Change the name of the server after it's configured

[bzhfloriane]

Hi, I just have a quick question. I configured my Synapse server and it works perfectly. But I want to change the name of the server.
Is there a way to change the name of the server after it's configured ?

Because when I modify the server_name line in homeserver.yaml, after rebooting my server I get this error :
2018-03-05 20:07:17,043 - synapse.storage.prepare_database - 223 - INFO - - Upgrading schema to v46
2018-03-05 20:07:17,044 - twisted - 131 - ERROR - - *********************************************************************
2018-03-05 20:07:17,045 - twisted - 131 - ERROR - - Found users in database not native to testchat1.nexus.com!
2018-03-05 20:07:17,045 - twisted - 131 - ERROR - - You cannot changed a synapse server_name after it's been configured
2018-03-05 20:07:17,045 - twisted - 131 - ERROR - - *******************************************************

I use this database :

database:
name: psycopg2
args:
user: star
password:
host: 127.0.0.1
database: synapse
cp_min: 5
cp_max: 10

[Half-Shot]

Is there a way to change the name of the server after it's configured ?

can probably be answered by

2018-03-05 20:07:17,045 - twisted - 131 - ERROR - - You cannot changed a synapse server_name after it's been configured

Once a server has a name configured, you must start from scratch on a new instance if you wish to change it. You cannot just change it, because most IDs rely on it. It is also not possible to migrate at this time.

[neilisfragile]

(closing following half-shot's response)

[elisdg]

found this issue while having the same question.
Just want to link to the solution how to "start from scratch": https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/wiki#i-have-a-problem-with-my-server-can-i-just-delete-my-database-and-start-again

[sindelar-fr]

Is there a posibility that it would be possible to "just remove the port" from the server name? Back when we've set up our homeserver, for some reason, we've specified the port which makes username joe:server.com:8448 which is a bit cumbersome. (so the change would be to joe:server.com)

[ghost]

you can try dumping the database and doing a search and replace then re-loading it in

[luizvaz]

I wrongly typed the server name.
So I solved it using the solution below.
My database is PostgreSQL.

• Replace all misspelled domain parts in this tables: users, access_tokens
• Stop the matrix server
• Replace the domain in /etc/matrix-synapse/conf.d/server_name.yaml
• Replace the domain in /etc/matrix-synapse/homeserver.yaml
• Start the matrix server

Now everything is fine.

[michaelkaye]

To clarify the above comment, which describes the steps required to skip the fatal error and consistency check, and will allow synapse to start, but critically does not fix the reasons this check was implemented, and is wrongly causing administrators to believe this may now work.

Nothing has changed since 2018, it is still not possible to rename a server once it has done anything useful (eg sent a message, joined any room), please do not attempt to rename your server by manual database operations.

[sindelar-fr]

Pfew! Good that I kept putting of the renaming for so long ... Guess this issue is a duplicate of #1209 which is still opened.
I had a feeling that it would have messed up something at least on a non isolated homeserver that does federate with others...

[chrisSCM]

I wrongly typed the server name. So I solved it using the solution below. My database is PostgreSQL.

• Replace all misspelled domain parts in this tables: users, access_tokens
• Stop the matrix server
• Replace the domain in /etc/matrix-synapse/conf.d/server_name.yaml
• Replace the domain in /etc/matrix-synapse/homeserver.yaml
• Start the matrix server

Now everything is fine.

I can confirm that this does not work - I have tried it myself.

It results in numerous errors like this one:

RuntimeError: Database corruption: Event $AbqVZ7wqza-jBEHMkGTwxG3vpdlW2FtRQ1Is-vXMQBU in room !BNzFswCetUMLPfEgyx:example.com from the database appears to have been modified (calculated event id $TQ05o0HWrwd7RWtPIKpT47eDluu8tD_Fa3dAqrmXc9I)

[gleruzh]

And what about private servers with federation turned off?

[gleruzh]

Well. Looks like the only variant when direct DB changes for the server name probably won't hurt <-= very rare case when the server 1) was not ever federated AND 2) have been used by users (before the domain changes) without e2e.
But it is not 100% safe operation. I'd test it just for few days for now.
I guess, any federated server or server with encrypted messages is still without domain change possibility.
And yes, I did reinstallation with restore PG DB from dump (where I did changes), not directly change existing DB.