TrueNAS SCALE + Nextcloud + Collabora

[eab]

Hi everyone,

This is my first time running TrueNAS SCALE so please bear with me.
As the title of this thread suggests, I want to run a NAS with Nextcloud and Collabora. I had initially used Ubuntu 20.04 for this, but when I saw that TNS had these apps ready for install, I couldn't resist trying it out.

Now, I have been searching online for some solid documentation on how to setup these apps in TNS, but have come up short. No matter - it seems like this the initial installation was easy enough ... but I ran into a brick wall when I started trying to get my NC instance to use an SSL certificate. In Ubuntu I would just use certbot to do the magic, but on TNS I'm completely in the dark, and again, cannot find any official up-to-date documentation on best-practices etc...

This is what my Certificates area looks like right now - basically the default:

and I have these two apps installed:

I tried installing certbot inside of the NC instance, but the package does not seem to be available.

I would be glad if someone could help me over the hurdle, so that I can proceed to the next one.

 

[Bonnie Follweiler]

Good Morning.
Currently the Document Hub for TrueNAS is in the process of being updated.
The Certificates page is located at https://www.truenas.com/docs/scale/scaleuireference/credentials/certificatesscale/ the Collabora documentation is located at https://www.truenas.com/docs/scale/scaleuireference/apps/collabora/, and the NextCloud documentation is located at https://www.truenas.com/docs/scale/scaleuireference/apps/nextcloudscale/.

 

[Bonnie Follweiler]

Please note that, as of TrueNAS-SCALE-22.02.2, the certificate can be selected in the Certificate Configuration field located at Step 2 (Nextcloud Configuration) of the NextCloud Installation wizard.

 

[truecharts]

Besides the excellent guides from @Bonnie Follweiler we're also working at some cool streamline-ing for the Collabora-Nextcloud combination, during our current refactor of our Nextcloud App, to have more feature parity with the Nextcloud AiO container experience. :)

 

[DaSnipe]

There's also videos on setting up Certificates and Traefik for Truecharts on their YouTube, https://youtube.com/truecharts

 

[eab]

Thank you all for your replies.
Ok, I'm starting with baby steps here and just trying to get the localhost IP address URL to work with HTTPS. These are the General settings:

But I still get told that the URL (https://192.168.188.50) is 'Not Secure' :

 

[eab]

Apparently I should be using Traefik!? So I found what looks like an official How-To video on YouTube for installing it on TNS ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWNPfrKjawI ... only I don't have Traefik in my available Apps. So I found what looks like more official info on it here https://truecharts.org/docs/charts/stable/traefik/ and followed the link to the Quick Start Guide here https://truecharts.org/docs/charts/stable/traefik/#installing-the-chart but was met with this:

 

[eab]

I found this https://truecharts.org/docs/manual/SCALE Apps/Quick-Start Guides/installing-Traefik and clicked on 'Step 1' in the Reminder section ... again 'Page Not Found'. The video link is also broken :/
I guess the 'Step 1' was referring to this https://truecharts.org/docs/manual/SCALE Apps/Quick-Start Guides/Adding-TrueCharts so I followed the instructions to add a new chart and after waiting several minutes for the task to complete on my TNS the task failed with:

Code:

Error: [EINVAL] catalog_create.preferred_trains: core trains were not found in catalog.

I tried to add the catalog again, but without the 'core' train, and it worked. So now I have Traefik installed as per the video How-To. Unfortunately it won't even finish deploying due to:

Code:

Startup probe failed: HTTP probe failed with statuscode: 404

So far I haven't found any documentation, official or otherwise, which has actually worked. That doesn't give me a whole lot of assurance in the dependability and viability of the product - especially when thinking about using it productively in our business environment.

 

[indivision]

The "core" and "games" trains seem to have disappeared for me as well. I guess they are re-organizing things?

Coincidental also to your goals, something odd is up with the collabora-online chart. It's still in the same train "stable". But, it lost its icon within TrueNAS and shows (unique from other charts) as "Daily Prune" in github. Not sure what that means.

So far I haven't found any documentation, official or otherwise, which has actually worked. That doesn't give me a whole lot of assurance in the dependability and viability of the product - especially when thinking about using it productively in our business environment.

I've set it up a number of times. So, I can probably walk you through it.

The 404 error you list, where is that coming from?

Does Traefik show as "Active" in the TrueNAS GUI?

What ports are you using for the TrueNAS GUI and for Traefik?

