Fixes#129 (Github Issue).
Unfortunately, we rely on `service_facts`, which is only available
in Ansible >= 2.5.
There's little reason to stick to an old version such as Ansible 2.4:
- some time has passed since we've raised version requirements - it's
time to move into the future (a little bit)
- we've recently (in 82b4640072) improved the way one can run
Ansible in a Docker container
From now on, Ansible >= 2.5 is required.
Inspired by #128 (Github Issue), we've created a new Docker image
to replace https://hub.docker.com/r/qmxme/ansible
Adding dnspython or dig to `qmxme/ansible` doesn't seem like a good
idea (that might be accepted by them), given that it's specific to our
use case. That's why we'll be maintaining our own image from now on.
When using Let's Encrypt SSL certificates, a cronjob is set up to
automatically renew them. Though it does require a `cron`-compatible
program on the server.
This fixes the error that is caused by the `/etc/cron.d` directory
not existing and the `ansible-cron` module trying to write out a
file there -- without checking if the directory exists first.
It didn't mention `matrix_appservice_discord_client_id` and
`matrix_appservice_discord_bot_token`, which makes it hard for
beginners.
Related to #105 (Github Pull Request).
`matrix_synapse_no_tls` is now implicit, so we've gotten rid of it.
The `homeserver.yaml.j2` template has been synchronized with the
configuration generated by Synapse v0.99.1 (some new options
are present, etc.)
We had something like that on the Server Delegation how-to page,
but it's better if we have it on the SSL certificates page.
Relocated there and improved linking.
Fixes#94 (Github Issue)
This reverts commit 0dac5ea508.
Relying on pyOpenSSL is the Ansible way of doing things, but is
impractical and annoying for users.
`openssl` is easily available on most servers, even by default.
We'd better use that.
This makes all containers (except mautrix-telegram and
mautrix-whatsapp), start as a non-root user.
We do this, because we don't trust some of the images.
In any case, we'd rather not trust ALL images and avoid giving
`root` access at all. We can't be sure they would drop privileges
or what they might do before they do it.
Because Postfix doesn't support running as non-root,
it had to be replaced by an Exim mail server.
The matrix-nginx-proxy nginx container image is patched up
(by replacing its main configuration) so that it can work as non-root.
It seems like there's no other good image that we can use and that is up-to-date
(https://hub.docker.com/r/nginxinc/nginx-unprivileged is outdated).
Likewise for riot-web (https://hub.docker.com/r/bubuntux/riot-web/),
we patch it up ourselves when starting (replacing the main nginx
configuration).
Ideally, it would be fixed upstream so we can simplify.
With this change, the following roles are now only dependent
on the minimal `matrix-base` role:
- `matrix-corporal`
- `matrix-coturn`
- `matrix-mailer`
- `matrix-mxisd`
- `matrix-postgres`
- `matrix-riot-web`
- `matrix-synapse`
The `matrix-nginx-proxy` role still does too much and remains
dependent on the others.
Wiring up the various (now-independent) roles happens
via a glue variables file (`group_vars/matrix-servers`).
It's triggered for all hosts in the `matrix-servers` group.
According to Ansible's rules of priority, we have the following
chain of inclusion/overriding now:
- role defaults (mostly empty or good for independent usage)
- playbook glue variables (`group_vars/matrix-servers`)
- inventory host variables (`inventory/host_vars/matrix.<your-domain>`)
All roles default to enabling their main component
(e.g. `matrix_mxisd_enabled: true`, `matrix_riot_web_enabled: true`).
Reasoning: if a role is included in a playbook (especially separately,
in another playbook), it should "work" by default.
Our playbook disables some of those if they are not generally useful
(e.g. `matrix_corporal_enabled: false`).
As suggested in #63 (Github issue), splitting the
playbook's logic into multiple roles will be beneficial for
maintainability.
This patch realizes this split. Still, some components
affect others, so the roles are not really independent of one
another. For example:
- disabling mxisd (`matrix_mxisd_enabled: false`), causes Synapse
and riot-web to reconfigure themselves with other (public)
Identity servers.
- enabling matrix-corporal (`matrix_corporal_enabled: true`) affects
how reverse-proxying (by `matrix-nginx-proxy`) is done, in order to
put matrix-corporal's gateway server in front of Synapse
We may be able to move away from such dependencies in the future,
at the expense of a more complicated manual configuration, but
it's probably not worth sacrificing the convenience we have now.
As part of this work, the way we do "start components" has been
redone now to use a loop, as suggested in #65 (Github issue).
This should make restarting faster and more reliable.
This change is provoked by a few different things:
- #54 (Github Pull Request), which rightfully says that we need a
way to support ALL mxisd configuration options easily
- the upcoming mxisd 1.3.0 release, which drops support for
property-style configuration (dot-notation), forcing us to
redo the way we generate the configuration file
With this, mxisd is much more easily configurable now
and much more easily maintaneable by us in the future
(no need to introduce additional playbook variables and logic).
After having multiple people report issues with retrieving
SSL certificates, we've finally discovered the culprit to be
Ansible 2.5.1 (default and latest version on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS).
As silly as it is, certain distributions ("LTS" even) are 13 bugfix
versions of Ansible behind.
From now on, we try to auto-detect buggy Ansible versions and tell the
user. We also provide some tips for how to upgrade Ansible or
run it from inside a Docker container.
My testing shows that Ansible 2.4.0 and 2.4.6 are OK.
All other intermediate 2.4.x versions haven't been tested, but we
trust they're OK too.
From the 2.5.x releases, only 2.5.0 and 2.5.1 seem to be affected.
Ansible 2.5.2 corrects the problem with `include_tasks` + `with_items`.
This is a simplification and a way to make it consistent with
how we do Postgres imports (see 6d89319822), using
files coming from the server, not from the local machine.
By encouraging people NOT to use local files,
we potentially avoid problems such as #34 (Github issue),
where people would download `media_store` to their Mac's filesystem
and case-sensitivity issues will actually corrupt it.
By not encouraging local files usage, it's less likely that
people would copy (huge) directories to their local machine like that.
This is a simplification and a way to make it consistent with
how we do Postgres imports (see 6d89319822), using
files coming from the server, not from the local machine.
Adds support for managing certificates manually and for
having the playbook generate self-signed certificates for you.
With this, Let's Encrypt usage is no longer required.
Fixes Github issue #50.
Relay hostnames that have MX records are looked up by postfix
and the MX record's payload is used instead.
This special behavior may be undesirable, so we make sure to
point it out.
This is provoked by Github issue #46.
No client had made use of the well-known mechanism
so far, so the set up performed by this playbook was not tested
and turned out to be a little deficient.
Even though /.well-known/matrix/client is usually requested with a
simple request (no preflight), it's still considered cross-origin
and [CORS](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/CORS)
applies. Thus, the file always needs to be served with the appropriate
`Access-Control-Allow-Origin` header.
Github issue #46 attempts to fix it at the "reverse-proxying" layer,
which may work, but would need to be done for every server.
It's better if it's done "upstream", so that all reverse-proxy
configurations can benefit.
We've had some people get confused into installing
Matrix Corporal and having pain with that.
With this documentation change, we try to make it clearer
that it's an advanced feature not to be touched unless
you know what you're doing.
On a similar note, we also make sure other things are properly
labeled as "(optional)" and/or "(advanced)".
