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 would suggest instead looking into the deployment via the very thorough system here:
https://github.com/spantaleev/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy
It may seem a little overwhelming at first due to the large list of options, but underneath it boils down to some simple variables in a file. Once complete, you can then add/remove components merely with a small edit and redeploy.
I’ve been using this for about a year, after manually doing the systems for Element and Synapse for a few years before that and HATING how kludgy things seemed.
Once on the Ansible deploy from above, features just work. It’s been a night vs day difference without trying to convince you to pay money any time you go into an interface.
My few users (about 2 dozen) regularly do group calls via the newer Element Call stuff (RTC) and even with a high-latency connection from one of the users using satellite internet, things work smoothly.
XMPP / Snikket might be a better fit for your needs, but I wanted to make sure you had a chance to try out the better solution for implementing Synapse (or other Matrix servers!) before just judging by the problematic corporate deployment.
Ironically, this was the first thing I tried for Matrix deployment circa 2019. Worked like a charm… Until a reboot. Then, since I did not know where anything was installed and how it worked, I had no idea where to even start.
I guess it would make more sense now that I know a bit more.