Off Topic / Cloud solution

General
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Feel free to delete if this is too much Off Topic

Been using Syncthing for years and love it

Syncing my 4 pc ( 3 linux, one windows) and my phone (GrapheneOS)

I guess some of you, at some point, were missing a cloud solution ?

I am looking for some OpenSource CLoud solution.

I know there are several " but " i never tried them

I heard about Nextcloud a few times, today about seafile (that I don’t know)

If I was to have an OpenSource “home made cloud” solution, which one would you recommend ?

I could may be run it on my main Syncthing Desktop PC…

So if one day, I’m away from home without my laptop and need to access my stuff, this could be useful…

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If you have a dedicated PC I would recommend truenas scale. Truenas provides free canned server installs that are easy to set up and they provide a syncthing install and nextCloud install that you can set up in an hour or so if you have some Linux skills.

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Syncthing can definitely play an essential part of a DIY cloud solution.

It’s quite open-ended because it entirely depends on…

  • Type of “cloud” server – e.g. basic generic file server; media server for photos, music and videos; backup server; or a combination thereof.
  • Available hardware resources – e.g. hosting on an existing desktop PC vs. dedicated serve, storage capacity requirements, etc.
  • Preferred host operating system.
  • Hosting options – e.g. bare-metal, virtual machine, and/or container.
  • Available computing skills – either existing or willingness to work through potentially a lot of documentation.

Roughly speaking, just a few examples of appliances and server software…

Appliances: TrueNAS CORE and TrueNAS SCALE, Nextcloud, ownCloud, OpenMediaVault (all intended to be in control of the hardware, although can be run via a virtual machine with some caveats)

Server Software: Samba, Plex Media Server, Syncthing, OpenSSH

Whether that’s ideal or doable depends on the hardware and OS. Running alongside an existing desktop OS makes things more complicated and potentially less reliable.

There might also be a VPN in a client/server setup or a peer-to-peer mesh setup. Depends on the home internet provider, security needs, etc.

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Much appreciated @gadget I will read this a few time later today and continue my research

Most of my PCs are Manjaro/Linux. Phone GraphenOs and one Window PC thanks again

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I’m in a similar boat regard to having my own Cloud Server.

If you have spare PC and you will need a dedicated PC for what I’m doing and that is to install truenas storage server.

Truenas core is a great product and you can run it for free. And the company provides pre-canned installations of software and they have next cloud and they have syncthing in their Library. That is where I’m gravitating towards. I’ll probably have a regular Data Drive that I can share over SMB and the next cloud storage which does not share over SMB. They want you using their client which unfortunately doesn’t map a drive letter so you can’t use it with word or Excel or any other apps.

Truenas can be difficult if you’re not familiar with Linux and it requires a PC with a minimum of two hard drives only they really want you to have three or four. Server doesn’t like the fact that I’m using only one disc to boot from and only one disc for data.

Setting up a storage server can be expensive even if you do it yourself with parts and then add your labor on top of that and you might as well pay for hosting which is what I’m doing now.

@gadget knows his stuff, so do read his post thoroughly.

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I suggest taking a look at XigmaNAS, which I have used for more than 15 years (back when it was the original FreenAS, from which TrueNAS is descended). Syncthing is built in (but does not auto-upgrade, not hard to fix).

XigmaNAS is easy to try out by booting from a USB (Rufus works nicely for creating the bootable USB). We use it as the main file server for several offices. Rock solid.

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I though having some personal scope, open source cloud solution for years. I heard about myOwnCloud, had a look, but I felt this would require too much knowledge I didn’t have to damp the beast. Then time flowed for years untils I met across Syncthing in the mid 2010’s and found it was THE thing. Really, you only need to be comfortable with your files browser and file system basics (e.g. if you know what is the “directory separator character” you are ready to go. Open a zip, extract a file). Knowing a bit more your OSes, then you know to easily autostart Syncthing, you hardly need something more than creating a shortcut to launch it and drop it where useful, although the Android version features a GUI option. Casual gamer/user tuning skills for network (ISP gateway port forward and PC firewall, don’t worry, in Windows you are prompted on first run, just accept all) will bring you immediate performance enhancement.

And cherry icing on the cake you find here quick answers from great devs and enthusiast users if you meet something obscure.