Fediversity/matrix

Table of Contents

• A complete Matrix installation
• Overview
• Overview
• Synapse
• PostgreSQL
• nginx
• Element Call
• Element Web
• TURN
• Draupnir

A complete Matrix installation

This is going to be a Matrix installation with all bells and whistles. Not just the server, but every other bit that you need or want.

We're building it with workers, so it will scale.

Overview

A complete Matrix environment consists of many parts. Other than the Matrix server itself (Synapse) there are all kinds of other things that we need:

• Synapse
• Webclient (Element Web)
• Element Call for audio/video conferencing
• Management with Synapse-Admin
• Moderation with Draupnir
• Consent tracking
• Authentication via OpenID
• Several bridges

Overview

This documentation aims to describe the installation of a complete Matrix platform, with all bells and whistles. Several components are involved and finishing the installation of one can be necessary for the installation of the next.

These are the components we're going to use

Synapse

This is the core component: the Matrix server itself.

Installation and configuration is documented under synapse.

You should probably install this first.

PostgreSQL

This is the database Synapse uses. This should be the first thing you install after Synapse, and once you're done, reconfigure the default Synapse install to use PostgreSQL.

nginx

We need a webserver for several things, see how to configure nginx here.

If you install this, make sure to check which certificates you need, fix the DNS entries and probably keep TTL for for those entries very low until after the installation, when you know everything's working.

Element Call

Element Call is the new way to have audio and video conferences, both one-on-one and with groups. This does not use Jitsi and keeps E2EE intact. See how to setup and configure it.

Element Web

This is the fully-fledged web client, which is very easy to set up.

TURN

We may need a TURN server, and we'll use coturn for that.

It's apparently also possible to use the built-in TURN server in Livekit, which we'll use if we use Element Call. It's either/or, so make sure you pick the right approach.

You could possibly use both coturn and LiveKit, if you insist on being able to use both legacy and Element Call functionality. This is not documented here yet.

Draupnir

With Draupnir you can do moderation. It requires a few changes to both Synapse and nginx, here's how to install and configure Draupnir.