## Prerequisites For this tutorial, you are going to need a few things. I am assuming that you already have these, but if you don't, a quick internet search should point you in the right direction. - A linux server with a public IP address - A domain name - Podman version 4.4 or higher - Knowledge of how to set up a reverse proxy - [Cloudflare tunnels](https://www.cloudflare.com/products/tunnel/) handles certificates and you don't have to do port-forwarding. It is very convenient. It proxies through cloudflare's servers. - [Caddy](https://caddyserver.com) also handles certificates if you want a more local solution. You will have to do port-forwarding if you're behind a NAT, though. ## Why use Nextcloud? If you're on this page, you probably already know why you want to use Nextcloud, but in case you don't, I'll summarise here; because Nextcloud is an private, self-hosted alternative to many of Google's services. Great for individuals and companies who care about their privacy and/or who don't want their data to be used to train AI's. It offers cloud storage, a calendar, a photo library, an online meeting platform and online office applications, among other things. ## Why use Podman? If you're already looking for a containerised solution, you might be wondering, why not just use Docker? Because Podman makes setting up rootless containers very easy. This is nice, because it adds an extra layer of security over your services, preventing attackers from gaining root privileges if they manage to gain access to your system through an insecure service. ## Why use Quadlets? Because Quadlets makes managing container services on your system very easy. If you use quadlets, you can manage all your containers services in a centralised place, in the same way that you manage all the other services on your system. It also allows for the convenient `podman auto-update` command, which automatically updates and restarts containerized services for you. ## Why use Kubernetes files? Because Kubernetes files allow for easy configuration of pods, similar to docker compose, but with the added benefit of being compatible with Kubernetes orchestration, if you ever want to go that route. Additionally, Kubernetes files are officially supported by Podman, while compose files are not. ## Setting up First, you want to create a new user with a home directory. This can be done with the following commands: ```bash useradd -m nextcloud && passwd nextcloud ``` Then, log out and log in to the new nextcloud account. For the next steps, I have prepared some configuration files in a [GitHub repository](https://github.com/dexterdy/nextcloud-kubernetes-podman-config/tree/Cleaned). I'll provide a rundown of what each files is: - `caddy/Caddyfile` - This is the webserver that is used to serve Nextcloud files to your browser. - `example.config.php` - This is an example of some configuration rules for Nextcloud. They will be explained later in the tutorial. - `nextcloud-*-secrets.yaml` - These files hold environment variables with passwords for the containers. - `nextcloud.kube` - This file is similar to a systemctl service file and allows us to manage our containers through systemctl. - `nextcloud.yaml` - This is a Kubernetes pod configuration. This is similar to a docker compose configuration, but it is compatible with Kubernetes. It defines the containers and their settings and groups them into a pod. Download these release archive, extract the files into a folder called `nextcloud-app` and cd into that folder: ```bash curl -L -O https://github.com/dexterdy/nextcloud-kubernetes-podman-config/archive/refs/tags/v1.2.tar.gz tar -xzf ./v1.2.tar.gz mv ./nextcloud-kubernetes-podman-config-1.2 ./nextcloud-app cd ./nextcloud-app ``` If you want to use a different folder name or you didn't put it in your home directory, you will have to edit the `nextcloud.kube` file and change the following line: ``` Yaml=%h/nextcloud-app/nextcloud.yaml # <-- change this ``` After this, you should move the .kube file to the container systemd directory: ```bash mkdir -p ~/.config/containers/systemd/; mv ./nextcloud.kube $_ ``` ## Configuring storage If you want the the data to live on the same drive as the configuration files, you can simply create the following folders and move on to the next section: ```bash mkdir db html data ``` If, however, you want your data to live on a separate drive or even on a NAS of some kind, you will need to adjust the configuration file, `nextcloud.yaml` and scroll down to the following section: ```yaml volumes: # change paths to store