Element Matrix Services

Add Additional Users

  1. Click Your Account and Manage Servers or click this link https://ems.element.io/user/hosting.
  2. Click the Hosts tab.
  3. Change Total Monthly Active User Seats to the number of users you want and click Save at the bottom.
    • Note that you cannot decrease your user count later.

Add Users

  1. Click Your Account and Manage Servers or click this link: https://ems.element.io/user/hosting

  2. Click Server Admin

  3. Select your host

  4. Click Add user Enter the username and click Add

  5. Select Make new user server admin if you want this user to be able to use the Synapse Admin API to perform administrative tasks on your server. Be careful with this as this option has a lot of power on your server.

  6. The username and password for the new user is displayed. You will only be able to see this information once so send the password to the user in a secure manner and then delete it

Apply coupon/discount

Coupons can only be applied by new customers before purchasing any products. However, if you are an existing customer and want to add a coupon, please contact support at https://ems.element.io/support.

Terms and Conditions apply. See the page for your coupon or ask your Element contact or support.

Client Look & Feel

This feature allows you to customize the home and welcome page on your EMS-provided Element Web client.

Blog posts

See also our blog posts on the subject:

Create home and login template

  1. Create the files you want to use.

    1. Edit ems_home.html. This can be as simple as a couple of lines of HTML, for example:

      <h1>Snow Leopard LTD</h1>
<h2>Rooms to join</h2>
<ul>
    <li><a href='/#/room/#welcome:snowleopard-staging.ems.host'>Welcome to Demo web chat (#welcome)</a></li>
    <li><a href='/#/room/#support:snowleopard-staging.ems.host'>Support (#support)</a></li>
    <li><a href='/#/room/#offtopic:snowleopard-staging.ems.host'>Off topic conversation (#offtopic)</a></li>
</ul>

      You can also add a more complex HTML and styling.

    2. It looks like this in your web browser:

    3. Edit ems_welcome.html. This is a bit more complex, but it can be almost anything you want as long as it has links to Log in (/#/login) and Create account (/#/register). The default design is based on this template. You can get creative with the CSS and the !important tag.

      Click to see ems_welcome contents

      The only change I made from the template is adding <p>This is some demo text!</p> on line 177.

      <style type="text/css">

/* we deliberately inline style here to avoid flash-of-CSS problems, and to avoid
* voodoo where we have to set display: none by default
*/

h1::after {
    content: "!";
}

.mx_Parent {
    display: -webkit-box;
    display: -webkit-flex;
    display: -ms-flexbox;
    display: flex;
    -webkit-box-orient: vertical;
    -webkit-box-direction: normal;
    -webkit-flex-direction: column;
    -ms-flex-direction: column;
    flex-direction: column;
    -webkit-box-pack: center;
    -webkit-justify-content: center;
    -ms-flex-pack: center;
    justify-content: center;
    -webkit-box-align: center;
    -webkit-align-items: center;
    -ms-flex-align: center;
    align-items: center;
    text-align: center;
    padding: 25px 35px;
    color: #2e2f32;
}

.mx_Logo {
    height: 54px;
    margin-top: 2px;
}

.mx_ButtonGroup {
    margin-top: 10px;
}

.mx_ButtonRow {
    display: -webkit-box;
    display: -webkit-flex;
    display: -ms-flexbox;
    display: flex;
    -webkit-justify-content: space-around;
    -ms-flex-pack: distribute;
    -webkit-box-align: center;
    -webkit-align-items: center;
    -ms-flex-align: center;
    align-items: center;
    justify-content: space-between;
    box-sizing: border-box;
    margin: 12px 0 0;
}

.mx_ButtonRow > * {
    margin: 0 10px;
}

.mx_ButtonRow > *:first-child {
    margin-left: 0;
}

.mx_ButtonRow > *:last-child {
    margin-right: 0;
}

.mx_ButtonParent {
    display: -webkit-box;
    display: -webkit-flex;
    display: -ms-flexbox;
    display: flex;
    padding: 10px 20px;
    -webkit-box-orient: horizontal;
    -webkit-box-direction: normal;
    -webkit-flex-direction: row;
    -ms-flex-direction: row;
    flex-direction: row;
    -webkit-box-pack: center;
    -webkit-justify-content: center;
    -ms-flex-pack: center;
    justify-content: center;
    -webkit-box-align: center;
    -webkit-align-items: center;
    -ms-flex-align: center;
    align-items: center;
    border-radius: 4px;
    width: 150px;
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    background-position: 10px center;
    text-decoration: none;
    color: #2e2f32 !important;
}

