This role is usable on its own and it's not tied to Matrix, so extracting it out into an independent role that we install via ansible-galaxy makes sense. This also fixes the confusion from the other day, where `matrix_postgres_*` had to be renamed to `devture_postgres_*` (unless it was about `matrix_postgres_backup_*`). We now can safely say that ALL `matrix_postgres_*` variables need to be renamed. Fixes https://github.com/spantaleev/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy/issues/2305
160 KiB
2022-11-30
matrix-postgres-backup has been replaced by the com.devture.ansible.role.postgres_backup external role
Just like we've replaced Postgres with an external role on 2022-11-28, we're now replacing matrix-postgres-backup
with an external role - com.devture.ansible.role.postgres_backup.
You'll need to rename your matrix_postgres_backup
-prefixed variables such that they use a devture_postgres_backup
prefix.
2022-11-28
matrix-postgres has been replaced by the com.devture.ansible.role.postgres external role
TLDR: the tasks that install the integrated Postgres server now live in an external role - com.devture.ansible.role.postgres. You'll need to run make roles
to install it, and to also rename your matrix_postgres
-prefixed variables to use a devture_postgres
prefix (e.g. matrix_postgres_connection_password
-> devture_postgres_connection_password
). All your data will still be there! Some scripts have moved (/usr/local/bin/matrix-postgres-cli
-> /matrix/postgres/bin/cli
).
The matrix-postgres
role that has been part of the playbook for a long time has been replaced with the com.devture.ansible.role.postgres role. This was done as part of our work to use external roles for some things for better code re-use and maintainability.
The new role is an upgraded version of the old matrix-postgres
role with these notable differences:
- it uses different names for its variables (
matrix_postgres
->devture_postgres
) - when Vacuuming PostgreSQL, it will vacuum all your databases, not just the Synapse one
You'll need to run make roles
to install the new role. You would also need to rename your matrix_postgres
-prefixed variables to use a devture_postgres
prefix.
Note: the systemd service still remains the same - matrix-postgres.service
. Your data will still be in /matrix/postgres
, etc.
Postgres-related scripts will be moved to /matrix/postgres/bin
(/usr/local/bin/matrix-postgres-cli
-> /matrix/postgres/bin/cli
, etc). Also see The playbook no longer installs scripts in /usr/local/bin.
The playbook no longer installs scripts to /usr/local/bin
The locations of various scripts installed by the playbook have changed.
The playbook no longer contaminates your /usr/local/bin
directory.
All scripts installed by the playbook now live in bin/
directories under /matrix
. Some examples are below:
/usr/local/bin/matrix-remove-all
->/matrix/bin/remove-all
/usr/local/bin/matrix-postgres-cli
->/matrix/postgres/bin/cli
/usr/local/bin/matrix-ssl-lets-encrypt-certificates-renew
->/matrix/ssl/bin/lets-encrypt-certificates-renew
/usr/local/bin/matrix-synapse-register-user
->/matrix/synapse/bin/register-user
2022-11-25
2x-5x performance improvements in playbook runtime
TLDR: the playbook is 2x faster for running --tags=setup-all
(and various other tags). It also has new --tags=install-*
tags (like --tags=install-all
), which skip uninstallation tasks and bring an additional 2.5x speedup. In total, the playbook can maintain your server 5 times faster.
Our etke.cc managed Matrix hosting service runs maintenance against hundreds of servers, so the playbook being fast means a lot. The etke.cc Ansible playbook (which is an extension of this one) is growing to support more and more services (besides just Matrix), so the Matrix playbook being leaner prevents runtimes from becoming too slow and improves the customer experience.
Even when running ansible-playbook
manually (as most of us here do), it's beneficial not to waste time and CPU resources.
Recently, a few large optimizations have been done to this playbook and its external roles (see The playbook now uses external roles for some things and don't forget to run make roles
):
-
Replacing Ansible
import_tasks
calls withinclude_tasks
, which decreased runtime in half. Usingimport_tasks
is slower and causes Ansible to go through and skip way too many tasks (tasks which could have been skipped altogether by not having Ansible include them in the first place). On an experimental VM, deployment time was decreased from ~530 seconds to ~250 seconds. -
Introducing new
install-*
tags (install-all
andinstall-COMPONENT
, e.g.install-synapse
,install-bot-postmoogle
), which only run Ansible tasks pertaining to installation, while skipping uninstallation tasks. In most cases, people are maintaining the same setup or they're adding new components. Removing components is rare. Running thousands of uninstallation tasks each time is wasteful. On an experimental VM, deployment time was decreased from ~250 seconds (--tags=setup-all
) to ~100 seconds (--tags=install-all
).
You can still use --tags=setup-all
. In fact, that's the best way to ensure your server is reconciled with the vars.yml
configuration.
If you know you haven't uninstalled any services since the last time you ran the playbook, you could run --tags=install-all
instead and benefit from quicker runtimes.
It should be noted that a service may become "eligible for uninstallation" even if your vars.yml
file remains the same. In rare cases, we toggle services from being auto-installed to being optional, like we did on the 17th of March 2022 when we made ma1sd not get installed by default. In such rare cases, you'd also need to run --tags=setup-all
.
2022-11-22
Automatic matrix_architecture
determination
From now on, the playbook automatically determines your server's architecture and sets the matrix_architecture
variable accordingly.
You no longer need to set this variable manually in your vars.yml
file.
Docker and the Docker SDK for Python are now installed via external roles
We're continuing our effort to make the playbook use external roles for some things, so as to avoid doing everything ourselves and to facilitate code re-use.
Docker will now be installed on the server via the geerlingguy.docker Ansible role.
If you'd like to manage the Docker installation yourself, you can disable the playbook's installation of Docker by setting matrix_playbook_docker_installation_enabled: false
.
The Docker SDK for Python (named docker-python
, python-docker
, etc. on the different platforms) is now also installed by another role (com.devture.ansible.role.docker_sdk_for_python). To disable this role and install the necessary tools yourself, use devture_docker_sdk_for_python_installation_enabled: false
.
If you're hitting issues with Docker installation or Docker SDK for Python installation, consider reporting bugs or contributing to these other projects.
These additional roles are downloaded into the playbook directory (to roles/galaxy
) via an ansible-galaxy ..
command. make roles
is an easy shortcut for invoking the ansible-galaxy
command to download these roles.
2022-11-20
(Backward Compatibility Break) Changing how reverse-proxying to Synapse works - now via a matrix-synapse-reverse-proxy-companion
service
TLDR: There's now a matrix-synapse-reverse-proxy-companion
nginx service, which helps with reverse-proxying to Synapse and its various worker processes (if workers are enabled), so that matrix-nginx-proxy
can be relieved of this role. matrix-nginx-proxy
still remains as the public SSL-terminating reverse-proxy in the playbook. matrix-synapse-reverse-proxy-companion
is just one more reverse-proxy thrown into the mix for convenience. People with a more custom reverse-proxying configuration may be affected - see Webserver configuration below.
Background
Previously, matrix-nginx-proxy
forwarded requests to Synapse directly. When Synapse is running in worker mode, the reverse-proxying configuration is more complicated (different requests need to go to different Synapse worker processes). matrix-nginx-proxy
had configuration for sending each URL endpoint to the correct Synapse worker responsible for handling it. However, sometimes people like to disable matrix-nginx-proxy
(for whatever reason) as detailed in Using your own webserver, instead of this playbook's nginx proxy.
Because matrix-nginx-proxy
was so central to request forwarding, when it was disabled and Synapse was running with workers enabled, there was nothing which could forward requests to the correct place anymore.. which caused problems such as this one affecting Dimension.
Solution
From now on, matrix-nginx-proxy
is relieved of its function of reverse-proxying to Synapse and its various worker processes.
This role is now handled by the new matrix-synapse-reverse-proxy-companion
nginx service and works even if matrix-nginx-proxy
is disabled.
The purpose of the new matrix-synapse-reverse-proxy-companion
service is to:
-
serve as a companion to Synapse and know how to reverse-proxy to Synapse correctly (no matter if workers are enabled or not)
-
provide a unified container address for reaching Synapse (no matter if workers are enabled or not)
matrix-synapse-reverse-proxy-companion:8008
for Synapse Client-Server API trafficmatrix-synapse-reverse-proxy-companion:8048
for Synapse Server-Server (Federation) API traffic
-
simplify
matrix-nginx-proxy
configuration - it now only needs to send requests tomatrix-synapse-reverse-proxy-companion
ormatrix-dendrite
, etc., without having to worry about workers -
allow reverse-proxying to Synapse, even if
matrix-nginx-proxy
is disabled
matrix-nginx-proxy
still remains as the public SSL-terminating reverse-proxy in the playbook. All traffic goes through it before reaching any of the services.
It's just that now the Synapse traffic is routed through matrix-synapse-reverse-proxy-companion
like this:
(matrix-nginx-proxy
-> matrix-synapse-reverse-proxy-companion
-> (matrix-synapse
or some Synapse worker)).
Various services (like Dimension, etc.) still talk to Synapse via matrix-nginx-proxy
(e.g. http://matrix-nginx-proxy:12080
) preferentially. They only talk to Synapse via the reverse-proxy companion (e.g. http://matrix-synapse-reverse-proxy-companion:8008
) if matrix-nginx-proxy
is disabled. Services should not be talking to Synapse (e.g. https://matrix-synapse:8008
directly anymore), because when workers are enabled, that's the Synapse master
process and may not be serving all URL endpoints needed by the service.
Webserver configuration
-
if you're using
matrix-nginx-proxy
(matrix_nginx_proxy_enabled: true
, which is the default for the playbook), you don't need to do anything -
if you're using your own
nginx
webserver running on the server, you shouldn't be affected. The/matrix/nginx/conf.d
configuration and exposed ports that you're relying on will automatically be updated in a way that should work -
if you're using another local webserver (e.g. Apache, etc.) and haven't changed any ports (
matrix_*_host_bind_port
definitions), you shouldn't be affected. You're likely sending Matrix traffic to127.0.0.1:8008
and127.0.0.1:8048
. These ports (8008
and8048
) will still be exposed on127.0.0.1
by default - just not by thematrix-synapse
container from now on, but by thematrix-synapse-reverse-proxy-companion
container instead -
if you've been exposing
matrix-synapse
ports (matrix_synapse_container_client_api_host_bind_port
, etc.) manually, you should consider exposingmatrix-synapse-reverse-proxy-companion
ports instead -
if you're running Traefik and reverse-proxying directly to the
matrix-synapse
container, you should start reverse-proxying to thematrix-synapse-reverse-proxy-companion
container instead. See our updated Traefik example configuration. Note: we now recommend calling the federation entry pointfederation
(instead ofsynapse
) and reverse-proxying the federation traffic viamatrix-nginx-proxy
, instead of sending it directly to Synapse (ormatrix-synapse-reverse-proxy-companion
). This makes the configuration simpler.
2022-11-05
(Backward Compatibility Break) A new default standalone mode for Etherpad
Until now, Etherpad (which the playbook could install for you) required the Dimension integration manager to also be installed, because Etherpad was hosted on the Dimension domain (at dimension.DOMAIN/etherpad
).
From now on, Etherpad can be installed in standalone
mode on etherpad.DOMAIN
and used even without Dimension. This is much more versatile, so the playbook now defaults to this new mode (matrix_etherpad_mode: standalone
).
If you've already got both Etherpad and Dimension in use you could:
-
either keep hosting Etherpad under the Dimension domain by adding
matrix_etherpad_mode: dimension
to yourvars.yml
file. All your existing room widgets will continue working at the same URLs and no other changes will be necessary. -
or, you could change to hosting Etherpad separately on
etherpad.DOMAIN
. You will need to configure a DNS record for this new domain. You will also need to reconfigure Dimension to use the new pad URLs (https://etherpad.DOMAIN/...
) going forward (refer to our configuring Etherpad documentation). All your existing room widgets (which still usehttps://dimension.DOMAIN/etherpad/...
) will break as Etherpad is not hosted there anymore. You will need to re-add them or to consider not usingstandalone
mode
2022-11-04
The playbook now uses external roles for some things
TLDR: when updating the playbook and before running it, you'll need to run make roles
to make ansible-galaxy download dependency roles (see the requirements.yml
file) to the roles/galaxy
directory. Without this, the playbook won't work.
We're in the process of trimming the playbook and making it reuse Ansible roles.
Starting now, the playbook is composed of 2 types of Ansible roles:
-
those that live within the playbook itself (
roles/custom/*
) -
those downloaded from other sources (using ansible-galaxy to
roles/galaxy
, based on therequirements.yml
file). These roles are maintained by us or by other people from the Ansible community.
We're doing this for greater code-reuse (across Ansible playbooks, including our own related playbooks gitea-docker-ansible-deploy and nextcloud-docker-ansible-deploy) and decreased maintenance burden. Until now, certain features were copy-pasted across playbooks or were maintained separately in each one, with improvements often falling behind. We've also tended to do too much by ourselves - installing Docker on the server from our matrix-base
role, etc. - something that we'd rather not do anymore by switching to the geerlingguy.docker role.
Some variable names will change during the transition to having more and more external (galaxy) roles. There's a new custom/matrix_playbook_migration
role added to the playbook which will tell you about these changes each time you run the playbook.
From now on, every time you update the playbook (well, every time the requirements.yml
file changes), it's best to run make roles
to update the roles downloaded from other sources. make roles
is a shortcut (a roles
target defined in Makefile
and executed by the make
utility) which ultimately runs ansible-galaxy to download Ansible roles. If you don't have make
, you can also manually run the commands seen in the Makefile
.
2022-10-14
synapse-s3-storage-provider support
synapse-s3-storage-provider
support is very new and still relatively untested. Using it may cause data loss.
You can now store your Synapse media repository files on Amazon S3 (or another S3-compatible object store) using synapse-s3-storage-provider - a media provider for Synapse (Python module), which should work faster and more reliably than our previous Goofys implementation (Goofys will continue to work).
This is not just for initial installations. Users with existing files (stored in the local filesystem) can also migrate their files to synapse-s3-storage-provider
.
To get started, see our Storing Synapse media files on Amazon S3 with synapse-s3-storage-provider documentation.
Synapse container image customization support
We now support customizing the Synapse container image by adding additional build steps to its Dockerfile
.
Our synapse-s3-storage-provider support is actually built on this. When s3-storage-provider
is enabled, we automatically add additional build steps to install its Python module into the Synapse image.
Besides this kind of auto-added build steps (for components supported by the playbook), we also let you inject your own custom build steps using configuration like this:
matrix_synapse_container_image_customizations_enabled: true
matrix_synapse_container_image_customizations_dockerfile_body_custom: |
RUN echo 'This is a custom step for building the customized Docker image for Synapse.'
RUN echo 'You can override matrix_synapse_container_image_customizations_dockerfile_body_custom to add your own steps.'
