Matrix Synapse Homeserver on an Anubiz Romania VPS
Matrix Synapse is the reference Matrix homeserver, and it is famously resource-hungry. A 500-user homeserver federating with the mainstream Matrix network needs 4-6 GB RAM, 4-8 GB for PostgreSQL, and steady NVMe IOPS. Romania VPS V tier covers a serious community homeserver; for larger deployments Conduit (covered in a separate page) is lighter or you scale to dedicated. This page is for admins running Synapse seriously, not as a tutorial demo.
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Synapse Resource Reality
The single biggest gotcha for Synapse admins is the size of state groups. A homeserver that federates with matrix.org (which is in 100k+ rooms) accumulates millions of state group entries within months and the database grows accordingly. Plan 500 GB Postgres at the 18-month horizon for a federating server in mainstream rooms.
RAM split: Synapse process 3-5 GB, Postgres 4-6 GB shared_buffers, Redis (for workers) 200 MB. Romania V tier ($99.99, 16 GB ECC) fits this with headroom.
Workers Architecture
For anything beyond 100 active users run Synapse with workers. Split: federation_sender, generic_worker for media, generic_worker for client sync. Workers share Redis as the message bus. This buys you horizontal scaling within a single VPS and is the right operational pattern even at small scale.
PostgreSQL Tuning
shared_buffers 25 percent, effective_cache_size 75 percent, work_mem 16-32 MB, random_page_cost 1.1, autovacuum aggressive. Synapse autovacuum frequently because of state group churn.
Federation and Moderation
You as homeserver admin moderate your users. Federation does not give other servers control over you. CSAM at infrastructure layer on credible notice. DSA NTD applies to your instance. Plan defederation policy clearly.
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