--- gitea: none include_toc: true --- # Installation and configuration of Synapse Mind you: this an installation on Debian Linux (at least for now). Start by installing the latest Synapse server, see the [upstream documentation](https://element-hq.github.io/synapse/latest/setup/installation.html). ``` apt install -y lsb-release wget apt-transport-https build-essential python3-dev libffi-dev \ python3-pip python3-setuptools sqlite3 \ libssl-dev virtualenv libjpeg-dev libxslt1-dev libicu-dev wget -O /usr/share/keyrings/matrix-org-archive-keyring.gpg https://packages.matrix.org/debian/matrix-org-archive-keyring.gpg echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/matrix-org-archive-keyring.gpg] https://packages.matrix.org/debian/ $(lsb_release -cs) main" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/matrix-org.list apt update apt install matrix-synapse-py3 ``` This leaves a very basic configuration in `/etc/matrix-synapse/homeserver.yaml` and two settings under `/etc/conf.d`. All other configuration items will also be configured with yaml-files in this directory. Configure the domain you with to use in `/etc/matrix-synapse/conf.d/server_name.yaml`. What you configure here will also be the global part of your Matrix handles (the part after the colon). Also add the URL clients should connect to: ``` server_name: example.com public_baseurl: https://matrix.example.com/ ``` The `public_baseurl` will probably be different than the `server_name`, see also [Delegation and DNS](#Delegation). You now have a standard Matrix server that uses sqlite. You really don't want to use this in production, so probably want to replace this with PostgreSQL. There are two different ways to configure Synapse, documented here: * [Monolithic](monolithic) * [Workers](workers) We'll use Synapse, using the workers architecture to make it scalable, flexible and reusable. ## Listeners A fresh installation configures one listener, for both client and federation traffic. This listens on port 8008 on localhost (IPv4 and IPv6) and does not do TLS: ``` listeners: - port: 8008 tls: false type: http x_forwarded: true bind_addresses: ['::1', '127.0.0.1'] resources: - names: [client, federation] compress: false ``` ## Database The default installation leaves you with an sqlite3 database. Nice for experimenting, but unsuitable for a production environment. [Here's how you setup PostgreSQL](../postgresql). Once you've created a database and user in PostgreSQL, you configure Synapse to use it. First delete (or comment out) the SQLITE datbase in `homeserver.yaml`: ``` #database: # name: sqlite3 # args: # database: /var/lib/matrix-synapse/homeserver.db ``` Then create the database configuration for PostgreSQL in `conf.d/database.yaml`: ``` database: name: psycopg2 args: user: synapse password: dbname: synapse host: /var/run/postgresql cp_min: 5 cp_max: 10 ``` Note: you configure the directory where the UNIX socket file lives, not the actual file. Of course, if you use localhost, you should configure it like this: ``` host: localhost port: 5432 ``` After changing the database, restart Synapse and check whether it can connect and create the tables it needs. ## Create admin Synapse doesn't create an admin account at install time, so you'll have to do that yourself. You need to set a `registration_shared_secret` for this, set that in `conf.d/keys.yaml` like this: ``` registration_shared_secret: xxxx ``` You can create such a key by running `pwgen -csn 52 1`. Restart Synapse after setting this key. Now create an admin user. Login and issue this command: ``` register_new_matrix_user -u admin -a -c /etc/matrix-synapse/conf.d/keys.yaml ``` This will ask for a password, choose a safe one. ## Logging Logging is configured in `log.yaml`. Some logging should go to systemd, the more specific logging to Synapse's own logfile(s). # Delegation and DNS {#Delegation} If you run your server under a different FQDN than just the domain name you want to use, you need to delegate: point from your domain to the server. Example. You want to use example.com for your domain, but your server is called matrix.example.com. To make that work, you need to serve 2 bits of JSON-code on example.com to point clients and servers to the correct machine: matrix.example.com. Pointing servers to the correct server is done by publishing this bit of JSON-code under `https://example.com/.well-known/matrix/server`: ``` { "m.homeserver": {"base_url": "https://matrix.example.com"}, "org.matrix.msc3575.proxy": {"url": "https://matrix.example.com"} } ``` Pointing clients to the correct server needs this at `https://example.com/.well-known/matrix/client`: ``` { "m.server": "matrix.example.com" } ``` Very important: both names (example.com and matrix.example.com) must be A and/or AAAA records in DNS, not CNAME. See [nginx](../nginx) for details about how to publish this data.