Nextcloud All In One

Nextcloud AIO stands for Nextcloud All In One and provides easy deployment and maintenance with most features included in this one Nextcloud instance.

Included are:

• Nextcloud
• Nextcloud Office
• High performance backend for Nextcloud Files
• High performance backend for Nextcloud Talk
• Backup solution (based on BorgBackup)
• OnlyOffice
• ClamAV

How to use this?

The following instructions are especially meant for Linux. For macOS see this, for Windows see this.

1. Install Docker on your Linux installation using:

   curl -fsSL get.docker.com | sudo sh
   

2. Run the command below in order to start the container:
   
   (For people that cannot use ports 80 and/or 443 on this server, please follow the reverse proxy documentation because port 443 is used by this project and opened on the host by default even though it does not look like this is the case. Otherwise please run the command below!)

   # For x64 CPUs:
   sudo docker run -it \
   --name nextcloud-aio-mastercontainer \
   --restart always \
   -p 80:80 \
   -p 8080:8080 \
   -p 8443:8443 \
   --volume nextcloud_aio_mastercontainer:/mnt/docker-aio-config \
   --volume /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro \
   nextcloud/all-in-one:latest
   

   Command for arm64 CPUs like the Raspberry Pi 4

   # For arm64 CPUs:
   sudo docker run -it \
   --name nextcloud-aio-mastercontainer \
   --restart always \
   -p 80:80 \
   -p 8080:8080 \
   -p 8443:8443 \
   --volume nextcloud_aio_mastercontainer:/mnt/docker-aio-config \
   --volume /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro \
   nextcloud/all-in-one:latest-arm64
   

3. After the initial startup, you should be able to open the Nextcloud AIO Interface now on port 8080 of this server.
   E.g. https://ip.address.of.this.server:8080
   
   If your firewall/router has port 80 and 8443 open and you point a domain to your server, you can get a valid certificate automatically by opening the Nextcloud AIO Interface via:
   https://your-domain-that-points-to-this-server.tld:8443

4. Please do not forget to open port 3478/TCP and 3478/UDP in your firewall/router for the Talk container!

FAQ

How does it work?

Nextcloud AIO is inspired by projects like Portainer that manage the docker daemon by talking to it through the docker socket directly. This concept allows a user to install only one container with a single command that does the heavy lifting of creating and managing all containers that are needed in order to provide a Nextcloud installation with most features included. It also makes updating a breeze and is not bound to the host system (and its slow updates) anymore as everything is in containers. Additionally, it is very easy to handle from a user perspective because a simple interface for managing your Nextcloud AIO installation is provided.

Are reverse proxies supported?

Yes. Please refer to the following documentation on this: reverse-proxy.md

Which ports are mandatory to be open in your firewall/router?

Only those (if you access the Mastercontainer Interface internally via port 8080):

• 443/TCP for the Apache container
• 3478/TCP and 3478/UDP for the Talk container

Explanation of used ports:

• 8080/TCP: Mastercontainer Interface with self-signed certificate (works always, also if only access via IP-address is possible, e.g. https://ip.address.of.this.server:8080/)
• 80/TCP: redirects to Nextcloud (is used for getting the certificate via ACME http-challenge for the Mastercontainer)
• 8443/TCP: Mastercontainer Interface with valid certificate (only works if port 80 and 8443 are open in your firewall/router and you point a domain to your server. It generates a valid certificate then automatically and access via e.g. https://public.domain.com:8443/ is possible.)
• 443/TCP: will be used by the Apache container later on and needs to be open in your firewall/router
• 3478/TCP and 3478/UDP: will be used by the Turnserver inside the Talk container and needs to be open in your firewall/router

How to run it on macOS?

On macOS, there is one specialty in comparison to Linux: instead of using --volume /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro, you need to use --volume /var/run/docker.sock.raw:/var/run/docker.sock:ro to run it after you installed Docker Desktop. Apart from that it should work and behave the same like on Linux.

How to run it on Windows?

On Windows, the following command should work after you installed Docker Desktop:

docker run -it ^
--name nextcloud-aio-mastercontainer ^
--restart always ^
-p 80:80 ^
-p 8080:8080 ^
-p 8443:8443 ^
--volume nextcloud_aio_mastercontainer:/mnt/docker-aio-config ^
--volume //var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro ^
nextcloud/all-in-one:latest

Please note: In order to make the built-in backup solution able to back up to the host system, you need to create a volume with the name nextcloud_aio_backupdir beforehand:

docker volume create ^
--driver local ^
--name nextcloud_aio_backupdir ^
-o device="/host_mnt/c/your/backup/path" ^
-o type="none" ^
-o o="bind"

(The value /host_mnt/c/your/backup/path in this example would be equivalent to C:\your\backup\path on the Windows host. So you need to translate the path that you want to use into the correct format.) ⚠️️ Attention: Make sure that the path exists on the host before you create the volume! Otherwise everything will bug out!

How to resolve firewall problems with Fedora Linux, RHEL OS, CentOS, SUSE Linux and others?

It is known that Linux distros that use firewalld as their firewall daemon have problems with docker networks. In case the containers are not able to communicate with each other, you may change your firewalld to use the iptables backend by running:

sudo sed -i 's/FirewallBackend=nftables/FirewallBackend=iptables/g' /etc/firewalld/firewalld.conf
sudo systemctl restart firewalld docker

Afterwards it should work.

See https://dev.to/ozorest/fedora-32-how-to-solve-docker-internal-network-issue-22me for more details on this. This limitation is even mentioned on the official firewalld website: https://firewalld.org/#who-is-using-it

How to run occ commands?

Simply run the following: sudo docker exec -it nextcloud-aio-nextcloud php occ your-command. Of course your-command needs to be exchanged with the command that you want to run.

How to resolve Security & setup warnings displays the "missing default phone region" after initial install?

Simply run the following command: sudo docker exec -it nextcloud-aio-nextcloud php occ config:system:set default_phone_region --value="yourvalue". Of course you need to modify yourvalue based on your location. Examples are DE, EN and GB. See this list for more codes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2#Officially_assigned_code_elements

Update policy

This project values stability over new features. That means that when a new major Nextcloud update gets introduced, we will wait at least until the first patch release, e.g. 24.0.1 is out before upgrading to it. Also we will wait with the upgrade until all important apps are compatible with the new major version. Minor or patch releases for Nextcloud and all dependencies as well as all containers will be updated to new versions as soon as possible but we try to give all updates first a good test round before pushing them. That means that it can take around 2 weeks before new updates reach the latest channel. If you want to help testing, you can switch to the beta channel by following this documentation which will also give you the updates earlier.

How to switch the channel?

You can switch to a different channel like e.g. the beta channel or from the beta channel back to the latest channel by stopping the mastercontainer, removing it (no data will be lost) and recreating the container using the same command that you used initially to create the mastercontainer. For the beta channel on x64 you need to change the last line nextcloud/all-in-one:latest to nextcloud/all-in-one:beta and vice versa. For arm64 it is nextcloud/all-in-one:latest-arm64 and nextcloud/all-in-one:beta-arm64, respectively.

How to update the containers?

If we push new containers to latest, you will see in the AIO interface below the containers section that new container updates were found. In this case, just press Stop containers and Start containers in order to update the containers. The mastercontainer has its own update procedure though. See below. And don't forget to back up the current state of your instance using the built-in backup solution before starting the containers again! Otherwise you won't be able to restore your instance easily if something should break during the update.

If a new Mastercontainer update was found, you'll see an additional section below the containers section which shows that a mastercontainer update is available. If so, you can simply press on the button to update the container.

Additionally, there is a cronjob that runs once a day that checks for container and mastercontainer updates and sends a notification to all Nextcloud admins if a new update was found.

How to easily log in to the AIO interface?

If your Nextcloud is running and you are logged in as admin in your Nextcloud, you can easily log in to the AIO interface by opening https://yourdomain.tld/settings/admin/overview which will show a button on top that enables you to log in to the AIO interface by just clicking on this button. Note: You can change the domain/ip-address/port of the button by simply stopping the containers, visiting the AIO interface from the correct and desired domain/ip-address/port and clicking once on Start containers.

How to properly reset the instance?

If something goes unexpected routes during the initial installation, you might want to reset the AIO installation to be able to start from scratch.

Please note: if you already have it running and have data on your instance, you should not follow these instructions as it will delete all data that is coupled to your AIO instance.

Here is how to reset the AIO instance properly:

1. Stop all containers if they are running from the AIO interface
2. Stop the mastercontainer with sudo docker stop nextcloud-aio-mastercontainer
3. If the domaincheck container is still running, stop it with sudo docker stop nextcloud-aio-domaincheck
4. Check which containers are stopped: sudo docker ps --filter "status=exited"
5. Now remove all these stopped containers with sudo docker container prune
6. Delete the docker network with sudo docker network rm nextcloud-aio
7. Check which volumes are dangling with sudo docker volume ls --filter "dangling=true"
8. Now remove all these dangling volumes: sudo docker volume prune (on Windows you might need to remove some volumes afterwards manually with docker volume rm nextcloud_aio_backupdir, docker volume rm nextcloud_aio_nextcloud_datadir)
9. Optional: You can remove all docker images with sudo docker image prune -a.
10. And you are done! Now feel free to start over with the recommended docker run command!

