conduit/DEPLOY.md

Deploying Conduit

Getting help

If you run into any problems while setting up Conduit, write an email to timo@koesters.xyz, ask us in #conduit:fachschaften.org or open an issue on GitLab.

Installing Conduit

Although you might be able to compile Conduit for Windows, we do recommend running it on a linux server. We therefore only offer Linux binaries.

You may simply download the binary that fits your machine. Run uname -m to see what you need. Now copy the right url:

CPU Architecture	Download stable version	Download development version
x84_64 / amd64 (Most servers and computers)	Download	Download
armv6	Download	Download
armv7 (e.g. Raspberry Pi by default)	Download	Download
armv8 / aarch64	Download	Download

$ sudo wget -O /usr/local/bin/matrix-conduit <url>
$ sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/matrix-conduit

Alternatively, you may compile the binary yourself

$ sudo apt install libclang-dev build-essential

$ cargo build --release

If you want to cross compile Conduit to another architecture, read the Cross-Compile Guide.

Adding a Conduit user

While Conduit can run as any user it is usually better to use dedicated users for different services. This also allows you to make sure that the file permissions are correctly set up.

In Debian you can use this command to create a Conduit user:

sudo adduser --system conduit --no-create-home

Forwarding ports in the firewall or the router

Conduit uses the ports 443 and 8448 both of which need to be open in the firewall.

If Conduit runs behind a router or in a container and has a different public IP address than the host system these public ports need to be forwarded directly or indirectly to the port mentioned in the config.

Setting up a systemd service

Now we'll set up a systemd service for Conduit, so it's easy to start/stop Conduit and set it to autostart when your server reboots. Simply paste the default systemd service you can find below into /etc/systemd/system/conduit.service.

[Unit]
Description=Conduit Matrix Server
After=network.target

[Service]
Environment="CONDUIT_CONFIG=/etc/matrix-conduit/conduit.toml"
User=conduit
Group=nogroup
Restart=always
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/matrix-conduit

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Finally, run

$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Creating the Conduit configuration file

Now we need to create the Conduit's config file in /etc/matrix-conduit/conduit.toml. Paste this in and take a moment to read it. You need to change at least the server name.
You can also choose to use a different database backend, but right now only rocksdb and sqlite are recommended.

[global]
# The server_name is the pretty name of this server. It is used as a suffix for user
# and room ids. Examples: matrix.org, conduit.rs

# The Conduit server needs all /_matrix/ requests to be reachable at
# https://your.server.name/ on port 443 (client-server) and 8448 (federation).

# If that's not possible for you, you can create /.well-known files to redirect
# requests. See
# https://matrix.org/docs/spec/client_server/latest#get-well-known-matrix-client
# and
# https://matrix.org/docs/spec/server_server/r0.1.4#get-well-known-matrix-server
# for more information

# YOU NEED TO EDIT THIS
#server_name = "your.server.name"

# This is the only directory where Conduit will save its data
database_path = "/var/lib/matrix-conduit/"
database_backend = "rocksdb"

# The port Conduit will be running on. You need to set up a reverse proxy in
# your web server (e.g. apache or nginx), so all requests to /_matrix on port
# 443 and 8448 will be forwarded to the Conduit instance running on this port
# Docker users: Don't change this, you'll need to map an external port to this.
port = 6167

# Max size for uploads
max_request_size = 20_000_000 # in bytes

# Enables registration. If set to false, no users can register on this server.
allow_registration = true

allow_federation = true

trusted_servers = ["matrix.org"]

#max_concurrent_requests = 100 # How many requests Conduit sends to other servers at the same time
#log = "warn,state_res=warn,rocket=off,_=off,sled=off"

address = "127.0.0.1" # This makes sure Conduit can only be reached using the reverse proxy
#address = "0.0.0.0" # If Conduit is running in a container, make sure the reverse proxy (ie. Traefik) can reach it.

Setting the correct file permissions

As we are using a Conduit specific user we need to allow it to read the config. To do that you can run this command on Debian:

sudo chown -R root:root /etc/matrix-conduit
sudo chmod 755 /etc/matrix-conduit

If you use the default database path you also need to run this:

sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/matrix-conduit/
sudo chown -R conduit:nogroup /var/lib/matrix-conduit/
sudo chmod 700 /var/lib/matrix-conduit/

Setting up the Reverse Proxy

This depends on whether you use Apache, Caddy, Nginx or another web server.

Apache

Create /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/050-conduit.conf and copy-and-paste this:

Listen 8448

<VirtualHost *:443 *:8448>

ServerName your.server.name # EDIT THIS

AllowEncodedSlashes NoDecode
ProxyPass /_matrix/ http://127.0.0.1:6167/_matrix/ nocanon
ProxyPassReverse /_matrix/ http://127.0.0.1:6167/_matrix/

</VirtualHost>

You need to make some edits again. When you are done, run

$ sudo systemctl reload apache2

Caddy

Create /etc/caddy/conf.d/conduit_caddyfile and enter this (substitute for your server name).

your.server.name, your.server.name:8448 {
        reverse_proxy /_matrix/* 127.0.0.1:6167
}

That's it! Just start or enable the service and you're set.

$ sudo systemctl enable caddy

Nginx

If you use Nginx and not Apache, add the following server section inside the http section of /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
    listen 8448 ssl http2;
    listen [::]:8448 ssl http2;
    server_name your.server.name; # EDIT THIS
    merge_slashes off;

    # Nginx defaults to only allow 1MB uploads
    client_max_body_size 20M;

    location /_matrix/ {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:6167$request_uri;
        proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
        proxy_buffering off;
    }

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/your.server.name/fullchain.pem; # EDIT THIS
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/your.server.name/privkey.pem; # EDIT THIS
    ssl_trusted_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/your.server.name/chain.pem; # EDIT THIS
    include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf;
}

You need to make some edits again. When you are done, run

$ sudo systemctl reload nginx

SSL Certificate

If you chose Caddy as your web proxy SSL certificates are handled automatically and you can skip this step.

The easiest way to get an SSL certificate, if you don't have one already, is to install certbot and run this:

$ sudo certbot -d your.server.name

You're done!

Now you can start Conduit with:

$ sudo systemctl start conduit

Set it to start automatically when your system boots with:

$ sudo systemctl enable conduit

How do I know it works?

You can open https://app.element.io, enter your homeserver and try to register.

You can also use these commands as a quick health check.

$ curl https://your.server.name/_matrix/client/versions
$ curl https://your.server.name:8448/_matrix/client/versions

• To check if your server can talk with other homeservers, you can use the Matrix Federation Tester. If you can register but cannot join federated rooms check your config again and also check if the port 8448 is open and forwarded correctly.

What's next?

Audio/Video calls

For Audio/Video call functionality see the TURN Guide.

Appservices

If you want to set up an appservice, take a look at the Appservice Guide.