Mastodon¶

In this article

• Mastodon. Key Features
• Deployment Features
• Getting started after deploying Mastodon
• Configure change
• Changing Mastodon Server Domain Name
• Administrator panel initial settings
• Managing server rules
• Inviting users
• Ordering a server with Mastodon using the API

Mastodon. Key Features¶

• Mastodon enables users to subscribe and communicate with other users from any connected server;
• The platform offers public post feeds to help users discover interesting content. The local feed displays posts from your server, while the federated feed displays all public posts of subscribed users from your server that are known to your server;
• Users can interact with posts directly in the feed or in the advanced post view by replying, sharing, adding to favorites, bookmarking, or using an additional menu;
• Mastodon sends notifications for various interaction events related to your profile and posts. These notifications can be filtered by type;
• To subscribe to a user, simply click the Follow button on their profile. You can also enable notifications for new posts from your subscriptions; The search function in Mastodon allows you to find users, hashtags, and posts via a link. With full-text search installed, you can search your own posts and favorites;
• Private posts in Mastodon are only visible to subscribers. They are shown in a separate dialog column;
• The subscription lists can be used to view the post feed exclusively.

Deployment Features¶

• Installed software

  Software	License
  Mastodon	AGPLv3
  Nginx	Custom
  Postgres	Postgres SQL
  Certbot	Apache 2
  Redis	BSD-3-Clause

• Recommended system requirements:

  • 64-bit processor with 4 cores;
  • 8 GB of RAM;
  • 80 GB of SSD storage space.

The link to access the web interface will be: https://mastodon{Server_ID_from_Invapi}.hostkey.in

Getting started after deploying Mastodon¶

A notification will be sent to the e-mail specified during registration that the server is ready for work after paying for the order. It will contain the IP address of the VPS, as well as the login and password for the connection. Clients of our company manage the hardware in the server and API control panel — Invapi.

You can find the authorization data either in the Info >> Tags tab of the server control panel or in the email that was sent.

• Link to access the Mastodon dashboard with a web interface: in the webpanel tag;
• Login and Password for connecting to the server: sent via email to your address once the server is ready after software deployment;
• Login and Password for authenticating in the Mastodon web interface are set manually during account creation through the administrator's console.

Configure change¶

To change the Mastodon configuration from the command line, use the tootctl and rails utility:

• Account settings, create, modify, assign permissions, etc;
• SMTP server settings;
• User registration settings.

Example Usage¶

1. Connect to the server via SSH:

   ssh root@<server_ip>
   

2. Log into the Mastodon web application container. Find and connect to the mastodon_web_1 container:

   docker exec -it mastodon_web_1 bash
   

3. To create a new user, use the command tootctl accounts create. Specify the username, email, and the --confirmed flag for account confirmation.

   RAILS_ENV=production bin/tootctl accounts create new_username --email [email protected] --confirmed
   

   Replace new_username with your desired username and [email protected] with the actual email of the user. After executing this command, the user will be created. Be sure to save the password displayed on screen:

   

Granting Administrator Privileges and Approving User¶

After creating a user, you need to find them in the database to change their permissions and status.

1. Start the Rails console:

   RAILS_ENV=production bin/rails console
   

2. Find the user by email or username:

   user = User.find_by(email: '[email protected]')  # or: User.find_by(username: 'new_username')
   

3. Update their status:

   user.update(approved: true)
   

   This action will remove the notification Your application is pending review by our staff... from the admin panel.

4. Assign them an administrative role:

   user.update(role: UserRole.find_by(name: 'Admin'))
   

5. Verify:

   user.reload
   

   user.role           # => "Admin"
   

   user.approved       # => true
   

6. Exit the console:

   exit
   

Configuring Mail Server¶

If you need to configure or change the mail server, execute:

1. Open the configuration file:

   nano /opt/mastodon/.env.production
   

   2. Configure SMTP parameters (e.g., for MailHog):

   # Sending mail
   # ------------
   SMTP_SERVER=mailhog
   SMTP_PORT=1025
   SMTP_LOGIN=
   SMTP_PASSWORD=
   SMTP_FROM_ADDRESS=notifications@your_domain
   SMTP_AUTH_METHOD=none
   SMTP_OPENSSL_VERIFY_MODE=none
   SMTP_ENABLE_STARTTLS=false
   

   3. Restart Mastodon containers To apply new settings, restart the Mastodon containers:

   cd /opt/mastodon
   

   docker-compose restart
   

   4. Check email functionality - For MailHog: open the web interface http://your_server:8025 - Check logs:

   docker-compose -f /opt/mastodon/docker-compose.yml logs sidekiq | grep -i mail
   

   - Test it out: register a new user and check for email receipt

 docker ps

Changing Mastodon Server Domain Name¶

Key Files and Directories¶

To change the domain name, follow these steps:

1. Register your own domain, e.g., mastodon.mydomain.com.

2. Configure DNS records for this domain:

   • Set an A-record pointing to the Mastodon server's IP address;
   • Configure MX record pointing to the mail server.