.mx_ButtonLabel {
    margin-left: 20px;
}

.mx_Header_title {
    font-size: 24px;
    font-weight: 600;
    margin: 20px 0 0;
}

.mx_Header_subtitle {
    font-size: 12px;
    font-weight: normal;
    margin: 8px 0 0;
}

.mx_ButtonSignIn {
    background-color: #368BD6;
    color: white !important;
}

.mx_ButtonCreateAccount {
    background-color: #0DBD8B;
    color: white !important;
}

.mx_SecondaryButton {
    background-color: #FFFFFF;
    color: #2E2F32;
}

.mx_Button_iconSignIn {
    background-image: url('welcome/images/icon-sign-in.svg');
}
.mx_Button_iconCreateAccount {
    background-image: url('welcome/images/icon-create-account.svg');
}
.mx_Button_iconHelp {
    background-image: url('welcome/images/icon-help.svg');
}
.mx_Button_iconRoomDirectory {
    background-image: url('welcome/images/icon-room-directory.svg');
}

/*
.mx_WelcomePage_loggedIn is applied by EmbeddedPage from the Welcome component
If it is set on the page, we should show the buttons. Otherwise, we have to assume
we don't have an account and should hide them. No account == no guest account either.
*/
.mx_WelcomePage:not(.mx_WelcomePage_loggedIn) .mx_WelcomePage_guestFunctions {
    display: none;
}

.mx_ButtonRow.mx_WelcomePage_guestFunctions {
    margin-top: 20px;
}
.mx_ButtonRow.mx_WelcomePage_guestFunctions > div {
    margin: 0 auto;
}

@media only screen and (max-width: 480px) {
    .mx_ButtonRow {
        flex-direction: column;
    }

    .mx_ButtonRow > * {
        margin: 0 0 10px 0;
    }
}

</style>

<div class="mx_Parent">
    <a href="https://element.io" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
        <img src="welcome/images/logo.svg" alt="" class="mx_Logo"/>
    </a>
    <h1 class="mx_Header_title">_t("Welcome to Element")</h1>
    <!-- XXX: Our translations system isn't smart enough to recognize variables in the HTML, so we manually do it -->
    <h4 class="mx_Header_subtitle">_t("Decentralised, encrypted chat &amp; collaboration powered by $matrixLogo")</h4>
    <p>This is some demo text!</p>
    <div class="mx_ButtonGroup">
        <div class="mx_ButtonRow">
            <a href="#/login" class="mx_ButtonParent mx_ButtonSignIn mx_Button_iconSignIn">
                <div class="mx_ButtonLabel">_t("Sign In")</div>
            </a>
            <a href="#/register" class="mx_ButtonParent mx_ButtonCreateAccount mx_Button_iconCreateAccount">
                <div class="mx_ButtonLabel">_t("Create Account")</div>
            </a>
        </div>
        <!-- The comments below are meant to be used by Ansible as a quick way
            to strip out the marked content when desired.
            See https://github.com/element-hq/element-web/issues/8622.
            TODO: Strip out these comments and rely on the guest flag -->
        <!-- BEGIN Ansible: Remove these lines when guest access is disabled -->
        <div class="mx_ButtonRow mx_WelcomePage_guestFunctions">
            <div>
                <a href="#/directory" class="mx_ButtonParent mx_SecondaryButton mx_Button_iconRoomDirectory">
                    <div class="mx_ButtonLabel">_t("Explore rooms")</div>
                </a>
            </div>
        </div>
        <!-- END Ansible: Remove these lines when guest access is disabled -->
    </div>
</div>

    4. It looks like this in your web browser:

Serve the files

You must host the files somewhere where they are publickly accessible and you need to enable the CORS header Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * on the web server for these files. See https://enable-cors.org/ for instructions on how to do this.

