentral.service   

Add:

[Unit]
Description=MeshCentral Server
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=meshcentral
WorkingDirectory=/opt/meshcentral
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node node_modules/meshcentral
Restart=always
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target   

10. Enable and Start Service

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable meshcentral.service --now
sudo systemctl status meshcentral.service   

Login via domain set up for meshcentral. Go to create account. First Time account creation will be admin account.