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Quick start

This page explains how to use this Ansible playbook to install Matrix services on your server with a minimal set of 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 communicate with 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).

When preparing your server, make sure to check the server specs you need. We recommend starting with a server having at least 2GB of memory.

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).

It might take some time for the DNS records to propagate after creation.

💡 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 fetch 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 fetched, it is time to configure it per your needs.

To install Matrix services with this playbook, you would at least need 2 configuration files.

For your convenience, we have prepared example files of them (vars.yml and hosts).

To start quickly based on these example files, 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 these 2 files, make sure to read explanations on them to understand what needs to be configured.

💡 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.
  • Certain configuration decisions (like the base domain configured in matrix_domain and homeserver implementation configured in matrix_homeserver_implementation) are final. If you make the wrong choice and wish to change it, you'll have to run the Uninstalling step and start over.
  • 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.

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.

Update Ansible roles

Before installing, you need to update the Ansible roles that this playbook uses and fetches from outside.

To update your playbook directory and all upstream Ansible roles, run:

  • either: just update
  • or: a combination of git pull and just roles (or make roles if you have make program on your computer instead of just)

If you don't have either just tool or make program, you can run the ansible-galaxy tool directly: rm -rf roles/galaxy; ansible-galaxy install -r requirements.yml -p roles/galaxy/ --force

Run installation command

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 create your user account (as an administrator of the server) via this Ansible playbook, run the command below on your local computer.

💡 Notes:

  • Make sure to adjust YOUR_USERNAME_HERE and YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE
  • For YOUR_USERNAME_HERE, use a plain username like john, not your full identifier (@user:example.com)
ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --extra-vars='username=YOUR_USERNAME_HERE password=YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE admin=yes' --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.

To configure the delegation, you have these two options. Choose one of them according to your situation.

To have the base domain served from the integrated web server, 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 command below and wait until it finishes:

ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=install-matrix-static-files,start

💡 Running the install-matrix-static-files playbook tag (as done here) is an optimized version of running the full setup command.

After the command finishes, you can also check whether your server federates with the Matrix network by using the Federation Tester against your base domain (example.com), not the matrix.example.com subdomain.

If you think something is off with the server configuration, feel free to re-run the full 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

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.

For more information about upgrading or maintaining services with the playbook, take at look at this page: Upgrading the Matrix services