Configure your EMS server

  1. Add the URLs to the Client look & feel section in the EMS Control Panel. Click Save.

    Unfortunately, we have a bug in the validator affecting files hosted on Matrix. Just ignore the error.

    • Note if you are hosting the files on your own web server, you only need to change your EMS server configuration or reprovision if the URLs have changed. Changes to the contents of existing files are applied automatically

  2. Once your host finishes reprovisioning, check your Element Web to ensure the changes are applied correctly.

    1. Welcome page image and Welcome page content

    2. Client logo

    3. Home page content

Image Credits

EMS Server With Custom Domain

For this guide, I will be using the domain element.io. I will set up EMS so that the Matrix usernames becomes @someone:element.io, and the Element client will be at https://chat.element.io/

From the guide at Get Your Own EMS Server, I will be replacing the EMS hostname ems-demo-staging.ems.host with element.ems.host

Custom domains are only supported with Element Enterprise Cloud plans.

Prerequisites

See also

Setup

Some providers for DNS and website hosting providers need special configuration. See Provider specific instructions at the bottom for known solutions.

  1. Follow steps 1 - 10 from Get Your Own EMS Server

  2. On step 10 from Get Your Own EMS Server, turn ON Custom DNS

  3. In the Custom Homeserver domain field, enter element.io

  4. Create two files on your website according to the instructions given.
    The path cannot be changed, but up to 30 redirects are supported.
    While not required, you should add the header Content-Type application/json to both files.

    1. https://element.io/.well-known/matrix/server

      {
    "m.server": "element.ems.host:443"
}

    2. https://element.io/.well-known/matrix/client

      You need to enable the CORS header Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * on the web server for this file. See https://enable-cors.org/ for instructions on how to do this. If you are using redicrects, the CORS headers must be set on all steps/hops.

      {
    "m.homeserver": {
        "base_url": "https://element.ems.host"
    },
    "m.identity_server": {
        "base_url": "https://vector.im"
    },
    "org.matrix.msc3575.proxy": {
        "url": "https://element.ems.host"
    }
}
    Optional Nginx-specific configuration

    If your web server is running Nginx, you can set this in the Nginx config instead of creating actual files.

    server {
    server_name element.io

    ...

    # Matrix well-known files
    location /.well-known/matrix/client {
        return 200 '{"m.homeserver":{"base_url":"https://element.ems.host"},"m.identity_server":{"base_url":"https://vector.im"},"org.matrix.msc3575.proxy":{"url":"https://element.ems.host"}}';
        add_header Content-Type application/json;
        add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' '*';
    }
    location /.well-known/matrix/server {
        return 200 '{"m.server": "element.ems.host:443"}';
        add_header Content-Type application/json;
    }
}

  5. Click Check again to verify that your .well-known files are configured correctly

    You can also verify your `.well-known` files from the command line

    Note the lines access-control-allow-origin: * and content-type: application/json

    1. On Mac or Linux, using the terminal

      $ curl -i https://element.io/.well-known/matrix/client
HTTP/2 200 
date: Fri, 31 Jul 2020 09:11:21 GMT
content-type: application/json
content-length: 129
set-cookie: __cfduid=x...; expires=Sun, 30-Aug-20 09:11:21 GMT; path=/; domain=.element.io; HttpOnly; SameSite=Lax
access-control-allow-origin: *
cf-cache-status: DYNAMIC
cf-request-id: 0...
expect-ct: max-age=604800, report-uri="https://report-uri.cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/beacon/expect-ct"
server: cloudflare
cf-ray: 5...

{
    "m.homeserver": {
        "base_url": "https://element.ems.host"
    },
    "m.identity_server": {
        "base_url": "https://vector.im"
    },
    "org.matrix.msc3575.proxy": {
        "url": "https://element.ems.host"
    }
}

$ curl -i https://element.io/.well-known/matrix/server
HTTP/2 200 
date: Fri, 31 Jul 2020 09:11:25 GMT
content-type: application/json
content-length: 52
set-cookie: __cfduid=x...; expires=Sun, 30-Aug-20 09:11:25 GMT; path=/; domain=.element.io; HttpOnly; SameSite=Lax
access-control-allow-origin: *
cf-cache-status: DYNAMIC
cf-request-id: 0...
expect-ct: max-age=604800, report-uri="https://report-uri.cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/beacon/expect-ct"
server: cloudflare
cf-ray: 5...

