matrix-docker-ansible-deploy/docs/quick-start.md

Quick start

This page explains how to use this Ansible book in order to install Matrix services on your server with minimum core services.

We will be using example.com as the "base domain" in the following instruction.

By following the instruction on this page, you will set up:

• your own Matrix server on a matrix.example.com server, which is configured to present itself as example.com
• your user account like @user:example.com on the server
• a self-hosted Matrix client, Element Web with the default subdomain at element.example.com
• Matrix delegation, so that your matrix.example.com server (presenting itself as example.com) can join the Matrix Federation and will be to talk to any other server in the Matrix network

Please remember to replace example.com with your own domain before running any commands.

Prerequisites

^{This section is optimized for this quick-start guide and is derived from the following full-documentation page: Prerequisites}

At first, check prerequisites and prepare for installation by setting up programs on your own computer and your server. You also need root access on your server (a user that could elevate to root via sudo also works).

If you encounter an error during installation, please make sure that you have installed and configured programs correctly.

One of the main reasons of basic errors is using an incompatible version of required software such as Ansible. Take a look at our guide about Ansible for more information. In short: installing the latest available version is recommended.

Configure your DNS settings

^{This section is optimized for this quick-start guide and is derived from the following full-documentation page: Configuring your DNS settings}

After installing and configuring prerequisites, you will need to configure DNS records.

To configure Matrix services in the default settings, go to your DNS service provider, and adjust DNS records as below.

Type	Host	Priority	Weight	Port	Target
A	matrix	-	-	-	matrix-server-IP
CNAME	element	-	-	-	matrix.example.com

As the table illustrates, you need to create 2 subdomains (matrix.example.com and element.example.com) and point both of them to your server's IP address (DNS A record or CNAME record is fine).

Per settings on the DNS provider it might take some time for the DNS records to propagate.

Note: if you are using Cloudflare DNS, make sure to disable the proxy and set all records to DNS only.

Get the playbook

^{This section is optimized for this quick-start guide and is derived from the following full-documentation page: Getting the playbook}

Next, let's get the playbook's source code.

We recommend to do so with git as it enables you to keep it up to date with the latest source code. While it is possible to download the playbook as a ZIP archive, it is not recommended.

To get the playbook with git, install git on your computer, go to a directory, and run the command:

git clone https://github.com/spantaleev/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy.git

It will download the playbook to a new matrix-docker-ansible-deploy directory underneath the directory you are currently in.

Configure the playbook

^{This section is optimized for this quick-start guide and is derived from the following full-documentation page: Configuring the playbook}

Now that the playbook was retreived, it is time to configure it per your needs.

In order to run Matrix services with this playbook, you would at least need these two files: vars.yml and hosts. They are the core of the playbook.

For your convenience, we have prepared example files of them. You can copy and edit them for quick start.

To configure them, go into the matrix-docker-ansible-deploy directory and follow the instructions below:

1. Create a directory to hold your configuration: mkdir -p inventory/host_vars/matrix.example.com where example.com is your "base domain"
2. Copy the sample configuration file: cp examples/vars.yml inventory/host_vars/matrix.example.com/vars.yml
3. Copy the sample inventory hosts file: cp examples/hosts inventory/hosts
4. Edit the configuration file (inventory/host_vars/matrix.example.com/vars.yml)
5. Edit the inventory hosts file (inventory/hosts)

Before editing those two files, make sure to read explanations on them to understand what needs to be configured.

💡Recommendation: instead of configuring a lot of things all at once, we recommend starting with the basic (default) settings in order to get yourself familiar with how the playbook works. After making sure that everything works as expected, you can add (and remove) advanced settings / features and run the playbook as many times as you wish.

Notes:

• If you are not in control of anything on the base domain, you would need to set additional configuration on vars.yml. For more information, see How do I install on matrix.example.com without involving the base domain? on our FAQ.
• When you edit vars.yml, make sure to pick a correct domain, because you can't change the domain after deployment. If you pick the wrong one, you'll have to run the Uninstalling step.

Install

^{This section is optimized for this quick-start guide and is derived from the following full-documentation page: Installing}

After editing vars.yml and hosts files, let's start the installation procedure.

Before installing, you need to update the Ansible roles in this playbook. To update them, run just roles on your local computer.

Then, run the command below to start installation:

ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=install-all,ensure-matrix-users-created,start

If you don't use SSH keys for authentication, but rather a regular password, you may need to add --ask-pass to the command.

If you do use SSH keys for authentication, and use a non-root user to become root (sudo), you may need to add -K (--ask-become-pass) to the command.

Wait until the command completes. If it's all green, everything should be running properly.

Create your user account

^{This section is optimized for this quick-start guide and is derived from the following full-documentation page: Registering users}

As you have configured your brand new server and the client, you need to create your user account on your Matrix server.

To register a user via this Ansible playbook, run the command below on your local computer.

Notes:

• Make sure to edit YOUR_USERNAME_HERE and YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE
• To YOUR_USERNAME_HERE, set a plain username like john, not your full @user:example.com identifier
• Set admin=yes to make the user an administrator of the Matrix server

ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --extra-vars='username=YOUR_USERNAME_HERE password=YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE admin=<yes|no>' --tags=register-user

# Example: ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --extra-vars='username=john password=secret-password admin=yes' --tags=register-user

Finalize server installation

^{This section is optimized for this quick-start guide and is derived from the following full-documentation page: Server Delegation}

Now that you've configured Matrix services and your user account, you need to finalize the installation process by setting up Matrix delegation (redirection), so that your Matrix server (matrix.example.com) can present itself as the base domain (example.com) in the Matrix network.

This is required for federation to work! Without a proper configuration, your server will effectively not be part of the Matrix network.

There are several ways to configure the delegation, but the easiest one is to serve the base domain from the integrated web server.

To enable it, add the following configuration to your inventory/host_vars/matrix.example.com/vars.yml file:

matrix_static_files_container_labels_base_domain_enabled: true

After configuring the playbook, run the installation command and wait until it finishes:

ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=install-all,start

After the command finishes, you can also check whether your server federates with the Matrix network, by using the Federation Tester.

If you think something is off with the server configuration, feel free to re-run the setup command any time.

Log in to your user account

Finally, let's make sure that you can log in to the created account with the specified password.

You should be able to log in to it with your own Element Web client which you have set up at element.example.com by running the playbook. Open the URL (https://element.example.com) in a web browser and enter your credentials to log in.

If you successfully logged in to your account, installing and configuring is complete🎉

Come say Hi👋 in our support room - #matrix-docker-ansible-deploy:devture.com. You might learn something or get to help someone else new to Matrix hosting.

Things to do next

Once you get familiar with the playbook, you might probably want to set up additional services such as a bridge on your server.

As this page intends to be a quick start guide which explains how to start the core Matrix services, it does not cover a topic like how to set them up. Take a look at the list of things to do next to learn more.

⚠️Keep the playbook and services up-to-date

^{This section is optimized for this quick-start guide and is derived from the following full-documentation page: Upgrading the Matrix services}

While this playbook helps you to set up Matrix services and maintain them, it will not automatically run the maintenance task for you. You will need to update the playbook and re-run it manually.

Since it is unsafe to keep outdated services running on the server connected to the internet, please consider to update the playbook and re-run it periodically, in order to keep the services up-to-date.

Before updating the playbook and the Ansible roles in the playbook, take a look at the changelog to see if there have been any backward-incompatible changes that you need to take care of.

If it looks good to you, go to the matrix-docker-ansible-deploy directory and run just update.

Then, re-run the setup command as below:

ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=setup-all,start