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I like the idea behind Matrix, but hosting it is really a pain. I've given up on it until it's a simple `docker-compose up -d` away from running a full instance

I like the idea behind Matrix, but hosting it is really a pain. I've given up on it until it's a simple `docker-compose up -d` away from running a full instance. To get back on topic, France has really got its FOSS movement moving. There are a TON of Mastodon and Peertube instances located there. It's admirable.

omnimus 8y ago
I dont know... i have been runing one instance for about 3 years and it is just apt install matrix-synapse and changing one yaml config to suit my needs i am sure there is a dockerized version
- vbezhenar 8y ago
  How much RAM does it require for 1-2 users? I have small VPS and can afford 10-20 MB of RAM, but Python terrifies me.
  - Arathorn 8y ago
    the RAM usage depends on the size of rooms the users join, not the number of users. synapse typically takes around 1GB of RAM (allocate 2 to be safe), but we are working on that.
    - wbxrs 8y ago
      2 GB of RAM for a chat server?!!?
      - staz 8y ago
        From what I've heard here from people using the Slack desktop client, 2GB is now normal for a chat client
        wbxrs 8y ago
        I think it is perfectly reasonable for a client to use more RAM than a server, having to display a GUI and all. I'm thinking of IRC servers vs. clients. (Certainly not 2 GB, but that's another matter.)
      - meruru 8y ago
        There are a few alternative server implementations under development. Personally I'm hopeful for Dendrite (written in Go): https://github.com/matrix-org/dendrite https://github.com/matrix-org/dendrite
  - cvwright 8y ago
    I ran a little test last weekend. I got a 1 CPU / 2GB RAM virtual machine from a cloud provider and deployed Matrix/Synapse on it with spantaleev's Ansible script. I created 100 accounts for chatterbots. (This is not federated to the main Matrix network -- just local.) The VM showed some lag when the chat bots connected and started inviting each other to their channels. But once all the invite sending/accepting settled down, it's been pretty smooth. It's randomized, but I think each channel has about 18 or 20 users. The whole thing is using about 900 MB of RAM, and that's including everything -- CentOS, several containers, the Postgres database, Synapse, nginx, etc.
  - omnimus 8y ago
    Yeah i am also terrified by python. Before synapse was in apt i had to instal it using pip and virtual env and it was nightmare for me. I run it on some 3usd vps i dont remember 1gb ram i think and use sqlite (its very portable this way). For about 20 people it works great. It is not exactly efficient but overall still cheaper and better than other solutions ive found.
arendtio 8y ago
Could you elaborate on what kind of troubles you have with the hosting? So far I host only an XMPP server but I would like to know what kind of trouble I have to expect if I wanted to host a Matrix server too.
iodbh 8y ago
I've been running two matrix (synapse) instances for about 2 years and it's been pretty painless. My "personal" instance is hosted on a dedicated server running Ubuntu, and the package works just fine. The other one uses a slightly modified version of the code, and installing/updating it via pip is trivial. What part of the process did you find tedious ?
spantaleev 8y ago
Being similarly frustrated with how complicated it is to set up, I've created an Ansible playbook to automate it all (and run all services in containers): https://github.com/spantaleev/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy https://github.com/spantaleev/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy By default, it sets up Synapse and a bunch of other services around it that are necessary to really make it useful (Postgres instead of the default under-preforming SQLite; mxisd as the identity server; STUN/TURN server for WebRTC calls; riot-web; various bridges; etc)
- birracerveza 8y ago
  That is really useful. Thank you!
- cvwright 8y ago
  Thank you for this. Very easy to use. Easily saved me a few hours of work.
Arathorn 8y ago
we’ve bundled official docker for synapse for a year or so now, and it really is as simple as docker-compose up -d? would be good to understand what’d going wrong.
- birracerveza 8y ago
  I apologize for commenting on it before checking the situation: I retried it now, and it seems the situation has improved a lot from last time I tried. It's still far from a simple `docker-compose up -d` (I had a few issues with TLS because I didn't understand how to generate the key, opted to disable it and reverse proxy it via Apache2+letsencrypt), but it's doable in a relatively short time. All that I have left now is to setup a frontend (ie. Riot). Footnote: IMO, the barrier for adoption for this kind of services has to be the lowest possible if it wants to gain any kind of traction. Mastodon and Peertube are good examples of this: docker-compose.yml in the project root, and in < 1 hour I got everything working by just setting a couple configuration values that were already in the environments section. I figure that there is a lot of work going on right now so this might not be in the top priorities, but I really hope Matrix gets there soon. Keep up the good work!
  - Arathorn 8y ago
    woo, glad that it's getting better. riot should be as simple as cd /var/www/html && wget https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/releases/download/v1.0.1/riot-v1.0.1.tar.gz https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/releases/download/v1.0... && tar -xzvf riot-v1.0.1.tar.gz :)
  - cvwright 8y ago
    You really should try out the guy's Ansible playbook linked elsewhere in this thread. It automates setting up the database, the reverse proxy, the Let's Encrypt certificates, pretty much everything. You run a couple of git commands, a couple of ansible commands, and you're done. It's amazing.