{
    "m.server": "element.ems.host:443"
}

    2. On Windows, using PowerShell

      PS C:\Users\twilight> Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://element.io/.well-known/matrix/client


StatusCode        : 200
StatusDescription : OK
Content           : {
                        "m.homeserver": {
                            "base_url": "https://element.ems.host"
                        },
                        "m.identity_server": {
                            "base_url": "https://vector.im"
                        },
                        "org.matrix.msc3575.proxy": {
                            "url": "https://element.ems.host"
                        }
                    }
RawContent        : HTTP/1.1 200 OK
                    Connection: keep-alive
                    Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
                    CF-Cache-Status: DYNAMIC
                    cf-request-id: 0...
                    Expect-CT: max-age=604800, report-uri="https://repor...
Forms             : {}
Headers           : {[Connection, keep-alive], [Access-Control-Allow-Origin, *], [CF-Cache-Status, DYNAMIC], [cf-request-id, 0...]...}
Images            : {}
InputFields       : {}
Links             : {}
ParsedHtml        : System.__ComObject
RawContentLength  : 129


PS C:\Users\twilight> Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://element.io/.well-known/matrix/server


StatusCode        : 200
StatusDescription : OK
Content           : {
                        "m.server": "element.ems.host:443"
                    }
RawContent        : HTTP/1.1 200 OK
                    Connection: keep-alive
                    Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
                    CF-Cache-Status: DYNAMIC
                    cf-request-id: 0...
                    Expect-CT: max-age=604800, report-uri="https://repor...
Forms             : {}
Headers           : {[Connection, keep-alive], [Access-Control-Allow-Origin, *], [CF-Cache-Status, DYNAMIC], [cf-request-id, 0...]...}
Images            : {}
InputFields       : {}
Links             : {}
ParsedHtml        : System.__ComObject
RawContentLength  : 52

  6. You can continue without the .well-known files in place, but your server will have limited functionality until this is fixed

  7. In the Custom Client domain field, enter chat.element.io. This can be any domain, except the same as Custom Homeserver domain

  8. Create a CNAME DNS record with your DNS provider according to the instructions given
    chat.element.io. CNAME element.element.io.

  9. This shows how this is done with Cloudflare DNS. Depending on your DNS provider, this might be different. Consult the documentation for your provider. Note that Proxy must be turned off with Cloudflare.

  10. Back on EMS, click Check again. Note that sometimes it might take a while for your new DNS record to propagate. You can continue, but functionality will be limited. Check back with the Hosts tab on https://ems.element.io/user/hosting and click Rebuild Host once the DNS record is in place.

    You can also verify the CNAME DNS record using the command line

    1. On Mac or Linux, using the terminal

      $ dig chat.element.io CNAME

; <<>> DiG 9.10.6 <<>> chat.element.io CNAME
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 57888
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 512
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;chat.element.io.   IN CNAME

;; ANSWER SECTION:
chat.element.io. 299 IN CNAME element.element.io.

;; Query time: 32 msec
;; SERVER: 1.1.1.1#53(1.1.1.1)
;; WHEN: Fri Jul 31 10:21:56 BST 2020
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 91

    2. On Windows, using PowerShell

      PS C:\Users\twilight> Resolve-DnsName -Name chat.element.io -Type CNAME

Name                           Type   TTL   Section    NameHost
----                           ----   ---   -------    --------
chat.element.io                 CNAME  299   Answer     element.element.io

  11. Continue from step 11 on Get Your Own EMS Server

Provider-specific instructions

GitHub Pages

If you are hosting your website with GitHub Pages, add this to the Jekyll config file _config.yml

include:
  - .well-known

Microsoft Azure

If you are using Microsoft 365 / Azure to manage your domain or the rest of your infrastructure, please use the following instructions to host the .well-known/matrix URI (RFC 8615).

In this section, we will configure Azure to serve https://yourdomain.com/.well-known/matrix/client and https://yourdomain.com/.well-known/matrix/client.