RUN echo 'You do NOT need to include a FROM clause yourself.'
People who have needed to customize Synapse previously had to fork the git repository, make their changes to the Dockerfile
there, point the playbook to the new repository (matrix_synapse_container_image_self_build_repo
) and enable self-building from scratch (matrix_synapse_container_image_self_build: true
). This is harder and slower.
With the new Synapse-customization feature in the playbook, we use the original upstream (pre-built, if available) Synapse image and only build on top of it, right on the Matrix server. This is much faster than building all of Synapse from scratch.
2022-10-02
matrix-ldap-registration-proxy support
Thanks to @TheOneWithTheBraid, we now support installing matrix-ldap-registration-proxy - a proxy which handles Matrix registration requests and forwards them to LDAP.
See our Setting up the ldap-registration-proxy documentation to get started.
2022-09-15
(Potential Backward Compatibility Break) Major improvements to Synapse workers
People who are interested in running a Synapse worker setup should know that our Synapse worker implementation is much more powerful now:
- we've added support for Stream writers
- we've added support for multiple federation sender workers
- we've added support for multiple pusher workers
- we've added support for running background tasks on a worker
- we've restored support for
appservice
workers - we've restored support for
user_dir
workers - we've made it possible to reliably use more than 1
media_repository
worker - see the Potential Backward Incompatibilities after these Synapse worker changes
Stream writers support
From now on, the playbook lets you easily set up various stream writer workers which can handle different streams (events
stream; typing
URL endpoints, to_device
URL endpoints, account_data
URL endpoints, receipts
URL endpoints, presence
URL endpoints). All of this work was previously handled by the main Synapse process, but can now be offloaded to stream writer worker processes.
If you're using matrix_synapse_workers_preset: one-of-each
, you'll automatically get 6 additional workers (one for each of the above stream types). Our little-federation-helper
preset (meant to be quite minimal and focusing in improved federation performance) does not include stream writer workers.
If you'd like to customize the number of workers we also make that possible using these variables:
# Synapse only supports more than 1 worker for the `events` stream.
# All other streams can utilize either 0 or 1 workers, not more than that.
matrix_synapse_workers_stream_writer_events_stream_workers_count: 5
matrix_synapse_workers_stream_writer_typing_stream_workers_count: 1
matrix_synapse_workers_stream_writer_to_device_stream_workers_count: 1
matrix_synapse_workers_stream_writer_account_data_stream_workers_count: 1
matrix_synapse_workers_stream_writer_receipts_stream_workers_count: 1
matrix_synapse_workers_stream_writer_presence_stream_workers_count: 1
Multiple federation sender workers support
Until now, we only supported a single federation_sender
worker (matrix_synapse_workers_federation_sender_workers_count
could either be 0
or 1
).
From now on, you can have as many as you want to help with your federation traffic.
Multiple pusher workers support
Until now, we only supported a single pusher
worker (matrix_synapse_workers_pusher_workers_count
could either be 0
or 1
).
From now on, you can have as many as you want to help with pushing notifications out.
Background tasks can run on a worker
From now on, you can put background task processing on a worker.
With matrix_synapse_workers_preset: one-of-each
, you'll get one background
worker automatically.
You can also control the background
workers count with matrix_synapse_workers_background_workers_count
. Only 0
or 1
workers of this type are supported by Synapse.
Appservice worker support is back
We previously had an appservice
worker type, which Synapse deprecated in v1.59.0. So did we, at the time.
The new way to implement such workers is by using a generic_worker
and dedicating it to the task of talking to Application Services.
From now on, we have support for this.
With matrix_synapse_workers_preset: one-of-each
, you'll get one appservice
worker automatically.
You can also control the appservice
workers count with matrix_synapse_workers_appservice_workers_count
. Only 0
or 1
workers of this type are supported by Synapse.
User Directory worker support is back
We previously had a user_dir
worker type, which Synapse deprecated in v1.59.0. So did we, at the time.
The new way to implement such workers is by using a generic_worker
and dedicating it to the task of serving the user directory.
From now on, we have support for this.
With matrix_synapse_workers_preset: one-of-each
, you'll get one user_dir
worker automatically.
You can also control the user_dir
workers count with matrix_synapse_workers_user_dir_workers_count
. Only 0
or 1
workers of this type are supported by Synapse.
Using more than 1 media repository worker is now more reliable
With matrix_synapse_workers_preset: one-of-each
, we only launch one media_repository
worker.
If you've been configuring matrix_synapse_workers_media_repository_workers_count
manually, you may have increased that to more workers.
When multiple media repository workers are in use, background tasks related to the media repository must always be configured to run on a single media_repository
worker via media_instance_running_background_jobs
. Until now, we weren't doing this correctly, but we now are.
Potential Backward Incompatibilities after these Synapse worker changes
Below we'll discuss potential backward incompatibilities.
-
Worker names (container names, systemd services, worker configuration files) have changed. Workers are now labeled sequentially (e.g.
matrix-synapse-worker_generic_worker-18111
->matrix-synapse-worker-generic-0
). The playbook will handle these changes automatically. -
Due to increased worker types support above, people who use
matrix_synapse_workers_preset: one-of-each
should be aware that with these changes, the playbook will deploy 9 additional workers (6 stream writers, 1appservice
worker, 1user_dir
worker, 1 background task worker). This may increase RAM/CPU usage, etc. If you find your server struggling, consider disabling some workers with the appropriatematrix_synapse_workers_*_workers_count
variables. -
Metric endpoints have also changed (
/metrics/synapse/worker/generic_worker-18111
->/metrics/synapse/worker/generic-worker-0
). If you're collecting metrics to an external Prometheus server, consider revisiting our Collecting Synapse worker metrics to an external Prometheus server docs and updating your Prometheus configuration. If you're collecting metrics to the integrated Prometheus server (not enabled by default), your Prometheus configuration will be updated automatically. Old data (from before this change) may stick around though. -
the format of
matrix_synapse_workers_enabled_list
has changed. You were never advised to use this variable for directly creating workers (we advise people to control workers usingmatrix_synapse_workers_preset
or by tweakingmatrix_synapse_workers_*_workers_count
variables only), but some people may have started using thematrix_synapse_workers_enabled_list
variable to gain more control over workers. If you're one of them, you'll need to adjust its value. Seeroles/custom/matrix-synapse/defaults/main.yml
for more information on the new format. The playbook will also do basic validation and complain if you got something wrong.
2022-09-09
Cactus Comments support
Thanks to Julian-Samuel Gebühr (@moan0s), the playbook can now set up Cactus Comments - federated comment system for the web based on Matrix.
See our Setting up a Cactus Comments server documentation to get started.
2022-08-23
Postmoogle email bridge support
Thanks to Aine of etke.cc, the playbook can now set up the new Postmoogle email bridge/bot. Postmoogle is like the email2matrix bridge (also already supported by the playbook), but more capable and with the intention to soon support sending emails, not just receiving.
See our Setting up Postmoogle email bridging documentation to get started.
2022-08-10
mautrix-whatsapp default configuration changes
In Pull Request #2012, we've made some changes to the default configuration used by the mautrix-whatsapp
bridge.
If you're using this bridge, you should look into this PR and see if the new configuration suits you. If not, you can always change individual preferences in your vars.yml
file.
Most notably, spaces support has been enabled by default. The bridge will now group rooms into a Matrix space. If you've already bridged to Whatsapp prior to this update, you will need to send !wa sync space
to the bridge bot to make it create the space and put your existing rooms into it.
2022-08-09
Conduit support
Thanks to Charles Wright, we now have optional experimental Conduit homeserver support for new installations. This comes as a follow-up to the playbook getting Dendrite support earlier this year.
Existing Synapse or Dendrite installations do not need to be updated. Synapse is still the default homeserver implementation installed by the playbook.
To try out Conduit, we recommend that you use a new server and the following vars.yml
configuration:
matrix_homeserver_implementation: conduit
The homeserver implementation of an existing server cannot be changed (e.g. from Synapse or Dendrite to Conduit) without data loss.
2022-07-29
mautrix-discord support
Thanks to MdotAmaan's efforts, the playbook now supports bridging to Discord via the mautrix-discord bridge. See our Setting up Mautrix Discord bridging documentation page for getting started.
Note: this is a new Discord bridge. The playbook still retains Discord bridging via matrix-appservice-discord and mx-puppet-discord. You're free too use the bridge that serves you better, or even all three of them (for different users and use-cases).
2022-07-27
matrix-appservice-kakaotalk support
The playbook now supports bridging to Kakaotalk via matrix-appservice-kakaotalk - a bridge based on node-kakao (now unmaintained) and some mautrix-facebook code. Thanks to hnarjis for helping us add support for this!
See our Setting up Appservice Kakaotalk bridging documentation to get started.
2022-07-20
maubot support
Thanks to Stuart Mumford (@Cadair) for starting (PR #373 and PR #622) and to Julian-Samuel Gebühr (@moan0s) for finishing up (in PR #1894), the playbook can now help you set up maubot - a plugin-based Matrix bot system.
See our Setting up maubot documentation to get started.
2022-07-14
mx-puppet-skype removal
The playbook no longer includes the mx-puppet-skype bridge, because it has been broken and unmaintaned for a long time. Users that have matrix_mx_puppet_skype_enabled
in their configuration files will encounter an error when running the playbook until they remove references to this bridge from their configuration.
To completely clean up your server from mx-puppet-skype
's presence on it:
- ensure your Ansible configuration (
vars.yml
file) no longer containsmatrix_mx_puppet_skype_*
references - stop and disable the systemd service (run
systemctl disable --now matrix-mx-puppet-skype
on the server) - delete the systemd service (run
rm /etc/systemd/system/matrix-mx-puppet-skype.service
on the server) - delete
/matrix/mx-puppet-skype
(runrm -rf /matrix/mx-puppet-skype
on the server) - drop the
matrix_mx_puppet_skype
database (run/usr/local/bin/matrix-postgres-cli
on the server, and execute theDROP DATABASE matrix_mx_puppet_skype;
query there)
If you still need bridging to Skype, consider switching to go-skype-bridge instead. See Setting up Go Skype Bridge bridging.
If you think this is a mistake and mx-puppet-skype
works for you (or you get it to work somehow), let us know and we may reconsider this removal.
signald (0.19.0+) upgrade requires data migration
In Pull Request #1921 we upgraded signald (used by the mautrix-signal bridge) from v0.18.5
to v0.20.0
.
Back in the v0.19.0
released of signald (which we skipped and migrated straight to v0.20.0
), a new --migrate-data
command had been added that migrates avatars, group images, attachments, etc., into the database (those were previously stored in the filesystem).
If you've been using the mautrix-signal bridge for a while, you may have files stored in the local filesystem, which will need to be upgraded.
We attempt to do this data migration automatically every time Signald starts (matrix-mautrix-signal-daemon.service
) using a ExecStartPre
systemd unit definition.
Keep an eye on your Signal bridge and let us know (in our support room or in Pull Request #1921) if you experience any trouble!
2022-07-05
Ntfy push notifications support
Thanks to Julian Foad, the playbook can now install a ntfy push notifications server for you.
See our Setting up the ntfy push notifications server documentation to get started.
2022-06-23
(Potential Backward Compatibility Break) Changes around metrics collection
TLDR: we've made extensive changes to metrics exposure/collection, which concern people using an external Prometheus server. If you don't know what that is, you don't need to read below.
Why do major changes to metrics? Because various services were exposing metrics in different, hacky, ways. Synapse was exposing metrics at /_synapse/metrics
and /_synapse-worker-.../metrics
on the matrix.DOMAIN
. The Hookshot role was repurposing the Granana web UI domain (stats.DOMAIN
) for exposing its metrics on stats.DOMAIN/hookshot/metrics
, while protecting these routes using Basic Authentication normally used for Synapse (/_synapse/metrics
). Node-exporter and Postgres-exporter roles were advising for more stats.DOMAIN
usage in manual ways. Each role was doing things differently and mixing variables from other roles. Each metrics endpoint was ending up in a different place, protected by who knows what Basic Authentication credentials (if protected at all).
The solution: a completely revamped way to expose metrics to an external Prometheus server. We are introducing new https://matrix.DOMAIN/metrics/*
endpoints, where various services can expose their metrics, for collection by external Prometheus servers. To enable the /metrics/*
endpoints, use matrix_nginx_proxy_proxy_matrix_metrics_enabled: true
. There's also a way to protect access using Basic Authentication. See the matrix-nginx-proxy
role or our Collecting metrics to an external Prometheus server documentation for additional variables around matrix_nginx_proxy_proxy_matrix_metrics_enabled
.
If you are using the Hookshot bridge, you may find that:
- Metrics may not be enabled by default anymore:
- If Prometheus is enabled (
matrix_prometheus_enabled: true
), then Hookshot metrics will be enabled automatically (matrix_hookshot_metrics_enabled: true
). These metrics will be collected from the local (in-container) Prometheus over the container network. - If Prometheus is not enabled (you are either not using Prometheus or are using an external one), Hookshot metrics will not be enabled by default anymore. Feel free to enable them by setting
matrix_hookshot_metrics_enabled: true
. Also, see below.
- When metrics are meant to be consumed by an external Prometheus server,
matrix_hookshot_metrics_proxying_enabled
needs to be set totrue
, so that metrics would be exposed (proxied) "publicly" onhttps://matrix.DOMAIN/metrics/hookshot
. To make use of this, you'll also need to enable the newhttps://matrix.DOMAIN/metrics/*
endpoints mentioned above, usingmatrix_nginx_proxy_proxy_matrix_metrics_enabled
. Learn more in our Collecting metrics to an external Prometheus server documentation. - We've changed the URL we're exposing Hookshot metrics at for external Prometheus servers. Until now, you were advised to consume Hookshot metrics from
https://stats.DOMAIN/hookshot/metrics
(working in conjunction withmatrix_nginx_proxy_proxy_synapse_metrics
). From now on, this no longer works. As described above, you need to start consuming metrics fromhttps://matrix.DOMAIN/metrics/hookshot
.
If you're using node-exporter (matrix_prometheus_node_exporter_enabled: true
) and would like to collect its metrics from an external Prometheus server, see matrix_prometheus_node_exporter_metrics_proxying_enabled
described in our Collecting metrics to an external Prometheus server documentation. You will be able to collect its metrics from https://matrix.DOMAIN/metrics/node-exporter
.
If you're using postgres-exporter (matrix_prometheus_postgres_exporter_enabled: true
) and would like to collect its metrics from an external Prometheus server, see matrix_prometheus_postgres_exporter_metrics_proxying_enabled
described in our Collecting metrics to an external Prometheus server documentation. You will be able to collect its metrics from https://matrix.DOMAIN/metrics/postgres-exporter
.
