Nextcloud All In One

Nextcloud AIO stands for Nextcloud All In One and provides easy deployment and maintenance with most features included in this one Nextcloud instance.

Included are:

• Nextcloud
• Nextcloud Office
• High performance backend for Nextcloud Files
• High performance backend for Nextcloud Talk and TURN-server
• Backup solution (based on BorgBackup)
• Imaginary (for previews of heic, heif, illustrator, pdf, svg, tiff and webp)
• ClamAV (Antivirus backend for Nextcloud)
• Fulltextsearch

And much more:

• Simple web interface included that enables easy installation and maintenance
• Easy updates included
• Update and backup notifications included
• Daily backups can get enabled from the AIO interface which also allows to update all containers, Nextcloud and its apps afterwards automatically
• Instance restore from backup archive via the AIO interface included (you only need the archive and the password in order to restore the whole instance on a new AIO instance)
• APCU as local cache
• Redis as distributed cache and for file locking
• Postgresql as database
• PHP-FPM with performance-optimized config
• A+ security in Nextcloud security scan
• Ready to be used behind existing Reverse proxies
• Can be used behind Cloudflare Tunnel
• Ready for big file uploads up to 10 GB on public links, adjustable (logged in users can upload much bigger files using the webinterface or the mobile/desktop clients since chunking is used in that case)
• PHP and web server timeouts set to 3600s, adjustable (important for big file uploads)
• Defaults to a max of 512 MB RAM per PHP process, adjustable
• Automatic TLS included (by using Let's Encrypt)
• HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 enabled
• "Pretty URLs" for Nextcloud are enabled by default (removes the index.php from all links)
• Video previews work out of the box and when Imaginary is enabled, many recent image formats as well!
• Only one domain and not multiple domains are required for everything to work (usually you would need to have one domain for each service which is much more complex)
• Adjustable location of Nextcloud's datadir (e.g. good for easy file-sharing with host system on Windows and MacOS)
• By default confined (good for security) but can allow access to additional storages in order to enable the usage of the local external storage feature
• Possibility included to adjust default installed Nextcloud apps
• Nextcloud installation is not read only - that means you can apply patches if you should need them (instead of having to wait for the next release for them getting applied)
• ffmpeg, smbclient and nodejs are included by default
• Possibility included to permanently add additional OS packages into the Nextcloud container without having to build your own Docker image
• Possibility included to permanently add additional PHP extensions into the Nextcloud container without having to build your own Docker image
• Possibility included to pass the needed device for hardware transcoding to the Nextcloud containe
• Possibility included to store all docker related files on a separate drive
• LDAP can be used as user backend for Nextcloud
• Migration from any former Nextcloud installation to AIO is possible. See this documentation
• Fail2Ban can be added
• phpMyAdmin, Adminer or pgAdmin can be added
• Mail server can be added
• Nextcloud can be accessed locally via the domain
• Can be installed locally (if you don't want or cannot make the instance publicly reachable)
• IPv6-ready
• Can be used with Docker rootles (good for additional security)
• Runs on all platforms Docker supports (e.g. also on Windows and Macos)
• Included containers easy to debug by having the possibility to check their logs directly from the AIO interface
• Docker-compose ready
• Can be installed without a container having access to the docker socket
• Can be installed with Docker Swarm
• Can be installed with Kubernetes
• Almost all included containers Alpine Linux based (good for security and size)
• Many of the included containers run as non-root user (good for security)
• Included containers run in its own docker network (good for security) and only really necessary ports are exposed on the host
• Multiple instances on one server are doable without having to deal with VMs
• Adjustable backup path from the AIO interface (good to put the backups e.g. on a different drive)
• Possibility included to also back up external Docker Volumes or Host paths (can be used for host backups)
• Borg backup can be completely managed from the AIO interface, including backup creation, backup restore, backup integrity check and integrity-repair
• Remote backups are indirectly possible
• Updates and backups can be run from an external script. See this documentation for a complete example.

Screenshots

First setup	After installation

How to use this?

The following instructions are meant for installations without a web server or reverse proxy (like Apache, Nginx and else) already being in place. If you want to run AIO behind a web server or reverse proxy (like Apache, Nginx and else), see the reverse proxy documentation. Also, the instructions below are especially meant for Linux. For macOS see this, for Windows see this and for Synology see this.

1. Install Docker on your Linux installation by following the official documentation: https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/#server. The easiest way is installing it by using the convenience script:

   curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sudo sh
   

2. If you need ipv6 support, you should enable it by following https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one/blob/main/docker-ipv6-support.md.

3. Run the command below in order to start the container:

   # For Linux and without a web server or reverse proxy (like Apache, Nginx and else) already in place:
   sudo docker run \
   --sig-proxy=false \
   --name nextcloud-aio-mastercontainer \
   --restart always \
   --publish 80:80 \
   --publish 8080:8080 \
   --publish 8443:8443 \
   --volume nextcloud_aio_mastercontainer:/mnt/docker-aio-config \
   --volume /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro \
   nextcloud/all-in-one:latest
   

   Explanation of the command

   • sudo docker run This command spins up a new docker container. Docker commands can optionally be used without sudo if the user is added to the docker group (this is not the same as docker rootless, see FAQ below).
   • --sig-proxy=false This option allows to exit the container shell that gets attached automatically when using docker run by using [CTRL] + [C] without shutting down the container.
   • --name nextcloud-aio-mastercontainer This is the name of the container. This line is not allowed to be changed, since mastercontainer updates would fail.
   • --restart always This is the "restart policy". always means that the container should always get started with the Docker daemon. See the Docker documentation for further detail about restart policies: https://docs.docker.com/config/containers/start-containers-automatically/
   • --publish 80:80 This means that port 80 of the container should get published on the host using port 80. It is used for getting valid certificates for the AIO interface if you want to use port 8443. It is not needed if you run AIO behind a web server or reverse proxy and can get removed in that case as you can simply use port 8080 for the AIO interface then.
   • --publish 8080:8080 This means that port 8080 of the container should get published on the host using port 8080. This port is used for the AIO interface and uses a self-signed certificate by default. You can also use a different host port if port 8080 is already used on your host, for example --publish 8081:8080 (only the first port can be changed for the host, the second port is for the container and must remain at 8080).
   • --publish 8443:8443 This means that port 8443 of the container should get published on the host using port 8443. If you publish port 80 and 8443 to the public internet, you can access the AIO interface via this port with a valid certificate. It is not needed if you run AIO behind a web server or reverse proxy and can get removed in that case as you can simply use port 8080 for the AIO interface then.
   • --volume nextcloud_aio_mastercontainer:/mnt/docker-aio-config This means that the files that are created by the mastercontainer will be stored in a docker volume that is called nextcloud_aio_mastercontainer. This line is not allowed to be changed, since built-in backups would fail later on.
   • --volume /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro The docker socket is mounted into the container which is used for spinning up all the other containers and for further features. It needs to be adjusted on Windows/macOS and on docker rootless. See the applicable documentation on this. If adjusting, don't forget to also set DOCKER_SOCKET_PATH! If you dislike this, see https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one/tree/main/manual-install.
   • nextcloud/all-in-one:latest This is the docker container image that is used.
   • Further options can be set using environment variables, for example --env NEXTCLOUD_DATADIR="/mnt/ncdata" (This is an example for Linux. See this for other OS' and for an explanation of what this value does. This specific one needs to be specified upon the first startup if you want to change it to a specific path instead of the default Docker volume). To see explanations and examples for further variables (like changing the location of Nextcloud's datadir or mounting some locations as external storage into the Nextcloud container), read through this readme and look at the docker-compose file: https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one/blob/main/docker-compose.yml

