# Synapse maintenance

This document shows you how to perform various maintenance tasks related to the Synapse chat server.

Table of contents:

- [Purging old data with the Purge History API](#purging-old-data-with-the-purge-history-api), for when you wish to delete in-use (but old) data from the Synapse database

- [Compressing state with rust-synapse-compress-state](#compressing-state-with-rust-synapse-compress-state)

- [Browse and manipulate the database](#browse-and-manipulate-the-database), for when you really need to take matters into your own hands

- [Make Synapse faster](#make-synapse-faster)

## Purging old data with the Purge History API

You can use the **[Purge History API](https://github.com/element-hq/synapse/blob/master/docs/admin_api/purge_history_api.md)** to delete old messages on a per-room basis. **This is destructive** (especially for non-federated rooms), because it means **people will no longer have access to history past a certain point**.

To make use of this Synapse Admin API, **you'll need an admin access token** first. Refer to the documentation on [how to obtain an access token](obtaining-access-tokens.md).

Synapse's Admin API is not exposed to the internet by default, following [official Synapse reverse-proxying recommendations](https://github.com/element-hq/synapse/blob/master/docs/reverse_proxy.md#synapse-administration-endpoints). To expose it you will need to add `matrix_synapse_container_labels_public_client_synapse_admin_api_enabled: true` to your `vars.yml` file.

Follow the [Purge History API](https://github.com/element-hq/synapse/blob/master/docs/admin_api/purge_history_api.md) documentation page for the actual purging instructions.

After deleting data, you may wish to run a [`FULL` Postgres `VACUUM`](./maintenance-postgres.md#vacuuming-postgresql).


## Compressing state with rust-synapse-compress-state

[rust-synapse-compress-state](https://github.com/matrix-org/rust-synapse-compress-state) can be used to optimize some `_state` tables used by Synapse. If your server participates in large rooms this is the most effective way to reduce the size of your database.

**Note**: besides running the `rust-synapse-compress-state` tool manually, you can also enable its `synapse-auto-compressor` tool by [Setting up synapse-auto-compressor](configuring-playbook-synapse-auto-compressor.md). The automatic tool will run on a schedule every day and you won't have to compress state manually ever again.

`rust-synapse-compress-state` should be safe to use (even when Synapse is running), but it's always a good idea to [make Postgres backups](./maintenance-postgres.md#backing-up-postgresql) first.

To ask the playbook to run rust-synapse-compress-state, execute:

```
ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=rust-synapse-compress-state
```

By default, all rooms with more than `100000` state group rows will be compressed.
If you need to adjust this, pass: `--extra-vars='matrix_synapse_rust_synapse_compress_state_min_state_groups_required=SOME_NUMBER_HERE'` to the command above.

After state compression, you may wish to run a [`FULL` Postgres `VACUUM`](./maintenance-postgres.md#vacuuming-postgresql).


## Browse and manipulate the database

When the [Synapse Admin API](https://github.com/element-hq/synapse/tree/master/docs/admin_api) and the other tools do not provide a more convenient way, having a look at synapse's postgresql database can satisfy a lot of admins' needs.

Editing the database manually is not recommended or supported by the Synapse developers. If you are going to do so you should [make a database backup](./maintenance-postgres.md#backing-up-postgresql).

First, set up an SSH tunnel to your matrix server (skip if it is your local machine):

```
# you may replace 1799 with an arbitrary port unbound on both machines
ssh -L 1799:localhost:1799 matrix.DOMAIN
```

Then start up an ephemeral [adminer](https://www.adminer.org/) container on the Matrix server, connecting it to the `matrix` network and linking the postgresql container:

```
docker run --rm --publish 1799:8080 --link matrix-postgres --net matrix adminer
```

You should then be able to browse the adminer database administration GUI at http://localhost:1799/ after entering your DB credentials (found in the `host_vars` or on the server in `{{matrix_synapse_config_dir_path}}/homeserver.yaml` under `database.args`)

⚠️ Be **very careful** with this, there is **no undo** for impromptu DB operations.

## Make Synapse faster

Synapse's presence feature which tracks which users are online and which are offline can use a lot of processing power. You can disable presence by adding `matrix_synapse_presence_enabled: false` to your `vars.yml` file.

If you have enough compute resources (CPU & RAM), you can make Synapse better use of them by [enabling load-balancing with workers](configuring-playbook-synapse.md#load-balancing-with-workers).

Tuning Synapse's cache factor can help reduce RAM usage. [See the upstream documentation](https://github.com/element-hq/synapse#help-synapse-is-slow-and-eats-all-my-ram-cpu) for more information on what value to set the cache factor to. Use the variable `matrix_synapse_caches_global_factor` to set the cache factor.

[Tuning your PostgreSQL database](maintenance-postgres.md#tuning-postgresql) could also improve Synapse performance. The playbook tunes the integrated Postgres database automatically, but based on your needs you may wish to adjust tuning variables manually. If you're using an [external Postgres database](configuring-playbook-external-postgres.md), you will aslo need to tune Postgres manually.

See also [How do I optimize this setup for a low-power server?](faq.md#how-do-i-optimize-this-setup-for-a-low-power-server).