If you're using Synapse and would like to collect its metrics from an external Prometheus server, you may find that:
- Exposing metrics is now done using
matrix_synapse_metrics_proxying_enabled
, notmatrix_nginx_proxy_proxy_synapse_metrics: true
. You may still need to enable metrics usingmatrix_synapse_metrics_enabled: true
before exposing them. - Protecting metrics endpoints using Basic Authentication is now done in another way. See our Collecting metrics to an external Prometheus server documentation
- If Synapse metrics are exposed, they will be made available at
https://matrix.DOMAIN/metrics/synapse/main-process
orhttps://matrix.DOMAIN/metrics/synapse/worker/TYPE-ID
(when workers are enabled), not athttps://matrix.DOMAIN/_synapse/metrics
andhttps://matrix.DOMAIN/_synapse-worker-.../metrics
- The playbook still generates an
external_prometheus.yml.example
sample file for scraping Synapse from Prometheus as described in Collecting Synapse worker metrics to an external Prometheus server, but it's now saved under/matrix/synapse
(not/matrix
).
If you where already using a external Prometheus server before this change, and you gave a hashed version of the password as a variable, the playbook will now take care of hashing the password for you. Thus, you need to provide the non-hashed version now.
2022-06-13
go-skype-bridge bridging support
Thanks to CyberShadow, the playbook can now install the go-skype-bridge bridge for bridging Matrix to Skype.
See our Setting up Go Skype Bridge documentation to get started.
The playbook has supported mx-puppet-skype bridging (see Setting up MX Puppet Skype bridging) since 2020-04-09, but mx-puppet-skype
is reportedly broken.
2022-06-09
Running Ansible in a container can now happen on the Matrix server itself
If you're tired of being on an old and problematic Ansible version, you can now run run Ansible in a container on the Matrix server itself.
2022-05-31
Synapse v1.60 upgrade may cause trouble and require manual intervention
Synapse v1.60 will try to add a new unique index to state_group_edges
upon startup and could fail if your database is corrupted.
We haven't observed this problem yet, but the Synapse v1.60.0 upgrade notes mention it, so we're giving you a heads up here in case you're unlucky.
If Synapse fails to start after your next playbook run, you'll need to:
- SSH into the Matrix server
- launch
/usr/local/bin/matrix-postgres-cli
- switch to the
synapse
database:\c synapse
- run the following SQL query:
BEGIN;
DELETE FROM state_group_edges WHERE (ctid, state_group, prev_state_group) IN (
SELECT row_id, state_group, prev_state_group
FROM (
SELECT
ctid AS row_id,
MIN(ctid) OVER (PARTITION BY state_group, prev_state_group) AS min_row_id,
state_group,
prev_state_group
FROM state_group_edges
) AS t1
WHERE row_id <> min_row_id
);
COMMIT;
You could then restart services: ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=start
2022-04-25
buscarron bot support
Thanks to Aine of etke.cc, the playbook can now set up the Buscarron bot. It's a bot you can use to send any form (HTTP POST, HTML) to a (encrypted) Matrix room
See our Setting up Buscarron documentation to get started.
2022-04-21
matrix-registration-bot support
Thanks to Julian-Samuel Gebühr (@moan0s), the playbook can now help you set up matrix-registration-bot - a bot that is used to create and manage registration tokens for a Matrix server.
See our Setting up matrix-registration-bot documentation to get started.
2022-04-19
Borg backup support
Thanks to Aine of etke.cc, the playbook can now set up Borg backups with borgmatic of your Matrix server.
See our Setting up borg backup documentation to get started.
(Compatibility Break) Upgrading to Synapse v1.57 on setups using workers may require manual action
If you're running a worker setup for Synapse (matrix_synapse_workers_enabled: true
), the Synapse v1.57 upgrade notes say that you may need to take special care when upgrading:
Synapse v1.57.0 includes a change to the way transaction IDs are managed for application services. If your deployment uses a dedicated worker for application service traffic, it must be stopped when the database is upgraded (which normally happens when the main process is upgraded), to ensure the change is made safely without any risk of reusing transaction IDs.
If you're not running an appservice
worker (matrix_synapse_workers_preset: little-federation-helper
or matrix_synapse_workers_appservice_workers_count: 0
), you are probably safe to upgrade as per normal, without taking any special care.
If you are running a setup with an appservice
worker, or otherwise want to be on the safe side, we recommend the following upgrade path:
- Pull the latest playbook changes
- Stop all services (
ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=stop
) - Re-run the playbook (
ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=setup-all
) - Start Postgres (
systemctl start matrix-postgres
on the server) - Start the main Synapse process (
systemctl start matrix-synapse
on the server) - Wait a while so that Synapse can start and complete the database migrations. You can use
journalctl -fu matrix-synapse
on the server to get a clue. Waiting a few minutes should also be enough. - It should now be safe to start all other services.
ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=start
will do it for you
2022-04-14
(Compatibility Break) Changes to docker-src
permissions necessitating manual action
Users who build container images from source will need to manually correct file permissions of some directories on the server.
When self-building, the playbook used to git clone
repositories (into /matrix/SERVICE/docker-src
) using the root
user, but now uses matrix
instead to work around the following issue with git 2.35.2.
If you're on a non-amd64
architecture (that is, you're overriding matrix_architecture
in your vars.yml
file) or you have enabled self-building for some service (e.g. matrix_*_self_build: true
), you're certainly building some container images from source and have docker-src
directories with mixed permissions lying around in various /matrix/SERVICE
directories.
The playbook could correct these permissions automatically, but that requires additional Ansible tasks in some ~45 different places - something that takes considerable effort. So we ask users observing errors related to docker-src
directories to correct the problem manually by running this command on the Matrix server (which deletes all /matrix/*/docker-src
directories): find /matrix -maxdepth 2 -name 'docker-src' | xargs rm -rf
2022-03-17
(Compatibility Break) ma1sd identity server no longer installed by default
The playbook no longer installs the ma1sd identity server by default. The next time you run the playbook, ma1sd will be uninstalled from your server, unless you explicitly enable the ma1sd service (see how below).
The main reason we used to install ma1sd by default in the past was to prevent Element from talking to the matrix.org
/ vector.im
identity servers, by forcing it to talk to our own self-hosted (but otherwise useless) identity server instead, thus preventing contact list leaks.
Since Element no longer defaults to using a public identity server if another one is not provided, we can stop installing ma1sd.
If you need to install the ma1sd identity server for some reason, you can explicitly enable it by adding this to your vars.yml
file:
matrix_ma1sd_enabled: true
2022-02-12
matrix_encryption_disabler support
We now support installing the matrix_encryption_disabler Synapse module, which lets you prevent End-to-End-Encryption from being enabled by users on your homeserver. The popular opinion is that this is dangerous and shouldn't be done, but there are valid use cases for disabling encryption discussed here.
To enable this module (and prevent encryption from being used on your homserver), add matrix_synapse_ext_encryption_disabler_enabled: true
to your configuration. This module provides further customization. Check its other configuration settings (and defaults) in roles/custom/matrix-synapse/defaults/main.yml
.
2022-02-01
matrix-hookshot bridging support
Thanks to HarHarLinks, the playbook can now install the matrix-hookshot bridge for bridging Matrix to multiple project management services, such as GitHub, GitLab and JIRA. See our Setting up matrix-hookshot documentation to get started.
2022-01-31
ARM support for matrix-corporal
matrix-corporal (as of version 2.2.3
) is now published to Docker Hub (see devture/matrix-corporal) as a multi-arch container image with support for all these platforms: linux/amd64
, linux/arm64/v8
and linux/arm/v7
. The playbook no longer resorts to self-building matrix-corporal on these ARM architectures.
2022-01-07
Dendrite support
TLDR: We now have optional experimental Dendrite homeserver support for new installations. Existing (Synapse) installations need to be updated, because some internals changed. See Adapting the configuration for existing Synapse installations.
Jip J. Dekker did the initial work of adding Dendrite support to the playbook back in January 2021. Lots of work (and time) later, Dendrite support is finally ready for testing.
We believe that 2022 will be the year of the non-Synapse Matrix server!
The playbook was previously quite Synapse-centric, but can now accommodate multiple homeserver implementations. Only one homeserver implementation can be active (installed) at a given time.
Synapse is still the default homeserver implementation installed by the playbook. A new variable (matrix_homeserver_implementation
) controls which server implementation is enabled (synapse
or dendrite
at the given moment).
Adapting the configuration for existing Synapse installations
Because the playbook is not so Synapse-centric anymore, a small configuration change is necessary for existing installations to bring them up to date.
The vars.yml
file for existing installations will need to be updated by adding this additional configuration:
# All secrets keys are now derived from `matrix_homeserver_generic_secret_key`, not from `matrix_synapse_macaroon_secret_key`.
# To keep them all the same, define `matrix_homeserver_generic_secret_key` in terms of `matrix_synapse_macaroon_secret_key`.
# Using a new secret value for this configuration key is also possible and should not cause any problems.
#
# Fun fact: new installations (based on the new `examples/vars.yml` file) do this in reverse.
# That is, the Synapse macaroon secret is derived from `matrix_homeserver_generic_secret_key`.
matrix_homeserver_generic_secret_key: "{{ matrix_synapse_macaroon_secret_key }}"
Trying out Dendrite
Finally, to try out Dendrite, we recommend that you use a new server and the following addition to your vars.yml
configuration:
matrix_homeserver_implementation: dendrite
The homeserver implementation of an existing server cannot be changed (e.g. from Synapse to Dendrite) without data loss.
We're excited to gain support for other homeserver implementations, like Conduit, etc!
Honoroit bot support
Thanks to Aine of etke.cc, the playbook can now help you set up Honoroit - a helpdesk bot.
See our Setting up Honoroit documentation to get started.
2022-01-06
Cinny support
Thanks to Aine of etke.cc, the playbook now supports Cinny - a new simple, elegant and secure Matrix client.
By default, we still install Element. Still, people who'd like to try Cinny out can now install it via the playbook.
Additional details are available in Setting up Cinny.
2021-12-22
Twitter bridging support via mautrix-twitter
Thanks to Matthew Cengia and Shreyas Ajjarapu, besides mx-puppet-twitter, bridging to Twitter can now also happen with mautrix-twitter.
2021-12-14
(Security) Users of the Signal bridge may wish to upgrade it to work around log4j vulnerability
Recently, a security vulnerability affecting the Java logging package log4j
has been discovered. Software that uses this Java package is potentially vulnerable.
One such piece of software that is part of the playbook is the mautrix-signal bridge, which has been patched already. If you're running this bridge, you may wish to upgrade.
2021-11-11
Dropped support for Postgres v9.6
Postgres v9.6 reached its end of life today, so the playbook will refuse to run for you if you're still on that version.
Synapse still supports v9.6 (for now), but we're retiring support for it early, to avoid having to maintain support for so many Postgres versions. Users that are still on Postgres v9.6 can easily upgrade Postgres via the playbook.
2021-10-23
Hangouts bridge no longer updated, superseded by a Googlechat bridge
The mautrix-hangouts bridge is no longer receiving updates upstream and is likely to stop working in the future. We still retain support for this bridge in the playbook, but you're encouraged to switch away from it.
There's a new mautrix-googlechat bridge that you can install using the playbook. Your Hangouts bridge data will not be migrated, however. You need to start fresh with the new bridge.
2021-08-23
LinkedIn bridging support via beeper-linkedin
Thanks to Alexandar Mechev, the playbook can now install the beeper-linkedin bridge for bridging to LinkedIn Messaging.
This brings the total number of bridges supported by the playbook up to 20. See all supported bridges here.
To get started with bridging to LinkedIn, see Setting up Beeper LinkedIn bridging.
2021-08-20
Sygnal upgraded - ARM support and no longer requires a database
The Sygnal push gateway has been upgraded from v0.9.0
to v0.10.1
.
This is an optional component for the playbook, so most of our users wouldn't care about this announcement.
Since this feels like a relatively big (and untested, as of yet) Sygnal change, we're putting up this changelog entry.
The new version is also available for the ARM architecture. It also no longer requires a database anymore.
If you need to downgrade to the previous version, changing matrix_sygnal_version
or matrix_sygnal_docker_image
will not be enough, as we've removed the database
configuration completely. You'd need to switch to an earlier playbook commit.
2021-05-21
Hydrogen support
Thanks to Aaron Raimist, the playbook now supports Hydrogen - a new lightweight matrix client with legacy and mobile browser support.
By default, we still install Element, as Hydrogen is still not fully-featured. Still, people who'd like to try Hydrogen out can now install it via the playbook.
Additional details are available in Setting up Hydrogen.
2021-05-19
Heisenbridge support
Thanks to Toni Spets (hifi), the playbook now supports bridging to IRC using yet another bridge (besides matrix-appservice-irc), called Heisenbridge.
Additional details are available in Setting up Heisenbridge bouncer-style IRC bridging.
2021-04-16
Disabling TLSv1 and TLSv1.1 for Coturn
To improve security, we've removed TLSv1 and TLSv1.1 support from our default Coturn configuration.
If you need to support old clients, you can re-enable both (or whichever one you need) with the following configuration:
matrix_coturn_tls_v1_enabled: true
matrix_coturn_tls_v1_1_enabled: true
2021-04-05
Automated local Postgres backup support
Thanks to foxcris, the playbook can now make automated local Postgres backups on a fixed schedule using docker-postgres-backup-local.
Additional details are available in Setting up postgres backup.
2021-04-03
Mjolnir moderation tool (bot) support
Thanks to Aaron Raimist, the playbook can now install and configure the Mjolnir moderation tool (bot).
Additional details are available in Setting up Mjolnir.
2021-03-20
Sygnal push gateway support
The playbook can now install the Sygnal push gateway for you.
This is only useful to people who develop/build their own Matrix client applications.
Additional details are available in our Setting up Sygnal docs.
2021-03-16
Go-NEB support
Thanks to Zir0h, the playbook can now install and configure the Go-NEB bot.
Additional details are available in Setting up Go-NEB.
2021-02-19
GroupMe bridging support via mx-puppet-groupme
Thanks to Cody Neiman, the playbook can now install the mx-puppet-groupme bridge for bridging to GroupMe.
This brings the total number of bridges supported by the playbook up to 18. See all supported bridges here.
To get started, follow our Setting up MX Puppet GroupMe docs.
Mautrix Instagram bridging support
The playbook now supports bridging with Instagram by installing the mautrix-instagram bridge. This playbook functionality is available thanks to @MarcProe.
Additional details are available in Setting up Mautrix Instagram bridging.
Synapse workers support
After lots and lots of work (done over many months by Marcel Partap, Max Klenk, a few others from the Technical University of Dresden, Germany and various other contributors), support for Synapse workers has finally landed.
Having support for workers makes the playbook suitable for larger homeserver deployments.
Our setup is not yet perfect (we don't support all types of workers; scaling some of them (like pusher
, federation_sender
) beyond a single instance is not yet supported). Still, it's a great start and can already power homeservers with thousands of users, like the Matrix deployment at TU Dresden discussed in Matrix Live S06E09 - TU Dresden on their Matrix deployment.
