Matrix homeserver setup with Docker and Traefik

README.md

This guide assumes that example.com is your server name, so user IDs will in the format @user:example.com, and that matrix.example.com is the domain name of your actual server.

Requirements

At least 512 MB memory. Approximate memory usage of services:

• Traefik: 20 MB
• Postgres: 70 MB
• Synapse: 150 MB

Inbound traffic on port 443/tcp.

Setup

1. Copy the docker-compose.yaml file to your server. Look for the TODO comments and edit as necessary.
2. Create a Docker network for external services: docker network create proxy.
3. Configure DNS A and AAAA records to your server's IP address. This is absolutely necessary so that Traefik can get a TLS certificate.
4. Generate a Synapse configuration file: docker-compose run --rm -e SYNAPSE_SERVER_NAME=example.com -e SYNAPSE_REPORT_STATS=yes matrix_synapse generate
5. Edit the Synapse configuration file at synapse/homeserver.yaml and set the following values:

• server_name: set this to example.com not matrix.example.com.
• public_baseurl: set this to https://matrix.example.com.
• use_presence: set to true
• database: should be like:

  database:
  name: psycopg2
  args:
    user: synapse
    # TODO: change to what you previously set
    password: asdf
    database: synapse
    host: matrix_db

• enable_registration: set to true if you don't want to manually register users.

6. Start services: docker-compose up -d
7. Register new user: docker exec -it matrix_synapse register_new_matrix_user -c /data/homeserver.yaml http://localhost:8008.

Federation

Well-Known URIs are to facilitate automatic setup for clients and federation between servers.

The URL https://example.com/.well-known/matrix/client should return JSON in the following format:

{
  "m.homeserver": {
    "base_url": "https://matrix.example.com"
  }
}

To work in browser based clients, the file must be served with the appropriate Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) headers. A recommended value would be Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * which would allow all browser based clients to view it.

The URL https://example.com/.well-known/matrix/server should return JSON in the following format:

{
  "m.server": "matrix.example.com:443"
}

Test that federation is setup properly using the federation tester. Use example.com not matrix.example.com.

References:

• https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/develop/INSTALL.md
• https://hub.docker.com/r/matrixdotorg/synapse
• https://hub.docker.com/r/avhost/docker-matrix

docker-compose.yaml

version: "3"

services:

  traefik:
    # TODO: change to the latest stable version (e.g. v2.3)
    image: traefik:latest
    container_name: traefik
    restart: unless-stopped
    command:
      - --providers.docker=true
      - --providers.docker.exposedbydefault=false
      - --entrypoints.websecure.address=:443
      - --certificatesresolvers.default.acme.tlschallenge=true
      # TODO: change email
      - [email protected]
      - --certificatesresolvers.default.acme.storage=/letsencrypt/acme.json
      - --serversTransport.insecureSkipVerify=true
    networks:
      - proxy
    ports:
      - 443:443
    volumes:
      # TODO: change if desired
      - ./letsencrypt:/letsencrypt
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro

  matrix_db:
    image: postgres:13-alpine
    container_name: matrix_db
    restart: unless-stopped
    networks:
      - matrix
    volumes:
      # TODO: change if desired
      - ./postgres:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_USER=synapse
      # TODO: Change this password
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=asdf
      - POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS=--encoding=UTF-8 --lc-collate=C --lc-ctype=C
    healthcheck:
      interval: 5s
      timeout: 3s
      retries: 5

  matrix_synapse:
    # TODO: change to latest stable version, e.g. v1.24.0
    image: matrixdotorg/synapse:latest
    container_name: matrix_synapse
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      - matrix_db
    networks:
      - matrix
      - proxy
    volumes:
      # TODO: change if desired
      - ./synapse:/data
    labels:
      - traefik.enable=true
      # TODO: Change hostname
      - traefik.http.routers.synapse.rule=Host(`matrix.example.com`)
      - traefik.http.routers.synapse.entrypoints=websecure
      - traefik.http.routers.synapse.tls.certresolver=default
      - traefik.http.services.synapse.loadbalancer.server.port=8008

networks:
  proxy:
    external: true
  matrix:
    internal: true

This looks so cool, but I can't get it working with Cloudflare Tunnels. You know anything about setting it up with that service?
ie what i need to add to the dns?

If you want to use Cloudflare Tunnels, replace the Traefik service with a cloudflared image. Or if you don't want to run cloudflared in Docker then remove the Traefik service and make configure matrix_synapse so it's on an external network and configure cloudflared to point to it.

If you want to use Cloudflare Tunnels, replace the Traefik service with a cloudflared image. Or if you don't want to run cloudflared in Docker then remove the Traefik service and make configure matrix_synapse so it's on an external network and configure cloudflared to point to it.

thanks for the reply - 2 questions if you can give me a bit more help - thanks

"replace the Traefik service with a cloudflared image" - is that a yml file with traefik preconfigured with cf settings? (or 'just' set it up with something like this? https://www.smarthomebeginner.com/cloudflare-settings-for-traefik-docker/)

"Traefik service and make configure matrix_synapse so it's on an external network and configure cloudflared to point to it" - i just created a cftunnel container and joined it to both the docker networks that your yml file spins up. I must be missing something - as it didnt work. Maybe 'matrix_synapse so it's on an external network' is adding a 2nd tunnel on this network?

thanks for your help!