Hi fellow self-hosters! Has anyone ran Element Server Suite or updated their existing Synapse to include Element Call? How many users do you have?
I have been running Matrix Synapse server on a 1 CPU 1 GB RAM VPS for about 5 years. Just a few close people and a WhatsApp bridge (also for just a few people who use that). It worked fairly well.
Now that Element took over many of the Matrix things, they are expanding the server architecture and bundling the server install as Element Server Suite. The Community Edition is said to be aimed at “small to mid-sized deployments (1–100 users)”, but looking at the architecture and requirements… the setup requires Kubernetes (!), at least 2 CPUs and 2 GB RAM, a handful of services, each with their own sub-domain.
Is this corporatesque setup overkill for only a handful of users, or is this my inner Luddite talking? For comparison, Snikket (bundled XMPP server that provides very similar functionality) requires only 128MB RAM. Not sure if it’s worth it trying to set up Element Call alongside existing Synapse, starting over with ESS, or going to Snikket.
I just switched to snikket from matrix in the last 2 weeks. I ran a matrix server for 6 years, for just 3 users. Snikket works perfectly, and the phone apps work so well without the need to constantly authenticate with a second device. Just log in.
XMPP is a stable protocol. And snikket has ssl certs, audio/video calling, and media uploads baked right in.
Give it a try on a modest vps and I don’t think you will be disappointed. I’m sure happy with it.
Do you run any bridge (I forget the XMPP nomenclature). One of the reasons I run matrix (synapse) myself is to have a single interface for many instant-message platforms. I’ve been looking into migrating to XMPP (im sure my matrix deployment can be slimmed down but for now it’s a behemoth taking 4 GB of RAM…) but I’ve been somewhat discouraged by the process
@signaleleven can you describe how you bridge matrix to other spaces and what’s the use case? can it be bridged from/to matrix? thx @thagoat
This, from the project I use to deploy my server, could be a starting point
https://github.com/spantaleev/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy?tab=readme-ov-file#bridges
Same for me, I initially went with Matrix for the bridges.
I think for XMPP it’s gateway or transport, Slidge author (Nicoco) has developed some in the last year.
Thanks, that’s what I had found. I will set up prosody somewhere and try…
Why did you switch? I went from Matrix to XMPP around 2019 since Riot/RiotX (matrix client) at the time would not get notifications in time and/or was a battery hog. And then went back to Matrix when it seemed more stable, to avoid messing with prosody configs.
Apps had notification problems, and crashes. My gf stopped getting pictures unless she was on home wifi. Just weirdness. I set up another instance with docker on a different server, and that worked better, but 8 was tired of the silliness. Those were the main reasons I switched. I’m also a tinkerer, so I enjoy trying new projects.