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TFGrid Nextcloud Guide

Nextcloud All-in-One cloud platform on ThreeFold Grid.

Overview

Deploy a complete Nextcloud instance with automatic management, built-in backups, and enterprise features.

Key Features:

  • 📁 File Sync & Share - Access files from anywhere
  • 📅 Calendar & Contacts - Integrated productivity apps
  • 🎥 Talk - Video calls and chat
  • 📝 Office - Collaborative document editing
  • 🔒 End-to-end Encryption - Optional E2EE for sensitive files
  • 💾 BorgBackup - Automatic encrypted backups

Quick Start

Prerequisites

  • TFGrid account with mnemonic configured
  • tfgrid-compose installed (Installation Guide)
  • Domain with DNS pointing to your server

Deploy

# Deploy from registry
tfgrid-compose up tfgrid-nextcloud

# Or with custom configuration
tfgrid-compose up tfgrid-nextcloud --var DOMAIN=cloud.example.com

Complete Setup

After deployment:

  1. Open AIO Interface: https://<server-ip>:8443
  2. Enter your domain in the setup wizard
  3. Set admin password
  4. Configure optional features (Talk, Office, etc.)
  5. Click "Start containers"
  6. Access Nextcloud: https://your-domain.com

Configuration

Environment Variables

Variable Required Default Description
DOMAIN Yes - Public domain for Nextcloud
NEXTCLOUD_DATADIR No Docker volume Custom data directory
NEXTCLOUD_UPLOAD_LIMIT No 10G Maximum upload size
NEXTCLOUD_MEMORY_LIMIT No 512M PHP memory limit
NEXTCLOUD_TIMEZONE No UTC Server timezone

Example Configuration

DOMAIN=cloud.example.com
NEXTCLOUD_UPLOAD_LIMIT=10G
NEXTCLOUD_MEMORY_LIMIT=1024M
NEXTCLOUD_TIMEZONE=America/New_York

Architecture

┌─────────────┐     ┌───────────────────────────────────┐
│   Internet  │────▶│  Nextcloud AIO                    │
│             │     │  (Apache + Let's Encrypt)         │
└─────────────┘     └───────────────┬───────────────────┘
                                    │
                    ┌───────────────┼───────────────┐
                    │               │               │
              ┌─────▼─────┐   ┌─────▼─────┐   ┌─────▼─────┐
              │ Nextcloud │   │ PostgreSQL│   │   Redis   │
              │   App     │   │  Database │   │   Cache   │
              └───────────┘   └───────────┘   └───────────┘

Components (managed by AIO):

  • Apache - Web server with SSL
  • Nextcloud - Main application
  • PostgreSQL - Database
  • Redis - Caching
  • Collabora/OnlyOffice - Document editing (optional)
  • Talk - Video conferencing (optional)
  • Imaginary - Image processing (optional)

Commands

Backup & Restore

# Trigger AIO backup
tfgrid-compose backup

# Check backup status
tfgrid-compose backup-status

# Show restore instructions
tfgrid-compose restore

Note: Nextcloud AIO uses BorgBackup. Backups are managed through the AIO interface at https://<server-ip>:8443.

Logs

# All logs
tfgrid-compose logs

# Specific service
tfgrid-compose logs mastercontainer
tfgrid-compose logs nextcloud
tfgrid-compose logs database
tfgrid-compose logs redis
tfgrid-compose logs apache

# Follow logs
tfgrid-compose logs nextcloud --follow

Management

# Run Nextcloud occ commands
tfgrid-compose occ status
tfgrid-compose occ user:list
tfgrid-compose occ files:scan --all
tfgrid-compose occ maintenance:mode --on

# Check for updates
tfgrid-compose update

# Restart services
tfgrid-compose restart

# Health check
tfgrid-compose healthcheck

Resource Requirements

Resource Minimum Recommended
CPU 2 cores 4 cores
Memory 4 GB 8 GB
Disk 50 GB 200 GB