By default, workers are disabled and Synapse runs as a single process (homeservers don't necessarily need the complexity and increased memory requirements of running a worker-based setup).
To enable Synapse workers, follow our Load balancing with workers documentation.
2021-02-12
(Potential Breaking Change) Monitoring/metrics support using Prometheus and Grafana
Thanks to @Peetz0r, the playbook can now install a bunch of tools for monitoring your Matrix server: the Prometheus time-series database server, the Prometheus node-exporter host metrics exporter, and the Grafana web UI.
To get get these installed, follow our Enabling metrics and graphs (Prometheus, Grafana) for your Matrix server docs page.
This update comes with a potential breaking change for people who were already exposing Synapse metrics (for consumption via another Prometheus installation). From now on, matrix_synapse_metrics_enabled: true
no longer exposes metrics publicly via matrix-nginx-proxy (at https://matrix.DOMAIN/_synapse/metrics
). To do so, you'd need to explicitly set matrix_nginx_proxy_proxy_synapse_metrics: true
.
2021-01-31
Etherpad support
Thanks to @pushytoxin, the playbook can now install the Etherpad realtime collaborative text editor. It can be used in a Jitsi audio/video call or integrated as a widget into Matrix chat rooms via the Dimension integration manager.
To get it installed, follow our Etherpad docs page.
2021-01-22
(Breaking Change) Postgres changes that require manual intervention
We've made a lot of changes to our Postgres setup and some manual action is required (described below). Sorry about the hassle.
TLDR: people running an external Postgres server don't need to change anything for now. Everyone else (the common/default case) is affected and manual intervention is required.
Why?
- we had a default Postgres password (
matrix_postgres_connection_password: synapse-password
), which we think is not ideal for security anymore. We now ask you to generate/provide a strong password yourself. Postgres is normally not exposed outside the container network, making it relatively secure, but still:- by tweaking the configuration, you may end up intentionally or unintentionally exposing your Postgres server to the local network (or even publicly), while still using the default default credentials (
synapse
+synapse-password
) - we can't be sure we trust all these services (bridges, etc). Some of them may try to talk to or attack
matrix-postgres
using the default credentials (synapse
+synapse-password
) - you may have other containers running on the same Docker network, which may try to talk to or attack
matrix-postgres
using the default credentials (synapse
+synapse-password
)
- by tweaking the configuration, you may end up intentionally or unintentionally exposing your Postgres server to the local network (or even publicly), while still using the default default credentials (
- our Postgres usage was overly-focused on Synapse (default username of
synapse
and default/main database ofhomeserver
). Additional homeserver options are likely coming in the future (Dendrite, Conduit, The Construct), so being too focused onmatrix-synapse
is not great. From now on, Synapse is just another component of this playbook, which happens to have an additional database (calledsynapse
) on the Postgres server. - we try to reorganize things a bit, to make the playbook even friendlier to people running an external Postgres server. Work on this will proceed in the future.
So, this is some effort to improve security and to prepare for a brighter future of having more homeserver options than just Synapse.
What has really changed?
- the default superuser Postgres username is now
matrix
(used to besynapse
) - the default Postgres database is now
matrix
(used to behomeserver
) - Synapse's database is now
synapse
(used to behomeserver
). This is now just another "additional database" that the playbook manages for you - Synapse's user called
synapse
is just a regular user that can only use thesynapse
database (not a superuser anymore)
What do I do if I'm using the integrated Postgres server (default)?
By default, the playbook runs an integrated Postgres server for you in a container (matrix-postgres
). Unless you've explicitly configured an external Postgres server, these steps are meant for you.
To migrate to the new setup, expect a few minutes of downtime, while you follow these steps:
-
We believe the steps below are safe and you won't encounter any data loss, but consider making a Postgres backup anyway. If you've never backed up Postgres, now would be a good time to try it.
-
Generate a strong password to be used for your superuser Postgres user (called
matrix
). You can usepwgen -s 64 1
to generate it, or some other tool. The maximum length for a Postgres password is 100 bytes (characters). Don't go crazy! -
Update your playbook's
inventory/host_vars/matrix.DOMAIN/vars.yml
file, adding a line like this:
matrix_postgres_connection_password: 'YOUR_POSTGRES_PASSWORD_HERE'
.. where YOUR_POSTGRES_PASSWORD_HERE
is to be replaced with the password you generated during step #2.
- Stop all services:
ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=stop
- Log in to the server via SSH. The next commands will be performed there.
- Start the Postgres database server:
systemctl start matrix-postgres
- Open a Postgres shell:
/usr/local/bin/matrix-postgres-cli
- Execute the following query, while making sure to change the password inside (don't forget the ending
;
):
CREATE ROLE matrix LOGIN SUPERUSER PASSWORD 'YOUR_POSTGRES_PASSWORD_HERE';
.. where YOUR_POSTGRES_PASSWORD_HERE
is to be replaced with the password you generated during step #2.
- Execute the following queries as you see them (no modifications necessary, so you can just paste them all at once):
CREATE DATABASE matrix OWNER matrix;
ALTER DATABASE postgres OWNER TO matrix;
ALTER DATABASE template0 OWNER TO matrix;
ALTER DATABASE template1 OWNER TO matrix;
\c matrix;
ALTER DATABASE homeserver RENAME TO synapse;
ALTER ROLE synapse NOSUPERUSER NOCREATEDB NOCREATEROLE;
\quit
You may need to press Enter after pasting the lines above.
- Re-run the playbook normally:
ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=setup-all,start
What do I do if I'm using an external Postgres server?
If you've explicitly configured an external Postgres server, there are no changes that you need to do at this time.
The fact that we've renamed Synapse's database from homeserver
to synapse
(in our defaults) should not affect you, as you're already explicitly defining matrix_synapse_database_database
(if you've followed our guide, that is). If you're not explicitly defining this variable, you may wish to do so (matrix_synapse_database_database: homeserver
), to avoid the new synapse
default and keep things as they were.
2021-01-20
(Breaking Change) The mautrix-facebook bridge now requires a Postgres database
Update from 2021-11-15: SQLite support has been re-added to the mautrix-facebook bridge in v0.3.2. You can ignore this changelog entry.
A new version of the mautrix-facebook bridge has been released. It's a full rewrite of its backend and the bridge now requires Postgres. New versions of the bridge can no longer run on SQLite.
TLDR: if you're NOT using an external Postgres server and have NOT forcefully kept the bridge on SQLite during The big move to all-on-Postgres (potentially dangerous), you will be automatically upgraded without manual intervention. All you need to do is send a login
message to the Facebook bridge bot again.
Whether this change requires your intervention depends mostly on:
- whether you're using an external Postgres server. If yes, then you need to do something.
- or whether you've force-changed the bridge's database engine to SQLite (
matrix_mautrix_facebook_database_engine: 'sqlite'
in yourvars.yml
) some time in the past (likely during The big move to all-on-Postgres (potentially dangerous)).
As already mentioned above, you most likely don't need to do anything. If you rerun the playbook and don't get an error, you've been automatically upgraded. Just send a login
message to the Facebook bridge bot again. Otherwise, read below for a solution.
Upgrade path for people NOT running an external Postgres server (default for the playbook)
If you're not running an external Postgres server, then this bridge either already works on Postgres for you, or you've intentionally kept it back on SQLite with custom configuration (matrix_mautrix_facebook_database_engine: 'sqlite'
in your vars.yml
) .
Simply remove that custom configuration from your vars.yml
file (if it's there) and re-run the playbook. It should upgrade you automatically.
You'll need to send a login
message to the Facebook bridge bot again.
Alternatively, you can stay on SQLite for a little longer.
Upgrade path for people running an external Postgres server
For people using the internal Postgres server (the default for the playbook):
- we automatically create an additional
matrix_mautrix_facebook
Postgres database and credentials to access it - we automatically adjust the bridge's
matrix_mautrix_facebook_database_*
variables to point the bridge to that Postgres database - we use pgloader to automatically import the existing SQLite data for the bridge into the
matrix_mautrix_facebook
Postgres database
If you are using an external Postgres server, unfortunately we currently can't do any of that for you.
You have 3 ways to proceed:
- contribute to the playbook to make this possible (difficult)
- or, do the migration "steps" manually:
- stop the bridge (
systemctl stop matrix-mautrix-facebook
) - create a new
matrix_mautrix_facebook
Postgres database for it - run pgloader manually (we import this bridge's data using default settings and it works well)
- define
matrix_mautrix_facebook_database_*
variables in yourvars.yml
file (credentials, etc.) - you can find their defaults inroles/custom/matrix-mautrix-facebook/defaults/main.yml
- switch the bridge to Postgres (
matrix_mautrix_facebook_database_engine: 'postgres'
in yourvars.yml
file) - re-run the playbook (
--tags=setup-all,start
) and ensure the bridge works (systemctl status matrix-mautrix-facebook
andjournalctl -fu matrix-mautrix-facebook
) - send a
login
message to the Facebook bridge bot again
- stop the bridge (
- or, stay on SQLite for a little longer (temporary solution)
Staying on SQLite for a little longer (temporary solution)
To keep using this bridge with SQLite for a little longer (not recommended), use the following configuration in your vars.yml
file:
# Force-change the database engine to SQLite.
matrix_mautrix_facebook_database_engine: 'sqlite'
# Force-downgrade to the last bridge version which supported SQLite.
matrix_mautrix_facebook_docker_image: "{{ matrix_mautrix_facebook_docker_image_name_prefix }}tulir/mautrix-facebook:da1b4ec596e334325a1589e70829dea46e73064b"
If you do this, keep in mind that you can't run this forever. This SQLite-supporting bridge version is not getting any updates and will break sooner or later. The playbook will also drop support for SQLite at some point in the future.
2021-01-17
matrix-corporal goes 2.0
matrix-corporal v2 has been released and the playbook also supports it now.
No manual intervention is required in the common case.
The new matrix-corporal version is also the first one to support Interactive Authentication. If you wish to enable that (hint: you should), you'll need to set up the REST auth password provider. There's more information in our matrix-corporal docs.
2021-01-14
Moving from cronjobs to systemd timers
We no longer use cronjobs for Let's Encrypt SSL renewal and matrix-nginx-proxy
/matrix-coturn
reloading. Instead, we've switched to systemd timers.
The largest benefit of this is that we no longer require you to install a cron daemon, thus simplifying our install procedure.
The playbook will migrate you from cronjobs to systemd timers automatically. This is just a heads up.
2021-01-08
(Breaking Change) New SSL configuration
SSL configuration (protocols, ciphers) can now be more easily controlled thanks to us making use of configuration presets.
We define a few presets (old, intermediate, modern), following the Mozilla SSL Configuration Generator.
A new variable matrix_nginx_proxy_ssl_preset
controls which preset is used (defaults to "intermediate"
).
Compared to before, this changes nginx's ssl_prefer_server_ciphers
to off
(used to default to on
). It also add some more ciphers to the list, giving better performance on mobile devices, and removes some weak ciphers. More information in the documentation.
To revert to the old behaviour, set the following variables:
matrix_nginx_proxy_ssl_ciphers: "EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM:AES256+EECDH:AES256+EDH"
matrix_nginx_proxy_ssl_prefer_server_ciphers: "on"
Just like before, you can still use your own custom protocols by specifying them in matrix_nginx_proxy_ssl_protocols
. Doing so overrides the values coming from the preset.
2021-01-03
Signal bridging support via mautrix-signal
Thanks to laszabine's efforts, the playbook now supports bridging to Signal via the mautrix-signal bridge. See our Setting up Mautrix Signal bridging documentation page for getting started.
If you had installed the mautrix-signal bridge while its Pull Request was still work-in-progress, you can migrate your data to the new and final setup by referring to this comment.
2020-12-23
The big move to all-on-Postgres (potentially dangerous)
TLDR: all your bridges (and other services) will likely be auto-migrated from SQLite/nedb to Postgres, hopefully without trouble. You can opt-out (see how below), if too worried about breakage.
Until now, we've only used Postgres as a database for Synapse. All other services (bridges, bots, etc.) were kept simple and used a file-based database (SQLite or nedb).
Since this huge pull request, all of our services now use Postgres by default. Thanks to Johanna Dorothea Reichmann for starting the work on it and for providing great input!
Moving all services to Postgres brings a few benefits to us:
- improved performance
- improved compatibility. Most bridges are deprecating SQLite/nedb support or offer less features when not on Postgres.
- easier backups. It's still some effort to take a proper backup (Postgres dump + various files, keys), but a Postgres dump now takes you much further.
- we're now more prepared to introduce other services that need a Postgres database - Dendrite, the mautrix-signal bridge (existing pull request), etc.
Key takeway
-
existing installations that use an external Postgres server should be unaffected (they remain on SQLite/nedb for all services, except Synapse)
-
for existing installations which use our integrated Postgres database server (
matrix-postgres
, which is the default), we automatically migrate data from SQLite/nedb to Postgres and archive the database files (something.db
->something.db.backup
), so you can restore them if you need to go back (see how below).
Opting-out of the Postgres migration
This is a very large and somewhat untested change (potentially dangerous), so if you're not feeling confident/experimental, opt-out of it for now. Still, it's the new default and what we (and various bridges) will focus on going forward, so don't stick to old ways for too long.
You can remain on SQLite/nedb (at least for now) by adding a variable like this to your vars.yml
file for each service you use: matrix_COMPONENT_database_engine: sqlite
(e.g. matrix_mautrix_facebook_database_engine: sqlite
).
Some services (like appservice-irc
and appservice-slack
) don't use SQLite, so use nedb
, instead of sqlite
for them.
Going back to SQLite/nedb if things went wrong
If you went with the Postgres migration and it went badly for you (some bridge not working as expected or not working at all), do this:
- stop all services (
ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=stop
) - SSH into the server and rename the old database files (
something.db.backup
->something.db
). Example:mv /matrix/mautrix-facebook/data/mautrix-facebook.db.backup /matrix/mautrix-facebook/data/mautrix-facebook.db
- switch the affected service back to SQLite (e.g.
matrix_mautrix_facebook_database_engine: sqlite
). Some services (likeappservice-irc
andappservice-slack
) don't use SQLite, so usenedb
, instead ofsqlite
for them. - re-run the playbook (
ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=setup-all,start
) - get in touch with us
2020-12-11
synapse-janitor support removed
We've removed support for the unmaintained synapse-janitor script. There's been past reports of it corrupting the Synapse database. Since there hasn't been any new development on it and it doesn't seem too useful nowadays, there's no point in including it in the playbook.
If you need to clean up or compact your database, consider using the Synapse Admin APIs directly. See our Synapse maintenance and Postgres maintenance documentation pages for more details.
