From c913e440c065adde1e055eb0baef5df40615ae9b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Will Hunt Date: Thu, 1 Sep 2022 15:48:43 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] Add monthly active users documentation (#13617) * Add monthly active users documentation * changelog * Tidy up notes * more tidyup * Rewrite #1 * link back to mau docs * fix links * s/appservice|AS/application service * further review * a newline * Remove bit about shadow banned users. I think talking about them is confusing, and the current text doesn't imply they get any special treatment. * Update docs/usage/administration/monthly_active_users.md Co-authored-by: Patrick Cloke * Update docs/usage/administration/monthly_active_users.md Co-authored-by: Patrick Cloke Co-authored-by: Brendan Abolivier Co-authored-by: Patrick Cloke --- changelog.d/13617.doc | 1 + docs/SUMMARY.md | 1 + .../administration/monthly_active_users.md | 84 +++++++++++++++++++ .../configuration/config_documentation.md | 2 + 4 files changed, 88 insertions(+) create mode 100644 changelog.d/13617.doc create mode 100644 docs/usage/administration/monthly_active_users.md diff --git a/changelog.d/13617.doc b/changelog.d/13617.doc new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..5c7db7c3d7 --- /dev/null +++ b/changelog.d/13617.doc @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +Document how ["monthly active users"](https://matrix-org.github.io/synapse/latest/usage/administration/monthly_active_users.html) is calculated and used. diff --git a/docs/SUMMARY.md b/docs/SUMMARY.md index 2d56b084e2..16720bceb5 100644 --- a/docs/SUMMARY.md +++ b/docs/SUMMARY.md @@ -69,6 +69,7 @@ - [Manhole](manhole.md) - [Monitoring](metrics-howto.md) - [Reporting Homeserver Usage Statistics](usage/administration/monitoring/reporting_homeserver_usage_statistics.md) + - [Monthly Active Users](usage/administration/monthly_active_users.md) - [Understanding Synapse Through Grafana Graphs](usage/administration/understanding_synapse_through_grafana_graphs.md) - [Useful SQL for Admins](usage/administration/useful_sql_for_admins.md) - [Database Maintenance Tools](usage/administration/database_maintenance_tools.md) diff --git a/docs/usage/administration/monthly_active_users.md b/docs/usage/administration/monthly_active_users.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..d4e9037284 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/usage/administration/monthly_active_users.md @@ -0,0 +1,84 @@ +# Monthly Active Users + +Synapse can be configured to record the number of monthly active users (also referred to as MAU) on a given homeserver. +For clarity's sake, MAU only tracks local users. + +Please note that the metrics recorded by the [Homeserver Usage Stats](../../usage/administration/monitoring/reporting_homeserver_usage_statistics.md) +are calculated differently. The `monthly_active_users` from the usage stats does not take into account any +of the rules below, and counts any users who have made a request to the homeserver in the last 30 days. + +See the [configuration manual](../../usage/configuration/config_documentation.md#limit_usage_by_mau) for details on how to configure MAU. + +## Calculating active users + +Individual user activity is measured in active days. If a user performs an action, the exact time of that action is then recorded. When +calculating the MAU figure, any users with a recorded action in the last 30 days are considered part of the cohort. Days are measured +as a rolling window from the current system time to 30 days ago. + +So for example, if Synapse were to calculate the active users on the 15th July at 13:25, it would include any activity from 15th June 13:25 onwards. + +A user is **never** considered active if they are either: + - Part of the trial day cohort (described below) + - Owned by an application service. + - Note: This **only** covers users that are part of an application service `namespaces.users` registration. The namespace + must also be marked as `exclusive`. + +Otherwise, any request to Synapse will mark the user as active. Please note that registration will not mark a user as active *unless* +they register with a 3pid that is included in the config field `mau_limits_reserved_threepids`. + +The Prometheus metric for MAU is refreshed every 5 minutes. + +Once an hour, Synapse checks to see if any users are inactive (with only activity timestamps later than 30 days). These users +are removed from the active users cohort. If they then become active, they are immediately restored to the cohort. + +It is important to note that **deactivated** users are not immediately removed from the pool of active users, but as these users won't +perform actions they will eventually be removed from the cohort. + +### Trial days + +If the config option `mau_trial_days` is set, a user must have been active this many days **after** registration to be active. A user is in the +trial period if their registration timestamp (also known as the `creation_ts`) is less than `mau_trial_days` old. + +As an example, if `mau_trial_days` is set to `3` and a user is active **after** 3 days (72 hours from registration time) then they will be counted as active. + +The `mau_appservice_trial_days` config further extends this rule by applying different durations depending on the `appservice_id` of the user. +Users registered by an application service will be recorded with an `appservice_id` matching the `id` key in the registration file for that service. + + +## Limiting usage of the homeserver when the maximum MAU is reached + +If both config options `limit_usage_by_mau` and `max_mau_value` is set, and the current MAU value exceeds the maximum value, the +homeserver will begin to block some actions. + +Individual users matching **any** of the below criteria never have their actions blocked: + - Considered part of the cohort of MAU users. + - Considered part of the trial period. + - Registered as a `support` user. + - Application service users if `track_appservice_user_ips` is NOT set. + +Please not that server admins are **not** exempt from blocking. + +The following actions are blocked when the MAU limit is exceeded: + - Logging in + - Sending events + - Creating rooms + - Syncing + +Registration is also blocked for all new signups *unless* the user is registering with a threepid included in the `mau_limits_reserved_threepids` +config value. + +When a request is blocked, the response will have the `errcode` `M_RESOURCE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED`. + +## Metrics + +Synapse records several different prometheus metrics for MAU. + +`synapse_admin_mau:current` records the current MAU figure for native (non-application-service) users. + +`synapse_admin_mau:max` records the maximum MAU as dictated by the `max_mau_value` config value. + +`synapse_admin_mau_current_mau_by_service` records the current MAU including application service users. The label `app_service` can be used +to filter by a specific service ID. This *also* includes non-application-service users under `app_service=native` . + +`synapse_admin_mau:registered_reserved_users` records the number of users specified in `mau_limits_reserved_threepids` which have +registered accounts on the homeserver. diff --git a/docs/usage/configuration/config_documentation.md b/docs/usage/configuration/config_documentation.md index bc9fc86bc8..88e8e1c66f 100644 --- a/docs/usage/configuration/config_documentation.md +++ b/docs/usage/configuration/config_documentation.md @@ -595,6 +595,8 @@ server owner wants to limit to the number of monthly active users. When enabled reached the server returns a `ResourceLimitError` with error type `Codes.RESOURCE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED`. Defaults to false. If this is enabled, a value for `max_mau_value` must also be set. +See [Monthly Active Users](../administration/monthly_active_users.md) for details on how to configure MAU. + Example configuration: ```yaml limit_usage_by_mau: true