Nextcloud is an open source cloud storage and collaboration product. It allows access to files on the go from all kinds of devices and works across Linux, Windows, Android and more. I want to use this to host a media library while also allowing an easy way to upload files from lots of different devices.
I also want to use Nextcloud to backup other cloud services that I use, including Google drive, photos and Whatsapp.
Plex Is a media streaming service which I can use to serve my media files on the go. It’s available on lots of devices and can also be made available outside of the local network if needed, so you can access files on the go.
First, after doing a fresh install of Ubuntu server 22.04 I need to change the behaviouf of the laptop to be more server-esque. As it will be sitting closed on a desk, the sleep, suspend and laptop close switch behavior needs to be modified.
sudo apt update -y && sudo apt upgrade -y
# mask sleep, suspend and hibernate so laptop won't shutdown and stop serving
sudo systemctl mask sleep.target suspend.target hibernate.target hybrid-sleep.target
sudo service systemd-logind restart
Static IP is assigned in my router’s DHCP settings.
It’s worth noting that as I was using a residential IP, I needed to pay an additional £5 a month to get a static IP set. This way I could successfully port forward using the steps below. Otherwise the portforwarding settings will not work as they un-resolvable with all the other routers using the shared IP address.
Once again from the router admin settings. Port forwarding needs to be set. Noip has a useful guide for this.
For Nextcloud Ports 80 and 8443 need to be open. Port 80 is used for the interface and 8443 is used for the talk service. For Plex32400 is used for communication and is enough to get started with.
Ubuntu server comes with ufw and is easy to use on the command line to open up these ports.
#enable ufw, allow ssh and restart the service
sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw allow ssh
#Allow ports 80 and 8443 for nextcloud and port 32400 for plex
sudo ufw allow 80
sudo ufw allow 8443
sudo ufw allow 32400
sudo systemctl restart ssh
Simply follow the latest docker docs to install docker. Docker was also removed from snap packages as this was causing an issue later in the install.
# Add Docker's official GPG key
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl gnupg
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
## Add the repository to Apt sources
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
$(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin
#Run docker's hello world to check everything is working correctly
sudo docker run hello-world
#Remove docker from snap, this was causing issues with installing plex using docker compose
snap remove docker
reboot
Follow noip’s configuration guide for setting up the dynamic dns client on the laptop. I’m not sure this is entirely necessary as a static IP was set earlier. But in future it might be useful if I want to keep the server using DHCP. No-ip can then update this so it is always accessible.
Nextcloud has some good docs for installing their all-in-one (aio) docker container. It saves alot of configuring from a fresh install.
Once it is installed go through the steps to qualify the domain, though this can be skipped using -e SKIP_DOMAIN_VALIDATION=true as this can cause issues I have found.
#Install nextcloud-aio using docker
sudo docker run --init --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
I used the docker method of installing Plex so I can easily manage that along with nextcloud.
#Create a compose.yml file to use with docker compose
vi /opt/stacks/plex/compose.yml
# Compose file for plex pms-docker
version: '3'
services:
plex:
container_name: plex
image: plexinc/pms-docker
restart: unless-stopped
environment:
- PLEX_UID=0
- PLEX_GID=0
- TZ=Europe/London
- PLEX_CLAIM=claim-vaJbV8rLFr3QWdN7GbyT
network_mode: host
volumes:
- ./config:/config
- ./transcode:/transcode
- /var/lib/docker/volumes/nextcloud_aio_nextcloud_data/_data/admin/files/Media:/data
devices:
- /dev/dri:/dev/dri
# Run docker compose from /opt/stacks/plex/
cd /opt/stacks/plex/
docker compose up -d