The summary of steps is as follows:

Prepare client and server .well-known files locally

On your computer, prepare two plain text files called client and server (again, notice the lack of file extension such as ".txt") which contain the following:

client
{
    "m.homeserver": {
        "base_url": "https://your-tenant.ems.host"
    },
    "m.identity_server": {
        "base_url": "https://vector.im"
    },
    "org.matrix.msc3575.proxy": {
        "url": "https://your-tenant.ems.host"
    }
}

Remember to replace your-tenant by the name of your EMS tenant.

server
{
    "m.homeserver": {
        "base_url": "https://your-tenant.ems.host:443"
    }
}

Remember to replace your-tenant by the name of your EMS tenant.

You will be uploading these shortly.

Create a Storage account and Static website

Storage account

In the Azure Portal, create a Storage account.

Screenshot 2023-11-10 at 14-20-46 Microsoft Azure.png

The name needs to be unique to Azure. yourdomainwellknown is an option that should work well in most scenarios.

Performarce can be left to Standard.
Redundancy should be set to Geo-redundant storage (GRS) as the .well-known URI will be a core part of your EMS deployment.
You can leave all other options to their default or change them to fit your specific deployment scenario.

Finally, click create.

Static website

Once the Storage account is created, you will need to create a Static website in this Storage account.
In the Storage account overview, choose "Static website", in the Data management section.

Screenshot 2023-11-10 at 15-15-32 Microsoft Azure.png

You do not need to provide a specific Index document name or Error document path.

Enabling the Static website in your Storage account will automatically create a $web storage container to which you can upload the json text files which will be served at the .well-known URI.

Go to "Containers", in the "Data storage" section, to upload the client and server files you prepered earlier.

Click on the $web container, then chose "Upload", which will open a panel on the right.

When uploading the client and server files, make sure to open the "advanced" part of the upload panel and choose to upload to a specific folder: .well-known/matrix/

Azure: Storage account: upload .well-known/matrix/

Create a CDN, CNAME DNS entry for your custom domain and Custom domain name for the CDN endpoint

Creating a CDN is needed because Azure does not allow serving HTTPS over a custom domain using only a Storage account Static website. To do so, a CDN is necessary.

Create a CDN endpoint

Go back to your Storage account's main view and choose "Front Door and CDN" in the Security + Networking section, to create a CDN endpoint.

Azure: Storage account: CDN: endpoint

Service type: Azure CDN is sufficient, the more advanced features of Azure Front Door are not necessary here.

If you need to create a new profile, you may call the Profile name and Endpoint name as you wish.
For consistency, it is suggested to call them yourdomainwellknown as previously.

For Origin host name, pick your Static website.

For Query string caching behaviour, pick Ignore Query String, although this setting is not important in our context.

Once your endpoint is deployed, go to the resource, then go to your endpoint's further settings by clicking on it. Make note of its hostname (rfc8615demo.azureedge.net in our example) as you will need it shortly.

Azure: CDN: overview

Create CNAME DNS entry for your custom domain

You will now create a DNS entry for your custom domain, a CNAME pointing to your Azure CDN endpoint's hostname. How to do so exactly will depend on who hosts your DNS servers. The specifics of this are beyond this documentation, but the following general information should be sufficient.

In your DNS provider's admin panel, add a DNS entry with the following details:

Once created, this DNS entry may take some time to propagate, but in most cases will be picked up quickly by Azure, as needed in the next step.

Associate your custom domain with your CDN Endpoint

In the endpoint's settings, choose "+ custom domain" to start adding your custom domain. A panel will open on the right.

Enter your custom domain: yourdomain.com and finally, click add.

If the CNAME entry can be seen by Azure, after a few minutes your custom domain should be associated with your CDN Endpoint.

Final result

https://yourdomain.com/.well-known/matrix/client and https://yourdomain.com/.well-known/matrix/server are now served over HTTPS by Azure.

