Author Topic: Cloud inna box - anyone using Nextcloud?  (Read 2047 times)

Morat

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Cloud inna box - anyone using Nextcloud?
« on: 18 February, 2018, 09:59:48 am »
There's quite a few of us running NAS/shared filestores but I haven't seen any mention of Nextcloud.
I've just installed it at work on a Centos VM but there are many options out there, including Raspberry Pi2 or 3 if you're into them.
If you're thinking of building NAS, I think this might be worth looking at.

I've done some basic testing on version 12 and I've been very impressed so far although I haven't actually rolled it out to any users yet so the acid test is yet to come.

V13 is out and includes some very interesting features but I haven't moved to it yet because I'm hoping to integrate Nextcloud with our Zimbra server and that is only supported up to v12 right now. The upgrade process is a simple "push the button" option on the admin page so I'm not worried about being a version behind for now.

Anyway, I thought it might be interesting to some of us, especially as it has IOS and Android clients to take over from Dropbox etc.

If you already use it, I'd love to hear of your experiences.

https://nextcloud.com/

Easy to follow Howto for V12 and Centos7 (assumes a fresh minimal install). This is the one I used.
https://www.marksei.com/install-nextcloud-12-centos-7/

Ready Rolled Nextcloud/Ubuntu VMs for VMware and HyperV (Free for 20Gb, larger ones cost)
https://www.techandme.se/nextcloud-vm/
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Re: Cloud inna box - anyone using Nextcloud?
« Reply #1 on: 18 February, 2018, 10:57:03 am »
I looked at that site, read through about 6 pages and still have not a clue what the product is actually doing. Either that is because they are very poor at describing their system, or they are trying to hide the basic function.
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fuaran

  • rothair gasta
Re: Cloud inna box - anyone using Nextcloud?
« Reply #2 on: 18 February, 2018, 11:45:25 am »
Looks interesting. Seems it's a fork of OwnCloud. Is there much difference from that?

Re: Cloud inna box - anyone using Nextcloud?
« Reply #3 on: 18 February, 2018, 12:19:26 pm »
Isn't an on premise cloud an oxymoron. It isn't a cloud its a local file server.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Kim

  • Timelord
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Re: Cloud inna box - anyone using Nextcloud?
« Reply #4 on: 18 February, 2018, 12:22:41 pm »
Isn't an on premise cloud an oxymoron. It isn't a cloud its a local file server.

As technologies gain popularity the words used to describe them lose their meaning.  'twas ever thus.

ian

Re: Cloud inna box - anyone using Nextcloud?
« Reply #5 on: 18 February, 2018, 05:46:27 pm »
It sort of seems like a NAS for the sort of users who thrive on overcomplexity. Though, as said, from the jargon on their site, it's hard to be sure other than they're offering something.

David Martin

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Re: Cloud inna box - anyone using Nextcloud?
« Reply #6 on: 18 February, 2018, 05:56:47 pm »
Somewhat of a fog of understanding there.. The simple definition of cloud is "someone else's computer".
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Re: Cloud inna box - anyone using Nextcloud?
« Reply #7 on: 18 February, 2018, 06:17:47 pm »
Seems pretty simple to understand to me

1) the name "nextcloud" is referring to the similarity it has with hosted services like dropbox or iCloud.  These services are thought of by some people as "cloud".
2) it possibly has a nicer set of integrations and modes of operation for users than a NAS
3) if you run it on premise then you'll have to do all the networking yourself.  So to make your files available from anywhere you'll have to ensure there is a fast line to your premises and manage all the security.  Surely one of the advantages of cloud based stuff

Tim Hall

  • Victoria is my queen
Re: Cloud inna box - anyone using Nextcloud?
« Reply #8 on: 18 February, 2018, 06:35:20 pm »
"On premise". What does that mean?
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Re: Cloud inna box - anyone using Nextcloud?
« Reply #9 on: 18 February, 2018, 06:58:43 pm »
it's a typo

It should be "on premises" or "on your premises"

I usually say "on prem" because that's the Amazon Web Services abbreviation for this situation

Morat

  • I tried to HTFU but something went ping :(
Re: Cloud inna box - anyone using Nextcloud?
« Reply #10 on: 18 February, 2018, 08:01:26 pm »
You're all correct :)

It's a file sharing system for people who like the multi device sharing of cloud but want to host it on their own hardware. For work it's good because we already have VMWare servers and storage on site so we can host it ourselves and it eliminates the data protection worries surrounding cloud hosting.

I thought that for home users considering a NAS it would be handy as you can use it to share files with your tablets/phones either using a website login or a native app. You just need to set up a user account and give it a password. File permissions work from there.

It does things like automatic photo upload from your mobile device. You can share files with other people by sending a link (which may be password protected, set to autoexpire, neither or both). You can also ask people to dump files on a share using the same "send a link" method and allow or deny file editing within that folder.

Basically it does a lot, but yes - their site is frustratingly opaque.

V13 apparently does end to end enryption and hosts Collabora which is a sort of google docs for Libre Office users - but I haven't tried any of that yet. Nor have I tried the built in chat/video calling stuff which is meant to replace skype/slack/etc with a system controlled by you instead of $potentiallyevilcorp

But, to answer the original question, it looks like no-one else is using it here. Still, it might be work having a crack at if you've got a spare couple of hours. The hardest thing for me was running into "too many redirects" after using cerbot to set up a free ssl cert. Even that was down to me being a total newbie at apache and I sorted it in the end.
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Morat

  • I tried to HTFU but something went ping :(
Re: Cloud inna box - anyone using Nextcloud?
« Reply #11 on: 18 February, 2018, 08:05:04 pm »
Looks interesting. Seems it's a fork of OwnCloud. Is there much difference from that?

It's exactly that. The CTO and founder of OwnCloud left and forked into NextCloud. Development seems more active on Nextcloud and they are starting to diverge. I can't remember the details offhand but you can migrate from OwnCloud to Nextcloud if you have OwnCloud < Version Something but it's a closing window.
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Afasoas

Re: Cloud inna box - anyone using Nextcloud?
« Reply #12 on: 25 February, 2018, 12:55:29 am »
I've just spiked NextCloud with an OnlyOffice integration ... it gives a self-hosted Google Docs alternative.

Although running the two together on the same host requires buggering about with docker, it looks very promising. I need to spin it back up and create a few test users so I can see how well different collaborators can interact with each other when working on the same document.