Element on Cloud Run — Lab Guide

Overview

Estimated time: 30–60 minutes

Element is the leading open-source Matrix web client — a self-hosted, end-to-end-encrypted messaging app that runs as a static single-page application and connects to a Matrix homeserver you specify. This lab takes you through the full operational lifecycle of the Element on Cloud Run module on Google Cloud: deploy it, point it at a homeserver, verify it, run it day-to-day, observe it, diagnose common problems, and tear it down.

The lab focuses on operating the Cloud Run module and the Google Cloud platform, not on Element product features. For the complete list of provisioned services and every configuration input (organised by group), see the Configuration Guide — this lab deliberately does not duplicate that detail so it stays accurate over time.

Objectives

By the end of this lab you will be able to:

Deploy the module from the RAD platform and locate the resources it provisions.
Point Element at a Matrix homeserver and verify the running service.
Perform day-2 operations — inspect, scale, update the version, and re-point the homeserver.
Observe the service with Cloud Logging and Cloud Monitoring.
Diagnose and resolve the most common deployment and runtime issues.
Tear the deployment down cleanly.

Prerequisites

Services_GCP deployed in the target project (provides the VPC, Artifact Registry, and shared service accounts this module depends on).
A Google Cloud project with billing enabled.
gcloud CLI authenticated: gcloud auth login and gcloud auth application-default login.
Project Owner (or equivalent) IAM on the project.
RAD platform access with permission to deploy modules into the project.
A Matrix homeserver to connect to — either the public matrix.org (the default) or your own Synapse/Dendrite instance.

Set these shell variables once; every task below reuses them:

export PROJECT="<your-gcp-project-id>"
export REGION="us-central1"          # the region you deploy into

Task 1 — Deploy the module [Automated]

In the RAD platform, open Element (Cloud Run), set project_id, and set homeserver_url / homeserver_name to your Matrix homeserver (or leave them blank to use the public matrix.org). Review the remaining inputs — the Configuration Guide documents every input by group, with defaults. Review the estimated cost (if credits are enabled) and click Deploy, which opens the deployment status page with real-time logs.
The platform builds the custom Element image (a thin layer over vectorim/element-web that generates config.json at start-up), pushes it to Artifact Registry, and provisions the Cloud Run service. There is no database, no secret, and no storage bucket to create, so first deploys are fast — typically 5–10 minutes, dominated by the container build.

When it completes, discover the resources with name-agnostic filters (so the commands keep working regardless of the deployment suffix):

SERVICE=$(gcloud run services list --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION" \
  --filter="metadata.name~element" --format="value(metadata.name)" --limit=1)
SERVICE_URL=$(gcloud run services describe "$SERVICE" \
  --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION" --format="value(status.url)")
echo "Service: $SERVICE"
echo "URL:     $SERVICE_URL"

Task 2 — Access & verify [Manual]

Confirm the service is serving and that its runtime config.json points at your homeserver:

curl -s "$SERVICE_URL/config.json" | grep -E 'base_url|server_name'   # your homeserver
curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}\n' "$SERVICE_URL/"              # expect 200

Open $SERVICE_URL in a browser. Element loads its sign-in screen showing the configured homeserver. Log in with an account on that homeserver (or register one, if the homeserver allows it) — authentication happens between your browser and the homeserver, not in the Cloud Run container.

Task 3 — Operate & keep it running (Day-2) [Manual]

Inspect the service and its revisions (each deploy creates an immutable revision; traffic shifts to the newest healthy one):

gcloud run services describe "$SERVICE" --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION"
gcloud run revisions list --service="$SERVICE" --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION"

Scale by changing the min/max instance inputs and clicking Update on the deployment details page — the module owns the service spec, so scaling is a configuration change, not a manual gcloud edit (a manual edit would be reverted on the next apply). Element is stateless, so scaling is unconstrained; leaving min_instance_count = 0 keeps it free at idle.
Re-point the homeserver by changing homeserver_url / homeserver_name in the RAD platform and clicking Update — the entrypoint rewrites config.json on the new revision's containers. No image rebuild is required.
Update the application version by changing the version input and applying it via Update; a new image builds and a new revision rolls out. Verify the deployed revision's image digest if a change appears stale.