   Note: You may be interested in adjusting Nextcloud’s datadir to store the files in a different location than the default docker volume. See this documentation on how to do it.

4. After the initial startup, you should be able to open the Nextcloud AIO Interface now on port 8080 of this server.
   E.g. https://ip.address.of.this.server:8080
   
   If your firewall/router has port 80 and 8443 open/forwarded and you point a domain to your server, you can get a valid certificate automatically by opening the Nextcloud AIO Interface via:
   https://your-domain-that-points-to-this-server.tld:8443

5. Please do not forget to open port 3478/TCP and 3478/UDP in your firewall/router for the Talk container!

FAQ

How does it work?

Nextcloud AIO is inspired by projects like Portainer that manage the docker daemon by talking to it through the docker socket directly. This concept allows a user to install only one container with a single command that does the heavy lifting of creating and managing all containers that are needed in order to provide a Nextcloud installation with most features included. It also makes updating a breeze and is not bound to the host system (and its slow updates) anymore as everything is in containers. Additionally, it is very easy to handle from a user perspective because a simple interface for managing your Nextcloud AIO installation is provided.

Are reverse proxies supported?

Yes. Please refer to the following documentation on this: reverse-proxy.md

Which CPU architectures are supported?

You can check this on Linux by running: uname -m

• x86_64/x64/amd64
• aarch64/arm64/armv8 (Note: ClamAV is currently not supported on this CPU architecture)

Which ports are mandatory to be open in your firewall/router?

Only those (if you access the Mastercontainer Interface internally via port 8080):

• 443/TCP for the Apache container
• 3478/TCP and 3478/UDP for the Talk container

Explanation of used ports:

• 8080/TCP: Mastercontainer Interface with self-signed certificate (works always, also if only access via IP-address is possible, e.g. https://ip.address.of.this.server:8080/)
• 80/TCP: redirects to Nextcloud (is used for getting the certificate via ACME http-challenge for the Mastercontainer)
• 8443/TCP: Mastercontainer Interface with valid certificate (only works if port 80 and 8443 are open/forwarded in your firewall/router and you point a domain to your server. It generates a valid certificate then automatically and access via e.g. https://public.domain.com:8443/ is possible.)
• 443/TCP: will be used by the Apache container later on and needs to be open/forwarded in your firewall/router
• 3478/TCP and 3478/UDP: will be used by the Turnserver inside the Talk container and needs to be open/forwarded in your firewall/router

How to run AIO on macOS?

On macOS, there is only one thing different in comparison to Linux: instead of using --volume /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro, you need to use --volume /var/run/docker.sock.raw:/var/run/docker.sock:ro to run it after you installed Docker Desktop (and don't forget to enable ipv6 if you should need that). Apart from that it should work and behave the same like on Linux.

Also, you may be interested in adjusting Nextcloud's Datadir to store the files on the host system. See this documentation on how to do it.

How to run AIO on Windows?

On Windows, install Docker Desktop (and don't forget to enable ipv6 if you should need that) and run the following command in the command prompt:

docker run ^
--sig-proxy=false ^
--name nextcloud-aio-mastercontainer ^
--restart always ^
--publish 80:80 ^
--publish 8080:8080 ^
--publish 8443:8443 ^
--volume nextcloud_aio_mastercontainer:/mnt/docker-aio-config ^
--volume //var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro ^
nextcloud/all-in-one:latest

Also, you may be interested in adjusting Nextcloud's Datadir to store the files on the host system. See this documentation on how to do it.

⚠️ Please note: Almost all commands in this project's documentation use sudo docker .... Since sudo is not available on Windows, you simply remove sudo from the commands and they should work.

How to run AIO on Synology DSM

On Synology, there are two things different in comparison to Linux: instead of using --volume /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro, you need to use --volume /volume1/docker/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro to run it. You also need to add --env DOCKER_SOCKET_PATH="/volume1/docker/docker.sock"to the startup command. Apart from that it should work and behave the same like on Linux. Obviously the Synology Docker GUI will not work with that so you will need to either use SSH or create a user-defined script task in the task scheduler as the user 'root' in order to run the command.

Also, you may be interested in adjusting Nextcloud's Datadir to store the files on the host system. See this documentation on how to do it.

You'll also need to adjust Synology's firewall, see below:

Click here to expand

The Synology DSM is vulnerable to attacks with it's open ports and login interfaces, which is why a firewall setup is always recommended. If a firewall is activated it is necessary to have exceptions for ports 80,443, the subnet of the docker bridge which includes the Nextcloud containers, your public static IP (if you don't use DDNS) and if applicable your NC-Talk ports 3478 TCP+UDP:

If you have the NAS setup on your local network (which is most often the case) you will need to setup the Synology DNS to be able to access Nextcloud from your network via its domain. Also don't forget to add the new DNS to your DHCP server and your fixed IP settings:

How to run AIO with Portainer?

The easiest way to run it with Portainer on Linux is to use Portainer's stacks feature and use this docker-compose file in order to start AIO correctly.

