I've heard a lot lately about how generous [Oracle Cloud's free tier](https://www.oracle.com/cloud/free/) is, particularly when [compared with the free offerings](https://github.com/cloudcommunity/Cloud-Service-Providers-Free-Tier-Overview) from other public cloud providers. Signing up for an account was fairly straight-forward, though I did have to wait a few hours for an actual human to call me on an actual telephone to verify my account. Once in, I thought it would be fun to try building my own [Matrix](https://matrix.org/) homeserver to really benefit from the network's decentralized-but-federated model for secure end-to-end encrypted communications.
There are two primary projects for Matrix homeservers: [Synapse](https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/) and [Dendrite](https://github.com/matrix-org/dendrite). Dendrite is the newer, more efficient server, but it's not quite feature complete. I'll be using Synapse for my build to make sure that everything works right off the bat, and I will be running the server in a Docker container to make it (relatively) easy to replace if I feel more comfortable about Dendrite in the future.
As usual, it took quite a bit of fumbling about before I got everything working correctly. Here I'll share the steps I used to get up and running.
### Instance creation
Getting a VM spun up on Oracle Cloud was a pretty simple process. I logged into my account, navigated to *Menu -> Compute -> Instances*, and clicked on the big blue **Create Instance** button.
I'll be hosting this for my `bowdre.net` domain, so I start by naming the instance accordingly: `matrix.bowdre.net`. Naming it isn't strictly necessary, but it does help with keeping track of things. The instance defaults to using an Oracle Linux image. I'd rather use an Ubuntu one for this, simply because I was able to find more documentation on getting Synapse going on Debian-based systems. So I hit the **Edit** button next to *Image and Shape*, select the **Change Image** option, pick **Canonical Ubuntu** from the list of available images, and finally click **Select Image** to confirm my choice.
This will be an Ubuntu 20.04 image running on a `VM.Standard.E2.1.Micro` instance, which gets a single AMD EPYC 7551 CPU with 2.0GHz base frequency and 1GB of RAM. It's not much, but it's free - and it should do just fine for this project.
I can leave the rest of the options as their defaults, making sure that the instance will be allotted a public IPv4 address.
Scrolling down a bit to the *Add SSH Keys* section, I leave the default **Generate a key pair for me** option selected, and click the very-important **Save Private Key** button to download the private key to my computer so that I'll be able to connect to the instance via SSH.
Now I can finally click the blue **Create Instance** button at the bottom of the screen, and just wait a few minutes for it to start up. Once the status shows a big green "Running" square, I'm ready to connect! I'll copy the listed public IP and make a note of the default username (`ubuntu`). I can then plug the IP, username, and the private key I downloaded earlier into my SSH client (the [Secure Shell extension](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/secure-shell/iodihamcpbpeioajjeobimgagajmlibd) for Google Chrome since I'm doing this from my Pixelbook), and log in to my new VM in The Cloud.
According to [Oracle's docs](https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/Network/Tasks/managingpublicIPs.htm), the public IP assigned to my instance is mine until I terminate the instance. It should even remain assigned if I stop or restart the instance, just as long as I don't delete the virtual NIC attached to it. So I'll skip the [`ddclient`-based dynamic DNS configuration I've used in the past](/bitwarden-password-manager-self-hosted-on-free-google-cloud-instance/#configure-dynamic-dns) and instead go straight to my registrar's DNS management portal and create a new `A` record for `matrix.bowdre.net` with the instance's public IP.
While I'm managing DNS, it might be good to take a look at the requirements for [federating my new server](https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/master/docs/federate.md#setting-up-federation) with the other Matrix servers out there. I'd like for users identities on my server to be identified by the `bowdre.net` domain (`@user:bowdre.net`) rather than the full `matrix.bowdre.net` FQDN (`@user:matrix.bowdre.net` is kind of cumbersome). The standard way to do this to leverage [`.well-known` delegation](https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/master/docs/delegate.md#well-known-delegation), where the URL at `http://bowdre.net/.well-known/matrix/server` would return a JSON structure telling other Matrix servers how to connect to mine:
I don't *currently* have another server already handling requests to `bowdre.net`, so for now I'll add another `A` record with the same public IP address to my DNS configuration. Requests for both `bowdre.net` and `matrix.bowdre.net` will reach the same server instance, but those requests will be handled differently. More on that later.
