# Using a reverse proxy with Synapse It is recommended to put a reverse proxy such as [nginx](https://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_proxy_module.html), [Apache](https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/mod_proxy_http.html), [Caddy](https://caddyserver.com/docs/quick-starts/reverse-proxy) or [HAProxy](https://www.haproxy.org/) in front of Synapse. One advantage of doing so is that it means that you can expose the default https port (443) to Matrix clients without needing to run Synapse with root privileges. **NOTE**: Your reverse proxy must not `canonicalise` or `normalise` the requested URI in any way (for example, by decoding `%xx` escapes). Beware that Apache *will* canonicalise URIs unless you specify `nocanon`. When setting up a reverse proxy, remember that Matrix clients and other Matrix servers do not necessarily need to connect to your server via the same server name or port. Indeed, clients will use port 443 by default, whereas servers default to port 8448. Where these are different, we refer to the 'client port' and the 'federation port'. See [the Matrix specification](https://matrix.org/docs/spec/server_server/latest#resolving-server-names) for more details of the algorithm used for federation connections, and [delegate.md]() for instructions on setting up delegation. Endpoints that are part of the standardised Matrix specification are located under `/_matrix`, whereas endpoints specific to Synapse are located under `/_synapse/client`. Let's assume that we expect clients to connect to our server at `https://matrix.example.com`, and other servers to connect at `https://example.com:8448`. The following sections detail the configuration of the reverse proxy and the homeserver. ## Reverse-proxy configuration examples **NOTE**: You only need one of these. ### nginx ``` server { listen 443 ssl; listen [::]:443 ssl; # For the federation port listen 8448 ssl default_server; listen [::]:8448 ssl default_server; server_name matrix.example.com; location ~* ^(\/_matrix|\/_synapse\/client) { proxy_pass http://localhost:8008; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr; # Nginx by default only allows file uploads up to 1M in size # Increase client_max_body_size to match max_upload_size defined in homeserver.yaml client_max_body_size 50M; } } ``` **NOTE**: Do not add a path after the port in `proxy_pass`, otherwise nginx will canonicalise/normalise the URI. ### Caddy 1 ``` matrix.example.com { proxy /_matrix http://localhost:8008 { transparent } proxy /_synapse/client http://localhost:8008 { transparent } } example.com:8448 { proxy / http://localhost:8008 { transparent } } ``` ### Caddy 2 ``` matrix.example.com { reverse_proxy /_matrix/* http://localhost:8008 reverse_proxy /_synapse/client/* http://localhost:8008 } example.com:8448 { reverse_proxy http://localhost:8008 } ``` ### Apache ``` SSLEngine on ServerName matrix.example.com; AllowEncodedSlashes NoDecode ProxyPass /_matrix http://127.0.0.1:8008/_matrix nocanon ProxyPassReverse /_matrix http://127.0.0.1:8008/_matrix ProxyPass /_synapse/client http://127.0.0.1:8008/_synapse/client nocanon ProxyPassReverse /_synapse/client http://127.0.0.1:8008/_synapse/client SSLEngine on ServerName example.com; AllowEncodedSlashes NoDecode ProxyPass /_matrix http://127.0.0.1:8008/_matrix nocanon ProxyPassReverse /_matrix http://127.0.0.1:8008/_matrix ``` **NOTE**: ensure the `nocanon` options are included. **NOTE 2**: It appears that Synapse is currently incompatible with the ModSecurity module for Apache (`mod_security2`). If you need it enabled for other services on your web server, you can disable it for Synapse's two VirtualHosts by including the following lines before each of the two `` above: ``` SecRuleEngine off ``` ### HAProxy ``` frontend https bind :::443 v4v6 ssl crt /etc/ssl/haproxy/ strict-sni alpn h2,http/1.1 # Matrix client traffic acl matrix-host hdr(host) -i matrix.example.com acl matrix-path path_beg /_matrix acl matrix-path path_beg /_synapse/client use_backend matrix if matrix-host matrix-path frontend matrix-federation bind :::8448 v4v6 ssl crt /etc/ssl/haproxy/synapse.pem alpn h2,http/1.1 default_backend matrix backend matrix server matrix 127.0.0.1:8008 ``` ## Homeserver Configuration You will also want to set `bind_addresses: ['127.0.0.1']` and `x_forwarded: true` for port 8008 in `homeserver.yaml` to ensure that client IP addresses are recorded correctly. Having done so, you can then use `https://matrix.example.com` (instead of `https://matrix.example.com:8448`) as the "Custom server" when connecting to Synapse from a client. ## Health check endpoint Synapse exposes a health check endpoint for use by reverse proxies. Each configured HTTP listener has a `/health` endpoint which always returns 200 OK (and doesn't get logged). ## Synapse administration endpoints Endpoints for administering your Synapse instance are placed under `/_synapse/admin`. These require authentication through an access token of an admin user. However as access to these endpoints grants the caller a lot of power, we do not recommend exposing them to the public internet without good reason.