Notes on Cloudflare (proxy/tunnel)

• It is known that the domain validation may not work correctly behind Cloudflare. You can simply skip it in that case by following: https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one#how-to-skip-the-domain-validation
• Make sure to disable Cloudflares Rocket Loader feature as otherwise Nextcloud's login prompt will not be shown.
• Cloudflare only supports uploading files up to 100 MB in the free plan, if you try to upload bigger files you will get an error (413 - Payload Too Large) if no chunking is used (e.g. for public uploads in the web, or if chunks are configured to be bigger than 100 MB in the clients or the web). If you need to upload bigger files, you need to disable the proxy option in your DNS settings, or you must use another proxy than Cloudflare tunnels. Both options will disable Cloudflare DDoS protection.
• Cloudflare only allows a max timeout of 100s for requests which is not configurable. This means that any server-side processing e.g. for assembling chunks for big files during upload that take longer than 100s will simply not work. See https://github.com/nextcloud/server/issues/19223. If you need to upload big files reliably, you need to disable the proxy option in your DNS settings, or you must use another proxy than Cloudflare tunnels. Both options will disable Cloudflare DDoS protection.
• It is known that the in AIO included collabora (Nextcloud Office) does not work out of the box behind Cloudflare. To make it work, you need to add all Cloudflare IP-ranges to the wopi-allowlist in https://yourdomain.com/settings/admin/richdocuments
• The built-in High performance backend for Nextcloud Talk will potentially not work out-of-the-box since it needs a separate port (by default 3478 or as chosen) available on the same domain. If you still want to use the feature, you will need to adjust and test your settings in https://yourdomain.com/settings/admin/talk.
• If you get an error in Nextcloud's admin overview that the HSTS header is not set correctly, you might need to enable it in Cloudflare manually.
• If you are using AIO's built-in Reverse Proxy and don't use your own, then may the certificate issuing possibly not work out-of-the-box because Cloudflare might block the attempt. In that case you need to disable the Proxy feature at least temporarily in order to make it work. See https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one/discussions/1101.

How to run Nextcloud behind a Cloudflare Tunnel?

Although it does not seems like it is the case but from AIO perspective a Cloudflare Tunnel works like a reverse proxy. So please follow the reverse proxy documentation where is documented how to make it run behind a Cloudflare Tunnel. However please see the caveats before proceeding.

Disrecommended VPS providers

• Stratos VPS crash/freeze/make errors when they reach an extremely low PID limit, which is very quickly reached by AIO, see here, Strato does normally not increase this limit.
• Hostingers VPS seem to miss a specifc Kernel feature which is required for AIO to run correctly. See here.

Recommended VPS

In general recommended VPS are those that are KVM/non-virtualized as Docker should work best on them.

Note on storage options

• SD-cards are disrecommended for AIO since they cripple the performance and they are not meant for many write operations which is needed for the database and other parts
• SSD storage is recommended
• HDD storage should work as well but is of course much slower than SSD storage

How to get Nextcloud running using the ACME DNS-challenge?

You can install AIO in reverse proxy mode where is also documented how to get it running using the ACME DNS-challenge for getting a valid certificate for AIO. See the reverse proxy documentation. (Meant is the Caddy with ACME DNS-challenge section). Also see https://github.com/dani-garcia/vaultwarden/wiki/Running-a-private-vaultwarden-instance-with-Let%27s-Encrypt-certs#getting-a-custom-caddy-build for additional docs on this topic.

How to run Nextcloud locally?

If you do not want to open Nextcloud to the public internet, you may have a look at the following documentation how to set it up locally: local-instance.md

Are self-signed certificates supported for Nextcloud?

No and they will not be. If you want to run it locally, without opening Nextcloud to the public internet, please have a look at the local instance documentation.

Can I use an ip-address for Nextcloud instead of a domain?

No and it will not be added. If you only want to run it locally, you may have a look at the following documentation: local-instance.md

Are other ports than the default 443 for Nextcloud supported?

No and they will not be. Please use a dedicated domain for Nextcloud and set it up correctly by following the reverse proxy documentation. If port 443 and/or 80 is blocked for you, you may use the ACME DNS-challenge or a Cloudflare Tunnel.

Can I run Nextcloud in a subdirectory on my domain?

No and it will not be added. Please use a dedicated domain for Nextcloud and set it up correctly by following the reverse proxy documentation.

How can I access Nextcloud locally?

The recommended way is to set up a local dns-server like a pi-hole and set up a custom dns-record for that domain that points to the internal ip-adddress of your server that runs Nextcloud AIO. Below are some guides:

• https://www.howtogeek.com/devops/how-to-run-your-own-dns-server-on-your-local-network/
• https://help.nextcloud.com/t/need-help-to-configure-internal-access/156075/6
• https://howchoo.com/pi/pi-hole-setup together with https://docs.callitkarma.me/posts/PiHole-Local-DNS/
• https://dockerlabs.collabnix.com/intermediate/networking/Configuring_DNS.html

How to skip the domain validation?

If you are completely sure that you've configured everything correctly and are not able to pass the domain validation, you may skip the domain validation by adding --env SKIP_DOMAIN_VALIDATION=true to the docker run command of the mastercontainer.

How to resolve firewall problems with Fedora Linux, RHEL OS, CentOS, SUSE Linux and others?

It is known that Linux distros that use firewalld as their firewall daemon have problems with docker networks. In case the containers are not able to communicate with each other, you may change your firewalld to use the iptables backend by running:

sudo sed -i 's/FirewallBackend=nftables/FirewallBackend=iptables/g' /etc/firewalld/firewalld.conf
sudo systemctl restart firewalld docker

Afterwards it should work.

See https://dev.to/ozorest/fedora-32-how-to-solve-docker-internal-network-issue-22me for more details on this. This limitation is even mentioned on the official firewalld website: https://firewalld.org/#who-is-using-it

How to run occ commands?

Simply run the following: sudo docker exec --user www-data -it nextcloud-aio-nextcloud php occ your-command. Of course your-command needs to be exchanged with the command that you want to run.

How to resolve Security & setup warnings displays the "missing default phone region" after initial install?

Simply run the following command: sudo docker exec --user www-data nextcloud-aio-nextcloud php occ config:system:set default_phone_region --value="yourvalue". Of course you need to modify yourvalue based on your location. Examples are DE, EN and GB. See this list for more codes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2#Officially_assigned_code_elements

How to run multiple AIO instances on one server?

See multiple-instances.md for some documentation on this.

Bruteforce protection FAQ

Nextcloud features a built-in bruteforce protection which may get triggered and will block an ip-address or disable a user. You can unblock an ip-address by running sudo docker exec --user www-data -it nextcloud-aio-nextcloud php occ security:bruteforce:reset <ip-address> and enable a disabled user by running sudo docker exec --user www-data -it nextcloud-aio-nextcloud php occ user:enable <name of user>. See https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/admin_manual/configuration_server/occ_command.html#security for further information.

Update policy

This project values stability over new features. That means that when a new major Nextcloud update gets introduced, we will wait at least until the first patch release, e.g. 24.0.1 is out before upgrading to it. Also we will wait with the upgrade until all important apps are compatible with the new major version. Minor or patch releases for Nextcloud and all dependencies as well as all containers will be updated to new versions as soon as possible but we try to give all updates first a good test round before pushing them. That means that it can take around 2 weeks before new updates reach the latest channel. If you want to help testing, you can switch to the beta channel by following this documentation which will also give you the updates earlier.