Docker 20.10 is here
(No need to do anything special in relation to this. Just something to keep in mind)
Docker 20.10 got released recently and your server will likely get it the next time you update.
This is the first major Docker update in a long time and it packs a lot of changes. Some of them introduced some breakage for us initially (see here and here), but it should be all good now.
2020-12-08
openid APIs exposed by default on the federation port when federation disabled
We've changed some defaults. People running with our default configuration (federation enabled), are not affected at all.
If you are running an unfederated server (matrix_synapse_federation_enabled: false
), this may be of interest to you.
When federation is disabled, but ma1sd or Dimension are enabled, we'll now expose the openid
APIs on the federation port.
These APIs are necessary for some ma1sd features to work. If you'd like to prevent this, you can: matrix_synapse_federation_port_openid_resource_required: false
.
2020-11-27
Recent Jitsi updates may require configuration changes
We've recently updated from Jitsi build 4857 to build 5142, which brings a lot of configuration changes.
If you use our default Jitsi settings, you won't have to do anything.
People who have fine-tuned Jitsi may find that some options got renamed now, others are gone and yet others still need to be defined in another way.
The next time you run the playbook installation command, our validation logic will tell you if you're using some variables like that and will recommend a migration path for each one.
Additionally, we've recently disabled transcriptions (matrix_jitsi_enable_transcriptions: false
) and recording (matrix_jitsi_enable_recording: false
) by default. These features did not work anyway, because we don't install the required dependencies for them (Jigasi and Jibri, respectively). If you've been somehow pointing your Jitsi installation to some manually installed Jigasi/Jibri service, you may need to toggle these flags back to enabled to have transcriptions and recordings working.
2020-11-23
Breaking change matrix-sms-bridge
Because of many problems using gammu as SMS provider, matrix-sms-bridge now uses (https://github.com/RebekkaMa/android-sms-gateway-server) by default. See (the docs)[./docs/configuring-playbook-bridge-matrix-bridge-sms.md] which new vars you need to add.
If you are using this playbook to deploy matrix-sms-bridge and still really want to use gammu as SMS provider, we could possibly add support for both android-sms-gateway-server and gammu.
2020-11-13
Breaking change matrix-sms-bridge
The new version of matrix-sms-bridge changed its database from neo4j to h2. You need to sync the bridge at the first start. Note that this only will sync rooms where the @smsbot:yourServer is member. For rooms without @smsbot:yourServer you need to kick and invite the telephone number or invite @smsbot:yourServer.
- Add the following to your
vars.yml
file:matrix_sms_bridge_container_extra_arguments=['--env SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE=initialsync']
- Login to your host shell and remove old systemd file from your host:
rm /etc/systemd/system/matrix-sms-bridge-database.service
- Run
ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=setup-matrix-sms-bridge,start
- Login to your host shell and check the logs with
journalctl -u matrix-sms-bridge
until the sync finished. - Remove the var from the first step.
- Run
ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=setup-all,start
.
2020-11-10
Dynamic DNS support
Thanks to Scott Crossen, the playbook can now manage Dynamic DNS for you using ddclient.
To learn more, follow our Dynamic DNS docs page.
2020-10-28
(Compatibility Break) https://matrix.DOMAIN/ now redirects to https://element.DOMAIN/
Until now, we used to serve a static page coming from Synapse at https://matrix.DOMAIN/
. This page was not very useful to anyone.
Since matrix.DOMAIN
may be accessed by regular users in certain conditions, it's probably better to redirect them to a better place (e.g. to the Element client).
If Element is installed (matrix_client_element_enabled: true
, which it is by default), we now redirect people to it, instead of showing them a Synapse static page.
If you'd like to control where the redirect goes, use the matrix_nginx_proxy_proxy_matrix_client_redirect_root_uri_to_domain
variable.
To restore the old behavior of not redirecting anywhere and serving the Synapse static page, set it to an empty value (matrix_nginx_proxy_proxy_matrix_client_redirect_root_uri_to_domain: ""
).
2020-10-26
(Compatibility Break) /_synapse/admin is no longer publicly exposed by default
We used to expose the Synapse Admin APIs publicly (at https://matrix.DOMAIN/_synapse/admin
).
These APIs require authentication with a valid access token, so it's not that big a deal to expose them.
However, following official Synapse's reverse-proxying recommendations, we're no longer exposing /_synapse/admin
by default.
If you'd like to restore restore the old behavior and expose /_synapse/admin
publicly, you can use the following configuration (in your vars.yml
):
matrix_nginx_proxy_proxy_matrix_client_api_forwarded_location_synapse_admin_api_enabled: true
2020-10-02
Minimum Ansible version raised to v2.7.0
We were claiming to support Ansible v2.5.2 and higher, but issues like #662 demonstrate that we need at least v2.7.0.
If you've been using the playbook without getting any errors until now, you're probably on a version higher than that already (or you're not using the matrix-ma1sd
and matrix-client-element
roles).
Our Ansible docs page contains information on how to run a more up-to-date version of Ansible.
2020-10-01
Postgres 13 support
The playbook now installs Postgres 13 by default.
If you have have an existing setup, it's likely running on an older Postgres version (9.x, 10.x, 11.x or 12.x). You can easily upgrade by following the upgrading PostgreSQL guide.
2020-09-01
matrix-registration support
The playbook can now help you set up matrix-registration - an application that lets you keep your Matrix server's registration private, but still allow certain users (those having a unique registration link) to register by themselves.
See our Setting up matrix-registration documentation page to get started.
2020-08-21
rust-synapse-compress-state support
The playbook can now help you use rust-synapse-compress-state to compress the state groups in your Synapse database.
See our Compressing state with rust-synapse-compress-state documentation page to get started.
2020-07-22
Synapse Admin support
The playbook can now help you set up synapse-admin.
See our Setting up Synapse Admin documentation to get started.
2020-07-20
matrix-reminder-bot support
The playbook can now help you set up matrix-reminder-bot.
See our Setting up matrix-reminder-bot documentation to get started.
2020-07-17
(Compatibility Break) Riot is now Element
As per the official announcement, Riot has been rebraned to Element.
The playbook follows suit. Existing installations have a few options for how to handle this.
See our Migrating to Element documentation page for more details.
2020-07-03
Steam bridging support via mx-puppet-steam
Thanks to Hugues Morisset's efforts, the playbook now supports bridging to Steam via the mx-puppet-steam bridge. See our Setting up MX Puppet Steam bridging documentation page for getting started.
2020-07-01
Discord bridging support via mx-puppet-discord
Thanks to Hugues Morisset's efforts, the playbook now supports bridging to Discord via the mx-puppet-discord bridge. See our Setting up MX Puppet Discord bridging documentation page for getting started.
Note: this is a new Discord bridge. The playbook still retains Discord bridging via matrix-appservice-discord. You're free too use the bridge that serves you better, or even both (for different users and use-cases).
2020-06-30
Instagram and Twitter bridging support
Thanks to Johanna Dorothea Reichmann's efforts, the playbook now supports bridging to Instagram via the mx-puppet-instagram bridge. See our Setting up MX Puppet Instagram bridging documentation page for getting started.
Thanks to Tulir Asokan's efforts, the playbook now supports bridging to Twitter via the mx-puppet-twitter bridge. See our Setting up MX Puppet Twitter bridging documentation page for getting started.
2020-06-28
(Post Mortem / fixed Security Issue) Re-enabling User Directory search powered by the ma1sd Identity Server
User Directory search requests used to go to the ma1sd identity server by default, which queried its own stores and the Synapse database.
ma1sd's security issue has been fixed in version 2.4.0
, with this commit. ma1sd 2.4.0
is now the default version for this playbook. For more information on what happened, please check the mentioned issue.
We are re-enabling user directory search with this update. Those who would like to keep it disabled can use this configuration: matrix_nginx_proxy_proxy_matrix_user_directory_search_enabled: false
As always, re-running the playbook is enough to get the updated bits.
2020-06-11
SMS bridging requires db reset
The current version of matrix-sms-bridge needs you to delete the database to work as expected. Just remove /matrix/matrix-sms-bridge/database/*
. It also adds a new requried var matrix_sms_bridge_default_region
.
To reuse your existing rooms, invite @smsbot:yourServer
to the room or write a message. You are also able to use automated room creation with telephonenumers by writing sms send -t 01749292923 "Hello World"
in a room with @smsbot:yourServer
. See the docs for more information.
2020-06-05
SMS bridging support
Thanks to benkuly's efforts, the playbook now supports bridging to SMS (with one telephone number only) via matrix-sms-bridge.
See our Setting up Matrix SMS bridging documentation page for getting started.
2020-05-19
(Compatibility Break / Security Issue) Disabling User Directory search powered by the ma1sd Identity Server
User Directory search requests used to go to the ma1sd identity server by default, which queried its own stores and the Synapse database.
ma1sd current has a security issue, which made it leak information about all users - including users created by bridges, etc.
Until the issue gets fixed, we're making User Directory search not go to ma1sd by default. You need to re-run the playbook and restart services to apply this workaround.
If you insist on restoring the old behavior (which has a security issue!), you might use this configuration: matrix_nginx_proxy_proxy_matrix_user_directory_search_enabled: "{{ matrix_ma1sd_enabled }}"
2020-04-28
Newer IRC bridge (with potential breaking change)
This upgrades matrix-appservice-irc from 0.14.1 to 0.16.0. Upstream
made a change to how you define manual mappings. If you added a
mapping
to your configuration, you will need to update it accoring
to the upstream
instructions.
If you did not include mappings
in your configuration for IRC, no
change is necessary. mappings
is not part of the default
configuration.
2020-04-23
Slack bridging support
Thanks to Rodrigo Belem's efforts, the playbook now supports bridging to Slack via the mx-puppet-slack bridge.
See our Setting up MX Puppet Slack bridging documentation page for getting started.
2020-04-09
Skype bridging support
Thanks to Rodrigo Belem's efforts, the playbook now supports bridging to Skype via the mx-puppet-skype bridge.
See our Setting up MX Puppet Skype bridging documentation page for getting started.
2020-04-05
Private Jitsi support
The Jitsi support we had landed a few weeks ago was working well, but it was always open to the whole world.
Running such an open instance is not desirable to most people, so teutat3s has contributed support for making Jitsi use authentication.
To make your Jitsi server more private, see the configure internal Jitsi authentication and guests mode section in our Jitsi documentation.
2020-04-03
(Potential Backward Compatibility Break) ma1sd replaces mxisd
Thanks to Marcel Partap's efforts, the mxisd identity server, which has been deprecated for a long time, has finally been replaced by ma1sd, a compatible fork.
If you're using the default playbook configuration, you don't need to do anything -- your mxisd installation will be replaced with ma1sd and all existing data will be migrated automatically the next time you run the playbook.
If you're doing something more special (defining custom matrix_mxisd_*
variables), the playbook will ask you to rename them to matrix_ma1sd_*
.
You're also encouraged to test that ma1sd works well for such a more custom setup.
2020-03-29
Archlinux support
Thanks to Christian Lupus's efforts, the playbook now supports installing to an Archlinux server.
2020-03-24
Jitsi support
The playbook can now (optionally) install the Jitsi video-conferencing platform and integrate it with Riot.
See our Jitsi documentation page to get started.
2020-03-15
Raspberry Pi support
Thanks to Gergely Horváth's effort, the playbook supports installing to a Raspberry Pi server, for at least some of the services.
Since most ready-made container images do not support that architecture, we achieve this by building images locally on the device itself. See our Self-building documentation page for how to get started.
2020-02-26
Riot-web themes are here
The playbook now makes it easy to install custom riot-web themes.
To learn more, take a look at our riot-web documentation on Themes.
2020-02-24
Customize the server name in Riot's login page
You can now customize the server name string that Riot-web displays in its login page.
These playbook variables, with these default values, have been added:
matrix_riot_web_default_server_name: "{{ matrix_domain }}"
The login page previously said "Sign in to your Matrix account on matrix.example.org" (the homeserver's domain name). It will now say "Sign in ... on example.org" (the server name) by default, or "Sign in ... on Our Server" if you set the variable to "Our Server".
To support this, the config.json template is changed to use the configuration key default_server_config
for setting the default HS/IS, and the new configuration key server_name
is added in there.
2020-01-30
Disabling TLSv1.1
To improve security, we've removed TLSv1.1 support from our default matrix-nginx-proxy configuration.
If you need to support old clients, you can re-enable it with the following configuration: matrix_nginx_proxy_ssl_protocols: "TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3"
2020-01-21
Postgres collation changes (action required!)
By default, we've been using a UTF-8 collation for Postgres. This is known to cause Synapse some troubles (see the relevant issue) on systems that use glibc. We run Postgres in an Alpine Linux container (which uses musl, and not glibc), so our users are likely not affected by the index corruption problem observed by others.
Still, we might become affected in the future. In any case, it's imminent that Synapse will complain about databases which do not use a C collation.
To avoid future problems, we recommend that you run the following command:
ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=upgrade-postgres --extra-vars='{"postgres_force_upgrade": true}'
It forces a Postgres database upgrade, which would recreate your Postgres database using the proper (C
) collation. If you are low on disk space, or run into trouble, refer to the Postgres database upgrade documentation page.
2020-01-14
Added support for Appservice Webhooks
Thanks to a contribution from Björn Marten from netresearch, the playbook can now install and configure matrix-appservice-webhooks for you. This bridge provides support for Slack-compatible webhooks.
Learn more in Setting up Appservice Webhooks.
2020-01-12
Added support for automatic Double Puppeting for all Mautrix bridges
Double Puppeting can now be easily enabled for all Mautrix bridges supported by the playbook (Facebook, Hangouts, Whatsapp, Telegram).
This is possible due to those bridges' integration with matrix-synapse-shared-secret-auth - yet another component that this playbook can install for you.
To get started, following the playbook's documentation for the bridge you'd like to configure.
2019-12-06
Added support for an alternative method for using another webserver
We have added support for making matrix-nginx-proxy
not being so invasive, so that it would be easier to use your own webserver.
The documentation has been updated with a Method 2, which might make "own webserver" setup easier in some cases (such as reverse-proxying using Traefik).
Existing users are not affected by this and don't need to change anything.
The defaults are still the same (matrix-nginx-proxy
obtaining SSL certificates and doing everything for you automatically).
2019-11-10
Tightened security around room directory publishing
As per this advisory blog post, we've decided to change the default publishing rules for the Matrix room directory.
Our general goal is to favor privacy and security when running personal (family & friends) and corporate homeservers. Both of these likely benefit from having a more secure default of not showing the room directory without authentication and not publishing the room directory over federation.
As with anything else, these new defaults can be overriden by changing the matrix_synapse_allow_public_rooms_without_auth
and matrix_synapse_allow_public_rooms_over_federation
variables, respectively.
2019-10-05
Improved Postgres upgrading/importing
Postgres upgrading and importing have been improved to add support for multiple databases and roles.
