Skip to main content

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

Prerequisites

  • You own and control the domain you want to use
  • If you do not have a website on the domain you want to use with your EMS server:
    • You can create a CNAME DNS record for the domain. Some providers call this ALIAS or CNAME Flattening when used on the root of the domain (domain root = yourdomain.com, not something.yourdomain.com)
  • If you have a website on the domain you want to use with your EMS server:
    • Your website has HTTPS enabled using a valid certificate issued by a commonly recognized provider. For example, Comodo or LetsEncrypt.
    • You can serve plain-text JSON files at these exact paths
      • https://yourdomain.com/.well-known/matrix/client
      • https://yourdomain.com/.well-known/matrix/server
      • Note that these files do not and cannot have a file extension
    • You can add the header Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * to the client file on the web server

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
    temp

  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.

      {
    "m.homeserver": {
        "base_url": "https://element.ems.host"
    },
    "m.identity_server": {
        "base_url": "https://vector.im"
    }
}

  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"
    }
}

$ 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"
                        }
                    }
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.
    temp

    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
Back to top