An alternative to this `.well-known` delegation would be to use [`SRV` DNS record delegation](https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/master/docs/delegate.md#srv-dns-record-delegation) to accomplish the same thing. I'd create an `SRV` record for `_matrix._tcp.bowdre.net` with the data `0 10 8448 matrix.bowdre.net` (priority=`0`, weight=`10`, port=`8448`, target=`matrix.bowdre.net`) which would again let other Matrix servers know where to send the federation traffic for my server. This approach has an advantage of not needing to make any changes on the `bowdre.net` web server, but it would require the delegated `matrix.bowdre.net` server to *also* [return a valid certificate for `bowdre.net`](https://matrix.org/docs/spec/server_server/latest#:~:text=If%20the%20/.well-known%20request%20resulted,present%20a%20valid%20certificate%20for%20%3Chostname%3E.). Trying to get a Let's Encrypt certificate for a server name that doesn't resolve authoritatively in DNS sounds more complicated than I want to get into with this project, so I'll move forward with my plan to use the `.well-known` delegation instead.
But first, I need to make sure that the traffic reaches the server to begin with.
### Firewall configuration
Synapse listens on port `8008` for connections from messaging clients, and typically uses port `8448` for federation traffic from other Matrix servers. Rather than expose those ports directly, I'm going to put Synapse behind a reverse proxy on HTTPS port `443`. I'll also need to allow inbound traffic HTTP port `80` for ACME certificate challenges. I've got two firewalls to contend with: the Oracle Cloud one which blocks traffic from getting into my virtual cloud network, and the host firewall running inside the VM.
I'll tackle the cloud firewall first. From the page showing my instance details, I click on the subnet listed under the *Primary VNIC* heading:
I then look in the *Security Lists* section and click on the Default Security List:
The *Ingress Rules* section lists the existing inbound firewall exceptions, which by default is basically just SSH. I click on **Add Ingress Rules** to create a new one.
I want this to apply to traffic from any source IP so I enter the CIDR `0.0.0.0/0`, and I enter the *Destination Port Range* as `80,443`. I also add a brief description and click **Add Ingress Rules**.
That gets traffic from the internet and to my instance, but the OS is still going to drop the traffic at its own firewall. I'll need to work with `iptables` to change that. (You typically use `ufw` to manage firewalls more easily on Ubuntu, but it isn't included on this minimal image and seemed to butt heads with `iptables` when I tried adding it. I eventually decided it was better to just interact with `iptables` directly). I'll start by listing the existing rules on the `INPUT` chain:
5 ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere state NEW tcp dpt:ssh
6 ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere state NEW tcp dpt:https
7 ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere state NEW tcp dpt:http
8 REJECT all -- anywhere anywhere reject-with icmp-host-prohibited
```
I can use `nmap` running from my local Linux environment to confirm that I can now reach those ports on the VM. (They're still "closed" since nothing is listening on the ports yet, but the connections aren't being rejected.)
run-parts: executing /usr/share/netfilter-persistent/plugins.d/25-ip6tables save
```
### Reverse proxy setup
I had initially planned on using `certbot` to generate Let's Encrypt certificates, and then reference the certs as needed from an `nginx` or Apache reverse proxy configuration. While researching how the [proxy would need to be configured to front Synapse](https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/master/docs/reverse_proxy.md), I found this sample `nginx` configuration:
One of these looks much simpler than the other two. I'd never heard of Caddy so I did some quick digging, and I found that it would actually [handle the certificates entirely automatically](https://caddyserver.com/docs/automatic-https) - in addition to having a much easier config. [Installing Caddy](https://caddyserver.com/docs/install#debian-ubuntu-raspbian) wasn't too bad, either:
There's a lot happening in that 11-line `Caddyfile`, but it's not complicated by any means. The `matrix.bowdre.net` section is pretty much exactly yanked from the sample config, and it's going to pass any requests that start like `matrix.bowdre.net/_matrix/` or `matrix.bowdre.net/_synapse/client/` through to the Synapse server listening locally on port `8008`. Caddy will automatically request and apply a Let's Encrypt or ZeroSSL cert for any server names spelled out in the config - very slick!