How to switch the channel?

You can switch to a different channel like e.g. the beta channel or from the beta channel back to the latest channel by stopping the mastercontainer, removing it (no data will be lost) and recreating the container using the same command that you used initially to create the mastercontainer. You simply need to change the last line nextcloud/all-in-one:latest to nextcloud/all-in-one:beta and vice versa.

How to update the containers?

If we push new containers to latest, you will see in the AIO interface below the containers section that new container updates were found. In this case, just press Stop containers and Start containers in order to update the containers. The mastercontainer has its own update procedure though. See below. And don't forget to back up the current state of your instance using the built-in backup solution before starting the containers again! Otherwise you won't be able to restore your instance easily if something should break during the update.

If a new Mastercontainer update was found, you'll see an additional section below the containers section which shows that a mastercontainer update is available. If so, you can simply press on the button to update the container.

Additionally, there is a cronjob that runs once a day that checks for container and mastercontainer updates and sends a notification to all Nextcloud admins if a new update was found.

How to easily log in to the AIO interface?

If your Nextcloud is running and you are logged in as admin in your Nextcloud, you can easily log in to the AIO interface by opening https://yourdomain.tld/settings/admin/overview which will show a button on top that enables you to log in to the AIO interface by just clicking on this button. Note: You can change the domain/ip-address/port of the button by simply stopping the containers, visiting the AIO interface from the correct and desired domain/ip-address/port and clicking once on Start containers.

How to change the domain?

⚠️ Please note: Editing the configuration.json manually and making a mistake may break your instance so please create a backup first!

If you set up a new AIO instance, you need to enter a domain. Currently there is no way to change this domain afterwards from the AIO interface. So in order to change it, you need to edit the configuration.json manually using sudo docker run -it --rm --volume nextcloud_aio_mastercontainer:/mnt/docker-aio-config:rw alpine sh -c "apk add --no-cache nano && nano /mnt/docker-aio-config/data/configuration.json", subsitute each occurrence of your old domain with your new domain and save and write out the file. Afterwards restart your containers from the AIO interface and everything should work as expected if the new domain is correctly configured.
If you are running AIO behind a reverse proxy, you need to obviously also change the domain in your reverse proxy config.

How to properly reset the instance?

If something goes unexpected routes during the initial installation, you might want to reset the AIO installation to be able to start from scratch.

Please note: if you already have it running and have data on your instance, you should not follow these instructions as it will delete all data that is coupled to your AIO instance.

Here is how to reset the AIO instance properly:

1. Stop all containers if they are running from the AIO interface
2. Stop the mastercontainer with sudo docker stop nextcloud-aio-mastercontainer
3. If the domaincheck container is still running, stop it with sudo docker stop nextcloud-aio-domaincheck
4. Check that no AIO containers are running anymore by running sudo docker ps --format {{.Names}}. If no nextcloud-aio containers are listed, you can proceed with the steps below. If there should be some, you will need to stop them with sudo docker stop <container_name> until no one is listed anymore.
5. Check which containers are stopped: sudo docker ps --filter "status=exited"
6. Now remove all these stopped containers with sudo docker container prune
7. Delete the docker network with sudo docker network rm nextcloud-aio
8. Check which volumes are dangling with sudo docker volume ls --filter "dangling=true"
9. Now remove all these dangling volumes: sudo docker volume prune docker --filter all=1 (on Windows you might need to remove some volumes afterwards manually with docker volume rm nextcloud_aio_backupdir, docker volume rm nextcloud_aio_nextcloud_datadir).
10. If you've configured NEXTCLOUD_DATADIR to a path on your host instead of the default volume, you need to clean that up as well. (E.g. by simply deleting the directory).
11. Make sure that no volumes are remaining with sudo docker volume ls --format {{.Name}}. If no nextcloud-aio volumes are listed, you can proceed with the steps below. If there should be some, you will need to stop them with sudo docker volume rm <volume_name> until no one is listed anymore.
12. Optional: You can remove all docker images with sudo docker image prune -a.
13. And you are done! Now feel free to start over with the recommended docker run command!

Backup solution

Nextcloud AIO provides a local backup solution based on BorgBackup. These backups act as a local restore point in case the installation gets corrupted.

It is recommended to create a backup before any container update. By doing this, you will be safe regarding any possible complication during updates because you will be able to restore the whole instance with basically one click.

If you connect an external drive to your host, and choose the backup directory to be on that drive, you are also kind of safe against drive failures of the drive where the docker volumes are stored on.

How to do the above step for step

1. Mount an external/backup HDD to the host OS using the built-in functionality or udev rules or whatever way you prefer. (E.g. follow this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lSyX4D3v_s) and mount the drive in best case in /mnt/backup.
2. If not already done, fire up the docker container and set up Nextcloud as per the guide.
3. Now open the AIO interface.
4. Under backup section, add your external disk mountpoint as backup directory, e.g. /mnt/backup.
5. Click on Create Backup which should create the first backup on the external disk.

Backups can be created and restored in the AIO interface using the buttons Create Backup and Restore selected backup. Additionally, a backup check is provided that checks the integrity of your backups but it shouldn't be needed in most situations.

The backups itself get encrypted with an encryption key that gets shown to you in the AIO interface. Please save that at a safe place as you will not be able to restore from backup without this key.

Be aware that this solution does not back up files and folders that are mounted into Nextcloud using the external storage app.

---

Are remote borg backups supported?

Not directly but you have multiple options to achieve this:

• Mount a network FS like SSHFS, SMB or NFS in the directory that you enter in AIO as backup directory
• Use rsync or rclone for syncing the borg backup archive that AIO creates locally to a remote target (make sure to lock the backup archive correctly before starting the sync; search for "aio-lockfile"; you can find a local example script here: https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one#sync-the-backup-regularly-to-another-drive)
• You can find a well written guide that uses rclone and e.g. BorgBase for remote backups here: https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one/discussions/2247
• create your own backup solution using a script and borg, borgmatic or any other to backup tool for backing up to a remote target (make sure to stop and start the AIO containers correctly following https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one#how-to-enable-automatic-updates-without-creating-a-backup-beforehand)
• Additionally, there is the backup app for remote backups

---

Failure of the backup container in LXC containers

If you are running AIO in a LXC container, you need to make sure that FUSE is enabled in the LXC container settings. Otherwise the backup container will not be able to start as FUSE is required for it to work.

