# 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 specifify `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. 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 { 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 10M; } } ``` **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 } } example.com:8448 { proxy / http://localhost:8008 { transparent } } ``` ### Caddy 2 ``` matrix.example.com { reverse_proxy /_matrix/* 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 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. ### 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 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).