I tried Nextcloud a while back and was not impressed - I had issues withe the speed of the Windows sync that were determined to be "normal" with no roadmap to getting fixed. I'm now planning to move off Windows desktop so that won't be an issue - so I thought I'd try again.
I went to nextcloud.com, clicked on Download-> Nextcloud server -> All-in-one -> Docker image - Setup AIO. This took me to the github README at Docker section. I'm already running docker for other things so I read the instructions, setup a new filesystem for my data directory and ran the suggested docker command with an appropriate "--env NEXTCLOUD_DATADIR=". I'm then left with a terminal running docker in the foreground - not a great way to run a background server but ok, I've been around for a while and can figure out how to make it autostart in the background ongoing. So I move on to the next step - open my browser at the appropriate URL and I'm presented with a simple page asking me to "Log in using your Nextcloud AIO passphrase:". I don't have a Nextcloud AIO passphrase and nothing I've read so far has mentioned it. When I search for it I get some results on how to reset it, but not much help. I could probably figure that out too, but after reading some more I found that Nextcloud requires a public hostname and can't work with a local name or IP address. I'm already running my home LAN with OpenVPN and access it from anywhere as "local" - I don't really want to create a new path into my home network just for Nextcloud.
I'm sorry - I know this sounds like a disgruntled rant and I guess it is. I just want to check that I'm not missing obvious things before I give up again. All I want is a simple file sync setup like onedrive but without the microsoft.
There's a lot of stuff going on here, so let me break down your post for each issue:
You need to understand the difference between a
docker runcommand, and detaching to run a container in the background. Just running it with 'run' keeps it in the foreground.For the passphrase issue: https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one/discussions/1786
Lastly, if you're not familiar with containers, and this is a single purpose machine, you'd be better off just running the bare project on the host. If there's no need for containerization, just skip it.
Yes, I understand this. I was just highlighting that it's not a great experience for a new user to follow the instructions to setup a server and be left with it running in the foreground.
Thanks! This should get me past my current hurdle so I can do some more testing. Again - not a great experience to have to come to a forum to get help to find a passphrase. I'm pretty sure I didn't miss any steps?
I'm familiar with containers, but think they're overused. Stupid little things that are a single Python script (for example) shipping as a Docker image! But, I thought Nextcloud was complex enough to be worthy of a container? This is not a single purpose machine, but I'm an old, retired, sysadmin - I have no problem running a few different servers on the same host.
Are you referring to the "Archive" Community Project installation method?
No, just clone the project and run it without a container. The docs cover that as well.