---

Pro-tip: Backup archives access

You can open the BorgBackup archives on your host by following these steps:
(instructions for Ubuntu Desktop)

# Install borgbackup on the host
sudo apt update && sudo apt install borgbackup

# Mount the archives to /tmp/borg (if you are using the default backup location /mnt/backup/borg)
sudo mkdir -p /tmp/borg && sudo borg mount "/mnt/backup/borg" /tmp/borg

# After entering your repository key successfully, you should be able to access all archives in /tmp/borg
# You can now do whatever you want by syncing them to a different place using rsync or doing other things
# E.g. you can open the file manager on that location by running:
xhost +si:localuser:root && sudo nautilus /tmp/borg

# When you are done, simply close the file manager and run the following command to unmount the backup archives:
sudo umount /tmp/borg

---

Delete backup archives manually

You can delete BorgBackup archives on your host manually by following these steps:
(instructions for Debian based OS' like Ubuntu)

# Install borgbackup on the host
sudo apt update && sudo apt install borgbackup

# List all archives (if you are using the default backup location /mnt/backup/borg)
sudo borg list "/mnt/backup/borg"

# After entering your repository key successfully, you should now see a list of all backup archives
# An example backup archive might be called 20220223_174237-nextcloud-aio
# Then you can simply delete the archive with:
sudo borg delete --stats --progress "/mnt/backup/borg::20220223_174237-nextcloud-aio"

# If borg 1.2.0 or higher is installed, you then need to run borg compact in order to clean up the freed space
sudo borg --version
# If version number of the command above is higher than 1.2.0 you need to run the command below:
sudo borg compact "/mnt/backup/borg"

After doing so, make sure to update the backup archives list in the AIO interface!
You can do so by clicking on the Check backup integrity button or Create backup button.

---

Sync the backup regularly to another drive

For increased backup security, you might consider syncing the backup repository regularly to another drive.

To do that, first add the drive to /etc/fstab so that it is able to get automatically mounted and then create a script that does all the things automatically. Here is an example for such a script:

Click here to expand

#!/bin/bash

# Please modify all variables below to your needings:
SOURCE_DIRECTORY="/mnt/backup/borg"
DRIVE_MOUNTPOINT="/mnt/backup-drive"
TARGET_DIRECTORY="/mnt/backup-drive/borg"

########################################
# Please do NOT modify anything below! #
########################################

if [ "$EUID" -ne 0 ]; then 
    echo "Please run as root"
    exit 1
fi

if ! [ -d "$SOURCE_DIRECTORY" ]; then
    echo "The source directory does not exist."
    exit 1
fi

if [ -z "$(ls -A "$SOURCE_DIRECTORY/")" ]; then
    echo "The source directory is empty which is not allowed."
    exit 1
fi

if ! [ -d "$DRIVE_MOUNTPOINT" ]; then
    echo "The drive mountpoint must be an existing directory"
    exit 1
fi

if ! grep -q "$DRIVE_MOUNTPOINT" /etc/fstab; then
    echo "Could not find the drive mountpoint in the fstab file. Did you add it there?"
    exit 1
fi

if ! mountpoint -q "$DRIVE_MOUNTPOINT"; then
    mount "$DRIVE_MOUNTPOINT"
    if ! mountpoint -q "$DRIVE_MOUNTPOINT"; then
        echo "Could not mount the drive. Is it connected?"
        exit 1
    fi
fi

if [ -f "$SOURCE_DIRECTORY/lock.roster" ]; then
    echo "Cannot run the script as the backup archive is currently changed. Please try again later."
    exit 1
fi

mkdir -p "$TARGET_DIRECTORY"
if ! [ -d "$TARGET_DIRECTORY" ]; then
    echo "Could not create target directory"
    exit 1
fi

if [ -f "$SOURCE_DIRECTORY/aio-lockfile" ]; then
    echo "Not continuing because aio-lockfile already exists."
    exit 1
fi

touch "$SOURCE_DIRECTORY/aio-lockfile"

if ! rsync --stats --archive --human-readable --delete "$SOURCE_DIRECTORY/" "$TARGET_DIRECTORY"; then
    echo "Failed to sync the backup repository to the target directory."
    exit 1
fi

rm "$SOURCE_DIRECTORY/aio-lockfile"
rm "$TARGET_DIRECTORY/aio-lockfile"

umount "$DRIVE_MOUNTPOINT"

if docker ps --format "{{.Names}}" | grep "^nextcloud-aio-nextcloud$"; then
    docker exec -it nextcloud-aio-nextcloud bash /notify.sh "Rsync backup successful!" "Synced the backup repository successfully."
else
    echo "Synced the backup repository successfully."
fi

You can simply copy and past the script into a file e.g. named backup-script.sh e.g. here: /root/backup-script.sh. Do not forget to modify the variables to your requirements!

Afterwards apply the correct permissions with sudo chown root:root /root/backup-script.sh and sudo chmod 700 /root/backup-script.sh. Then you can create a cronjob that runs e.g. at 20:00 each week on Sundays like this:

1. Open the cronjob with sudo crontab -u root -e (and choose your editor of choice if not already done. I'd recommend nano).
2. Add the following new line to the crontab if not already present: 0 20 * * 7 /root/backup-script.sh which will run the script at 20:00 on Sundays each week.
3. save and close the crontab (when using nano are the shortcuts for this Ctrl + o -> Enter and close the editor with Ctrl + x).

How to stop/start/update containers or trigger the daily backup from a script externally?

You can do so by running the /daily-backup.sh script that is stored in the mastercontainer. It accepts the following environmental varilables:

• AUTOMATIC_UPDATES if set to 1, it will automatically stop the containers, update them and start them including the mastercontainer. If the mastercontainer gets updated, this script's execution will stop as soon as the mastercontainer gets stopped. You can then wait until it is started again and run the script with this flag again in order to update all containers correctly afterwards.
• DAILY_BACKUP if set to 1, it will automatically stop the containers and create a backup. If you want to start them again afterwards, you may have a look at the START_CONTAINERS option.
• START_CONTAINERS if set to 1, it will automatically start the containers without updating them.
• STOP_CONTAINERS if set to 1, it will automatically stop the containers.
• CHECK_BACKUP if set to 1, it will start the backup check. This is not allowed to be enabled at the same time like DAILY_BACKUP. Please be aware that this option is non-blocking which means that the backup check is not done when the process is finished since it only start the borgbackup container with the correct configuration.

One example for this would be sudo docker exec -it --env DAILY_BACKUP=1 nextcloud-aio-mastercontainer /daily-backup.sh, which you can run via a cronjob or put it in a script.

⚠️ Please note that none of the option returns error codes. So you need to check for the correct result yourself.

How to disable the backup section?

If you already have a backup solution in place, you may want to hide the backup section. You can do so by adding --env DISABLE_BACKUP_SECTION=true to the initial startup of the mastercontainer.

