Owncloud setup help

[rufusbear]

Hi all

I am trying to setup owncloud on my new centos 7 server VM. There are so many different guides out there that all say different things. I am getting really confused with it all so just wondered if anyone has owncloud setup on centos and could give me some advice. I have installed httpd so far but thats it.

Thanks all

 

[AnonymouseUser]

I prefer Docker and this repository. Haven't tried Nextcloud yet, but it might be worth a try.

 

[sn8ke]

I have a custom owncloud installation, but not running on CentOS. However, I do run RHEL/CentOS elsewhere so I know my way around both.

Which repo did you install from? Or did you manually install the tarball from their site? The guides do vary slightly from version to version but any guide after 8.0 will be similar enough.

Which httpd? Apache I assume?
Will this be deployed onto the web or is it for LAN?
How many users?
CA or self-signed certificate?

Setup is actually pretty simple after v9, however it's the actual server daemon config, and customizing owncloud that can mess things up. Configuring Apache is usually where most people hit walls. A lot of people run it on nginx successfully, though I haven't tried it myself.

A problem I kept running into was Apache breaking when configuring vhosts and ports behind a router. Remember where the symlinks (e.g. ../sites-available, ../sites-enabled) are and make sure they are actually being updated when you make changes. I would also suggest to keep a mirror of your working installs and keep updating it so you can revert back easier. I was simply using 7z a -t7z backup.7z apache2\ for example to zip the directories up. 7z x backup.7z extracts with paths preserved. Remember to keep restarting the daemon to test changes (service apache2 reload). Check journalctl as root for detailed info on issues. Also, though it's tempting to just use default vi or nano for something quick, I highly suggest editing confs and any code with an editor that will format for css, and javascript . Even simple mistakes can slip through and you'll be looking forever for that missing '. Reload the server after every change so you know exactly where it broke. I forgot to do that a lot and it got annoying.

 

[rufusbear]

Thanks very much for the response, indeed i am using apache httpd. I plan to hopefully use it on the web mainly just to sync files across my own devices so there will only be one user really which is myself. I was just going to use a self signed cert if thats secure enough.

I am quite new to linux so still learning my way around it, i decided to go with centos as it seems like the best server OS bar redhat which i believe centos is based on anyway. Not really done this before which is why i have been looking over so many different guides which all do things different and include some parts that others dont. I have now installed maria-db and created a database called owncloud and added a user for the db. Also installed some php modules and created a test one which seems to show up just fine so i know the firewall is letting the traffic through ok.

I installed owncloud from the link on there site https://download.owncloud.org/download/repositories/stable/owncloud/

Once i installed it there were some errors that showed up when i navigate to server.owncloud/owncloud it was saying unable to write to config directories. If i am honest i stopped when i got to this point but will try again today to find out whats going on.

 

[sn8ke]

Yeah CentOS is just a gratis version of Red Hat Enterprise except with all the references to Red Hat removed (there's still some laying around), lack of professional support, and it uses the CentOS repositories (and 3rd party) instead of official RHEL ones. Though you can add those too if you really wanted.

The error you get about writing to config directories is a permissions issue. You will need to give owner and executable (x) permissions to group/user apache (specific to CentOS, mine's www-data on a Debian server) using the chmod command. For example my output of $: ls -l is drwxrwxr-x 2 www-data www-data /config. Then reload the server and try again. Owncloud throws some errors you can ignore, for example the integrity check can be ignored as long as you know what the files actually are. My integrity check always fails because I've put custom files inside restricted folders. In the admin panel you can generate a list of files that failed the check to make sure. This happens a lot if you start to dig in and customize the design or code. The unsecure connection warning can be ignored until you sort out https.

A self signed cert is perfectly fine for your own use or small sites, but you can run into issues in some browsers that don't like them. Chrome is one, although there's ways around it. I only use Firefox, so in that you'll have to create a security exception when you try to use https. It's really only a problem for public sites where people would freak out about the "untrusted connection" warnings. I recommend just getting regular http up and running, and testing everything with some random files before configuring it for https. Here is some excellent info on configuring and generating self-signed certs: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10175812/how-to-create-a-self-signed-certificate-with-openssl#

Since you're new to GNU/Linux systems this is an excellent and easy resource to help getting to grips with all the commands, navigation, and what does what: https://linuxjourney.com/
Take a look specifically at the Command Line, Permissions, Filesystem, and Logging sections. Those will help a lot with setting things up.

What are you using to edit files? Are you just using ssh to install and configure things, or do you have a full desktop environment installed? GNOME or KDE for example. I ask because CentOS sometimes (depending on your install) only comes with vim for editing text via command line, and vim has a pretty steep learning curve in itself. I'd not recommend it for now as it can just make things more confusing. Nano is easier to use, but you might have to install it ($: sudo yum install nano). If you're using a full graphical desktop, gedit is a nice simple text editor and comes with GNOME, in KDE KWrite is very nice. Both have syntax highlighting to help with editing the owncloud files. In nano you'd have to check the manual to see how to configure it. Highlighting isn't necessary really though unless you plan to edit it a lot like if it were for a website.

Hope this helped a bit, but I've got to run. Here are some tips for configuring a CentOS server I had bookmarked: http://www.tecmint.com/things-to-do-after-minimal-rhel-centos-7-installation/

They actually have some tips for installing owncloud on it too.

 

[rufusbear]

Wow thank you so much for the in-depth response. Heaps of great information and links in there for me! Just reading the linux journey now and it really is a good insight. Will let you know how it goes!

Can i just ask one more thing, if you had the choice to use either centOS or Debian for a server to be used as either a file server or even an owncloud server what would you go for? These were the two i was looking at and i guess it all comes down to personal preference in the end which linux distro you lean towards. Im thinking i want to stick to one for now but the more i read the more im thinking do i go debian instead..

Thanks again for your help

 

[sn8ke]

Wow thank you so much for the in-depth response. Heaps of great information and links in there for me! Just reading the linux journey now and it really is a good insight. Will let you know how it goes!

Can i just ask one more thing, if you had the choice to use either centOS or Debian for a server to be used as either a file server or even an owncloud server what would you go for? These were the two i was looking at and i guess it all comes down to personal preference in the end which linux distro you lean towards. Im thinking i want to stick to one for now but the more i read the more im thinking do i go debian instead..

Thanks again for your help

You're welcome! If you have another question just post back.

I am actually more of a fan of CentOS/RHEL. I actually even run CentOS as a main desktop OS.
The only reason I am using Debian is because it was already installed, and since it was just going to sit there after setup, it didn't matter to me what it was. If it were a system I would be constantly working on I would choose CentOS. What is good about using CentOS is since it's just rebranded RHEL you are learning Red Hat standards and methods which will always come in handy since RHEL is the industry standard for servers, and there's industry certifications for it. SuSE is the standard in Europe but they are similar and both RPM based. The experience helps a lot if you work in I.T. or related fields or plan to get into them.