Estimated Cost: $30-50/month on ThreeFold Grid

AIO Interface

The All-in-One interface (https://<server-ip>:8443) provides:

  • Container Management - Start/stop/restart containers
  • Backup Configuration - Set up automated backups
  • Update Management - Check and apply updates
  • Optional Features - Enable/disable apps
  • Domain Configuration - Change domain settings

Accessing AIO Interface

  1. Open https://<server-ip>:8443 in your browser
  2. Accept the self-signed certificate warning
  3. Use the password shown during initial setup

Backup System

BorgBackup Features

  • Deduplication - Only stores changes, saves space
  • Encryption - All backups are encrypted
  • Compression - Reduces backup size
  • Remote Support - Backup to external storage

Configure Backups

  1. Open AIO interface
  2. Go to "Backup and restore"
  3. Set backup location (local or remote)
  4. Configure backup schedule
  5. Set retention policy

Restore from Backup

  1. Stop all Nextcloud containers
  2. Open AIO interface
  3. Go to "Backup and restore"
  4. Select backup to restore
  5. Click "Restore"
  6. Wait for completion
  7. Restart containers

SSL Configuration

Automatic SSL (Default)

Nextcloud AIO handles SSL automatically using Let's Encrypt.

Requirements

  1. Domain DNS must point to server IP
  2. Ports 80 and 443 must be accessible
  3. Valid domain name (not IP address)

Behind Reverse Proxy

If running behind another reverse proxy, configure AIO:

  1. Set APACHE_PORT and APACHE_IP_BINDING environment variables
  2. Configure your reverse proxy to forward to AIO

Optional Features

Enable these in the AIO interface:

Feature Description Resources
Collabora Document editing +2GB RAM
OnlyOffice Alternative office suite +2GB RAM
Talk Video conferencing +1GB RAM
Imaginary Image processing +512MB RAM
Fulltextsearch Full-text search +1GB RAM
ClamAV Antivirus scanning +1GB RAM

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

AIO interface not accessible

  1. Check Docker is running: 
    systemctl status docker
  2. Check mastercontainer is running: 
    docker ps | grep nextcloud-aio-mastercontainer
  3. Ensure port 8443 is open

SSL certificate errors

  1. Verify domain DNS: 
    dig +short your-domain.com
  2. Check AIO logs: 
    tfgrid-compose logs mastercontainer
  3. Ensure ports 80/443 are accessible

Slow performance

  1. Enable Redis caching (enabled by default)
  2. Increase PHP memory limit: 
    NEXTCLOUD_MEMORY_LIMIT=1024M
  3. Check available resources: 
    free -h
df -h

File upload fails

  1. Check upload limit: 
    tfgrid-compose occ config:system:get upload_max_filesize
  2. Increase limit in .env: 
    NEXTCLOUD_UPLOAD_LIMIT=20G

Health Check

tfgrid-compose healthcheck

Checks: - Docker service - Mastercontainer status - Nextcloud container status - Database and Redis - HTTP response

Mobile & Desktop Apps

Desktop Sync Client

Download from: https://nextcloud.com/install/#install-clients

Configure: 1. Server address: https://your-domain.com 2. Login with your credentials 3. Select folders to sync

Mobile Apps

  • iOS: App Store - "Nextcloud"
  • Android: Play Store or F-Droid - "Nextcloud"

Security Best Practices

  1. Use strong admin password
  2. Enable 2FA - Settings → Security → Two-Factor Authentication
  3. Regular backups - Configure automated daily backups
  4. Keep updated - Apply updates promptly via AIO
  5. Review sharing - Audit shared files/folders regularly
  6. Enable encryption - For sensitive data

Migration

From Existing Nextcloud

  1. Export data using Nextcloud's migration tools
  2. Deploy TFGrid Nextcloud
  3. Import data via AIO restore or manual migration

To Another Server

  1. Create backup via AIO interface
  2. Deploy TFGrid Nextcloud on new server
  3. Restore backup on new server

TFGrid Studio Ecosystem

Integrated tools and resources