How to change the default location of Nextcloud's Datadir?

⚠️ Attention: It is very important to change the datadir before Nextcloud is installed/started the first time and not to change it afterwards! If you still want to do it afterwards, see this on how to do it.

You can configure the Nextcloud container to use a specific directory on your host as data directory. You can do so by adding the environmental variable NEXTCLOUD_DATADIR to the initial startup of the mastercontainer. Allowed values for that variable are strings that start with / and are not equal to /.

• An example for Linux is --env NEXTCLOUD_DATADIR="/mnt/ncdata".
• On macOS it might be --env NEXTCLOUD_DATADIR="/var/nextcloud-data"
• For Synology it may be --env NEXTCLOUD_DATADIR="/volume1/docker/nextcloud/data".
• On Windows it might be --env NEXTCLOUD_DATADIR="/run/desktop/mnt/host/c/ncdata". (This path is equivalent to C:\ncdata on your Windows host so you need to translate the path accordingly. Hint: the path that you enter needs to start with /run/desktop/mnt/host/. Append to that the exact location on your windows host, e.g. c/ncdata which is equivalent to C:\ncdata.)
• Another option is to provide a specific volume name here with: --env NEXTCLOUD_DATADIR="nextcloud_aio_nextcloud_datadir". This volume needs to be created beforehand manually by you in order to be able to use it. e.g. with:

  docker volume create ^
  --driver local ^
  --name nextcloud_aio_nextcloud_datadir ^
  -o device="/host_mnt/c/your/data/path" ^
  -o type="none" ^
  -o o="bind"
  

Can I use a CIFS/SMB share as Nextcloud's datadir?

Sure. Add this to the /etc/fstab file:
<your-storage-host-and-subpath> <your-mount-dir> cifs rw,mfsymlinks,seal,credentials=<your-credentials-file>,uid=33,gid=0,file_mode=0770,dir_mode=0770 0 0
(Of course you need to modify <your-storage-host-and-subpath>, <your-mount-dir> and <your-credentials-file> for your specific case.)

One example could look like this:
//your-storage-host/subpath /mnt/storagebox cifs rw,mfsymlinks,seal,credentials=/etc/storage-credentials,uid=33,gid=0,file_mode=0770,dir_mode=0770 0 0
and add into /etc/storage-credentials:

username=<smb/cifs username>
password=<password>

(Of course you need to modify <smb/cifs username> and <password> for your specific case.)

Now you can use /mnt/storagebox as Nextcloud's datadir like described in the section above above this one.

How to allow the Nextcloud container to access directories on the host?

By default, the Nextcloud container is confined and cannot access directories on the host OS. You might want to change this when you are planning to use local external storage in Nextcloud to store some files outside the data directory and can do so by adding the environmental variable NEXTCLOUD_MOUNT to the initial startup of the mastercontainer. Allowed values for that variable are strings that start with / and are not equal to /.

• Two examples for Linux are --env NEXTCLOUD_MOUNT="/mnt/" and --env NEXTCLOUD_MOUNT="/media/".
• On macOS it might be --env NEXTCLOUD_MOUNT="/Volumes/your_drive/"
• For Synology it may be --env NEXTCLOUD_MOUNT="/volume1/".
• On Windows it might be --env NEXTCLOUD_MOUNT="/run/desktop/mnt/host/d/your-folder/". (This path is equivalent to D:\your-folder on your Windows host so you need to translate the path accordingly. Hint: the path that you enter needs to start with /run/desktop/mnt/host/. Append to that the exact location on your windows host, e.g. d/your-folder/ which is equivalent to D:\your-folder.)

After using this option, please make sure to apply the correct permissions to the directories that you want to use in Nextcloud. E.g. sudo chown -R 33:0 /mnt/your-drive-mountpoint and sudo chmod -R 750 /mnt/your-drive-mountpoint should make it work on Linux when you have used --env NEXTCLOUD_MOUNT="/mnt/". On Windows you could do this e.g. with docker exec -it nextcloud-aio-nextcloud chown -R 33:0 /run/desktop/mnt/host/d/your-folder/ and docker exec -it nextcloud-aio-nextcloud chmod -R 750 /run/desktop/mnt/host/d/your-folder/.

You can then navigate to the apps management page, activate the external storage app, navigate to https://your-nc-domain.com/settings/admin/externalstorages and add a local external storage directory that will be accessible inside the container at the same place that you've entered. E.g. /mnt/your-drive-mountpoint will be mounted to /mnt/your-drive-mountpoint inside the container, etc.

Be aware though that these locations will not be covered by the built-in backup solution!

Please note: If you can't see the type "local storage" in the external storage admin options, a restart of the containers from the AIO interface may be required.

How to adjust the Talk port?

By default will the talk container use port 3478/UDP and 3478/TCP for connections. You can adjust the port by adding e.g. --env TALK_PORT=3478 to the initial docker run command and adjusting the port to your desired value.

How to adjust the upload limit for Nextcloud?

By default are public uploads to Nextcloud limited to a max of 10G (logged in users can upload much bigger files using the webinterface or the mobile/desktop clients since chunking is used in that case). You can adjust the upload limit by providing --env NEXTCLOUD_UPLOAD_LIMIT=10G to the docker run command of the mastercontainer and customize the value to your fitting. It must start with a number and end with G e.g. 10G.

How to adjust the max execution time for Nextcloud?

By default are uploads to Nextcloud limited to a max of 3600s. You can adjust the upload time limit by providing --env NEXTCLOUD_MAX_TIME=3600 to the docker run command of the mastercontainer and customize the value to your fitting. It must be a number e.g. 3600.

How to adjust the PHP memory limit for Nextcloud?

By default is each PHP process in the Nextcloud container limited to a max of 512 MB. You can adjust the memory limit by providing --env NEXTCLOUD_MEMORY_LIMIT=512M to the docker run command of the mastercontainer and customize the value to your fitting. It must start with a number and end with M e.g. 1024M.

What can I do to fix the internal or reserved ip-address error?

If you get an error during the domain validation which states that your ip-address is an internal or reserved ip-address, you can fix this by first making sure that your domain indeed has the correct public ip-address that points to the server and then adding --add-host yourdomain.com:<public-ip-address> to the initial docker run command which will allow the domain validation to work correctly. And so that you know: even if the A record of your domain should change over time, this is no problem since the mastercontainer will not make any attempt to access the chosen domain after the initial domain validation.

Can I run this with Docker swarm?

Yes. For that to work, you need to use and follow the manual-install documentation.

How to run this with Docker rootless?

You can run AIO also with docker rootless. How to do this is documented here: docker-rootless.md

Can I run this with Podman instead of Docker?

