I’m looking for something to replace cloud storage for myself and family. I’ve tried to use/like NextCloud but honestly I despise it. The UI/UX really bothers me, and administering it is a pain. It also just does way more that I want or need.
What I’m looking for:
- Supports a virtual/sync folder on Mac. Like iCloud does, it needs to create a local folder on a Mac. I personally just use SMB, but for family members that’s not as easy (see next point).
- Accessible from the internet. I don’t want to put my family members on the VPN, but I do have a central OAuth for other stuff so I want it to be secured with behind that.
- Doesn’t need to have a web interface or phone app. If it integrates into the computer, it doesn’t really need this. I can just use (FileBrowser)[https://filebrowser.org/]. It’s mostly used for documents and the like, so desktop/laptop use is the most important.
Anyone use anything that fits this? Or anyone in general dislike NextCloud and use something else?
Edit: Maybe I can just setup webdav and use something like https://mountainduck.io/? Would be better to find something FOSS though, if possible.
+1 For Seafile. They put out a docker image that works well. It hasthe fastest sync I’ve ever seen and it has good clients.
ITT: where the hell is Owncloud coming from? It’s barely maintained, its now owned by some shitbirds, and it’s like a poor version of Nextcloud.
I haven’t heard anyone talk of Owncloud in years, it’s like the OpenOffice of sync suites.
I was thinking that too! I’ve basically never heard of anyone using it, but everyone here prompted me to check it out. Turns out they have a new version that’s a re-write in go which is neat. Just tried it out and… It’s not exactly good. UI at least is pretty broken haha
Here to say Seafile. I also don’t like nextcloud. I used pydio cells for a while but the windows sync client absolutely never worked for me. Seafile has been flawless for 2 months for me.
What I’d really like is something more akin to google drive streaming. Let me see all the files in the file system but only go get them if I try to open it. I don’t have room for all 2TB of files on my laptop but I don’t want to constantly go click on which folders to sync either.
After being really desapointed by NC, I feel owncloud is much superior. No joke.
Like others already mentioned, seafile is a solid option too.
I’ve moved from Synology and have started using Owncloud. So far it has been mostly fine. I had a wierd issue upgrading from 10.13 to 10.14 but was able to simply redo my setup and it’s now fine. However, I’m also checking out Seafile. So far it seems very quick and works well but I haven’t gotten to really put it through the paces. It’s main downside is the data not being stored in standard files/folders. My 2 cents…
I support an engineering org server, they access their files via nextcloud with a mariadb server and redis, plus some caching stuff for php-fpm, and an nginx front-end.
No complaints, checks (from what I see) all your boxes and has been very dependable going on 6 yrs now for all their simulation data both large and small off a little 1gbps dell r710.
Don’t install a lot of plugins. The setup documentation seems to be just right, getting you to the ideal destination of reliable and fast. Do take the option to run tasks in crontab, instead of internally.
I just finished building a cloud solution leveraging an AWS EFS (elastic file system), a secure ZeroTier mesh, and a simple EC2 instance (vm) running Samba (or just sshfs/scp/sftp if multi-user file locking isn’t needed). EFS does have some pretty big limitations like the fact users can’t be in more than 16 groups (because it behaves like an NFS mount), and it lacks xattr and ACL support. Still, if you can work around these shortcomings you can build a very secure, surprisingly speedy cloud filesystem. Largest expense is the EFS, but after 30 days infrequently accessed files automatically move to slower storage, which is way cheaper. ZeroTier is an important piece of the puzzle, making your security and encryption a breeze. This allows you to run SMB over the internet without actually exposing any services. Connections are only made through your ZT mesh, which is highly secure.
I run Tailscale which is basically the same a ZeroTier, so I theoretically could do this, but I’m not super enthused about having to put family members onto my VPN. I’d have to do some complicated networking stuff to keep things secure (aka make sure “normal” users don’t have access to machines and systems they shouldn’t). That said, I should look into it because if there is an easy way to do that, then this could be the simplest way
Yeah, they provide a “Flow” section where you can setup firewall-like rules to control your flow of traffic. You can configure rules that say, allow ssh to a specific server, but only from a specified devices, while allowing ssh, https and smb to another server from any device, blocking all other TCP traffic. UDP is a little weirder to control, but there’s a decent tutorial with example configs.
I hear about TailScale a lot, and I know its super popular in the self-hosting & linux communities. I haven’t used it myself though, so can’t offer a comparison vs ZeroTier. I found ZeroTier refreshjngly easy to use and install on client devices, so haven’t had reason to look elsewhere yet.
Anyway, have fun with your endeavor!