You should now have the following resources in your Azure account:

Resources

How to Get an EMS Server

  1. Go to https://ems.element.io/

  2. Click Sign up or Sign in

  3. Enter your email address

  4. Click the confirmation link in the email

  5. Enter your name or company name and a password on https://ems.element.io/user/account. Then click Billing address and payment method

  6. Enter your billing address and credit card information on https://ems.element.io/user/billing

  7. Click Your Account, then Manage Servers to get started setting up your EMS server

  8. Click the Setup tab, and choose your Host Size

  9. Select your hostname and click Check. Keep in mind that this cannot be changed later

  10. Configure your host settings, then click Next. If you want to use Custom DNS (ie. have your usernames be @someone:yourdomain.com instead of @someone:yourhost.ems.host and have your Element client on your own domain), see EMS Server With Custom Domain

  11. Confirm your payment options. Then click Purchase

  12. Sit tight for a few minutes while your server is being built

  13. When it's done, click Manage hosts to configure additional settings and add users

Migrate From EMS to Self-Hosted

For support on Synapse or matrix-media-repo, ask in the Matrix rooms #synapse:matrix.org and #mediarepo:t2bot.io. For support on bridges, see the bridge documentation for each bridge's support channel.

See also this excellent blog post by Josh Simmons at The Matrix.org Foundation.

Important

Export data

  1. Go to https://ems.element.io/user/hosting#/exports
  2. Select the server you want to export from in the drop-down box, then click Create export
  3. Wait for the export of your config, database, and media to complete
  4. Once all exports have completed, download all files provided

Import process

For all components, you must install the same version as your EMS server is running. Version information is provided in the hostname-config.md file. If a newer version is available, once the import is completed and verified, follow the official upgrade documentation for each component to upgrade.

All required configuration values are provided in the hostname-config.md file.

  1. Following official documentation, install and configure
    1. PostgreSQL. Refer to the Synapse PostgreSQL documentation for database setup
    2. Synapse
    3. Optional (see media step below): matrix-media-repo
  2. When generating your Synapse configuration file, you MUST use the same domain as your EMS server
  3. Do not start Synapse yet
  4. In the Synapse config file (usually homeserver.yaml), set:
    1. pepper. If you do not do this, you have to reset all passwords
    2. Signing key. This is stored in a file. See this config file option for path. Alternatively, add the public key for your EMS hosted server to old_signing_keys. If your EMS server is still running, you can find your public signing key at https://yourHostname.ems.host/_matrix/key/v2/server
    3. macaroon_secret_key
  5. Import the Synapse database
    1. Create a new database per the Synapse PostgreSQL documentation
    2. Or, if your Synapse database is not empty, empty it
      WARNING - THIS WILL IMMEDIATELY AND IRRECOVERABLY DELETE DATA, PLEASE TAKE CARE. WE ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU DELETE THE WRONG DATABASE OR DATA
      Connect to the database with psql, then run the following queries: 
      DO $$ DECLARE
r RECORD;
BEGIN
    FOR r IN (SELECT tablename FROM pg_tables WHERE schemaname = current_schema()) LOOP
        EXECUTE 'DROP TABLE ' || quote_ident(r.tablename) || ' CASCADE';
    END LOOP;
END $$;

DROP sequence cache_invalidation_stream_seq;
DROP sequence state_group_id_seq;
DROP sequence user_id_seq;
      Disconnect from the database
    3. Extract the database dump 
      unzip emsHostname-synapse-database.zip
    4. Import the database dump 
      pg_restore \
    --username USERNAME \
    --host HOSTNAME \
    --dbname DATABASE_NAME \
    --no-owner \
    /path/to/id-emsHostname-synapse-database.dir/
    5. Verify that sequence was set correctly. Connect to the database and run the query 
      SELECT * FROM state_group_id_seq;
      last_value should be greater than 1
  6. Import media into matrix-media-repo according to documentation here or import media into Synapses built-in media repository using the import_to_synapse executable available from the latest matrix-media-repo release
  7. Start Synapse and ensure everything is working as expected
  8. Optionally, install Element Web or use another Matrix client
  9. Optionally, install the sliding-sync proxy. This is required for Element X
    • Note, we do not provide an export of the Sliding Sync database as this would not provide any value. As you need to log out and back in from Element X after the migration and in doing so your Sliding Sync proxy needs to re-sync each user. All your data is already included in the Synapse database
  10. If you have any bridges, please see the documentation for each bridge
    Discord | Hookshot | IRC | Signal | Slack | Telegram | Whatsapp
    • The process for importing the bridge databases is the same as with Synapse
  11. Cancel your EMS server. See this FAQ document for instructions. Note, this cannot be undone and all your data will be lost. Ensure your imported server is working as expected before doing this

Migrate From Self-Hosted to EMS

Notes

Before starting with this guide, please contact EMS support from https://ems.element.io/support or by emailing ems-support@element.io

Preparation

This section outlines what you should do ahead of the migration in order to ensure the migration goes as quickly as possible and without issues.