data elsewhere # make sure you have write permissions - hostPath: path: caddy/caddy_data type: Directory name: nextcloud_caddy_data - hostPath: path: caddy/Caddyfile type: File name: nextcloud_caddyfile - hostPath: path: db type: Directory name: nextcloud_db - hostPath: path: html type: Directory name: nextcloud_html - hostPath: path: data type: Directory name: nextcloud_data ``` Here you can simply change the path to whatever location you want and the data will be stored there. Just make sure that the directories actually exist, are empty and that the nextcloud user has read, write and execute permissions. A path without a `/` in front of it, is relative to the location of this yaml file. The directories store the following content: - `db`: metadata on users, plugins, files, etc - `html`: all the Nextcloud files, such as configurations, plugin files, php and html files - `data`: user data, including their cloud storage You most likely want to change the path of the `data` directory. ## Secrets and admin account In the `nextcloud-app` folder, you will find three files for storing your secrets: `nextcloud-collabora-secrets.yaml`, `nextcloud-db-secrets.yaml` and `nextcloud-redis-secrets.yaml`. In these files, you should fill in unique and secure passwords. Take for example `nextcloud-db-secrets.yaml`: ```yaml apiVersion: v1 kind: Secret metadata: name: nextcloud-db-secrets type: Opaque stringData: MYSQL_DATABASE: nextcloud MYSQL_USER: nextcloud MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: # your password MYSQL_PASSWORD: # your password ``` The other files will look similar. The fields where you should add a password are marked with a comment. Now you are ready to start the server for the first time and create an admin account. The server will only be available on your local network, for now. ```bash systemctl daemon-reload --user # makes a systemd service out of the .kube file systemctl start nextcloud --user ``` You can now access your Nextcloud instance on `localhost:8080`. Go there in your browser and create an admin account. Congratulations! You have a fully operational Nextcloud instance on your localhost! There are still a few things to do, though. ## Access through the internet In order to acces your instance outside of your network, you will need a domain and a reverse proxy. A reverse proxy can be set up through [Cloudflare tunnels](https://www.cloudflare.com/products/tunnel/), [Caddy](https://caddyserver.com) or any reverse proxy server of your choice. The ports you need are `8080` for Nextcloud and `9980` for Collabora. I recommend using subdomains the distinguish them: `nextcloud.yourdomain.com` and `office.yourdomain.com`. After you have set up your proxy, you will need to change a few configuration files. Let's start with `nextcloud.yaml`: ```yaml - name: collabora image: docker.io/collabora/code:latest ports: - containerPort: 9980 hostPort: 9980 envFrom: - secretRef: name: nextcloud-collabora-secrets env: - name: domain value: office.yourdomain.com # <-- change this - name: server_name value: office.yourdomain.com # <-- change this - name: extra_params value: --o:ssl.enable=false --o:ssl.termination=true ``` You should change the `domain` and `server_name` values to match the the domain and subdomain you chose for collabora. Next, the `config.php` file. Here, you should add a few configuration options, which you can find in `example.config.php` between the files you downloaded. Some options still need to be tweaked for your setup: ```php array ( 0 => 'your.ip.address.here:8080', // <-- change this 1 => 'nextcloud.youdomain.com', // <-- change this ), 'trusted_proxies' => array ( 0 => '127.0.0.1', ), 'overwrite.cli.url' => 'https://nextcloud.youdomain.com', // <-- change this 'overwriteprotocol' => 'https', 'overwritehost' => 'nextcloud.youdomain.com', // <-- change this 'default_phone_region' => 'NL', // <-- change this ); ``` The lines you need to change are marked with a comment. If your proxy is not on the same server, you will also need to adjust the `trusted_proxies` array. These options will need to be added to the configuration file found in `html/config/config.php`. Be careful to only copy the configuration options themselves and not the `j.p.hagedoorn@scardex.nl. I would also like to thank greylinux1 on the Nextcloud forum as [his tutorial](https://help.nextcloud.com/t/tutorial-for-running-nextcloud-in-rootless-podman-with-mariadb-redis-caddy-webserver-all-behind-a-caddy-reverse-proxy/159216) was very helpful.

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