matrix-docker-ansible-deploy/CHANGELOG.md

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)
• our Postgres usage was overly-focused on Synapse (default username of synapse and default/main database of homeserver). Additional homeserver options are likely coming in the future (Dendrite, Conduit, The Construct), so being too focused on matrix-synapse is not great. From now on, Synapse is just another component of this playbook, which happens to have an additional database (called synapse) 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 be synapse)
• the default Postgres database is now matrix (used to be homeserver)
• Synapse's database is now synapse (used to be homeserver). 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 the synapse 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:

1. 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.

2. Generate a strong password to be used for your superuser Postgres user (called matrix). You can use pwgen -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!

3. 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.

4. Stop all services: ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=stop
5. Log in to the server via SSH. The next commands will be performed there.
6. Start the Postgres database server: systemctl start matrix-postgres
7. Open a Postgres shell: /usr/local/bin/matrix-postgres-cli
8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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

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 your vars.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 your vars.yml file (credentials, etc.) - you can find their defaults in roles/matrix-mautrix-facebook/defaults/main.yml
  • switch the bridge to Postgres (matrix_mautrix_facebook_database_engine: 'postgres' in your vars.yml file)
  • re-run the playbook (--tags=setup-all,start) and ensure the bridge works (systemctl status matrix-mautrix-facebook and journalctl -fu matrix-mautrix-facebook)
  • send a login message to the Facebook bridge bot again
• 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 (like appservice-irc and appservice-slack) don't use SQLite, so use nedb, instead of sqlite 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.

1. Add the following to your vars.yml file: matrix_sms_bridge_container_extra_arguments=['--env SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE=initialsync']
2. Login to your host shell and remove old systemd file from your host: rm /etc/systemd/system/matrix-sms-bridge-database.service
3. Run ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=setup-matrix-sms-bridge,start
4. Login to your host shell and check the logs with journalctl -u matrix-sms-bridge until the sync finished.
5. Remove the var from the first step.
6. 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 and CRITICAL messages, as they're not longer buried in thousands of non-important INFO 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 to run_postgres_import
• from run_import_sqlite_db to run_postgres_import_sqlite_db
• from run_upgrade_postgres to run_postgres_upgrade
• from run_import_media_store to run_synapse_import_media_store
• from run_register_user to run_synapse_register_user
• from run_update_user_password to run_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 be false, now true) - previously replies were not sent over to Matrix at all; ow they are sent over as a reply to the original message
• inline_images (used to be true, now false) - this has to do with captioned images. Inline-image (included caption) are said to exhibit troubles on Riot iOS. When false, the caption arrives on the Matrix side as a separate message.
• authless_portals (used to be false, now true) - creating portals from the Telegram side is now possible
• whitelist_group_admins (used to be false, now true) - 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 to matrix_synapse_container_client_api_host_bind_port: '127.0.0.1:8008'

• from matrix_synapse_container_expose_federation_api_port: true to matrix_synapse_container_federation_api_plain_host_bind_port: '127.0.0.1:8048' and possibly matrix_synapse_container_federation_api_tls_host_bind_port: '8448'

• from matrix_synapse_container_expose_metrics_port: true to matrix_synapse_container_metrics_api_host_bind_port: '127.0.0.1:9100'

• from matrix_riot_web_container_expose_port: true to matrix_riot_web_container_http_host_bind_port: '127.0.0.1:8765'

• from matrix_mxisd_container_expose_port: true to matrix_mxisd_container_http_host_bind_port: '127.0.0.1:8090'

• from matrix_dimension_container_expose_port: true to matrix_dimension_container_http_host_bind_port: '127.0.0.1:8184'

• from matrix_corporal_container_expose_ports: true to matrix_corporal_container_http_gateway_host_bind_port: '127.0.0.1:41080' and possibly matrix_corporal_container_http_api_host_bind_port: '127.0.0.1:41081'

• from matrix_appservice_irc_container_expose_client_server_api_port: true to matrix_appservice_irc_container_http_host_bind_port: '127.0.0.1:9999'

• from matrix_appservice_discord_container_expose_client_server_api_port: true to matrix_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/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 to matrix_synapse_enable_room_list_search
• matrix_alias_creation_rules was renamed to matrix_synapse_alias_creation_rules
• matrix_nginx_proxy_matrix_room_list_publication_rulesdata_path was renamed to matrix_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 the matrix-coturn role execute after matrix-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 to matrix_domain
• from hostname_identity to matrix_domain
• from hostname_matrix to matrix_server_fqn_matrix
• from hostname_riot to matrix_server_fqn_riot
• from host_specific_matrix_ssl_lets_encrypt_support_email to matrix_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 mentions TLSv1.3 and your nginx version might not support that. You can adjust the SSL protocol list by overriding the matrix_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 using matrix_coturn_enabled: false
• matrix-mailer by using matrix_mailer_enabled: false
• matrix-postgres by using matrix_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 the group_vars/matrix-servers file.

• matrix_postgres_use_external has been superceeded by the more consistently named matrix_postgres_enabled variable and a few other matrix_synapse_database_ variables. See the Using an external PostgreSQL server (optional) documentation page for an up-to-date replacement.

• Postgres tools (matrix-postgres-cli and matrix-make-user-admin) are no longer installed if you're not enabling the matrix-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/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/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 to matrix_mxisd_docker_image
• from matrix_docker_image_mautrix_telegram to matrix_mautrix_telegram_docker_image
• from matrix_docker_image_mautrix_whatsapp to matrix_mautrix_whatsapp_docker_image
• from matrix_docker_image_mailer to matrix_mailer_docker_image
• from matrix_docker_image_coturn to matrix_coturn_docker_image
• from matrix_docker_image_goofys to matrix_s3_goofys_docker_image
• from matrix_docker_image_riot to matrix_riot_web_docker_image
• from matrix_docker_image_nginx to matrix_nginx_proxy_docker_image
• from matrix_docker_image_synapse to matrix_synapse_docker_image
• from matrix_docker_image_postgres_v9 to matrix_postgres_docker_image_v9
• from matrix_docker_image_postgres_v10 to matrix_postgres_docker_image_v10
• from matrix_docker_image_postgres_latest to matrix_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 to matrix_riot_web_data_path
• from matrix_riot_web_default_identity_server_url to matrix_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 the federation 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 to matrix_synapse_max_upload_size_mb
• from matrix_max_log_file_size_mb to matrix_synapse_max_log_file_size_mb
• from matrix_max_log_files_count to matrix_synapse_max_log_files_count
• from docker_matrix_image to matrix_docker_image_synapse
• from docker_nginx_image to matrix_docker_image_nginx
• from docker_riot_image to matrix_docker_image_riot
• from docker_goofys_image to matrix_docker_image_goofys
• from docker_coturn_image to matrix_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.