I set up the `bowdre.net` section to return the appropriate JSON string to tell other Matrix servers to connect to `matrix.bowdre.net` on port `443` (so that I don't have to open port `8448` through the firewalls), and to redirect all other traffic to one of my favorite technical blogs (maybe you've heard of it?). I had to wrap the `respond` and `redir` directives in a [`route { }` block](https://caddyserver.com/docs/caddyfile/directives/route) because otherwise Caddy's [implicit precedence](https://caddyserver.com/docs/caddyfile/directives#directive-order) would execute the redirect for *all* traffic and never hand out the necessary `.well-known` data.
(I wouldn't need that section at all if I were using a separate web server for `bowdre.net`; instead, I'd basically just add that `respond /.well-known/matrix/server` line to that other server's config.)
Now to enable the `caddy` service, start it, and restart it so that it loads the new config:
If I repeat my `nmap` scan from earlier, I'll see that the HTTP and HTTPS ports are now open. The server still isn't actually serving anything on those ports yet, but at least it's listening.
And again, the config to do all this (including getting valid certs for two server names!) is just 11 lines long. Caddy is seriously and magically cool.
Okay, let's actually serve something up now.
### Synapse installation
#### Docker setup
Before I can get on with [deploying Synapse in Docker](https://hub.docker.com/r/matrixdotorg/synapse), I first need to [install Docker](https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/#install-using-the-repository) on the system:
Before I can fire this up, I'll need to generate an initial configuration as [described in the documentation](https://hub.docker.com/r/matrixdotorg/synapse). Here I'll specify the server name that I'd like other Matrix servers to know mine by (`bowdre.net`):
A config file has been generated in '/data/homeserver.yaml' for server name 'bowdre.net'. Please review this file and customise it to your needs. # [tl! .nocopy:end]
As instructed, I'll use `sudo vi data/homeserver.yaml` to review/modify the generated config. I'll leave
```yaml
server_name: "bowdre.net"
```
since that's how I'd like other servers to know my server, and I'll uncomment/edit in:
```yaml
public_baseurl: https://matrix.bowdre.net
```
since that's what users (namely, me) will put into their Matrix clients to connect.
And for now, I'll temporarily set:
```yaml
enable_registration: true
```
so that I can create a user account without fumbling with the CLI. I'll be sure to set `enable_registration: false` again once I've registered the account(s) I need to have on my server. The instance has limited resources so it's probably not a great idea to let just anybody create an account on it.
There are a bunch of other useful configurations that can be made here, but these will do to get things going for now.
573612ec5735 matrixdotorg/synapse "/start.py" 25 seconds ago Up 23 seconds (healthy) 8009/tcp, 127.0.0.1:8008->8008/tcp, 8448/tcp synapse
```
### Testing
And I can point my browser to `https://matrix.bowdre.net/_matrix/static/` and see the Matrix landing page:
Before I start trying to connect with a client, I'm going to plug the server address in to the [Matrix Federation Tester](https://federationtester.matrix.org/) to make sure that other servers will be able to talk to it without any problems:
And I can view the JSON report at the bottom of the page to confirm that it's correctly pulling my `.well-known` delegation:
Now I can fire up my [Matrix client of choice](https://element.io/get-started)), specify my homeserver using its full FQDN, and [register](https://app.element.io/#/register) a new user account:
(Once my account gets created, I go back to edit `/opt/matrix/synapse/data/homeserver.yaml` again and set `enable_registration: false`, then fire a `docker-compose restart` command to restart the Synapse container.)
### Wrap-up
And that's it! I now have my own Matrix server, and I can use my new account for secure chats with Matrix users on any other federated homeserver. It works really well for directly messaging other individuals, and also for participating in small group chats. The server *does* kind of fall on its face if I try to join a massively-populated (like 500+ users) room, but I'm not going to complain about that too much on a free-tier server.
All in, I'm pretty pleased with how this little project turned out, and I learned quite a bit along the way. I'm tremendously impressed by Caddy's power and simplicity, and I look forward to using it more in future projects.
After a while, it's probably a good idea to update both the Ubntu server and the Synapse container running on it. Updating the server itself is as easy as:
