Use a Block Storage Volume with Nextcloud

What is Nextcloud?

Nextcloud is a cloud storage platform that allows you to store and access your files from any device. This guide shows how to attach a Block Storage Volume to a Linode in order to meet the demands of a large file library.

Before You Begin

• You will need root access to your Linode, or a user account with sudo privilege.
• Update your system.

Install Docker and Docker Compose

Docker

To install Docker CE (Community Edition), follow the instructions within one of the guides below:

• Installing and Using Docker on Ubuntu and Debian

• Installing and Using Docker on CentOS and Fedora

To see installation instructions for other Linux distributions or operating systems like Mac or Windows, reference Docker’s official documentation here: Install Docker Engine

Docker Compose

Docker Compose is available in plugin and standalone variants. However, Docker’s official documentation prioritizes the plugin. Further, the plugin has a straightforward installation and works well with past Docker Compose commands.

These steps thus show how to install the Docker Compose plugin. If you are interested in installing the standalone Docker Compose application, follow Docker’s official installation guide.

docker-compose [command]

docker compose [command]

1. Enable the Docker repository for your system’s package manager. The repository is typically already enabled after you have installed the Docker engine. Follow our relevant guide on installing Docker to enable the repository on your system.

2. Update your package manager, and install the Docker Compose plugin.

   • On Debian and Ubuntu systems, use the following commands:

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install docker-compose-plugin
   • On CentOS, Fedora, and other RPM-based distributions, use the following commands:

   sudo yum update
   sudo yum install docker-compose-plugin

Attach a Block Storage Volume

1. Create a Block Storage Volume and attach it to your Linode. See View, Create, and Delete Block Storage Volumes for instructions on how to do this from the Linode Manager.

   • You can also use the Linode CLI to create a new Volume. The command below creates a 20GB Volume with the label nextcloud attached to a Linode labeled nextcloud-linode. Adjust the command as needed:

       linode-cli volume create nextcloud -l nextcloud-linode -s 20
     

2. Create a filesystem on the Block Storage Volume, then create a mount point per the instructions from the Linode Manager:

3. Check available disk space. Notice that there is some overhead with the Volume due to the file system:

   df -BG
   

   Filesystem     1G-blocks  Used Available Use% Mounted on
   /dev/root            20G    2G       18G   6% /
   devtmpfs              1G    0G        1G   0% /dev
   tmpfs                 1G    0G        1G   0% /dev/shm
   tmpfs                 1G    1G        1G   2% /run
   tmpfs                 1G    0G        1G   0% /run/lock
   tmpfs                 1G    0G        1G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
   tmpfs                 1G    0G        1G   0% /run/user/1000
   /dev/sdc             20G    1G       19G   1% /mnt/nextcloud

4. Change the ownership of the mount point:

   sudo chown username:username /mnt/nextcloud/
   

Configure Nextcloud with Docker Compose

Nextcloud provides an official docker-compose.yml file for persisting data to a database when running the Nextcloud container. You can edit this file to bind the data volumes to your Block Storage Volume’s mount point.

1. Create a directory for Nextcloud:

   mkdir ~/nextcloud && cd ~/nextcloud
   

2. In a text editor, create docker-compose.yml and add the following content. Add an appropriate password for MariaDB:

   File: ~/nextcloud/docker-compose.yml

   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

   version: '2' volumes: nextcloud: db: services: db: image: mariadb restart: always volumes: - /mnt/nextcloud/:/var/lib/mysql environment: - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD= - MYSQL_PASSWORD= - MYSQL_DATABASE=nextcloud - MYSQL_USER=nextcloud app: image: nextcloud ports: - 8080:80 links: - db volumes: - /mnt/nextcloud/data:/var/www/html restart: always

3. Launch the Docker Compose configuration:

   docker-compose up -d
   

   Nextcloud should be available at port 8080 on your Linode’s public IP address.

4. When creating an admin account, open the Storage & database drop-down menu, fill in the information as shown below, and enter the MariaDB password you used in the docker-compose file:

   

   Important

   The setup provided by Nextcloud does not include any SSL encryption. To secure your data and communications, the Nextcloud service should be placed behind a reverse proxy. A Docker Compose file using an NGINX reverse proxy and Let’s Encrypt is also available.

Upload Data

1. After you have created an admin account, the Nextcloud dashboard will be displayed. Click on the + icon in the upper left and select Upload file. For demonstration purposes, choose a large file (an Ubuntu .iso file was used to generate the output below).

2. After the file has uploaded successfully, return to the terminal and check to see your available space:

   df -BG
   

   Filesystem     1G-blocks  Used Available Use% Mounted on
   /dev/root            20G    2G       17G  11% /
   devtmpfs              1G    0G        1G   0% /dev
   tmpfs                 1G    0G        1G   0% /dev/shm
   tmpfs                 1G    1G        1G   2% /run
   tmpfs                 1G    0G        1G   0% /run/lock
   tmpfs                 1G    0G        1G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
   /dev/sdc             20G    2G       17G  11% /mnt/nextcloud
   tmpfs                 1G    0G        1G   0% /run/user/1000

   The output should show that the file has been stored in /mnt/nextcloud, which is the mount point for the Block Storage Volume.

More Information

You may wish to consult the following resources for additional information on this topic. While these are provided in the hope that they will be useful, please note that we cannot vouch for the accuracy or timeliness of externally hosted materials.

• Nextcloud Docker Image Documentation