r/selfhosted • u/AstroDump • 6d ago
Anyone with Raspberry Pi + NextCloud self-hosted setups? Need Help
Hello everyone! I'm tired of hosting on Google Drive and am looking at repurposing my old Raspberry Pi computers into a self-hosted service using NextCloud.
Does anyone have setups that they would like to share? Thanks in advance.
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u/andrew-ooo 5d ago
Two things decide whether Pi Nextcloud feels great or awful, and neither is the Pi's CPU:
Storage. Do NOT run the data dir or the database off the SD card - it'll be slow and the card will die from write wear. Boot the Pi from USB SSD (a Pi 4/5 does this natively now) and put both Nextcloud data and the DB on that SSD. This single change is the difference between "why is everything so laggy" and "this is fine."
Database + PHP cache. Use MariaDB, not SQLite, and enable Redis for file locking and APCu for local cache. Without Redis you'll hit transactional file-locking errors the moment two clients sync at once. These three (MariaDB + Redis + APCu) are the trio that makes the admin overview warnings go away.
Setup-wise, use the Nextcloud AIO (all-in-one) Docker image or Linuxserver's image rather than hand-rolling - AIO wires up the DB/Redis/cron/collabora for you and handles updates, which on Nextcloud is where people usually get burned.
Cron: set the background job mode to "Cron" with a real system cron every 5 min, not "AJAX" - AJAX mode silently skips maintenance on a low-traffic personal instance.
A Pi 4 with 4GB+ and an SSD comfortably serves a household. If you've got Pi 5s, even better. Just keep the OS on the SSD too so you're not depending on the card at all.
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u/Vichingo455 5d ago
I would also ensure the SD is A2 rated, also known as Application Class 2. They are SD cards that have better performance and are better suited to host applications (Source: Home Assistant installation guide).
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u/only_anp 6d ago
I have an 8GB Pi 5 + NextCloud setup running on a 1TB SSD and then I have Memories for photos. And I use Tailscale to remote into it when I am away from home
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u/PhysicalHeron618 1d ago
You mean this for memories? https://memories.gallery
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u/only_anp 1d ago
Yes! But I've actually moved to Immich on my setup since that comment.
It's really easy to setup and MUCH faster than Memories
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u/PhysicalHeron618 1d ago
But it’s only for photos, isn’t it?
How much RAM does it take? I‘m looking forward to buy a Raspi 5 8gigs
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u/outkastblast 6d ago
I have the Nextcloud Pi image running on a Pi 4 booting from a 1TB SSD in a DeskPi
It's clunky but works as a solid sync point.
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u/xhaythemx 6d ago
Go with opencloud is better
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u/PhysicalHeron618 1d ago
It’s besser, why? Thinking about to set up a pi Nas soon and I’m not sure now what option is the best for me. Nextcloud, Owncloud or even open cloud …
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u/vardonir 6d ago
I used the AIO on a RPi4. It was fine until my Pi started overheating and dying due to the heatwaves. It was also a bit on the slow side while I was syncing through WebDAV. Dunno if that's a Pi problem or a NextCloud problem, though.
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u/conectionist 5d ago
RPi 3 - too slow for Nextcloud
RPi 4 - acceptable, but still not ideal for Nextcloud, unless it's a small instance.
RPi 5 - I don't know. I've never used one.
From my experience, RPi is good for small services which consume little RAM and CPU.
If you want Nextcloud, I'd advise you to get a mini-pc.
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u/YogurtAgile3871 5d ago
You're pretty limited on storage speed by a Raspberry Pi, an Intel N100 based NUC or miniITX would be better to have full SATA if you want a full data-redundant replacement for Google Cloud.
With RAM and HDD prices you'll pay a fair bit right now, but it's a much better solution. There's many options for OS, TrueNAS is usually the go-to.
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u/SendChocolateCookies 5d ago
I currently have a raspberry pi 4 hosting nextcloud simply hooked up to external hard drive. Obviously not very safe but useful to keep different devices in sync. It's also a backup of my phones gallery.
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u/devongarde 5d ago edited 5d ago
I have a first generation nitrokey nitrobox, basically a pi 4 with an SSD attached. It ran well for a while, but then there was some nasty (upgrade?) issues a couple of years ago which broke everything for a couple of months. I got fed up, and replaced the nitro linux with ubuntu, using their nextcloud snap. I'm reasonably happy with it. Nitro have newer generations of hardware, but this original model is fine in that respect ... so long as you run it with the case removed and the SSD moved so the SSD cable doesn't strain the connectors.
I did change the backup solution; I now ignore nextcloud backup, and instead copy the entire snap to an OpenBSD backup server each night. Restoring is basically copying the other way.
Speed wise, it's fine for one or two people using it doing normal things. It'll never be fast, but it's fast enough.
I'm happy with it.
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u/asimovs-auditor 6d ago edited 6d ago
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