   Information

   DNS Management

3. Add a PTR record in IP address settings on Invapi; !!! info "Information" Learn more about setting up PTR records in Invapi here.

4. Update Mastodon Environment Variables Edit the file /opt/mastodon/.env.production, replacing the current value (e.g., mastodon<server_ID>.hostkey.in) with your new domain:

   # Previous:
   # LOCAL_DOMAIN=mastodon<server_ID>.hostkey.in
   
   # Updated:
   LOCAL_DOMAIN=skaz.online
   WEB_DOMAIN=skaz.online
   

   5. Set up Nginx with HTTPS Support

   5.1 Create Nginx Configuration Important: Create a new configuration file, replacing the old one. Old configurations may contain different proxy_pass directives, leading to malfunction. Create an Nginx configuration file /data/nginx/user_conf.d/skaz.online.conf with the following content:

   server {
       listen 80;
       server_name skaz.online;
       return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
   }
   server {
       listen 443 ssl;
       listen [::]:443 ssl;
       server_name skaz.online;
   
       # SSL certificates
       ssl_certificate         /etc/letsencrypt/live/skaz.online/fullchain.pem;
       ssl_certificate_key     /etc/letsencrypt/live/skaz.online/privkey.pem;
       ssl_trusted_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/skaz.online/chain.pem;
       ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/dhparams/dhparam.pem;
   
       # Main Mastodon application (port 3000)
       location / {
           proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto https;
           proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Ssl on;
           proxy_set_header Host $host;
           proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host;
           proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Server $host;
           proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
           proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
           proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;
           real_ip_header X-Forwarded-For;
           # WebSocket support
           proxy_http_version 1.1;
           proxy_set_header X-Scheme $scheme;
           proxy_buffering off;
       }
   
       # Mastodon Streaming API (port 4000)
       location ^~ /api/v1/streaming {
           proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto https;
           proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Ssl on;
           proxy_set_header Host $host;
           proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host;
           proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Server $host;
           proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
           proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
           proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:4000;
           real_ip_header X-Forwarded-For;
           # WebSocket support
           proxy_http_version 1.1;
           proxy_set_header X-Scheme $scheme;
           proxy_buffering off;
       }
   }
   

   5.2 Obtain SSL Certificate Check for the certificate:

   docker exec -it mastodon-nginx-1 ls /etc/letsencrypt/live/
   

   If the certificate is missing, obtain it:

   docker compose stop nginx
   

   docker compose run --rm nginx certbot certonly --standalone -d skaz.online
   

   docker compose start nginx
   

5. Clean Up Conflicting Configurations

Important! Remove old Nginx configurations as multiple .conf files can cause conflicts: Delete the old configuration (e.g., for mastodon<server_ID>.hostkey.in)

rm /data/nginx/user_conf.d/mastodon<server_ID>*.conf

mv /data/nginx/user_conf.d/mastodon<server_ID>.hostkey.in.conf /data/nginx/user_conf.d/mastodon<server_ID>.hostkey.in.conf.backup

Reasons for conflicts:

• Duplicate listen 443 ssl directives cause an error duplicate listen options
• Old configurations might have different proxy_pass addresses or ports

• Nginx may misinterpret requests with multiple server blocks

• Restart Services In the directory containing docker-compose.yml, execute:

  docker compose down
  

  docker compose up -d
  

• Verify Functionality Testing from the command line

  curl -Ik https://skaz.online
  

  Expected response: HTTP/1.1 200 OK Check in a browser Open the domain in a browser — the Mastodon homepage should load.

Administrator panel initial settings¶

To access the administrator panel, follow the link from the webpanel tag, click on the Log In button, and enter the credentials set earlier.

Managing server rules¶

Administrators and moderators of each individual server in this decentralized social network set the rules for Mastodon. To manage rules, go to Administration >> Server Rules.

Basic principles for setting rules:

• Ensure that rules are reasonable and follow generally accepted standards of decency to avoid discouraging users;
• Clearly state prohibited content types, such as cruelty, violence, and illegal activities, and clarify acceptable levels of NSFW content;
• Specify procedures for warning, blocking, or restricting rule violators, as well as disciplinary actions and time limits;
• The server rules must be easily accessible to all users and publicly displayed during registration;
• It is important to periodically review and update the rules as the server grows, and involve the community in the process of modding and improving them.

Inviting users¶

Mastodon has multiple tabs in the feed for managing subscriptions and inviting new users:

• Follows and Followers - this tab displays the accounts to which the current user is subscribed, and the feed will show entries from these users. Additionally, this tab lists those who are subscribed to this account, which is the audience in Mastodon.
• Invite people - function allows users to invite friends and acquaintances to their social network. This text describes the creation of a unique link that can be shared to allow other users to join the Mastodon server.

.

Ordering a server with Mastodon using the API¶

To install this software using the API, follow these instructions.

Some of the content on this page was created or translated using AI.