Thank you for stopping by, in this blog post I will show you how to set up a Multi-Site, Highly Available Cloud Storage using NextCloud over VPN and also accessible over the internet through HTTPS. I will also go over setting up a dynamic DNS, a DNS service at your home network, and a lot more. So let's get started. Well, by my career profile I might be a Pipeline TD, but over time, I have taught myself skills beyond visual effects pipeline into the verse of DevOps and Software infrastructure. I used weekends and holidays to set this up between my flat in London and my parent's home in Phillaur, India. Huge credits to my dentist brother who helped me put up the hardware together in India. Multi-site could have not been possible without a remote engineer.
What is Nextcloud?
Nextcloud is an open-source free to use cloud storage client-server software. It is a fork of owncloud (you can say the parent of owncloud from which nextcloud originated) which you can self-host at your premise on a micro server such as Raspberry Pi.
What Nextcloud is not!
Nextcloud is not backup software. If you plan to use nextcloud on a single node then you must plan backups of your precious data. In this post, I will also show you a single node and multi-node. The multi-site by default makes a backup of your entire data (without encryption of data).
Benefits and comparison
One of the real benefits of using nextcloud is that you can self-host it which your data stays at your premises. And in this post, I will be covering self-hosted multisite your own private cloud storage infrastructure and setup.
Who it is for?
Based on the fact that you can self-host at your premise, the greatest of all advantage is data protection and security still accessible from anywhere in the world using your VPN or over HTTPS. Unlike Dropbox, iCloud, or Google Drive, etc your data is stored on remote storage and is always under the risk of a hack.
- If you work in a profession that you generate a lot of data.
- if you live in a different part of the world than the actual country you came from that you have to move from place to place. (like me)
- If you have to constantly make the data you generate available with your partners in a remote location.
- If you want to share photographs, home videos, or music with your distributed family.
- Single board computer enthusiasts wanting to learn more and make the best use case of investment.
What you need to setup self hosted nextcloud?
Hardware
- Raspberry Pi 3/4 (4GB or above)
or any Single board computer(sbc) (5-12 volt) you can keep up online that you do not waste electricity bill. Since I have much different make sbc, so I decided to go with a multi-node cluster, but you can do it on a Virtual Machine on a Windows laptop too. I am using a Raspberry Pi 3 and Raspberry Pi 4 on a remote site i.e. back home in India. The reason I suggest raspberry pi is because it is arm64 architecture, it has a large user base, and above all, it's Made in the UK. - Storage of 1TB SSD or HDD (more the merrier)
- I am using a 1 TB NVMe SSD here in London. And a 1TB standard HDD in India.
-
Ethernet Cables CAT 7 should be sufficient.
I do not recommend connecting your pi to the router over wifi. - USB to MicroSD card Adapter
Software
- Ubuntu Operating System
- Apache2
- Php7.*
- MySQL/Mariadb
- ProxySQL (for load balancing Galera Cluster)
- Syncthing (for copying data to other site and high availability)
- CoreDNS (for DNS Service at home network)
- Haproxy (for load balancing Redis and Apache2)
- Redis (to manage file locking and php session sharing)
- OpenVPN
- Latest Version of Nextcloud
Alright So let's get started. Put your favorite music on. This is going to take time. For me setting up and testing took months. But it's good as it is working seamlessly and now with this guide in hand it should fairly take less time for you. My original plan is shown below if you do not have more than 1 raspberry pi or any good single board computer you can just stick to a single node which you will also finish setting faster.
In London, I already had a Rock Pi 4b and Rockpro64 and later I bought rock pi x as it is an x86 single-board computer. In India, I have 2 raspberry pi, but I was not able to get the 2nd raspberry pi setup. So in my setup, I set up a cluster in London (Site A). As of now in India (Site B) I have a single node running everything on raspberry pi 3.
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