Backup solution

Nextcloud AIO provides a local backup solution based on BorgBackup. These backups act as a local restore point in case the installation gets corrupted.

It is recommended to create a backup before any container update. By doing this, you will be safe regarding any possible complication during updates because you will be able to restore the whole instance with basically one click.

If you connect an external drive to your host, and choose the backup directory to be on that drive, you are also kind of save against drive failures of the drive where the docker volumes are stored on.

How to do the above step for step

1. Mount an external/backup HDD to the host OS using the built-in functionality or udev rules or whatever way you prefer. (E.g. follow this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lSyX4D3v_s) and mount the drive in best case in /mnt/backup.
2. If not already done, fire up the docker container and set up Nextcloud as per the guide.
3. Now open the AIO interface.
4. Under backup section, add your external disk mountpoint as backup directory, e.g. /mnt/backup.
5. Click on Create Backup which should create the first backup on the external disk.

Backups can be created and restored in the AIO interface using the buttons Create Backup and Restore selected backup. Additionally, a backup check is provided that checks the integrity of your backups but it shouldn't be needed in most situations.

The backups itself get encrypted with an encryption key that gets shown to you in the AIO interface. Please save that at a safe place as you will not be able to restore from backup without this key.

Be aware that this solution does not back up files and folders that are mounted into Nextcloud using the external storage app.

Note that this implementation does not provide remote backups, for this you can use the backup app.

---

Failure of the backup container in LXC containers

If you are running AIO in a LXC container, you need to make sure that FUSE is enabled in the LXC container settings. Otherwise the backup container will not be able to start as FUSE is required for it to work.

---

Pro-tip: Backup archives access

You can open the BorgBackup archives on your host by following these steps:
(instructions for Ubuntu Desktop)

# Install borgbackup on the host
sudo apt update && sudo apt install borgbackup

# Mount the archives to /tmp/borg (if you are using the default backup location /mnt/backup/borg)
sudo mkdir -p /tmp/borg && sudo borg mount "/mnt/backup/borg" /tmp/borg

# After entering your repository key successfully, you should be able to access all archives in /tmp/borg
# You can now do whatever you want by syncing them to a different place using rsync or doing other things
# E.g. you can open the file manager on that location by running:
xhost +si:localuser:root && sudo nautilus /tmp/borg

# When you are done, simply close the file manager and run the following command to unmount the backup archives:
sudo umount /tmp/borg

---

Delete backup archives manually

You can delete BorgBackup archives on your host manually by following these steps:
(instructions for Debian based OS' like Ubuntu)

# Install borgbackup on the host
sudo apt update && sudo apt install borgbackup

# List all archives (if you are using the default backup location /mnt/backup/borg)
sudo borg list "/mnt/backup/borg"

# After entering your repository key successfully, you should now see a list of all backup archives
# An example backup archive might be called 20220223_174237-nextcloud-aio
# Then you can simply delete the archive with:
sudo borg delete --stats --progress "/mnt/backup/borg::20220223_174237-nextcloud-aio"

After doing so, make sure to update the backup archives list in the AIO interface!
You can do so by clicking on the Check backup integrity button or Create backup button.

---

Sync the backup regularly to another drive

For increased backup security, you might consider syncing the backup repository regularly to another drive.

To do that, first add the drive to /etc/fstab so that it is able to get automatically mounted and then create a script that does all the things automatically. Here is an example for such a script:

Click here to expand

#!/bin/bash

# Please modify all variables below to your needings:
SOURCE_DIRECTORY="/mnt/backup/borg"
DRIVE_MOUNTPOINT="/mnt/backup-drive"
TARGET_DIRECTORY="/mnt/backup-drive/borg"

########################################
# Please do NOT modify anything below! #
########################################

if [ "$EUID" -ne 0 ]; then 
    echo "Please run as root"
    exit 1
fi

if ! [ -d "$SOURCE_DIRECTORY" ]; then
    echo "The source directory does not exist."
    exit 1
fi

if [ -z "$(ls -A "$SOURCE_DIRECTORY/")" ]; then
    echo "The source directory is empty which is not allowed."
    exit 1
fi

if ! [ -d "$DRIVE_MOUNTPOINT" ]; then
    echo "The drive mountpoint must be an existing directory"
    exit 1
fi

if ! grep -q " $DRIVE_MOUNTPOINT " /etc/fstab; then
    echo "Could not find the drive mountpoint in the fstab file. Did you add it there?"
    exit 1
fi

if ! mountpoint -q "$DRIVE_MOUNTPOINT"; then
    mount "$DRIVE_MOUNTPOINT"
    if ! mountpoint -q "$DRIVE_MOUNTPOINT"; then
        echo "Could not mount the drive. Is it connected?"
        exit 1
    fi
fi

if [ -f "$SOURCE_DIRECTORY/lock.roster" ]; then
    echo "Cannot run the script as the backup archive is currently changed. Please try again later."
    exit 1
fi

mkdir -p "$TARGET_DIRECTORY"
if ! [ -d "$TARGET_DIRECTORY" ]; then
    echo "Could not create target directory"
    exit 1
fi

if ! rsync --stats --archive --human-readable --delete "$SOURCE_DIRECTORY/" "$TARGET_DIRECTORY"; then
    echo "Failed to sync the backup repository to the target directory."
    exit 1
fi

umount "$DRIVE_MOUNTPOINT"

if docker ps --format "{{.Names}}" | grep "^nextcloud-aio-nextcloud$"; then
    docker exec -it nextcloud-aio-nextcloud bash /notify.sh "Rsync backup successful!" "Synced the backup repository successfully."
else
    echo "Synced the backup repository successfully."
fi

You can simply copy and past the script into a file e.g. named backup-script.sh e.g. here: /root/backup-script.sh. Do not forget to modify the variables to your requirements!

Afterwards apply the correct permissions with sudo chown root:root /root/backup-script.sh and sudo chmod 700 /root/backup-script.sh. Then you can create a cronjob that runs e.g. at 20:00 each week on Sundays like this:

1. Open the cronjob with sudo crontab -u root -e (and choose your editor of choice if not already done. I'd recommend nano).
2. Add the following new line to the crontab if not already present: 0 20 * * 7 /root/backup-script.sh which will run the script at 20:00 on Sundays each week.
3. save and close the crontab (when using nano are the shortcuts for this Ctrl + o -> Enter and close the editor with Ctrl + x).

⚠️ Attention: Make sure that the execution of the script does not collide with the daily backups from AIO (if configured) since the target backup repository might get into an inconsistent state. (There is no check in place that checks this.)

How to change the default location of Nextcloud's Datadir?

You can configure the Nextcloud container to use a specific directory on your host as data directory. You can do so by adding the environmental variable NEXTCLOUD_DATADIR to the initial startup of the mastercontainer. Allowed values for that variable are strings that start with / and are not equal to /.

• An example for Linux is -e NEXTCLOUD_DATADIR="/mnt/ncdata".
• On macOS it might be -e NEXTCLOUD_DATADIR="/var/nextcloud-data"
• For Synology it may be -e NEXTCLOUD_DATADIR="/volume1/docker/nextcloud/data".
• On Windows it must be -e NEXTCLOUD_DATADIR="nextcloud_aio_nextcloud_datadir". In order to use this, you need to create the nextcloud_aio_nextcloud_datadir volume beforehand:

  docker volume create ^
  --driver local ^
  --name nextcloud_aio_nextcloud_datadir ^
  -o device="/host_mnt/c/your/data/path" ^
  -o type="none" ^
  -o o="bind"
  

  (The value /host_mnt/c/your/data/path in this example would be equivalent to C:\your\data\path on the Windows host. So you need to translate the path that you want to use into the correct format.) ⚠️️ Attention: Make sure that the path exists on the host before you create the volume! Otherwise everything will bug out!

⚠️ Please make sure to apply the correct permissions to the chosen directory before starting Nextcloud the first time (not needed on Windows).

• In this example for Linux, the command for this would be sudo chown -R 33:0 /mnt/ncdata and sudo chmod -R 750 /mnt/ncdata.
• On macOS, the command for this would be sudo chown -R 33:0 /var/nextcloud-data and sudo chmod -R 750 /var/nextcloud-data.
• For Synology, the command for this example would be sudo chown -R 33:0 /volume1/docker/nextcloud/data and sudo chmod -R 750 /volume1/docker/nextcloud/data
• On Windows, this command is not needed.

⚠️ Attention: It is very important to change the datadir before Nextcloud is installed/started the first time and not to change it afterwards!

How to allow the Nextcloud container to access directories on the host?

By default, the Nextcloud container is confined and cannot access directories on the host OS. You might want to change this when you are planning to use local external storage in Nextcloud to store some files outside the data directory and can do so by adding the environmental variable NEXTCLOUD_MOUNT to the initial startup of the mastercontainer. Allowed values for that variable are strings that start with / and are not equal to /.

• Two examples for Linux are -e NEXTCLOUD_MOUNT="/mnt/" and -e NEXTCLOUD_MOUNT="/media/".
• For Synology it may be -e NEXTCLOUD_MOUNT="/volume1/".
• On Windows is this option not supported.

After using this option, please make sure to apply the correct permissions to the directories that you want to use in Nextcloud. E.g. sudo chown -R 33:0 /mnt/your-drive-mountpoint and sudo chmod -R 750 /mnt/your-drive-mountpoint should make it work on Linux when you have used -e NEXTCLOUD_MOUNT="/mnt/".

You can then navigate to the apps management page, activate the external storage app, navigate to https://your-nc-domain.com/settings/admin/externalstorages and add a local external storage directory that will be accessible inside the container at the same place that you've entered. E.g. /mnt/your-drive-mountpoint will be mounted to /mnt/your-drive-mountpoint inside the container, etc.

Be aware though that these locations will not be covered by the built-in backup solution!

Huge docker logs

When your containers run for a few days without a restart, the container logs that you can view from the AIO interface can get really huge. You can limit the loge sizes by enabling logrotate for docker container logs. Feel free to enable this by following those instructions: https://sandro-keil.de/blog/logrotate-for-docker-container/

Access/Edit Nextcloud files/folders manually

The files and folders that you add to Nextcloud are by default stored in the following directory: /var/lib/docker/volumes/nextcloud_aio_nextcloud_data/_data/ on the host. If needed, you can modify/add/delete files/folders there but ATTENTION: be very careful when doing so because you might corrupt your AIO installation! Best is to create a backup using the built-in backup solution before editing/changing files/folders in there because you will then be able to restore your instance to the backed up state.

After you are done modifying/adding/deleting files/folders, don't forget to apply the correct permissions by running: sudo chown -R 33:0 /var/lib/docker/volumes/nextcloud_aio_nextcloud_data/_data/* and sudo chmod -R 750 /var/lib/docker/volumes/nextcloud_aio_nextcloud_data/_data/* and rescan the files with sudo docker exec -it nextcloud-aio-nextcloud php occ files:scan --all.

How to store the files/installation on a separate drive?

You can move the whole docker library and all its files including all Nextcloud AIO files and folders to a separate drive by first mounting the drive in the host OS (NTFS is not supported) and then following this tutorial: https://www.guguweb.com/2019/02/07/how-to-move-docker-data-directory-to-another-location-on-ubuntu/
(Of course docker needs to be installed first for this to work.)

How to edit Nextclouds config.php file with a texteditor?

You can edit Nextclouds config.php file directly from the host with your favorite text editor. E.g. like this: sudo nano /var/lib/docker/volumes/nextcloud_aio_nextcloud/_data/config/config.php. Make sure to not break the file though which might corrupt your Nextcloud instance otherwise. In best case, create a backup using the built-in backup solution before editing the file.

Custom skeleton directory

If you want to define a custom skeleton directory, you can do so by putting your skeleton files into /var/lib/docker/volumes/nextcloud_aio_nextcloud_data/_data/skeleton/, applying the correct permissions with sudo chown -R 33:0 /var/lib/docker/volumes/nextcloud_aio_nextcloud_data/_data/skeleton and and sudo chmod -R 750 /var/lib/docker/volumes/nextcloud_aio_nextcloud_data/_data/* and setting the skeleton directory option with sudo docker exec -it nextcloud-aio-nextcloud php occ config:system:set skeletondirectory --value="/mnt/ncdata/skeleton". You can read further on this option here: click here

LDAP

It is possible to connect to an existing LDAP server. You need to make sure that the LDAP server is reachable from the Nextcloud container. Then you can enable the LDAP app and configure LDAP in Nextcloud manually. If you don't have a LDAP server yet, recommended is to use this docker container: https://hub.docker.com/r/osixia/openldap/. Make sure here as well that Nextcloud can talk to the LDAP server. The easiest way is by adding the LDAP docker container to the docker network nextcloud-aio. Then you can connect to the LDAP container by its name from the Nextcloud container. Pro-tip: You will probably find this app useful: https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/ldap_write_support

USER_SQL

If you want to use the user_sql app, the easiest way is to create an additional database container and add it to the docker network nextcloud-aio. Then the Nextcloud container should be able to talk to the database container using its name.

How to migrate from an already existing Nextcloud installation to Nextcloud AIO?

Please see the following documentation on this: migration.md