Federation – Understand federated backends

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Terminology 

Remote backend

A remote backend is a backend with an on-premises installation.
Federated backends are several remote backends, which can communicating with each other. 

People using the cloud backend can communicate with federated backends.

Types of remote backends

  1. Owning backend
    The owning backend is responsible for storing and distributing messages. When you create a group conversation, your backend is the owning backend. In 1:1 conversations:  The person who sends the connection request belongs to the owning backend.

    When the owning backend is offline, no one can communicate, even people from other backends who are involved in the conversation.
  2. Not-owning backend
    Federated backends are connected. The not-owning backend didn´t create group conversations or send connection requests.

Metadata

  1. User metadata includes email, username, profile name, profile picture, and device information. It might also include rich profile information (SCIM). 
  2. Conversation metadata includes conversation name, participants, number of participants, group roles, and group settings.
  3.  

 

 

Troubleshooting 

Why can’t I send messages when the owning backend isn’t reachable?

The owning backend is responsible for storing and distributing messages. If it isn’t reachable, no one can communicate. It includes people from other backends who are part of the conversation.

 

Why may participants from a federated backend receive a message later and why does Wire know who they are?

The owning backend is available and can deliver messages, but another involved backend isn’t reachable. The sender's device has an encrypted session with the receiving device. As a result, participants of the non-reachable backend will receive messages when reachable again.

While participants are offline, messages are stored. People will get them in chronological order, as soon as they are online again. All other participants got the messages on time.

When the sender's device has the metadata of a participant, they can get messages later. When the sender's device doesn’t have the encrypted session, receivers won’t get the messages at all.

 

Why can participants from a federated backend never receive a message and why does Wire NOT know who they are?

The owning backend is available and can deliver the messages, but another backend can’t be reached. When the sender’s device doesn’t have the encrypted session, receivers won’t get the messages at all.

Why do we sometimes not see the profile name?
The backend, which provides this data, is currently not reachable. In this case, you see the phrase Name not available in all places instead of the profile name. In addition, the profile picture isn’t visible.

 

Why can I not add participants from a federated backend to a conversation?

The backend of the person you want to add is currently not reachable. (So far, there is no way to tell when it will be reachable again. You have to try, if it works again).

 

Why can I remove federated participants from a conversation, even when their backend is offline. (When will they receive the message that they have been removed?)

If a backend is not reachable, you can still remove the participants of that backend from the conversation. They will be informed when their backend is available again.

Anything that has taken place in the meantime, like messages, will no longer be sent to those people.

 

When will participants of a federated offline backend be notified that a team member has been removed from the team?

They will be informed when the connection between the two backends is available again.

 

When will participants of a federated offline backend be notified that someone deleted a conversation on my backend?

If a backend isn't reachable, but other backends are also in a group, and someone from the owning backend deletes a federated conversation (only the creator of the group conversation can delete it):

  • As long as the backend is offline, participants of this backend still have the conversation. They can see the history of the conversation and write messages, but those messages won't be sent.
  • When the offline backend can reconnect to the other backends, the participants see the conversation as deleted.

 

Why can’t I see the user metadata of several federated people (for example, username or profile picture)?

The metadata hasn’t yet been downloaded from the server. Because the backend is offline, it isn’t available.

 

I know someone added me to a federated group conversation. Why can I not find it?

It could be the case that someone added you to a group, but your backend isn't connected to the group admin's backend right now. That's why you can't see the group conversation yet.

 

Why did the federation stop?

  1. When you received the message, Your backend stopped federating with backend X
    A) One or more backends are not connected anymore.
    1. If you use the backend that owns the conversation, you can still communicate with the remaining participants. Participants from the other backend(s) are removed.
    2. If you use the not-owning backend, you will be removed from the conversation and can’t communicate anymore in this conversation.
  1. When you received the message, The backends A and B stopped federating
    A) One or more other backends are not connected with each other anymore, but your backend is still connected with them.

    Participants from the unconnected backends are removed from the conversation.

    B) One or more backends are not connected anymore.
    If you use the backend that owns the conversation, you can still communicate with the remaining participants. Participants from the other backend(s) are removed.


Why could I not create a group conversation?

Some people you try to add to the group conversation use backends that don't federate with each other. Those people can't communicate in one group. To finish the group creation, please remove those participants from the affected backends (shown in the dialog). If this concerns all participants, you need to discard the group creation.

 

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