SCUBA's self hosted Nextcloud snap server

for a self hosted Nextcloud I turned to Ubuntu Server and LXD to create an LXC container for Nextcloud snap. There is a great community behind Nextcloud snap. The greatness of Linux together with supported hardware enables anyone to run a 24/7 Nextcloud server.

My goal is a simple safe and reliable setup with ample resources for 5+ family users, affordable, efficient and low maintenence. My day job is software support for a leading WMS. I'm an avid scuba diver and enjoy Linux and FOSS. I'm a dad and husband thus I'm not keen on spending much of my free time doing server-maintenence.

Quicklinks

• Official Nextcloud snap wiki
• SCUBA's personal wiki docs

---

System specs

Hardware

Requirements:

• Affordable, efficient, small
• Small energy footprint
• Linux compatible
• Ample resources - (5+ users)
• Low maintenence - (uptime 24/7)
• Redundancy - (failover, cold-standby & backup)
• Multiple services - (Nextcloud, Webserver, FW, VPN, DNS, Proxy, Docker)

---

2x Lenovo ThinkCentre M92p Tiny (refurbished) - stackable 1xServer & 1xBackup

• CPU: Intel Core i5-3470T
• PSU: 16W/12W load/idle
• RAM: 16GB
• SSD: 500GB

---

OS & Software

Requirements:

• Ubuntu Server (easy setup & maintenence, unattended updates & updgrades)
• Nextcloud snap (easy setup & automated updates)
• LXD (multiple LXC containers)
• Packages: cockpit, docker.io, mc, openssh-server, sysstat, tmux
• Snaps: htop, lxd, lnav, nextcloud

LXD-server setup

• Bridged network (IP from DHCP)
• Multiple LXC containers (Nextcloud, Webserver, FW, VPN, DNS, Proxy, Docker)
• Automated rotating snapshots (daily) 0 downtime 24/7
• Automated synchronisation to LXD-backup-server (weekly)
• Automated rotating backup to NAS (monthly)

LXD-backup-server setup

• Identical setup to LXD-server -- cold-standby
• Bridged network (IP from DHCP)
• Multiple synchronised LXC containers (Nextcloud, Webserver, FW, VPN, DNS, Proxy, Docker)
• WOL ctr-wake (weekly) container synchronisation
• WOL (manual) failover

---

Procedure

Install Nextcloud-snap in LXC container on LXD server

• Prepare LXD server with Ubuntu Server and bridged network
• Prepare LXC container with Ubuntu Server
• Install Nextcloud snap in LXC-container
• Set FQDN in /etc/hosts in LXC-container
• Nextcloud snap handles Lets-Encrypt certificate automatically with nextcloud.enable-https lets-encrypt
  • optionally handle certificates with reverse Proxy or NGINX-Proxy-Manager
• Configure Nextcloud and regain control over your data

---

Snap backup, restore & migrate

Backup Nextcloud snap with Snap snapshot

snapshot documentation

• snap stop nextcloud (optional)
• snap save nextcloud
• snap start nextcloud (optional, see above)
• find snapshot in /var/lib/snapd/snapshots and copy/move to wherever

This works fine as weekly automatic cronjob (as root) and has the added convenience of easy snap transfer to different server when needed. Thus always 4 weeks of snap-snapshots on backup media.

rotating Snap snapshot script

Restore Snap snapshot using Snap restore

• when moving to new device, be sure to install Nextcloud snap first
• snap restore replaces previous installation incl. certs, DB and data
• see documentation in man snap and snapcraft

1. copy compressed file (*.zip) from backup media to /var/lib/snapd/snapshots

2. discover snapshot-ID using snap saved

3. issue command sudo snap restore "snapshot-ID"

---

LXC container snapshot / backup & restore

Backup LXC container with snapshot/image & restore in shell scripted

• LXC container snapshot scripted
• LXC container image from snapshot scripted
• LXC image sync/copy/move to wherever Syncronise/Copy containers between LXD nodes
• LXC image rotate scripted

This works fine as scripted cronjob, 0 downtime.

rotating LXC container snapshot script

Backup & Restore LXC container

• lxc image import $PATH/to/$IMAGENAME.tar.gz --alias $IMAGENAME
• lxc launch $IMAGENAME $CONTAINERNAME

See also personal LXD-LXC Wiki (just notes)

---