No. Since Podman is not 100% compatible with the Docker API, you cannot use Podman instead of Docker (since that would add yet another platform where the maintaner would need to test on). However you can use and follow the manual-install documentation to get AIO's containers running with Podman or use Docker rootless, as described in the above section.

How to change the Nextcloud apps that are installed on the first startup?

You might want to adjust the Nextcloud apps that are installed upon the first startup of the Nextcloud container. You can do so by adding --env NEXTCLOUD_STARTUP_APPS="deck twofactor_totp tasks calendar contacts" to the docker run command of the mastercontainer and customize the value to your fitting. It must be a string with small letters a-z, 0-9, spaces and hyphens or '_'. You can disable shipped and by default enabled apps by adding a hyphen in front of the appid. E.g. -contactsinteraction.

How to add OS packages permanently to the Nextcloud container?

Some Nextcloud apps require additional external dependencies that must be bundled within Nextcloud container in order to work correctly. As we cannot put each and every dependency for all apps into the container - as this would make the project very fast unmaintainable - there is an official way how you can add additional dependencies into the Nextcloud container. However note that doing this is disrecommended since we do not test Nextcloud apps that require external dependencies.

You can do so by adding --env NEXTCLOUD_ADDITIONAL_APKS="imagemagick dependency2 dependency3" to the docker run command of the mastercontainer and customize the value to your fitting. It must be a string with small letters a-z, digits 0-9, spaces, dots and hyphens or '_'. You can find available packages here: https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/packages?name=&branch=v3.16&repo=&arch=&maintainer=. By default added is imagemagick. If you want to keep that, you need to specify it as well.

How to add PHP extensions permanently to the Nextcloud container?

Some Nextcloud apps require additional php extensions that must be bundled within Nextcloud container in order to work correctly. As we cannot put each and every dependency for all apps into the container - as this would make the project very fast unmaintainable - there is an official way how you can add additional php extensions into the Nextcloud container. However note that doing this is disrecommended since we do not test Nextcloud apps that require additional php extensions.

You can do so by adding --env NEXTCLOUD_ADDITIONAL_PHP_EXTENSIONS="imagick extension1 extension2" to the docker run command of the mastercontainer and customize the value to your fitting. It must be a string with small letters a-z, digits 0-9, spaces, dots and hyphens or '_'. You can find available extensions here: https://pecl.php.net/packages.php. By default added is imagick. If you want to keep that, you need to specify it as well.

What about the pdlib PHP extension for the facerecognition app?

The facerecognition app requires the pdlib PHP extension to be installed. Unfortunately, it is not available on PECL nor via PHP core, so there is no way to add this into AIO currently. However you can vote up this issue to bring it to PECL and there is the recognize app that also allows to do face-recognition.

How to enable hardware-transcoding for Nextcloud?

The memories app allows to enable hardware transcoding for videos. In order to use that, you need to add --env NEXTCLOUD_ENABLE_DRI_DEVICE=true to the docker run command of the mastercontainer which will mount the /dev/dri device into the container (⚠️ Attention: this only works if the device is present on the host!). Additionally, you need to add required packets to the Nextcloud container by using this feature and adding the required Alpine packages that are documented here.

Huge docker logs

When your containers run for a few days without a restart, the container logs that you can view from the AIO interface can get really huge. You can limit the loge sizes by enabling logrotate for docker container logs. Feel free to enable this by following those instructions: https://sandro-keil.de/blog/logrotate-for-docker-container/

Access/Edit Nextcloud files/folders manually

The files and folders that you add to Nextcloud are by default stored in the following docker directory: nextcloud_aio_nextcloud:/mnt/ncdata/ (usually /var/lib/docker/volumes/nextcloud_aio_nextcloud_data/_data/ on linux host systems). If needed, you can modify/add/delete files/folders there but ATTENTION: be very careful when doing so because you might corrupt your AIO installation! Best is to create a backup using the built-in backup solution before editing/changing files/folders in there because you will then be able to restore your instance to the backed up state.

After you are done modifying/adding/deleting files/folders, don't forget to apply the correct permissions by running: sudo docker exec nextcloud-aio-nextcloud chown -R 33:0 /mnt/ncdata/ and sudo docker exec nextcloud-aio-nextcloud chmod -R 750 /mnt/ncdata/ and rescan the files with sudo docker exec --user www-data -it nextcloud-aio-nextcloud php occ files:scan --all.

How to store the files/installation on a separate drive?

You can move the whole docker library and all its files including all Nextcloud AIO files and folders to a separate drive by first mounting the drive in the host OS (NTFS is not supported and ext4 is recommended as FS) and then following this tutorial: https://www.guguweb.com/2019/02/07/how-to-move-docker-data-directory-to-another-location-on-ubuntu/
(Of course docker needs to be installed first for this to work.)

How to edit Nextclouds config.php file with a texteditor?

You can edit Nextclouds config.php file directly from the host with your favorite text editor. E.g. like this: sudo docker run -it --rm --volume nextcloud_aio_nextcloud:/var/www/html:rw alpine sh -c "apk add --no-cache nano && nano /var/www/html/config/config.php". Make sure to not break the file though which might corrupt your Nextcloud instance otherwise. In best case, create a backup using the built-in backup solution before editing the file.

Custom skeleton directory

If you want to define a custom skeleton directory, you can do so by copying your skeleton files sudo docker cp --follow-link /path/to/nextcloud/skeleton/ nextcloud-aio-nextcloud:/mnt/ncdata/skeleton/, applying the correct permissions with sudo docker exec nextcloud-aio-nextcloud chown -R 33:0 /mnt/ncdata/skeleton/ and and sudo docker exec nextcloud-aio-nextcloud chmod -R 750 /mnt/ncdata/skeleton/ and setting the skeleton directory option with sudo docker exec --user www-data -it nextcloud-aio-nextcloud php occ config:system:set skeletondirectory --value="/mnt/ncdata/skeleton". You can read further on this option here: click here

Fail2ban

You can configure your server to block certain ip-addresses using fail2ban as bruteforce protection. Here is how to set it up: https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/stable/admin_manual/installation/harden_server.html#setup-fail2ban. The logpath of AIO is by default /var/lib/docker/volumes/nextcloud_aio_nextcloud/_data/data/nextcloud.log. Do not forget to add chain=DOCKER-USER to your nextcloud jail config (nextcloud.local) otherwise the nextcloud service running on docker will still be accessible even if the IP is banned. Also, you may change the blocked ports to cover all AIO ports: by default 80,443,8080,8443,3478 (see this)

LDAP

It is possible to connect to an existing LDAP server. You need to make sure that the LDAP server is reachable from the Nextcloud container. Then you can enable the LDAP app and configure LDAP in Nextcloud manually. If you don't have a LDAP server yet, recommended is to use this docker container: https://hub.docker.com/r/nitnelave/lldap. Make sure here as well that Nextcloud can talk to the LDAP server. The easiest way is by adding the LDAP docker container to the docker network nextcloud-aio. Then you can connect to the LDAP container by its name from the Nextcloud container.