SSH to your matrix server

You might want to run everything in a tmux or a screen session to avoid disruption in case of a lost SSH connection.

Generate password for gpg encryption

pwgen -s 64 1

Alternatively, you can use our GPG key. Note, this expires on 2023-04-28, if this is soon, please talk to your EMS contact.
ems-support-public.pgp

GPG

If gpg is being uncooperative, use the command gpgconf --kill gpg-agent.

Create a folder to store everything

mkdir -p /tmp/synapse_export
cd /tmp/synapse_export

The guide from here on assumes your current working directory is /tmp/synapse_export.

Set restrictive permissions on the folder

If you are working as root: (otherwise set restrictive permissions as needed):

chmod 000 /tmp/synapse_export

Copy Synapse config

Copy the following files and send to EMS Support:

Stop Synapse

DO NOT START IT AGAIN AFTER THIS
Doing so can cause issues with federation and inconsistent data for your users.

While you wait for the database to export or files to transfer, you should edit or create the well-known files and DNS records to point to your EMS host. This can take a while to update so should be done as soon as possible in order to ensure your server will function properly when the migration is complete.

Database export

PostgreSQL

Dump, compress and encrypt

Replace:

pg_dump -O -h <dbhost> -U <dbusername> -d <dbname> | gzip > customer_db_export.sql.gz
gpg --symmetric --no-symkey-cache customer_db_export.sql.gz
rm customer_db_export.sql.gz

If required, split into smaller files

Please only do this if you have a slow connection and are worried about transferring a single large file.

split -b 100m customer_db_export.sql.gz.gpg customer_db_export.sql.gz.gpg.part-
rm customer_db_export.sql.gz.gpg

SQLIte

Compress and encrypt

tar -zcvf homeserver.db.tar.gz /path/to/homeserver.db
gpg --symmetric --no-symkey-cache homeserver.db.tar.gz
rm homeserver.db.tar.gz

If required, split into smaller files

Please only do this if you have a slow connection and are worried about transferring a single large file.

split -b 100m homeserver.db.tar.gz homeserver.db.tar.gz.part-
rm homeserver.db.tar.gz

Media export

If you are using SQLIte as database

Skip ahead to and follow Backup media export.

Download the export tool

Download the latest version of export_synapse_for_import-linux-x64 (or export_synapse_for_import-win-x64.exe) from https://github.com/turt2live/matrix-media-repo/releases

wget https://github.com/turt2live/matrix-media-repo/releases/download/vx.x.x/export_synapse_for_import-linux-x64
chmod +x export_synapse_for_import-linux-x64

Run the export

Replace:

./export_synapse_for_import-linux-x64 -h
./export_synapse_for_import-linux-x64 -dbHost <dbhost> -dbPort 5432 -dbName <dbname> -dbUsername <dbusername> -mediaDirectory /path/to/synapse/media_store -serverName <yourdomain.tld> -destination ./customer_media_export
mv logs customer_media_export
mv media-repo.yaml customer_media_export
rm export_synapse_for_import-linux-x64

Compress and encrypt

tar -zcvf customer_media_export.tar.gz customer_media_export
gpg --symmetric --no-symkey-cache customer_media_export.tar.gz
rm customer_media_export.tar.gz
rm -r customer_media_export

If required, split into smaller files

Please only do this if you have a slow connection and are worried about transferring a single large file.

split -b 100m customer_media_export.tar.gz.gpg customer_media_export.tar.gz.gpg.part-
rm customer_media_export.tar.gz.gpg

Backup media export

Compress and encrypt

Replace * /path/to/synapse/media_store (the path to where synapse stores your media)

tar -zcvf customer_backup_media_export.tar.gz /path/to/synapse/media_store
gpg --symmetric --no-symkey-cache customer_backup_media_export.tar.gz
rm customer_backup_media_export.tar.gz

If required, split into smaller files

Please only do this if you have a slow connection and are worried about transferring a single large file.

split -b 100m customer_backup_media_export.tar.gz.gpg customer_backup_media_export.tar.gz.gpg.part-
rm customer_backup_media_export.tar.gz.gpg

Transfer

Download the files, then upload to the Google Drive folder shared by EMS or a location as agreed with your EMS contact.

