This proposed setup assumes that you want to use synapse with a Postgres database behind a separate nginx reverse proxy for TLS.
A detailed explanation of a basic and extended dns setup can be found here
Change the environment variable SYNAPSE_SERVER_NAME to your desired domain
docker run -it --rm \
-v $PWD/synapse-data:/data \
-e SYNAPSE_SERVER_NAME=my.matrix.host \
-e SYNAPSE_REPORT_STATS=no \
matrixdotorg/synapse:latest generateThis will generate the folder synapse-data in your current working directory. The file of most importance for the setup in this folder is the file homeserver.yaml
Comment the sqlite3 block in your homeserver.yaml and uncomment the database block with the value psycopg2 for the key name. An exemplary block could look like this:
database:
name: psycopg2
args:
user: synapse
password: SuperSecretPassword
database: synapse
host: db # The service name defined in your docker-compose file
cp_min: 5
cp_max: 10
One configuration value you should also know of, is enable_registration. Its default value is true. Set it to false if you don't want anybody to be able to register a user on your homeserver. For your homeserver to be able to send emails (e.g. for notifications or password resets, you have to provide smtp credentials in the email block of your homeserver.yaml)
An exemplary docker-compose file could look like this:
version: '3'
services:
synapse:
image: docker.io/matrixdotorg/synapse:latest
restart: unless-stopped
volumes:
- ./synapse-data:/data
depends_on:
- db
ports:
- '127.0.0.1:8008:8008/tcp'
db:
image: docker.io/postgres:latest
restart: unless-stopped
environment:
- POSTGRES_USER=synapse
- POSTGRES_PASSWORD=SuperSecretPassword
- POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS=--encoding='UTF8' --lc-collate='C' --lc-ctype='C'
volumes:
- ./postgres-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
The username, password and service-name you chose here, must correspond with the settings for user, password and host of the aforementioned database block in your homeserver.yaml. Chose a port-mapping that is the most suitable for your environment. It could be a good idea to tie the version of the synapse and postgres docker images to a specific version. If you want to so, exchange latest with your desired version.
To start your setup in the detached mode execute the following. Otherwise execute it without the -d option
docker-dompose up -d
server {
listen 443 ssl;
listen [::]:443 ssl;
server_name your.matrix.tld;
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/some.domain.tld/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/some.domain.tld/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot
client_max_body_size 50M;
location / {
proxy_pass http://localhost:8008;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
}
location /.well-known/matrix/ {
root /opt/docker/synapse-fabi-dev/nginx/www/;
default_type application/json;
add_header Access-Control-Allow-Origin *;
}
}
server {
listen 8448 ssl default_server;
listen [::]:8448 ssl default_server;
server_name your.matrix.tld;
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/some.domain.tld/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/some.domain.tld/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot
client_max_body_size 50M;
location / {
proxy_pass http://localhost:8008;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
}
}
Change the proxy_pass values to your chosen port. Change the values for server_name to your chosen (sub-)domain. Provide a valid certificate and key for ssl_certificate and ssl_certificate_key. This setup is assumes that you will get your certs via letsencrypt's certbot. The /.well-known/matrix/ block is only necessary if yo want to provide your clients specific configuration parameters (eg. which integration-manager or jitsi instance to use) and can otherwise be commented or deleted. See this link for further information about the files in ./well-known/matrix/
The second server block provides synapse also via port 8448, as needed by the matrix standard for server<->server communication. Without that, federation would not work
Change the value of client_max_body_size to your needs. You also have to edit the vlaue for max_upload_size in your homeserver.yaml
If you use the latest tag for your synapse docker image, simply simply execute docker-compose pull synapse && docker-compose up -d. Keep in mind that upgrades to a new major version might not work, depending on your last version. See the synapse docs for further information. If you tied the synapse docker image to a specific version, simply change the version tag to your desired version and execute the same docker-compose commands as above.
This is an awesome guide! Worked nearly first try. (I'd probably add that if you make a mistake with postgresql, you need to delete the database since the password is stored even if you change it later)
One thing doesnt work for me though: I cant register on my server and the documentation of synapse is very hard to understand.
Have a good one!