9dad4c7c2d
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.
97 lines
4.1 KiB
Markdown
97 lines
4.1 KiB
Markdown
# Configuring service discovery via .well-known
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## Introduction
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Service discovery lets various client programs which support it, to receive a full user id (e.g. `@username:example.com`) and determine where the Matrix server is automatically (e.g. `https://matrix.example.com`).
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This lets your users easily connect to your Matrix server without having to customize connection URLs.
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As [per the specification](https://matrix.org/docs/spec/client_server/r0.4.0.html#server-discovery) Matrix does service discovery using a `/.well-known/matrix/client` file hosted on the base domain (e.g. `example.com`).
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However, this playbook installs your Matrix server on another domain (e.g. `matrix.example.com`) and not on the base domain (e.g. `example.com`), so it takes a little extra manual effort to set up the file.
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## Prerequisites
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To implement service discovery, your base domain's server (e.g. `example.com`) needs to support HTTPS.
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## Setting it up
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To make things easy for you to set up, this playbook generates and hosts the well-known file on the Matrix domain's server (e.g. `https://matrix.example.com/.well-known/matrix/client`), even though this is the wrong place to host it.
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You have 2 options when it comes to installing the file on the base domain's server:
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### (Option 1): **Copying the file manually** to your base domain's server
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**Hint**: Option 2 (below) is generally a better way to do this. Make sure to go with that one, if possible.
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All you need to do is:
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- copy the `/.well-known/matrix/client` from the Matrix server (e.g. `matrix.example.com`) to your base domain's server (`example.com`).
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- set up the server at your base domain (e.g. `example.com`) so that it adds an extra HTTP header when serving the `/.well-known/matrix/client` file. [CORS](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/CORS), the `Access-Control-Allow-Origin` header should be set with a value of `*`. If you don't do this step, web-based Matrix clients (like Riot) may fail to work.
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This is relatively easy to do and possibly your only choice if you can only host static files from the base domain's server.
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It is, however, **a little fragile**, as future updates performed by this playbook may regenerate the well-known file and you may need to notice that and copy it again.
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### (Option 2): **Setting up reverse-proxying** of the well-known file from the base domain's server to the Matrix server
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This option is less fragile and generally better.
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On the base domain's server (e.g. `example.com`), you can set up reverse-proxying, so that any access for the `/.well-known/matrix` location prefix is forwarded to the Matrix domain's server (e.g. `matrix.example.com`).
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With this method, you **don't need** to add special HTTP headers for [CORS](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/CORS) reasons (like `Access-Control-Allow-Origin`), because your Matrix server (where requests ultimately go) will be configured by this playbook correctly.
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**For nginx**, it would be something like this:
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```nginx
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# This is your HTTPS-enabled server for DOMAIN.
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server {
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server_name DOMAIN;
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location /.well-known/matrix {
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proxy_pass https://matrix.DOMAIN/.well-known/matrix;
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proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
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}
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# other configuration
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}
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```
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**For Apache**, it would be something like this:
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```apache
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<VirtualHost *:443>
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ServerName DOMAIN
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SSLProxyEngine on
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<Location /.well-known/matrix>
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ProxyPass "https://matrix.DOMAIN/.well-known/matrix"
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</Location>
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# other configuration
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</VirtualHost>
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```
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**For Caddy**, it would be something like this:
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```caddy
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proxy /.well-known/matrix https://matrix.DOMAIN
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```
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Make sure to:
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- **replace `DOMAIN`** in the server configuration with your actual domain name
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- and: to **do this for the HTTPS-enabled server block**, as that's where Matrix expects the file to be
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## Confirming it works
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No matter which method you've used to set up the well-known file, if you've done it correctly you should be able to see a JSON file at a URL like this: `https://<domain>/.well-known/matrix/client`.
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You can also check if everything is configured correctly, by [checking if services work](maintenance-checking-services.md).
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