On your local computer:

scp -r -P 1234 -i ~/.ssh/matrix-server youruser@1.2.3.4:/tmp/synapse_export /some/local/folder

Cleanup

We strongly recommend that you leave the export and Synapse untouched until the import is finished and everything is verified working.

Note on users and Element

Element does have support for changing the delegated homeserver URL. All your users will have to sign out and sign in again to Element. You should ensure everyone has Key Backup configured and working.

Your users will not be able to decrypt messages send in their encrypted rooms while your server is offline for the migration.

Force logout of old sessions after migration

If you do not log out all sessions for your users before the migration, you can force this later. Below is a sample config file for nginx that tells all clients trying to connect to it to sign out.

Note that the headers are important, otherwise this will not work one one or more of the Element clients. Valid HTTPS is required.

This is not tested on any other Matrix clients, but it should work in theory if the client follows the Matrix Spec.

server {
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
    listen 443 ssl http2;

    server_name old.delegated.url.com;

    location / {
        if ($request_method = 'OPTIONS') {
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' '*';
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Methods' 'GET, POST, OPTIONS';
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Headers' 'authorization,DNT,User-Agent,X-Requested-With,If-Modified-Since,Cache-Control,Content-Type,Range';
            add_header 'Access-Control-Max-Age' 1728000;
            add_header 'Content-Type' 'text/plain; charset=utf-8';
            add_header 'Content-Length' 0;
            return 204;
        }
        if ($request_method = 'POST') {
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' '*' always;
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Methods' 'GET, POST, OPTIONS' always;
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Headers' 'authorization,DNT,User-Agent,X-Requested-With,If-Modified-Since,Cache-Control,Content-Type,Range' always;
            add_header 'Access-Control-Expose-Headers' 'Content-Length,Content-Range' always;
        }
        if ($request_method = 'GET') {
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' '*' always;
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Methods' 'GET, POST, OPTIONS' always;
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Headers' 'authorization,DNT,User-Agent,X-Requested-With,If-Modified-Since,Cache-Control,Content-Type,Range' always;
            add_header 'Access-Control-Expose-Headers' 'Content-Length,Content-Range' always;
        }

        default_type application/json;
        return 401 '{"errcode":"M_UNKNOWN_TOKEN","error":"Server moved, please log in again."}';
    }

    ssl_session_timeout 1d;
    ssl_session_cache shared:MozSSL:10m;  # about 40000 sessions
    ssl_session_tickets off;
    ssl_protocols TLSv1.3;
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
    add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=63072000" always;
    ssl_stapling on;
    ssl_stapling_verify on;

    error_log /var/log/nginx/old.delegated.url.com.error.log;
    access_log /var/log/nginx/old.delegated.url.com.access.log;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/old.delegated.url.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/old.delegated.url.com/privkey.pem;
}

# Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;

    server_name old.delegated.url.com;

    if ($host = old.delegated.url.com) {
        return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
    }

    return 404;
}

Reset User Password

Resetting an account password will log out all sessions. Before doing this, make sure that


  1. Click Your Account and Manage Servers or click this link https://ems.element.io/user/hosting.

  2. Click Server Admin, select your host, then Users

  3. Click the user you want to manage

  4. Click Reset password, enter a new password and click Go

Token based registration

Create a new registration token using the Synapse Admin API. Give this to your users.

The registration flow looks like this:

  1. Enter username, password and email as normal. Click Register

  2. Enter the registration token and click Continue

  3. Continue registration like normal

Adding a Trust & Safety Contact

  1. Click Your Account and Manage Servers or click this link https://ems.element.io/user/hosting.
  2. Click the Hosts tab.
  3. Add an email address to the Trust and Safety contact field and click Save at the bottom.

This contact should be a user with access to respond to content takedown notices and other trust & safety concerns (such as deactivating users).