Netdata

Netdata allows you to monitor your server using a GUI. You can install it by following https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/agent/packaging/docker#create-a-new-netdata-agent-container.

USER_SQL

If you want to use the user_sql app, the easiest way is to create an additional database container and add it to the docker network nextcloud-aio. Then the Nextcloud container should be able to talk to the database container using its name.

phpMyAdmin, Adminer or pgAdmin

It is possible to install any of these to get a GUI for your AIO database. The pgAdmin container is recommended. You can get some docs on it here: https://www.pgadmin.org/docs/pgadmin4/latest/container_deployment.html. For the container to connect to the aio-database, you need to connect the container to the docker network nextcloud-aio and use nextcloud-aio-database as database host, oc_nextcloud as database username and the password that you get when running sudo docker exec nextcloud-aio-nextcloud grep dbpassword config/config.php as the password.

Mail server

You can configure one yourself by using either of these three recommended projects: Docker Mailserver, Maddy Mail Server or Mailcow. Docker Mailserver and Maddy Mail Server are probably a bit easier to set up as it is possible to run them using only one container but Mailcow has much more features.

How to migrate from an already existing Nextcloud installation to Nextcloud AIO?

Please see the following documentation on this: migration.md

Requirements for integrating new containers

For integrating new containers, they must pass specific requirements for being considered to get integrated in AIO itself. Even if not considered, we may add some documentation on it.

What are the requirements?

1. New containers must be related to Nextcloud. Related means that there must be a feature in Nextcloud that gets added by adding this container.
2. It must be optionally installable. Disabling and enabling the container from the AIO interface must work and must not produce any unexpected side-effects.
3. The feature that gets added into Nextcloud by adding the container must be maintained by the Nextcloud GmbH.
4. It must be possible to run the container without big quirks inside docker containers. Big quirks means e.g. needing to change the capabilities or security options.
5. The container should not mount directories from the host into the container: only docker volumes should be used.

How to trust user-defiend Certification Authorities (CA)?

For some applications it might be necessary to enstablish a secured connection to a host / server which is using a certificated issued by a Certification Authority that is not trusted out of the box. An example could be configuring LDAPS against the Domain Controller (ActiveDirectory) of an organization

You can make the Nextcloud container trust any Certification Authority by providing the environmental variable NEXTCLOUD_TRUSTED_CACERTS_DIR when starting the AIO-mastercontainer. The value of the variables should be set to the absolute path to a directory on the host, which contains one or more Certification Authority's certificate. You should use X.509 certificates, Base64 encoded. (Other formats may work but have not been tested!) All the certificates in the directory will be trusted.

When using docker run, the environmental variable can be set with --env NEXTCLOUD_TRUSTED_CACERTS_DIR=/path/to/my/cacerts.

In order for the value to be valid, the path should start with / and not end with '/' and point to an existing directory. Pointing the variable directly to a certificate file will not work and may also break things.

How to disable Collabora's Seccomp feature?

The Collabora container enables Seccomp by default, which is a security feature of the Linux kernel. On systems without this kernel feature enabled, you need to provide --env COLLABORA_SECCOMP_DISABLED=true to the initial docker run command in order to make it work.

How to enable automatic updates without creating a backup beforehand?

If you have an external backup solution, you might want to enable automatic updates without creating a backup first. However note that doing this is disrecommended since you will not be able to easily create and restore a backup from the AIO interface anymore and you need to make sure to shut down all the containers properly before creating the backup, e.g. by stopping them from the AIO interface first.

But anyhow, is here a guide that helps you automate the whole procedure:

Click here to expand

#!/bin/bash

# Stop the containers
docker exec --env STOP_CONTAINERS=1 nextcloud-aio-mastercontainer /daily-backup.sh

# Below is optional if you run AIO in a VM which will shut down the VM afterwards
# poweroff

You can simply copy and past the script into a file e.g. named shutdown-script.sh e.g. here: /root/shutdown-script.sh.

Afterwards apply the correct permissions with sudo chown root:root /root/shutdown-script.sh and sudo chmod 700 /root/shutdown-script.sh. Then you can create a cronjob that runs e.g. runs the script at 04:00 each day like this:

1. Open the cronjob with sudo crontab -u root -e (and choose your editor of choice if not already done. I'd recommend nano).
2. Add the following new line to the crontab if not already present: 0 4 * * * /root/shutdown-script.sh which will run the script at 04:00 each day.
3. save and close the crontab (when using nano are the shortcuts for this Ctrl + o -> Enter and close the editor with Ctrl + x).

After that is in place, you should schedule a backup from your backup solution that creates a backup after AIO is shut down properly. Hint: If your backup runs on the same host, make sure to at least back up all docker volumes and additionally Nextclouds datadir, if it is not stored in a docker volume.

Afterwards, you can create a second script that automatically updates the containers:

Click here to expand

#!/bin/bash

# Run container update once
if ! docker exec --env AUTOMATIC_UPDATES=1 nextcloud-aio-mastercontainer /daily-backup.sh; then
    while docker ps --format "{{.Names}}" | grep -q "^nextcloud-aio-watchtower$"; do
        echo "Waiting for watchtower to stop"
        sleep 30
    done

    while ! docker ps --format "{{.Names}}" | grep -q "^nextcloud-aio-mastercontainer$"; do
        echo "Waiting for Mastercontainer to start"
        sleep 30
    done

    # Run container update another time to make sure that all containers are updated correctly.
    docker exec --env AUTOMATIC_UPDATES=1 nextcloud-aio-mastercontainer /daily-backup.sh
fi

You can simply copy and past the script into a file e.g. named automatic-updates.sh e.g. here: /root/automatic-updates.sh.

Afterwards apply the correct permissions with sudo chown root:root /root/automatic-updates.sh and sudo chmod 700 /root/automatic-updates.sh. Then you can create a cronjob that runs e.g. at 05:00 each day like this:

1. Open the cronjob with sudo crontab -u root -e (and choose your editor of choice if not already done. I'd recommend nano).
2. Add the following new line to the crontab if not already present: 0 5 * * * /root/automatic-updates.sh which will run the script at 05:00 each day.
3. save and close the crontab (when using nano are the shortcuts for this Ctrl + o -> Enter and close the editor with Ctrl + x).