omnimus 8y ago

I dont know... i have been runing one instance for about 3 years and it is just apt install matrix-synapse and changing one yaml config to suit my needs i am sure there is a dockerized version

vbezhenar 8y ago
How much RAM does it require for 1-2 users? I have small VPS and can afford 10-20 MB of RAM, but Python terrifies me.
- Arathorn 8y ago
  the RAM usage depends on the size of rooms the users join, not the number of users. synapse typically takes around 1GB of RAM (allocate 2 to be safe), but we are working on that.
  - wbxrs 8y ago
    2 GB of RAM for a chat server?!!?
    - staz 8y ago
      From what I've heard here from people using the Slack desktop client, 2GB is now normal for a chat client
      - wbxrs 8y ago
        I think it is perfectly reasonable for a client to use more RAM than a server, having to display a GUI and all. I'm thinking of IRC servers vs. clients. (Certainly not 2 GB, but that's another matter.)
    - meruru 8y ago
      There are a few alternative server implementations under development. Personally I'm hopeful for Dendrite (written in Go): https://github.com/matrix-org/dendrite https://github.com/matrix-org/dendrite
- cvwright 8y ago
  I ran a little test last weekend. I got a 1 CPU / 2GB RAM virtual machine from a cloud provider and deployed Matrix/Synapse on it with spantaleev's Ansible script. I created 100 accounts for chatterbots. (This is not federated to the main Matrix network -- just local.) The VM showed some lag when the chat bots connected and started inviting each other to their channels. But once all the invite sending/accepting settled down, it's been pretty smooth. It's randomized, but I think each channel has about 18 or 20 users. The whole thing is using about 900 MB of RAM, and that's including everything -- CentOS, several containers, the Postgres database, Synapse, nginx, etc.
- omnimus 8y ago
  Yeah i am also terrified by python. Before synapse was in apt i had to instal it using pip and virtual env and it was nightmare for me. I run it on some 3usd vps i dont remember 1gb ram i think and use sqlite (its very portable this way). For about 20 people it works great. It is not exactly efficient but overall still cheaper and better than other solutions ive found.

arendtio 8y ago

Could you elaborate on what kind of troubles you have with the hosting? So far I host only an XMPP server but I would like to know what kind of trouble I have to expect if I wanted to host a Matrix server too.

iodbh 8y ago

I've been running two matrix (synapse) instances for about 2 years and it's been pretty painless. My "personal" instance is hosted on a dedicated server running Ubuntu, and the package works just fine. The other one uses a slightly modified version of the code, and installing/updating it via pip is trivial. What part of the process did you find tedious ?

spantaleev 8y ago

Being similarly frustrated with how complicated it is to set up, I've created an Ansible playbook to automate it all (and run all services in containers): https://github.com/spantaleev/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy https://github.com/spantaleev/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy By default, it sets up Synapse and a bunch of other services around it that are necessary to really make it useful (Postgres instead of the default under-preforming SQLite; mxisd as the identity server; STUN/TURN server for WebRTC calls; riot-web; various bridges; etc)

birracerveza 8y ago
That is really useful. Thank you!
cvwright 8y ago
Thank you for this. Very easy to use. Easily saved me a few hours of work.

Arathorn 8y ago

we’ve bundled official docker for synapse for a year or so now, and it really is as simple as docker-compose up -d? would be good to understand what’d going wrong.

birracerveza 8y ago
I apologize for commenting on it before checking the situation: I retried it now, and it seems the situation has improved a lot from last time I tried. It's still far from a simple `docker-compose up -d` (I had a few issues with TLS because I didn't understand how to generate the key, opted to disable it and reverse proxy it via Apache2+letsencrypt), but it's doable in a relatively short time. All that I have left now is to setup a frontend (ie. Riot). Footnote: IMO, the barrier for adoption for this kind of services has to be the lowest possible if it wants to gain any kind of traction. Mastodon and Peertube are good examples of this: docker-compose.yml in the project root, and in < 1 hour I got everything working by just setting a couple configuration values that were already in the environments section. I figure that there is a lot of work going on right now so this might not be in the top priorities, but I really hope Matrix gets there soon. Keep up the good work!
- Arathorn 8y ago
  woo, glad that it's getting better. riot should be as simple as cd /var/www/html && wget https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/releases/download/v1.0.1/riot-v1.0.1.tar.gz https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/releases/download/v1.0... && tar -xzvf riot-v1.0.1.tar.gz :)
- cvwright 8y ago
  You really should try out the guy's Ansible playbook linked elsewhere in this thread. It automates setting up the database, the reverse proxy, the Let's Encrypt certificates, pretty much everything. You run a couple of git commands, a couple of ansible commands, and you're done. It's amazing.