Previously, the playbook would only take care of the homeserver
database and synapse
user.
We now back up and restore all databases and users on the Postgres server.
For now, the playbook only uses that one database (homeserver
) and that one single user (synapse
), so it's all the same.
However, in the future, additional components besides Synapse may also make use the Postgres database server.
One such example is the matrix-appservice-slack bridge, which strongly encourages use of Postgres in its v1.0 release. We are yet to upgrade to it.
Additionally, Postgres upgrading now uses gzipped dump files by default, to minimize disk space usage.
2019-10-04
Postgres 12 support
The playbook now installs Postgres 12 by default.
If you have have an existing setup, it's likely running on an older Postgres version (9.x, 10.x or 11.x). You can easily upgrade by following the upgrading PostgreSQL guide.
2019-10-03
Synapse 1.4.0
Synapse 1.4.0 is out with lots of changes related to privacy.
Its new defaults (which we adopt as well) mean that certain old data will automatically get purged after a certain number of days. 1.4.0 automatically garbage collects redacted messages (defaults to 7 days) and removes unused IP and user agent information stored in the user_ips table (defaults to 30 days). If you'd like to preserve this data, we encourage you to look at the redaction_retention_period
and user_ips_max_age
options (controllable by the matrix_synapse_redaction_retention_period
and matrix_synapse_user_ips_max_age
playbook variables, respectively) before doing the upgrade. If you'd like to keep data indefinitely, set these variables to null
(e.g. matrix_synapse_redaction_retention_period: ~
).
From now on the trusted_key_servers
setting for Synapse is configurable. It still defaults to matrix.org
just like it always has, but in a more explicit way now. If you'd like to use another trusted key server, adjust the matrix_synapse_trusted_key_servers
playbook variable.
Synapse 1.4.0 also changes lots of things related to identity server integration. Because Synapse will now by default be responsible for validating email addresses for user accounts, running without an identity server looks more feasible. We still have concerns over disabling the identity server by default, so for now it remains enabled.
2019-09-09
Synapse Simple Antispam support
There have been lots of invite-spam attacks lately and Travis has created a Synapse module (synapse-simple-antispam) to let people protect themselves.
From now on, you can easily install and configure this spam checker module through the playbook.
Learn more in Setting up Synapse Simple Antispam.
2019-08-25
Extensible Riot-web configuration
Similarly to Extensible Synapse configuration (below), Riot-web configuration is also extensible now.
From now on, you can extend/override Riot-web's configuration by making use of the matrix_riot_web_configuration_extension_json
variable.
This should be enough for most customization needs.
If you need even more power, you can now also take full control and override matrix_riot_web_configuration_default
(or matrix_riot_web_configuration
) directly.
Learn more in Configuring Riot-web.
2019-08-22
Extensible Synapse configuration
Previously, we had to create custom Ansible variables for each and every Synapse setting. This lead to too much effort (and configuration ugliness) to all of Synapse's settings, so naturally, not all features of Synapse could be controlled through the playbook.
From now on, you can extend/override the Synapse server's configuration by making use of the matrix_synapse_configuration_extension_yaml
variable.
This should be enough for most customization needs.
If you need even more power, you can now also take full control and override matrix_synapse_configuration
(or matrix_synapse_configuration_yaml
) directly.
Learn more here in Configuring Synapse.
2019-08-21
Slack bridging support
Thanks to the great work of kingoftheconnors and Stuart Mumford (Cadair), the playbook now supports bridging to Slack via the appservice-slack bridge.
Additional details are available in Setting up Appservice Slack bridging.
Google Hangouts bridging support
Thanks to the great work of Eduardo Beltrame (Munfred) and Robbie D (microchipster), the playbook now supports bridging to Google Hangouts via the mautrix-hangouts bridge.
Additional details are available in Setting up Mautrix Hangouts bridging.
2019-08-05
Email2Matrix support
Support for Email2Matrix has been added.
It's an optional feature that you can enable via the playbook.
To learn more, see the playbook's documentation on Email2Matrix.
2019-08-03
Synapse logging level has been reduced to WARNING
After some discussion in our support room, we've decided to change the default logging level for Synapse from INFO
to WARNING
.
This greatly reduces the number of log messages that are being logged, leading to:
- much less disk space dedicated to Synapse and thus, logs kept for longer
- easier to find some important
WARNING
,ERROR
andCRITICAL
messages, as they're not longer buried in thousands of non-importantINFO
messages
If you'd like to track down an issue, you can always increase the logging level as described here.
2019-07-08
Synapse Maintenance docs and synapse-janitor support are available
The playbook can now help you with Synapse's maintenance.
There's a new documentation page about Synapse maintenance and another section on Postgres vacuuming.
Among other things, if your Postgres database has grown significantly over time, you may wish to ask the playbook to purge unused data with synapse-janitor for you.
(BC Break) Rename run control variables
Some internal playbook control variables have been renamed.
This change only affects people who run this playbook's roles from another playbook. If you're using this playbook as-is, you're not affected and don't need to do anything.
The following variables have been renamed:
- from
run_import_postgres
torun_postgres_import
- from
run_import_sqlite_db
torun_postgres_import_sqlite_db
- from
run_upgrade_postgres
torun_postgres_upgrade
- from
run_import_media_store
torun_synapse_import_media_store
- from
run_register_user
torun_synapse_register_user
- from
run_update_user_password
torun_synapse_update_user_password
2019-07-04
Synapse no longer logs to text files
Following what the official Synapse Docker image is doing (#5565) and what we've been doing for mostly everything installed by this playbook, Synapse no longer logs to text files (/matrix/synapse/run/homeserver.log*
).
From now on, Synapse would only log to console, which goes to systemd's journald.
To see Synapse's logs, execute: journalctl -fu matrix-synapse
Because of this, the following variables have become obsolete and were removed:
matrix_synapse_max_log_file_size_mb
matrix_synapse_max_log_files_count
To prevent confusion, it'd be better if you delete all old files manually after you've upgraded (rm -f /matrix/synapse/run/homeserver.log*
).
Because Synapse is incredibly chatty when it comes to logging (here's one such issue describing the problem), if you're running an ancient distribution (like CentOS 7.0), be advised that systemd's journald default logging restrictions may not be high enough to capture all log messages generated by Synapse. This is especially true if you've got a busy (Synapse) server. We advise that you manually add RateLimitInterval=0
and RateLimitBurst=0
under [Storage]
in the /etc/systemd/journald.conf
file, followed by restarting the logging service (systemctl restart systemd-journald
).
2019-06-27
(BC Break) Discord bridge configuration is now entirely managed by the playbook
Until now, the config.yaml
file for the Discord bridge was managed by the playbook, but the registration.yaml
file was not.
From now on, the playbook will keep both configuration files sync for you.
This means that if you were making manual changes to the /matrix/appservice-discord/discord-registration.yaml
configuration file, those would be lost the next time you run the playbook.
The bridge now stores configuration in a subdirectory (/matrix/appservice-discord/config
).
Likewise, data is now also stored in a subdirectory (/matrix/appservice-discord/data
). When you run the playbook with an existing database file (/matrix/appservice-discord/discord.db
), the playbook will stop the bridge and relocate the database file to the ./data
directory. There's no data-loss involved. You'll need to restart the bridge manually though (--tags=start
).
The main directory (/matrix/appservice-discord
) may contain some leftover files (user-store.db
, room-store.db
, config.yaml
, discord-registration.yaml
, invite_link
). These are no longer necessary and can be deleted manually.
We're now following the default sample configuration for the Discord bridge.
If you need to override some values, define them in matrix_appservice_discord_configuration_extension_yaml
.
2019-06-24
(BC Break) WhatsApp bridge configuration is now entirely managed by the playbook
Until now, configuration files for the WhatsApp bridge were created by the playbook initially, but never modified later on.
From now on, the playbook will keep the configuration in sync for you.
This means that if you were making manual changes to the /matrix/mautrix-whatsapp/config.yaml
or /matrix/mautrix-whatsapp/registration.yaml
configuration files, those would be lost the next time you run the playbook.
The bridge now stores configuration in a subdirectory (/matrix/mautrix-whatsapp/config
), so your old configuration remains in the base directory (/matrix/mautrix-whatsapp
).
You need to migrate any manual changes over to the new matrix_mautrix_whatsapp_configuration_extension_yaml
variable, so that the playbook would apply them for you.
Likewise, data is now also stored in a subdirectory (/matrix/mautrix-whatsapp/data
). When you run the playbook with an existing database file (/matrix/mautrix-whatsapp/mautrix-whatsapp.db
), the playbook will stop the bridge and relocate the database file to the ./data
directory. There's no data-loss involved. You'll need to restart the bridge manually though (--tags=start
).
We're now following the default configuration for the WhatsApp bridge.
2019-06-20
(BC Break) IRC bridge configuration is now entirely managed by the playbook
Until now, configuration files for the IRC bridge were created by the playbook initially, but never modified later on.
From now on, the playbook will keep the configuration in sync for you.
This means that if you were making manual changes to the /matrix/appservice-irc/config.yaml
or /matrix/appservice-irc/registration.yaml
configuration files, those would be lost the next time you run the playbook.
The bridge now stores configuration in a subdirectory (/matrix/appservice-irc/config
), so your old configuration remains in the base directory (/matrix/appservice-irc
).
Previously, we asked people to configure bridged IRC servers by extending the bridge configuration (matrix_appservice_irc_configuration_extension_yaml
). While this is still possible and will continue working forever, we now recommend defining IRC servers in the easier to use matrix_appservice_irc_ircService_servers
variable. See our IRC bridge documentation page for an example.
If you decide to continue using matrix_appservice_irc_configuration_extension_yaml
, you might be interested to know that ircService.databaseUri
and a few other keys now have default values in the base configuration (matrix_appservice_irc_configuration_yaml
). You may wish to stop redefining those keys, unless you really intend to override them. You most likely only need to override ircService.servers
.
Bridge data (passkey.pem
and database files) is now also stored in a subdirectory (/matrix/appservice-irc/data
).
When you run the playbook with an existing /matrix/appservice-irc/passkey.pem
file, the playbook will stop the bridge and relocate the passkey and database files (rooms.db
and users.db
) to the ./data
directory. There's no data-loss involved. You'll need to restart the bridge manually though (--tags=start
).
2019-06-15
(BC Break) Telegram bridge configuration is now entirely managed by the playbook
Until now, configuration files for the Telegram bridge were created by the playbook initially, but never modified later on.
From now on, the playbook will keep the configuration in sync for you.
This means that if you were making manual changes to the /matrix/mautrix-telegram/config.yaml
or /matrix/mautrix-telegram/registration.yaml
configuration files, those would be lost the next time you run the playbook.
The bridge now stores configuration in a subdirectory (/matrix/mautrix-telegram/config
), so your old configuration remains in the base directory (/matrix/mautrix-telegram
).
You need to migrate any manual changes over to the new matrix_mautrix_telegram_configuration_extension_yaml
variable, so that the playbook would apply them for you.
Likewise, data is now also stored in a subdirectory (/matrix/mautrix-telegram/data
). When you run the playbook with an existing database file (/matrix/mautrix-telegram/mautrix-telegram.db
), the playbook will stop the bridge and relocate the database file to the ./data
directory. There's no data-loss involved. You'll need to restart the bridge manually though (--tags=start
).
Also, we're now following the default configuration for the Telegram bridge, so some default configuration values are different:
edits_as_replies
(used to befalse
, nowtrue
) - previously replies were not sent over to Matrix at all; ow they are sent over as a reply to the original messageinline_images
(used to betrue
, nowfalse
) - this has to do with captioned images. Inline-image (included caption) are said to exhibit troubles on Riot iOS. Whenfalse
, the caption arrives on the Matrix side as a separate message.authless_portals
(used to befalse
, nowtrue
) - creating portals from the Telegram side is now possiblewhitelist_group_admins
(used to befalse
, nowtrue
) - allows Telegram group admins to use the bot commands
If the new values are not to your liking, use matrix_mautrix_telegram_configuration_extension_yaml
to specify an override (refer to matrix_mautrix_telegram_configuration_yaml
to figure out which variable goes where).
2019-06-12
Synapse v1.0
With Synapse v1.0 now available and most people being on at least Synapse v0.99, it's time to remove the _matrix._tcp
DNS SRV record that we've been keeping for compatibility with old Synapse versions (<= 0.34).
According to the Server Discovery specification, it's no harm to keep the DNS SRV record. But since it's not necessary for federating with the larger Matrix network anymore, you should be safe to get rid of it.
Note: don't confuse the _matrix._tcp
and _matrix-identity._tcp
DNS SRV records. The latter, must not be removed.
For completeness, we must say that using a _matrix._tcp
SRV record for Server Delegation is still valid and useful for certain deployments. It's just that our guide recommends the /.well-known/matrix/server
Server Delegation method, due to its easier implementation when using this playbook.
Besides this optional/non-urgent DNS change, assuming you're already on Synapse v0.99, upgrading to Synapse v1.0 should be as simple as re-running the playbook.
2019-06-07
(BC Break) Facebook bridge configuration is now entirely managed by the playbook
Until now, configuration files for the Facebook bridge were created by the playbook initially, but never modified later on.
From now on, the playbook will keep the configuration in sync for you.
This means that if you were making manual changes to the /matrix/mautrix-facebook/config.yaml
or /matrix/mautrix-facebook/registration.yaml
configuration files, those would be lost the next time you run the playbook.
The bridge now stores configuration in a subdirectory (/matrix/mautrix-facebook/config
), so your old configuration remains in the base directory (/matrix/mautrix-facebook
).
You need to migrate any manual changes over to the new matrix_mautrix_facebook_configuration_extension_yaml
variable, so that the playbook would apply them for you.
Likewise, data is now also stored in a subdirectory (/matrix/mautrix-facebook/data
). When you run the playbook with an existing database file (/matrix/mautrix-facebook/mautrix-facebook.db
), the playbook will stop the bridge and relocate the database file to the ./data
directory. There's no data-loss involved. You'll need to restart the bridge manually though (--tags=start
).
2019-05-25
Support for exposing container ports publicly (not just to the host)
Until now, various roles supported a matrix_*_expose_port
variable, which would expose their container's port to the host. This was mostly useful for reverse-proxying manually (in case matrix-nginx-proxy
was disabled). It could also be used for installing some playbook services (e.g. bridges, etc.) and wiring them to a separate (manual) Matrix setup.
matrix_*_expose_port
variables were not granular enough - sometimes they would expose one port, other times multiple. They also didn't provide control over where to expose (to which port number and to which network interface), because they would usually hardcode something like 127.0.0.1:8080
.
All such variables have been superseded by a better (more flexible) way to do it.
Most people (including those not using matrix-nginx-proxy
), don't need to bother with this.
