Self-hosted cloud storage reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DisastrousPresent2 · 2023-12-25 00:27 I have been using Google Drive and pCloud for a long time for my cloud storage needs. Recently I have been looking at getting rid of those services and moving fully self-hosted. I would say I am at the testing phase. I have a raspberry pi 4 with openmediavault, two 1TB SSDs pooled with mergerfs, a smb/samba share set up on that pool, and I have been able to successfully mount the smb share on my Fedora desktop and MacBook. I have not been able to get the share mounted on my iPhone or iPad, which is kind of annoying since when I set up the smb share myself without omv I was able to mount the share on iOS but that is a problem for another day. There is a plethora of choices for my particular problem but I am not at home to be able to test them so I would like some advice going into this phase of the experiment. Through my research on the topic I have amassed a list of the following options… - FileRun - FileCloud - Nextcloud - Owncloud - Seafile I originally was leaning towards Nextcloud because it seems like it is mentioned the most around this topic. However, upon further reading I saw people mentioning reverse proxies, using a VPS, nginx, Tailscale, and Wireguard. I want whatever solution I land on to be as “set it and forget it” as possible. To keep it 100 hardware doesn’t phase me. I am not totally green around the terminal and can get by with some searches here and there. Networking though? I have a hard time wrapping my head around it. It feels like every time something sounds simple I find a tutorial that makes it sound more complicated. Then there is the concern about opening up my LAN to the rest of the world to do as it may. Now I have tried at least one of these solutions. Earlier in this testing phase I manually set up a raid0 with the two SSDs, mounted the new directory as a SMB share, and was able to successfully mount all my devices (macOS, linux, and iOS) to said share. I then installed Tailscale on my MacBook, iPhone, and the Raspberry Pi. I followed a guide from Tailscale saying that I should set the Pi as an exit node to be able to access my LAN. After doing this everything just stopped working. I couldn’t connect to the share on my WiFi or with Tailscale, and on Tailscale I had zero internet or LAN access period. I ended up just nuking the Pi install and eventually landed on OMV. For those who have already figured out their setup, what is the easiest path forward for self-hosted cloud storage? I really just need files. I don’t need Plex, Jellyfin, or an office suite. I just want to file upload and access from outside my home. TLDR: what is the easiest, as in set it and forget it, for self- hosting cloud file storage? Ideally without the need for reverse proxies, VPNs, VPS, or anything like that. Note: I don’t want to use SyncThing. I use SyncThing between my desktop and Steam Deck and yes it is useful. The thing though is I use cloud storage to store a lot of data that my devices cannot all hold on to. If all my devices had 2TB+ of drive space I wouldn’t bother with cloud anything. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- R3AP3R519 · 2023-12-25 00:42 I just set up seafile pro with docker compose. It's really nice and has very good documentation. Only thing is it uses a database to store files which means the data on the disk isn't readable unless you're accessing it through seafile. It does have an export function though. I'm have my seafile docker volumes on a btrfs disk which I snapshot and send to an external btrfs disk. I am planning on writing a script to export all files weekly and compress it and send to s3 for a absolute last backup. As for remote access don't mess with subnet routers. Install tailscale on your client and the docker host and then you can access by tailscale domain and port. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Robbie11r1 · 2023-12-25 00:49 So it sounds like you are a bit new to self hosting, and that is fine. What you are describing to me sounds like you are looking for a NAS. For "set it and forget it" storage, I would steer you toward a consumer NAS, which is a self contained hardware appliance (minus the disks) with software applications for common uses (photos, file sharing, calendars, etc). I personally got into self hosting based on a similar mindset to you, and bought this: Synology 2 bay NAS DiskStation DS220+ (Diskless),Black https://a.co/d/hcC2UXW Note: You will also need to buy 2 HDDs for storage. This will give you a user-friendly GUI for setting up storage that will 'just work'. Additionally, when you get the itch to move further into the self hosting world, you can start by expanding within this device itself. However, most of us who catch the self hosting bug end up moving to a number of other solutions. I still keep my Synology NAS running though, as it is very easy for family to use their photos and file apps. