Mattermost First Start: Settings>General>Config?

Troubleshooting
1

I have just finished spinning up Mattermost for the first time by following this guide:

Everything is working as expected (i have not set up SSL as i dont have a real domain, and have used “example.com” to start). In the guide it says after creating an account, and creating a team, I should navigate to Settings>General>Configuration and set the “Site URL.” Since I spun up Nginx with the site www.example dot com, do I need to leave this “Site URL” as example dot com? Or can I change it?

And if I need to leave it the same, in the event I start a new Nginx service with www.mymattermostthatnooneelsehas dot com, and a new Mattermost DB with the same name “mymattermostthatnooneelsehas” and ACTUALLY purchase that domain; Can I then change the Site URL to www.mymattermostthatnooneelsehas dot com or do i have to start a new mattermost service as well with updated config files reflecting this?

So my over arching question is, what is the significance of the Site URL.
(Since im a new user I cannot post more than 2 links, hence the www.example DOT com.)

2

Hi @steakboy,

Here is our official setup guide for Ubuntu 18.04: https://docs.mattermost.com/install/install-ubuntu-1804.html. Though I haven’t gone through the guide you shared so I’m not sure how much it differs from this one.

Here is more information on the Site URL: https://docs.mattermost.com/administration/config-settings.html#site-url. You can change it and you don’t need to purchase a domain.

Hope this helps,

3

@amyblais I began by following that install guide, but it did not cover any prerequisites. IE: UFW, SSL certificate, domain ip, etc. Which is why I switched. But after reviewing the official documentation, they do not vary at all, they are the same.
As for the information on “Site URL”, I read it, and switched the site URL to a different one, but it did not do what i thought it would have from the KB. What i understood from the KB was that by changing the site URL, by then going to that newly entered website, users could get to the mattermost service. But i changed the website, and the internet browser still said
“This site can’t be reachedwww.examplewebsitethatnooneelsehas.com ’s server IP address could not be found.”.

Am I missunderstanding what Site URL is? Or is there additional steps i need to take to make it work as intended?

4

Hi @steakboy, what Mattermost server version are you installing and do you see any log errors?