what should I know before hosting my matrix server (on my PC)?
what should I know before hosting my matrix server (on my PC)?
I want to host my own server, but I would like to know what I should know?
- How to make your computer publicly routable on the Internet (open firewall or forward port)
- Basics of Linux administrating and terminal
- Basics how to register domain name and point it dynamically or statically to the machine
Lots of decent suggestions here so not going to repeat them, but I do have a couple of my own if using synapse:
- have plenty of RAM
- have plenty of CPU
- have plenty of DB storage space
- use Postgres as your database, SQLite sucks
Basically synapse is just a resource hog, and you need to plan for that. The database itself grows quicker than you’d expect as well
I thought that I could run the server on an old and not very good computer. Is not it?
You can use old machines for all kinds of servers, I’ve got a stack of old laptops running a Kubernetes cluster, but synapse would push some of them possibly further than they can go so I have it on my more powerful NAS, and even then it isn’t exactly speedy at times
- how to use apparmor or selinux
- how to run docker rootless
- use a reverse proxy like traefik or nginx
- use certbot or another way to get TLS certificates
- use a firewall, use secure ssh
- block spam traffic and matrix servers that host spam
- host synapse and sliding sync
sounds complicated
I mean you want to host an internet facing computer. That shit is poorly pretty complicated. But I think there are things that make that easier with presets etc.
I heard of people that Nix is awesome because there are preconfigured configurations, you apply them and also with your single config file you have the documentation of what you did.
- user names cannot be changed
- never delete your database, have backups, all the state is in there, if you lose your DB, you essentially have to set up a new server: Your server will say you are not in a room while others say you are, so you cannot join. Always keep your DB backed up.
Use MDAD and save yourself a ton of time and effort. https://github.com/spantaleev/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy
You said on your PC, but don't forget that the server should be accessible 24/7
Do yourself a favor and use something like etke.cc
I just can't and don't want if I could