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sturgeon01 · 2023-12-25 01:17 Filebrowser is what I use. Super clean, simple interface. Everything just works and works fast. It lacks advanced features like file tagging, but if all you need to do is store and access files it's the best I've tried. It's also pretty easy to set up with the docker- compose file in the docs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ejz9 · 2023-12-25 01:18 Well consider what service will work with your devices, ex: NextCloud app for IOS. You mention this is why you’re looking, even though you did deal with samba which is the easiest / best cloud storage / network attached storage. The easier solution? Pay for someone else to deal with it, that’s how you get to where you don’t have to deal with it. I don’t want to “scare” or persuade you away from self-hosting your own storage either but understand that it may still come with maintenance and this can range from many things. Also you’d want to consider how you want to backup your data if you do. If your hard drive takes a dump then SOL. I use NextCloudAIO. NextCloud works locally or externally. They have improved their documentation. It can have issues when setting it up but otherwise if you see the green checkmark in your administration tab then you are “A Okay”. Mines been running well. Read a Reddit post just today about someone else who’s had theirs running good for 3 years. No issues. Of course the odd thing may happen but that’s what happens. Also NextCloud allows you to pay for hosting I think too but then it wouldn’t be self hosting would it. Reverse proxies etc is if you’re dealing with the WAN, the public internet. You can circumvent using these though if you use a VPN like tailscale though. Your issues with tailscale though? Not sure. Not a bad place to get your foot in the door for stuff like this either: https://awesome-selfhosted.net/tags/file-transfer-- synchronization.html (regardless of your experience) I hear good things about Seafile as well. If you don’t need as many extras that NextCloud can provide, then maybe something like that is more appropriate for your use case. Might I recommend a 3-2-1 backup strategy as well, Google or search for posts from a backup provider ex: backblaze to become informed what you’d like to do, if you want to backup at all (you’ll probably want to). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- carolina_balam · 2023-12-25 01:28 I concur ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Empty-Middle-8271 · 2023-12-25 02:10 I’ve been using OwnCloud for years, my only complaint is that on the iOS client, I can’t edit text files ---------------------------------------------------------------------- lannistersstark · 2023-12-25 02:34 >However, upon further reading I saw people mentioning reverse proxies, using a VPS, nginx, Tailscale, and Wireguard Almost everything you mentioned here will need either one or combo of above if you want to reach it from outside the house. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- c0wb3 · 2023-12-25 03:44 I don't mean this in a rude way at all, but based on what you've said, you should just pay a professional company such as Dropbox, Microsoft, etc. With self hosting, things WILL go wrong, and you have to fix it. With something as important as data access, unless you really want to learn everything and spend time on it, just pay someone £10 a month or whatever. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SpongederpSquarefap · 2023-12-25 03:58 +1 for Filebrowser, rock solid and just keeps working It's extremely easy to share files permanently or temporarily too ---------------------------------------------------------------------- imsinghaniya · 2023-12-25 04:03 I run a samba server, mount it like a drive and you’re good. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- hillz · 2023-12-25 04:08 I'm using openssh SFTP server and zerotier, it gets the job done. I also have Filebrowser installed but I mainly access my files with MiXplorer not with a browser on my phone ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jenniher · 2023-12-25 04:27 I like the look a lot, but does it have file sync? As a replacement for Google docs I want to be able to sync from my phone and between my laptop and desktop. Nextcloud automatically backs up my saved games and documents for me. Nextcloud has a lot of bloat, but so far syncs files well. I'd be open to trying something new if it did everything I needed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sturgeon01 · 2023-12-25 04:59 Don't believe it has native sync capability. It'd be pretty easy to set up syncthing to take care of that aspect though. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jenniher · 2023-12-25 05:06 I had really bad luck setting up syncthing. I don't remember why. I just remember nextcloud going much easier. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sturgeon01 · 2023-12-25 05:29 Huh, never had any issues with it and I was pretty inexperienced when I set it up initially. I believe Nextcloud actually gave me more trouble since the default config expects you to use a domain iirc. Might be worth checking out syncthing again if you're ever feeling adventurous, they've got a nice simple docker-compose that makes install easy, then you just need to add devices and folders. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- spoonwings · 2023-12-25 07:19 If a reverse proxy sounds too complicated you shouldn’t be self- hosting file sharing imo. Set it and forget it is incompatible with self-hosting. You need to apply security updates and maintain the system, for certain things it makes sense to just use an existing service. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- reeeelllaaaayyy823 · 2023-12-25 08:13 If you were happy with the Samba setup before, just do that again but use Wireguard to access your LAN. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- benyze · 2023-12-25 08:34 I use NextCloud on a VM hosted on my Proxmox host. I’m moving my files, my calendar and my contact from Google to NextCloud but still using pCloud as backup. Plus, I’ve activated TOTP for 2FA. For remote use, a VPN or Wireguard are both a good choise. Now I’m exposing to internet through https, but I want to migrate to Wireguard. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Traditional_Wafer_20 · 2023-12-25 08:49 Syncthing is super basic. The tradeoff is that you need as much space on every synced devices ---------------------------------------------------------------------- KXfjgcy8m32bRntKXab2 · 2023-12-25 09:35 I have the seafile CLI client and take nightly backups of my seafile files that way in case I get a corrupt DB. Just don't forget to sync any new libraries. Seafile has been solid for me for more than 5 years. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nodejavascript · 2023-12-25 13:25 https://min.io/docs/minio/container/index.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 12_nick_12 · 2023-12-25 23:26 I use nextcloud bare metal in a VM and am happy with it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dazzling_Ad1507 · 2023-12-26 02:01 You always have the option to encrypt your files with something like Cryptomator, meaning it really shouldn't matter at that point because only YOU can see your data, or whoever you share the vault password with. Id recommend google drive because its fairly cheap and use Cryptomator to encrypt. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- devutils · 2023-12-26 20:48 We're running [S3Drive](https://s3drive.app/) which is a Dropbox-like client compatible with many S3 providers: https://docs.s3drive.app/setup/#s3-providers (Backblaze, Synology, Cloudflare, Wasabi etc.), where you can buy storage at \~$0.006/GB/month. Alternatively if you have loads of data and too much free time you can self-host S3 using MinIO (or SeaweedFS, Ceph, Swift etc.) on your dedicated server (or at home if you can expose your ports somehow). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DankeBrutus · 2023-12-28 22:27 If reverse proxies do sound complicated for people do you know off the top of your head any good documentation to de-mystify the concept? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- spoonwings · 2023-12-28 23:20 Check out https://youtu.be/GarMdDTAZJo?si=wft20CFhSBwF8hvE He mentions a few mins in why you would use a reverse proxy. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DisastrousPresent2 · 2023-12-28 23:34 Seafile is looking like the ideal solution since it works with Linux, macOS, and iOS. Plus integrating with the native file manager is what I prefer. As I mentioned in my post I tried setting up tailscale for remote access and it did not work. I assume when you say “don’t mess with subnet routers” you are referring to that guide from Tailscale about exit nodes? If I am understanding it correctly so long as I have Tailscale installed and active on the device that is hosting Seafile, plus on the devices I want to access the files on, I should be able to just mount the Seafile directory as though I was at home? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DisastrousPresent2 · 2023-12-28 23:39 To be clear when I say I want something as set and forget as possible I understand that, in the context of self-hosting, it isn’t going to be as simple as giving Google my money. I know I will need to update software and configure things. I just don’t want to be constantly fretting over it. As an example: on a shared Synology NAS I set up Plex. I pay Plex $5 for the premium stuff and forwarding the port Plex uses on my router it is pretty much on autopilot. I update Plex every few weeks if I notice the update icon. Sometimes my router is a jerk and I need to turn UPnP off and on again despite manually port forwarding in order to make Plex available outside the home again. Though this is rare. I want that experience but for file storage. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- R3AP3R519 · 2023-12-28 23:40 Exit nodes and subnet routers are two different things with tailscale. Exit node allows you to force all your traffic through the exit node like a traditional VPN instead of a VPN split tunneling which is default. Subnet routers allow you to install tailscale on a single device on your LAN to make the LAN IP addresses accessible over tailscale. Look it up https://tailscale.com/kb/1019/subnets?q=route . I use the subnet router method because I get annoyed installing tailscale on every VM and container I make. As an added bonus, if I leave my lan I can still access services with the same LAN IP so I don't have to keep changing urls or set up split brain DNS. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DisastrousPresent2 · 2023-12-28 23:42 I came across this video researching the topic. A question this video doesn’t answer is this: what if I need to forward port 443 for more than one application? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DisastrousPresent2 · 2023-12-28 23:42 If you read the post you would see that I have already done this. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DisastrousPresent2 · 2023-12-28 23:43 Does OwnCloud require you to use their app or can it integrate into the Files app on iOS? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DisastrousPresent2 · 2023-12-28 23:51 With the Pi4 I have created a NAS. A NAS is just network attached storage. Synology is tempting for the ease of use. My ultimate goal is having a more powerful server that can handle backups for 3 people, Plex, Minecraft, and SMB. Whether I build the server myself or buy a Synology unit it is a matter of money + time. I can build something with much better hardware than a Synology, but it requires more time. I am not against learning networking so I can handle remote access myself. I just have yet to find a starting point that makes sense of things to the point where it stops making me nervous. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DisastrousPresent2 · 2023-12-28 23:56 Filebrowser looks good. Personally though I don’t really want to need a browser to access my files. In the new year I will be testing different apps and I will give Filebrowser the good old college try. Despite it being web-based if it does turn out the best way to do what I want I guess I’ll just need to deal with it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Robbie11r1 · 2023-12-29 00:04 Check out Unraid and Server Build's NAS Killer 6 series, released this year (https://forums.serverbuilds.net/t/guide-nas-killer-6-0-ddr4-is- finally-cheap/13956), might be more up the avenue you're looking for regarding an "all in one server". Provides more flexibility in physical drive choices than something like TrueNAS. Regarding remote access, there's so many options today it really depends on your circumstances more than anything. Things like Tailscale and Zerotier overlay VPN networks really make things much more user friendly from a networking perspective. Personally I use Wireguard directly on my OPNsense router (the VPN protocol Tailscale is built on). Check out this video Tom Lawrence just put out on the topic today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCXl09h7lqo ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DisastrousPresent2 · 2023-12-29 01:05 Assuming that I am not going for speed but proof of concept would making the Pi a subnet router provide me access to any docker container on the same Pi as you are describing? Example: the IP for a Seafile container is 192.168.2.145. When connected to Tailscale I would connect to that container the same way as if I were at home? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- R3AP3R519 · 2023-12-29 01:07 Yeah, if it has an IP on the LAN then it should work. You'd have to advertise routes for that specific IP or the IP range. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- spoonwings · 2023-12-29 01:19 You can re-use the same port for lots of lots of services but they need to use a different path or hostname and would need to have a reverse proxy in front of them. For example, your-domain.com/serviceA and your-domain.com/serviceB or serviceA.your-domain.com and serviceB.your-domain.com. You’re more likely to run into conflicts with path based routing than subdomains, but there are relatively simple workarounds. The reverse proxy can then handle routing the combination of hostname and/or path to the appropriate service. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- R3AP3R519 · 2023-12-29 01:21 Just to explain my setup, I have 3 vms on 3 different proxmox hosts. Each VM is a minimal fedora with docker installed. Storage is kept on a fedora nas Vm and shared with NFS.. I have nginx installed on a control node which routes to the docker host as needed. I bind host ports to containers in docker compose and then the control handles the proxying and firewalling. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- c0wb3 · 2023-12-29 03:20 Plex isn't self hosting. File storage is a much more critical system than a media server and will be much more hands on. By it's very nature, file storage is so critical that you will ne fretting over it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- imsinghaniya · 2023-12-29 07:45 Were you able to auto mount it on a mac? Mine doesn’t auto mount like on windows and linux for some reason. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DisastrousPresent2 · 2023-12-30 17:45 I think the setting around network discovery either glitched or just weren't set up properly. I have set up the SMB share two ways. 1. Manually - RAID0 because I will be doing regular backups. The share was discoverable on macOS and I was able to mount it fine. I was able to mount it on iOS but I kept running into errors about file names being too long or failing to copy over. Before getting around to fixing this I had the issue with Tailscale I mention on the post and nuked that install. 2. OpenMediaVault: Network discovery does not appear to be working at all with macOS. I don't have a Windows machine so maybe that would see the share but on Mac and Fedora 39 I can't see the server on my LAN. With that said I can manually mount it via the IP address. For whatever reason hostname doesn't get me anywhere for SSH, SMB, or the web portal for OMV. I can automount the share on macOS but I had to click and drag the drive over to the sidebar in Finder. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- drifter775 · 2023-12-31 09:57 Is it really open source?