Confirm the injected homeserver on the running revision:

gcloud run services describe "$SERVICE" --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION" \
  --format='value(spec.template.spec.containers[0].env)'

Task 4 — Observe: Logging & Monitoring [Manual]

Logs — nginx access/error logs, from the CLI or the Logs Explorer:
```
gcloud run services logs read "$SERVICE" --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION" --limit=50
```
Logs Explorer filter: resource.type="cloud_run_revision" AND resource.labels.service_name="<service>".
Monitoring — open the Cloud Run dashboard for the service and review request count, request latency (P50/P95/P99), instance count (scaling behaviour), and CPU / memory utilisation. When the endpoint is public, the module also provisions an uptime check; confirm it is green under Monitoring → Uptime checks, and review Alerting → Policies.

Task 5 — Troubleshoot & debug [Manual]

Durable techniques for the failure modes you are most likely to hit. These are platform-level diagnostics and do not change with Element releases.

Revision unhealthy / service won't serve: inspect the latest revision and its logs for nginx startup errors. The startup probe targets /, which nginx answers as soon as it binds port 80.
```
gcloud run revisions list --service="$SERVICE" --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION"
gcloud run services logs read "$SERVICE" --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION" --limit=100
```
Login screen shows the wrong homeserver: the entrypoint writes config.json from HOMESERVER_URL / HOMESERVER_NAME; confirm the env on the running revision (Task 3, step 5) and re-point via Update.
Users can load the UI but cannot log in: the homeserver is unreachable or incorrect — verify homeserver_url resolves and serves the Matrix client-server API (curl -s <homeserver_url>/_matrix/client/versions).
Image build failed: review Cloud Build history for the failed build's log; a hand-set latest tag on a raw build ARG is a common cause (MANIFEST_UNKNOWN).
403 / permission errors on deploy: verify the runtime service account's IAM roles.

See the Configuration Guide's Configuration Pitfalls section for setting-specific gotchas.

Task 6 — Tear down [Automated]

On the Deployments page, open the deployment and click the Trash icon (Delete). Delete runs terraform destroy and is irreversible (the deployment record is retained for history). If a deployment is stuck and the RAD platform can no longer manage it (for example after manual changes that conflict with the Terraform state), use Purge instead — it removes the deployment from RAD's records without destroying the cloud resources. This removes everything the module created — the Cloud Run service and its Artifact Registry images. Resources owned by Services_GCP (the VPC, registry) are managed separately and are not removed here.

Because Element is stateless, there is no database, secret, or storage bucket to clean up — teardown is clean and fast.

Summary

Task	Type	Outcome
1 — Deploy	Automated	Module builds the Element image and provisions the Cloud Run service (no DB/secret/storage)
2 — Access & verify	Manual	`config.json` points at your homeserver; log in via the browser-to-homeserver flow
3 — Operate	Manual	Inspect revisions, scale, re-point the homeserver, update the version
4 — Observe	Manual	Query Cloud Logging; review Cloud Monitoring metrics and uptime check
5 — Troubleshoot	Manual	Diagnose revision, homeserver-config, login, build, and IAM issues
6 — Tear down	Automated	Delete (Trash) removes all module resources

By Dr Shiyghan Emmanuel Navti · Google Cloud certified: ACE · PCA · PCD · PDE · PSE · CDL

Overview​

Objectives​

Prerequisites​

Task 1 — Deploy the module [Automated]​

Task 2 — Access & verify [Manual]​

Task 3 — Operate & keep it running (Day-2) [Manual]​

Task 4 — Observe: Logging & Monitoring [Manual]​

Task 5 — Troubleshoot & debug [Manual]​

Task 6 — Tear down [Automated]​

Summary​