Generic deployment documentation

Getting help

If you run into any problems while setting up Conduit, write an email to conduit@koesters.xyz, ask us in #conduit:ahimsa.chat 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. For arm, you should use aarch. Now copy the appropriate url:

Stable/Main versions:

These builds were created on and linked against the glibc version shipped with Debian bullseye. If you use a system with an older glibc version (e.g. RHEL8), you might need to compile Conduit yourself.

Latest/Next versions:

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

Alternatively, you may compile the binary yourself. First, install any dependencies:

# Debian
$ sudo apt install libclang-dev build-essential

# RHEL
$ sudo dnf install clang

Then, cd into the source tree of conduit-next and run:

$ cargo build --release

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 or RHEL, you can use this command to create a Conduit user:

sudo adduser --system conduit --group --disabled-login --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.

Optional: Avoid port 8448

If you for whatever reason would rather not, or cannot, open port 8448 to the internet, you can use delegation to route federation traffic over port 443 (or any other port) instead.

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=conduit
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 in the contents of conduit-example.toml 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.

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 or RHEL:

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:conduit /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. While we don't give advice for any reverse-proxy in specific, the generic advice is as follows:

• Traffic to /_matrix/* and /.well-known/matrix/* on your server_name should be sent to Conduit (unless you're using delegation and set a different domain to serve Conduit)
• HTTPS is mandatory for Matrix, so ensure you're serving Conduit over HTTPS with valid TLS certificates. If you don't know how to do this, we recommend you use Caddy as your reverse-proxy, as it handles this for you automatically, as well as needing minimal configuration in general.

Make sure to refer to the documentation of your chosen reverse-proxy to make sure it's configured properly.

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 a Matrix client, enter your homeserver and try to register. If you are using a registration token, use Element web, Nheko or SchildiChat web, as they support this feature.

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

$ curl https://your.server.name/_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.