Porting examples follow for people having more customized setups:
-
from
matrix_synapse_container_expose_client_api_port: true
tomatrix_synapse_container_client_api_host_bind_port: '127.0.0.1:8008'
-
from
matrix_synapse_container_expose_federation_api_port: true
tomatrix_synapse_container_federation_api_plain_host_bind_port: '127.0.0.1:8048'
and possiblymatrix_synapse_container_federation_api_tls_host_bind_port: '8448'
-
from
matrix_synapse_container_expose_metrics_port: true
tomatrix_synapse_container_metrics_api_host_bind_port: '127.0.0.1:9100'
-
from
matrix_riot_web_container_expose_port: true
tomatrix_riot_web_container_http_host_bind_port: '127.0.0.1:8765'
-
from
matrix_mxisd_container_expose_port: true
tomatrix_mxisd_container_http_host_bind_port: '127.0.0.1:8090'
-
from
matrix_dimension_container_expose_port: true
tomatrix_dimension_container_http_host_bind_port: '127.0.0.1:8184'
-
from
matrix_corporal_container_expose_ports: true
tomatrix_corporal_container_http_gateway_host_bind_port: '127.0.0.1:41080'
and possiblymatrix_corporal_container_http_api_host_bind_port: '127.0.0.1:41081'
-
from
matrix_appservice_irc_container_expose_client_server_api_port: true
tomatrix_appservice_irc_container_http_host_bind_port: '127.0.0.1:9999'
-
from
matrix_appservice_discord_container_expose_client_server_api_port: true
tomatrix_appservice_discord_container_http_host_bind_port: '127.0.0.1:9005'
As always, if you forget to remove usage of some outdated variable, the playbook will warn you.
2019-05-23
(BC Break) Ansible 2.8 compatibility
Thanks to @danbob, the playbook now supports the new Ansible 2.8.
A manual change is required to the inventory/hosts
file, changing the group name from matrix-servers
to matrix_servers
(dash to underscore).
To avoid doing it manually, run this:
- Linux:
sed -i 's/matrix-servers/matrix_servers/g' inventory/hosts
- Mac:
sed -i '' 's/matrix-servers/matrix_servers/g' inventory/hosts
2019-05-21
Synapse no longer required
The playbook no longer insists on installing Synapse via the matrix-synapse
role.
If you would prefer to install Synapse another way and just use the playbook to install other services, it should be possible (matrix_synapse_enabled: false
).
Note that it won't necessarily be the best experience, since the playbook wires things to Synapse by default. If you're using your own Synapse instance (especially one not running in a container), you may have to override many variables to point them to the correct place.
Having Synapse not be a required component potentially opens the door for installing alternative Matrix homeservers.
Bridges are now separate from the Synapse role
Bridges are no longer part of the matrix-synapse
role.
Each bridge now lives in its own separate role (roles/custom/matrix-bridge-*
).
These bridge roles are independent of the matrix-synapse
role, so it should be possible to use them with a Synapse instance installed another way (not through the playbook).
Renaming inconsistently-named Synapse variables
For better consistency, the following variables have been renamed:
matrix_enable_room_list_search
was renamed tomatrix_synapse_enable_room_list_search
matrix_alias_creation_rules
was renamed tomatrix_synapse_alias_creation_rules
matrix_nginx_proxy_matrix_room_list_publication_rulesdata_path
was renamed tomatrix_synapse_room_list_publication_rules
2019-05-09
Besides a myriad of bug fixes and minor improvements, here are the more notable (bigger) features we can announce today.
Mautrix Facebook/Messenger bridging support
The playbook now supports bridging with Facebook by installing the mautrix-facebook bridge. This playbook functionality is available thanks to @izissise.
Additional details are available in Setting up Mautrix Facebook bridging.
mxisd Registration feature integration
The playbook can now help you integrate with mxisd's Registration feature.
Learn more in mxisd-controlled Registration.
2019-04-16
Caddy webserver examples
If you prefer using the Caddy webserver instead of our own integrated nginx, we now have examples for it in the examples/caddy
directory
2019-04-10
Goofys support for other S3-compatible object stores
Until now, you could optionally host Synapse's media repository on Amazon S3, but we now also support using other S3-compatible object stores,
2019-04-03
Ansible >= 2.5 is required
Due to recent playbook improvements and the fact that the world keeps turning, we're bumping the version requirement for Ansible (2.4 -> 2.5).
We've also started building our own Docker image of Ansible (devture/ansible), which is useful for people who can't upgrade their local Ansible installation (see Using Ansible via Docker).
2019-03-19
TLS support for Coturn
We've added TLS support to the Coturn TURN server installed by the playbook by default. The certificates from the Matrix domain will be used for the Coturn server.
This feature is enabled by default for new installations. To make use of TLS support for your existing Matrix server's Coturn, make sure to rebuild both Coturn and Synapse:
ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=setup-coturn,setup-synapse,start
People who have an extra firewall (besides the iptables firewall, which Docker manages automatically), will need to open these additional firewall ports: 5349/tcp
(TURN over TCP) and 5349/udp
(TURN over UDP).
People who build their own custom playbook from our roles should be aware that:
-
the
matrix-coturn
role and actually starting Coturn (e.g.--tags=start
), requires that certificates are already put in place. For this reason, it's usually a good idea to have thematrix-coturn
role execute aftermatrix-nginx-proxy
(which retrieves the certificates). -
there are a few variables that can help you enable TLS support for Coturn. See the
matrix-coturn
section in group_vars/matrix-servers.
2019-03-12
matrix-nginx-proxy support for serving the base domain
If you don't have a dedicated server for your base domain and want to set up Server Delegation via a well-known file, the playbook has got you covered now.
It's now possible for the playbook to obtain an SSL certificate and serve the necessary files for Matrix Server Delegation on your base domain. Take a look at the new Serving the base domain documentation page.
(BC break) matrix-nginx-proxy data variable renamed
matrix_nginx_proxy_data_path
was renamed to matrix_nginx_proxy_base_path
.
There's a new matrix_nginx_proxy_data_path
variable, which has a different use-purpose now (it's a subdirectory of matrix_nginx_proxy_base_path
and is meant for storing various data files).
2019-03-10
Dimension Integration Manager support
Thanks to NullIsNot0, the playbook can now (optionally) install the Dimension Integration Manager. To learn more, see the Setting up Dimension documentation page.
2019-03-07
Ability to customize mxisd's email templates
Thanks to Sylvia van Os, mxisd's email templates can now be customized easily. To learn more, see the Customizing email templates documentation page.
2019-03-05
Discord bridging support
@Lionstiger has done some great work adding Discord bridging support via matrix-appservice-discord. To learn more, see the Setting up Appservice Discord bridging documentation page.
2019-02-19
Renaming variables
The following playbook variables were renamed:
- from
host_specific_hostname_identity
tomatrix_domain
- from
hostname_identity
tomatrix_domain
- from
hostname_matrix
tomatrix_server_fqn_matrix
- from
hostname_riot
tomatrix_server_fqn_riot
- from
host_specific_matrix_ssl_lets_encrypt_support_email
tomatrix_ssl_lets_encrypt_support_email
Doing that, we've simplified things, made names less confusing (hopefully) and moved all variable names under the matrix_
prefix.
2019-02-16
Riot v1.0.1 support
You can now use the brand new and redesigned Riot.
The new version no longer has a homepage by default, so we've also removed the custom homepage that we've been installing.
However, we still provide you with hooks to install your own home.html
file by specifying the matrix_riot_web_embedded_pages_home_path
variable (used to be called matrix_riot_web_homepage_template
before).
2019-02-14
Synapse v0.99.1
As we're moving toward Synapse v1.0, things are beginning to stabilize. Upgrading from v0.99.0 to v0.99.1 should be painless.
If you've been overriding the default configuration so that you can terminate TLS at the Synapse side (matrix_synapse_no_tls: false
), you'll now have to replace this custom configuration with matrix_synapse_tls_federation_listener_enabled: true
. The matrix_synapse_no_tls
variable is no more.
2019-02-06
Synapse v0.99 support and preparation for Synapse v1.0
Matrix is undergoing a lot of changes as it matures towards Synapse v1.0. The first step is the Synapse v0.99 transitional release, which this playbook now supports.
If you've been using this playbook successfully until now, you'd be aware that we've been doing Server Delegation using a _matrix._tcp
DNS SRV record (as per Configuring DNS).
Due to changes related to certificate file requirements that will affect us at Synapse v1.0, we'll have to stop using a _matrix._tcp
DNS SRV record in the future (when Synapse goes to v1.0 - around 5th of March 2019). We still need to keep the SRV record for now, for backward compatibility with older Synapse versions (lower than v0.99).
What you need to do now is make use of this transitional Synapse v0.99 release to prepare your federation settings for the future. You have 2 choices to prepare yourself for compatibility with the future Synapse v1.0:
-
(recommended) set up Server Delegation via a well-known file, unless you are affected by the Downsides of well-known-based Server Delegation. If you had previously set up the well-known
client
file, depending on how you've done it, it may be that there is nothing new required of you (besides upgrading). After upgrading, you can run a self-check, which will tell you if you need to do anything extra with regard to setting up Server Delegation via a well-known file. After some time, when most people have upgraded to Synapse v0.99 and older releases have disappeared, be prepared to drop your_matrix._tcp
SRV record. -
(more advanced) if the Downsides of well-known-based Server Delegation are not to your liking, as an alternative, you can set up Server Delegation via a DNS SRV record. In such a case, you get to keep using your existing
_matrix._tcp
DNS SRV record forever and need to NOT set up a/.well-known/matrix/server
file. Don't forget that you need to do certificate changes though. Follow the guide at Server Delegation via a DNS SRV record.
2019-02-01
TLS v1.3 support
Now that the nginx Docker image has added support for TLS v1.3, we have enabled that protocol by default.
When using:
-
the integrated nginx server: TLS v1.3 support might not kick in immediately, because the nginx version hasn't been bumped and you may have an older build of the nginx Docker image (currently
nginx:1.15.8-alpine
). Typically, we do not re-pull images that you already have. When the nginx version gets bumped in the future, everyone will get the update. Until then, you could manually force-pull the rebuilt Docker image by running this on the server:docker pull nginx:1.15.8-alpine
. -
your own external nginx server: if your external nginx server is too old, the new configuration we generate for you in
/matrix/nginx-proxy/conf.d/
might not work anymore, because it mentionsTLSv1.3
and your nginx version might not support that. You can adjust the SSL protocol list by overriding thematrix_nginx_proxy_ssl_protocols
variable. Learn more in the documentation page for Using your own webserver, instead of this playbook's nginx proxy -
another web server: you don't need to do anything to accommodate this change
2019-01-31
IRC bridging support
Devon Maloney (@Plailect) has done some great work bringing IRC bridging support via matrix-appservice-irc. To learn more, see the Setting up Appservice IRC documentation page.
2019-01-29
Running container processes as non-root, without capabilities and read-only
To improve security, this playbook no longer starts container processes as the root
user.
Most containers were dropping privileges anyway, but we were trusting them with root
privileges until they would do that.
Not anymore -- container processes now start as a non-root user (usually matrix
) from the get-go.
For additional security, various capabilities are also dropped (see why it's important) for all containers.
Additionally, most containers now use a read-only filesystem (see why it's important). Containers are given write access only to the directories they need to write to.
A minor breaking change is the matrix_nginx_proxy_proxy_matrix_client_api_client_max_body_size
variable having being renamed to matrix_nginx_proxy_proxy_matrix_client_api_client_max_body_size_mb
(note the _mb
suffix). The new variable expects a number value (e.g. 25M
-> 25
).
If you weren't customizing this variable, this wouldn't affect you.
matrix-mailer is now based on Exim, not Postfix
While we would have preferred to stay with Postfix, we found out that it cannot run as a non-root user. We've had to replace it with Exim (via the devture/exim-relay container image).
The internal matrix-mailer
service (running in a container) now listens on port 8025
(used to be 587
before).
The playbook will update your Synapse and mxisd email settings to match (matrix-mailer:587
-> matrix-mailer:8025
).
Using the devture/exim-relay container image instead of panubo/postfix also gives us a nice disk usage reduction (~200MB -> 8MB).
2019-01-17
(BC Break) Making the playbook's roles more independent of one another
The following change affects people running a more non-standard setup - external Postgres or using our roles in their own other playbook.
Most users don't need to do anything, besides becoming aware of the new glue variables file group_vars/matrix-servers
.
Because people like using the playbook's components independently (outside of this playbook) and because it's much better for maintainability, we've continued working on separating them. Still, we'd like to offer a turnkey solution for running a fully-featured Matrix server, so this playbook remains important for wiring up the various components.
With the new changes, all roles are now only dependent on the minimal matrix-base
role. They are no longer dependent among themselves.
In addition, the following components can now be completely disabled (for those who want/need to):
matrix-coturn
by usingmatrix_coturn_enabled: false
matrix-mailer
by usingmatrix_mailer_enabled: false
matrix-postgres
by usingmatrix_postgres_enabled: false
The following changes had to be done:
-
glue variables had to be introduced to the playbook, so it can wire together the various components. Those glue vars are stored in the
group_vars/matrix-servers
file. When overriding variables for a given component (role), you need to be aware of both the role defaults (role/ROLE/defaults/main.yml
) and the role's corresponding section in thegroup_vars/matrix-servers
file. -
matrix_postgres_use_external
has been superceeded by the more consistently namedmatrix_postgres_enabled
variable and a few othermatrix_synapse_database_
variables. See the Using an external PostgreSQL server (optional) documentation page for an up-to-date replacement. -
Postgres tools (
matrix-postgres-cli
andmatrix-make-user-admin
) are no longer installed if you're not enabling thematrix-postgres
role (matrix_postgres_enabled: false
) -
roles, being more independent now, are more minimal and do not do so much magic for you. People that are building their own playbook using our roles will definitely need to take a look at the
group_vars/matrix-servers
file and adapt their playbooks with the same (or similar) wiring logic.
2019-01-16
Splitting the playbook into multiple roles
For better maintainability, the playbook logic (which all used to reside in a single matrix-server
role)
has been split out into a number of different roles: matrix-synapse
, matrix-postgres
, matrix-riot-web
, matrix-mxisd
, etc. (see the roles/
directory).
To keep the filesystem more consistent with this separation, the Postgres data had to be relocated.
The default value of matrix_postgres_data_path
was changed from /matrix/postgres
to /matrix/postgres/data
. The /matrix/postgres
directory is what we consider a base path now (new variable matrix_postgres_base_path
). Your Postgres data files will automatically be relocated by the playbook (/matrix/postgres/*
-> /matrix/postgres/data/
) when you run with --tags=setup-all
(or --tags=setup-postgres
). While this shouldn't cause data-loss, it's better if you do a Postgres backup just in case. You'd need to restart all services after this migration (--tags=start
).
2019-01-11
(BC Break) mxisd configuration changes
To be more flexible and to support the upcoming mxisd 1.3.0 (when it gets released), we've had to redo how mxisd gets configured.
The following variables are no longer supported by this playbook:
matrix_mxisd_ldap_enabled
matrix_mxisd_ldap_connection_host
matrix_mxisd_ldap_connection_tls
matrix_mxisd_ldap_connection_port
matrix_mxisd_ldap_connection_baseDn
matrix_mxisd_ldap_connection_baseDns
matrix_mxisd_ldap_connection_bindDn
matrix_mxisd_ldap_connection_bindDn
matrix_mxisd_ldap_connection_bindPassword
matrix_mxisd_ldap_filter
matrix_mxisd_ldap_attribute_uid_type
matrix_mxisd_ldap_attribute_uid_value
matrix_mxisd_ldap_connection_bindPassword
matrix_mxisd_ldap_attribute_name
matrix_mxisd_ldap_attribute_threepid_email
matrix_mxisd_ldap_attribute_threepid_msisdn
matrix_mxisd_ldap_identity_filter
matrix_mxisd_ldap_identity_medium
matrix_mxisd_ldap_auth_filter
matrix_mxisd_ldap_directory_filter
matrix_mxisd_template_config
You are encouraged to use the matrix_mxisd_configuration_extension_yaml
variable to define your own mxisd configuration additions and overrides.
Refer to the default variables file for more information.
This new way of configuring mxisd is beneficial because:
- it lets us support all mxisd configuration options, as the playbook simply forwards them to mxisd without needing to care or understand them
- it lets you upgrade to newer mxisd versions and make use of their features, without us having to add support for them explicitly
2019-01-08
(BC Break) Cronjob schedule no longer configurable
Due to the way we manage cronjobs now, you can no longer configure the schedule they're invoked at.
If you were previously using matrix_ssl_lets_encrypt_renew_cron_time_definition
or matrix_nginx_proxy_reload_cron_time_definition
to set a custom schedule, you should note that these variables don't affect anything anymore.
If you miss this functionality, please open an Issue and let us know about your use case!
2018-12-23
(BC Break) More SSL certificate retrieval methods
The playbook now lets you decide between 3 different SSL certificate retrieval methods:
- (default) obtaining free SSL certificates from Let's Encrypt
- generating self-signed SSL certificates
- managing SSL certificates manually
Learn more in Adjusting SSL certificate retrieval.
For people who use Let's Encrypt (mostly everyone, since it's the default), you'll also have to rename a variable in your configuration:
- before:
host_specific_matrix_ssl_support_email
- after:
host_specific_matrix_ssl_lets_encrypt_support_email
(BC Break) mxisd upgrade with multiple base DN support
mxisd has bee upgraded to version 1.2.2, which supports multiple base DNs.
If you were configuring this playbook's matrix_mxisd_ldap_connection_baseDn
variable until now (a string containing a single base DN), you'll need to change to configuring the matrix_mxisd_ldap_connection_baseDns
variable (an array containing multiple base DNs).
Example change:
- before:
matrix_mxisd_ldap_connection_baseDn: OU=Users,DC=example,DC=org
- after:
matrix_mxisd_ldap_connection_baseDns: ['OU=Users,DC=example,DC=org']
2018-12-21
Synapse 0.34.0 and Python 3
Synapse has been upgraded to 0.34.0 and now uses Python 3. Based on feedback from others, running Synapse on Python 3 is supposed to decrease memory usage significantly (~2x).
2018-12-12
Riot homepage customization
You can now customize some parts of the Riot homepage (or even completely replace it with your own custom page).
See the matrix_riot_web_homepage_
variables in roles/custom/matrix-riot-web/defaults/main.yml
.
2018-12-04
mxisd extensibility
The LDAP identity store for mxisd can now be configured easily using playbook variables (see the matrix_mxisd_ldap_
variables in roles/custom/matrix-server/defaults/main.yml
).
2018-11-28
More scripts
- matrix-remove-all allows to uninstall everything with a single command
- matrix-make-user-admin allows to upgrade a user's privileges
LDAP auth support via matrix-synapse-ldap3
The playbook can now install and configure LDAP auth support for you.
Additional details are available in Setting up the LDAP authentication password provider module.
2018-11-23
Support for controlling public registration and room auto-join
The playbook now lets you enable public registration for users (controlled via matrix_synapse_enable_registration
).
By default, public registration is forbidden.
You can also make people automatically get auto-joined to rooms (controlled via matrix_synapse_auto_join_rooms
).
Support for changing the welcome user id (welcome bot)
By default, @riot-bot:matrix.org
is used to welcome newly registered users.
This can be changed to something else (or disabled) via the new matrix_riot_web_welcome_user_id
variable.
2018-11-14
Ability to set Synapse log levels
The playbook now allows you to set the log levels used by Synapse. The default logging levels remain the same.
You can now override following variables with any of the supported log levels listed here: https://docs.python.org/3/library/logging.html#logging-levels
matrix_synapse_log_level: "INFO"
matrix_synapse_storage_sql_log_level: "INFO"
matrix_synapse_root_log_level: "INFO"
2018-11-03
Customize parts of Riot's config
You can now customize some parts of Riot's config.json
. These playbook variables, with these default values, have been added:
matrix_riot_web_disable_custom_urls: true
matrix_riot_web_disable_guests: true
matrix_riot_web_integrations_ui_url: "https://scalar.vector.im/"
matrix_riot_web_integrations_rest_url: "https://scalar.vector.im/api"
matrix_riot_web_integrations_widgets_urls: "https://scalar.vector.im/api"
matrix_riot_web_integrations_jitsi_widget_url: "https://scalar.vector.im/api/widgets/jitsi.html"
This now allows you use a custom integrations manager like Dimesion. For example, if you wish to use the Dimension instance hosted at dimension.t2bot.io, you can set the following in your vars.yml file:
matrix_riot_web_integrations_ui_url: "https://dimension.t2bot.io/riot"
matrix_riot_web_integrations_rest_url: "https://dimension.t2bot.io/api/v1/scalar"
matrix_riot_web_integrations_widgets_urls: "https://dimension.t2bot.io/widgets"
matrix_riot_web_integrations_jitsi_widget_url: "https://dimension.t2bot.io/widgets/jitsi"
SSL protocols used to serve Riot and Synapse
There's now a new matrix_nginx_proxy_ssl_protocols
playbook variable, which controls the SSL protocols used to serve Riot and Synapse. Its default value is TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2
. This playbook previously used TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2
to serve Riot and Synapse.
You may wish to reenable TLSv1 if you need to access Riot in older browsers.
Note: Currently the dockerized nginx doesn't support TLSv1.3. See https://github.com/nginxinc/docker-nginx/issues/190 for more details.
2018-11-01
Postgres 11 support
The playbook now installs Postgres 11 by default.
If you have have an existing setup, it's likely running on an older Postgres version (9.x or 10.x). You can easily upgrade by following the upgrading PostgreSQL guide.
(BC Break) Renaming playbook variables
Due to the large amount of features added to this playbook lately, to keep things manageable we've had to reorganize its configuration variables a bit.
The following playbook variables were renamed:
- from
matrix_docker_image_mxisd
tomatrix_mxisd_docker_image
- from
matrix_docker_image_mautrix_telegram
tomatrix_mautrix_telegram_docker_image
- from
matrix_docker_image_mautrix_whatsapp
tomatrix_mautrix_whatsapp_docker_image
- from
matrix_docker_image_mailer
tomatrix_mailer_docker_image
- from
matrix_docker_image_coturn
tomatrix_coturn_docker_image
- from
matrix_docker_image_goofys
tomatrix_s3_goofys_docker_image
- from
matrix_docker_image_riot
tomatrix_riot_web_docker_image
- from
matrix_docker_image_nginx
tomatrix_nginx_proxy_docker_image
- from
matrix_docker_image_synapse
tomatrix_synapse_docker_image
- from
matrix_docker_image_postgres_v9
tomatrix_postgres_docker_image_v9
- from
matrix_docker_image_postgres_v10
tomatrix_postgres_docker_image_v10
- from
matrix_docker_image_postgres_latest
tomatrix_postgres_docker_image_latest
2018-10-26
Mautrix Whatsapp bridging support
The playbook now supports bridging with Whatsapp by installing the mautrix-whatsapp bridge. This playbook functionality is available thanks to @izissise.
Additional details are available in Setting up Mautrix Whatsapp bridging.
2018-10-25
Support for controlling Matrix federation
The playbook can now help you with Controlling Matrix federation, should you wish to run a more private (isolated) server.
2018-10-24
Disabling riot-web guests
From now on, Riot's configuration setting disable_guests
would be set to true
.
The homeserver was rejecting guests anyway, so this is just a cosmetic change affecting Riot's UI.
2018-10-21
Self-check maintenance command
The playbook can now check if services are configured correctly.
2018-10-05
Presence tracking made configurable
The playbook can now enable/disable user presence-status tracking in Synapse, through the playbook's matrix_synapse_use_presence
variable (having a default value of true
- enabled).
If users participate in large rooms with many other servers, disabling presence will decrease server load significantly.
2018-09-27
Synapse Cache Factor made configurable
The playbook now makes the Synapse cache factor configurable, through the playbook's matrix_synapse_cache_factor
variable (having a default value of 0.5
).
Changing that value allows you to potentially decrease RAM usage or to increase performance by caching more stuff. Some information on it is available here: https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse#help-synapse-eats-all-my-ram
2018-09-26
Disabling Docker container logging
--log-driver=none
is used for all Docker containers now.
All these containers are started through systemd anyway and get logged in journald, so there's no need for Docker to be logging the same thing using the default json-file
driver. Doing that was growing /var/lib/docker/containers/..
infinitely until service/container restart.
As a result of this, things like docker logs matrix-synapse
won't work anymore. journalctl -u matrix-synapse
is how one can see the logs.
2018-09-17
Service discovery support
The playbook now helps you set up service discovery using a /.well-known/matrix/client
file.
Additional details are available in Configuring service discovery via .well-known.
(BC Break) Renaming playbook variables
The following playbook variables were renamed:
- from
matrix_nginx_riot_web_data_path
tomatrix_riot_web_data_path
- from
matrix_riot_web_default_identity_server_url
tomatrix_identity_server_url
2018-09-07
Mautrix Telegram bridging support
The playbook now supports bridging with Telegram by installing the mautrix-telegram bridge. This playbook functionality is available thanks to @izissise.
Additional details are available in Setting up Mautrix Telegram bridging.
Events cache size increase and configurability for Matrix Synapse
The playbook now lets you configure Matrix Synapse's event_cache_size
configuration via the matrix_synapse_event_cache_size
playbook variable.
Previously, this value was hardcoded to "10K"
. From now on, a more reasonable default of "100K"
is used.
Password-peppering support for Matrix Synapse
The playbook now supports enabling password-peppering for increased security in Matrix Synapse via the matrix_synapse_password_config_pepper
playbook variable. Using a password pepper is disabled by default (just like it used to be before this playbook variable got introduced) and is not to be enabled/disabled after initial setup, as that would invalidate all existing passwords.
Statistics-reporting support for Matrix Synapse
There's now a new matrix_synapse_report_stats
playbook variable, which controls the report_stats
configuration option for Matrix Synapse. It defaults to false
, so no change is required to retain your privacy.
If you'd like to start reporting statistics about your homeserver (things like number of users, number of messages sent, uptime, load, etc.) to matrix.org, you can turn on stats reporting.
2018-08-29
Changing the way SSL certificates are retrieved
We've been using acmetool (with the willwill/acme-docker Docker image) until now.
Due to the Docker image being deprecated, and things looking bleak for acmetool's support of the newer ACME v2 API endpoint, we've switched to using certbot (with the certbot/certbot Docker image).
Simply re-running the playbook will retrieve new certificates (via certbot) for you. To ensure you don't leave any old files behind, though, you'd better do this:
systemctl stop 'matrix*'
- stop your custom webserver, if you're running one (only affects you if you've installed with
matrix_nginx_proxy_enabled: false
) mv /matrix/ssl /matrix/ssl-acmetool-delete-later
- re-run the playbook's installation
- possibly delete
/matrix/ssl-acmetool-delete-later
2018-08-21
Matrix Corporal support
The playbook can now install and configure matrix-corporal for you.
Additional details are available in Setting up Matrix Corporal.
2018-08-20
Matrix Synapse rate limit control variables
The following new variables can now be configured to control Matrix Synapse's rate-limiting (default values are shown below).
matrix_synapse_rc_messages_per_second: 0.2
matrix_synapse_rc_message_burst_count: 10.0
Shared Secret Auth support via matrix-synapse-shared-secret-auth
The playbook can now install and configure matrix-synapse-shared-secret-auth for you.
Additional details are available in Setting up the Shared Secret Auth password provider module.
2018-08-17
REST auth support via matrix-synapse-rest-auth
The playbook can now install and configure matrix-synapse-rest-auth for you.
Additional details are available in Setting up the REST authentication password provider module.
Compression improvements
Shifted Matrix Synapse compression from happening in the Matrix Synapse, to happening in the nginx proxy that's in front of it.
Additionally, riot-web
also gets compressed now (in the nginx proxy),
which drops the initial page load's size from 5.31MB to 1.86MB.
Disabling some unnecessary Synapse services
The following services are not necessary, so they have been disabled:
- on the federation port (8448): the
client
service - on the http port (8008, exposed over 443): the old Angular
webclient
and thefederation
service
Federation runs only on the federation port (8448) now. The Client APIs run only on the http port (8008) now.
2018-08-15
mxisd Identity Server support
The playbook now sets up an mxisd Identity Server for you by default. Additional details are available in Adjusting mxisd Identity Server configuration.
2018-08-14
Email-sending support
The playbook now configures an email-sending service (postfix) by default. Additional details are available in Adjusting email-sending settings.
With this, Matrix Synapse is able to send email notifications for missed messages, etc.
2018-08-08
(BC Break) Renaming playbook variables
The following playbook variables were renamed:
- from
matrix_max_upload_size_mb
tomatrix_synapse_max_upload_size_mb
- from
matrix_max_log_file_size_mb
tomatrix_synapse_max_log_file_size_mb
- from
matrix_max_log_files_count
tomatrix_synapse_max_log_files_count
- from
docker_matrix_image
tomatrix_docker_image_synapse
- from
docker_nginx_image
tomatrix_docker_image_nginx
- from
docker_riot_image
tomatrix_docker_image_riot
- from
docker_goofys_image
tomatrix_docker_image_goofys
- from
docker_coturn_image
tomatrix_docker_image_coturn
If you're overriding any of them in your vars.yml
file, you'd need to change to the new names.
Renaming Ansible playbook tag
The command for executing the whole playbook has changed.
The setup-main
tag got renamed to setup-all
.
Docker container linking
Changed the way the Docker containers are linked together. The ones that need to communicate with others operate in a matrix
network now and not in the default bridge network.