# Installing If you've [configured your DNS](configuring-dns.md) and have [configured the playbook](configuring-playbook.md), you can start the installation procedure. **Before installing** and each time you update the playbook in the future, you will need to update the Ansible roles in this playbook by running `just roles`. `just roles` is a shortcut (a `roles` target defined in [`justfile`](../justfile) and executed by the [`just`](https://github.com/casey/just) utility) which ultimately runs [ansible-galaxy](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/cli/ansible-galaxy.html) to download Ansible roles. If you don't have `just`, you can also manually run the `roles` commands seen in the `justfile`. ## Playbook tags introduction The Ansible playbook's tasks are tagged, so that certain parts of the Ansible playbook can be run without running all other tasks. The general command syntax is: `ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=COMMA_SEPARATED_TAGS_GO_HERE` Here are some playbook tags that you should be familiar with: - `setup-all` - runs all setup tasks (installation and uninstallation) for all components, but does not start/restart services - `install-all` - like `setup-all`, but skips uninstallation tasks. Useful for maintaining your setup quickly when its components remain unchanged. If you adjust your `vars.yml` to remove components, you'd need to run `setup-all` though, or these components will still remain installed - `setup-SERVICE` (e.g. `setup-bot-postmoogle`) - runs the setup tasks only for a given role, but does not start/restart services. You can discover these additional tags in each role (`roles/**/tasks/main.yml`). Running per-component setup tasks is **not recommended**, as components sometimes depend on each other and running just the setup tasks for a given component may not be enough. For example, setting up the [mautrix-telegram bridge](configuring-playbook-bridge-mautrix-telegram.md), in addition to the `setup-mautrix-telegram` tag, requires database changes (the `setup-postgres` tag) as well as reverse-proxy changes (the `setup-nginx-proxy` tag). - `install-SERVICE` (e.g. `install-bot-postmoogle`) - like `setup-SERVICE`, but skips uninstallation tasks. See `install-all` above for additional information. - `start` - starts all systemd services and makes them start automatically in the future - `stop` - stops all systemd services - `ensure-matrix-users-created` - a special tag which ensures that all special users needed by the playbook (for bots, etc.) are created `setup-*` tags and `install-*` tags **do not start services** automatically, because you may wish to do things before starting services, such as importing a database dump, restoring data from another server, etc. ## 1. Installing Matrix If you **don't** use SSH keys for authentication, but rather a regular password, you may need to add `--ask-pass` to the all Ansible commands If you **do** use SSH keys for authentication, **and** use a non-root user to *become* root (sudo), you may need to add `-K` (`--ask-become-pass`) to all Ansible commands There 2 ways to start the installation process - depending on whether you're [Installing a brand new server (without importing data)](#installing-a-brand-new-server-without-importing-data) or [Installing a server into which you'll import old data](#installing-a-server-into-which-youll-import-old-data). ### Installing a brand new server (without importing data) If this is **a brand new** Matrix server and you **won't be importing old data into it**, run all these tags: ```sh ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=install-all,ensure-matrix-users-created,start ``` This will do a full installation and start all Matrix services. Proceed to [Maintaining your setup in the future](#2-maintaining-your-setup-in-the-future) and [Finalize the installation](#3-finalize-the-installation) ### Installing a server into which you'll import old data If you will be importing data into your newly created Matrix server, install it, but **do not** start its services just yet. Starting its services or messing with its database now will affect your data import later on. To do the installation **without** starting services, run only the `install-all` tag: ```sh ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=install-all ``` When this command completes, services won't be running yet. You can now: - [Importing an existing SQLite database (from another Synapse installation)](importing-synapse-sqlite.md) (optional) - [Importing an existing Postgres database (from another installation)](importing-postgres.md) (optional) - [Importing `media_store` data files from an existing Synapse installation](importing-synapse-media-store.md) (optional) .. and then proceed to starting all services: ```sh ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=start ``` Proceed to [Maintaining your setup in the future](#2-maintaining-your-setup-in-the-future) and [Finalize the installation](#3-finalize-the-installation) ## 2. Maintaining your setup in the future Feel free to **re-run the setup command any time** you think something is off with the server configuration. Ansible will take your configuration and update your server to match. Note that if you remove components from `vars.yml`, or if we switch some component from being installed by default to not being installed by default anymore, you'd need to run the setup command with `--tags=setup-all` instead of `--tags=install-all`. See [Playbook tags introduction](#playbook-tags-introduction) A way to invoke these `ansible-playbook` commands with less typing in the future is to use [just](https://github.com/casey/just) to run them: `just install-all` or `just setup-all`. See [our `justfile`](../justfile) for more information. ## 3. Finalize the installation Now that services are running, you need to **finalize the installation process** (required for federation to work!) by [Configuring Service Discovery via .well-known](configuring-well-known.md). ## 4. Things to do next After you have started the services and **finalized the installation process** (required for federation to work!) by [Configuring Service Discovery via .well-known](configuring-well-known.md), you can: - [check if services work](maintenance-checking-services.md) - or [create your first Matrix user account](registering-users.md) - or [set up additional services](configuring-playbook.md#other-configuration-options) (bridges to other chat networks, bots, etc.) - or learn how to [upgrade services when new versions are released](maintenance-upgrading-services.md) - or learn how to [maintain your server](faq.md#maintenance) - or join some Matrix rooms: * via the *Explore rooms* feature in Element or some other client, or by discovering them using this [matrix-static list](https://view.matrix.org). Note: joining large rooms may overload small servers. * or come say Hi in our support room - [#matrix-docker-ansible-deploy:devture.com](https://matrix.to/#/#matrix-docker-ansible-deploy:devture.com). You might learn something or get to help someone else new to Matrix hosting. - or help make this playbook better by contributing (code, documentation, or [coffee/beer](https://liberapay.com/s.pantaleev/donate))