 

[stavros-k]

found this https://truecharts.org/docs/manual/SCALE Apps/Quick-Start Guides/installing-Traefik and clicked on 'Step 1' in the Reminder section ... again 'Page Not Found'. The video link is also broken :/

We are just moved to a new document system/platform, to better find broken links etc.
For now we just have "ignored" broken link warnings until we have completely set things up.
Here is a working link of the docs https://truecharts.org/docs/manual/SCALE Apps/Quick-Start Guides/Adding-TrueCharts

I tried to add the catalog again, but without the 'core' train, and it worked. So now I have Traefik installed as per the video How-To. Unfortunately it won't even finish deploying due to:

Try resyncing your catalog and install the newer version of Traefik it should work, while we fixed a bug in HTTP probes, we discovered that there is something more to fix for SCALE in order for HTTP probes to work correctly. Currently we reverted to TCP probes.

The "core" and "games" trains seem to have disappeared for me as well. I guess they are re-organizing things?

Correct, splitting to core and games was back then an attempt to "reduce" the number of apps on each train so the if someone didn't want for example games, he wouldn't sync those apps too.

But the number of apps there was negligible and was only going to bring problems in the long run.

So it's all reverted back to stable/dependencies/incubator.

Coincidental also to your goals, something odd is up with the collabora-online chart. It's still in the same train "stable". But, it lost its icon within TrueNAS and shows (unique from other charts) as "Daily Prune" in github. Not sure what that means.

Collabora moved to dependency train, as it's mostly a dependency. Currently moving apps from a train to another, does not also remove them from the old catalog train. (It's a manual work)

So Collabora on stable is the "old" which has the old icon link (our previous doc system).

Daily Prune is an automatic job that removes old versions of each app from the catalog. Keeping only the last.

This pruning is in place because when Scale syncs the catalog, it parses each app, plus each version. If all apps had for example the last 3 versions.

It would take 3 times more for each sync. And as the Apps number grows, sync time will get a lot more.


* By parses I mean validates the file contains instructions for UI that is the correct structure.
This file can be from 1000-4000 lines. Depending on how many options we have on the UI.

So in very simple terms with Daily Prune:
(numberOfApps * linesOfUIFile)

Without the prune would be:
(numberOfApps * numberOfVersions * linesOfUIFile)

 

[indivision]

Collabora moved to dependency train, as it's mostly a dependency. Currently moving apps from a train to another, does not also remove them from the old catalog train. (It's a manual work)

So Collabora on stable is the "old" which has the old icon link (our previous doc system).

Daily Prune is an automatic job that removes old versions of each app from the catalog. Keeping only the last.

This pruning is in place because when Scale syncs the catalog, it parses each app, plus each version. If all apps had for example the last 3 versions.

It would take 3 times more for each sync. And as the Apps number grows, sync time will get a lot more.


* By parses I mean validates the file contains instructions for UI that is the correct structure.
This file can be from 1000-4000 lines. Depending on how many options we have on the UI.

So in very simple terms with Daily Prune:
(numberOfApps * linesOfUIFile)

Without the prune would be:
(numberOfApps * numberOfVersions * linesOfUIFile)

Thank you for this.

So, to get continuing updates for apps that changed trains the user needs to re-install via the version under the new train? Or, is there some way to transition which train the app is connected to?

 

[eab]

Ok, thanks for the replies. Here is where I am at currently ... unfortunately not much farther than before.

I have Traefik and NextCloud installed and running:

I can access Nextcloud via http://192.168.188.50:9001 or via http://my.external.IP:9001, although the external IP address URL shows the 'Access through untrusted domain' Nextcloud page ... which I wanted to fix by adding this URL to the NC config, buuuuuut the Pod Shell access is lacking nano/vi/vim. :/

Just for starters, I would like to

1. Get Nextcloud working using the external IP address (need to be able to edit the NC config file)
2. Get Nextcloud working using my domain (unfortunately it seems by DNS provider, dynv6.com, is down! )
3. Get the Nextcloud domain and external/internal IP URL's working with SSL/HTTPS

By the way, I access TNS via https://192.168.188.50:444 ... thought the SSL certificate 'is not valid' either ... and Traefik is accessed via http://192.168.188.50:9000.

 

[indivision]

You should be able to reach the goals you describe without having to nano in to the config.

I recommend taking a step back and following the tutorials DaSnipe linked to earlier, to the letter. That way you will have a working base to start from. Then you can adjust as needed, replace x service with a different one, etc. and have a better idea of what is and isn't working.

It would also be easier for someone here to help with a specific step in a guide if it can be assumed you followed all the other steps (so we can be on the same page).

 

[eab]

You should be able to reach the goals you describe without having to nano in to the config.

I recommend taking a step back and following the tutorials DaSnipe linked to earlier, to the letter. That way you will have a working base to start from. Then you can adjust as needed, replace x service with a different one, etc. and have a better idea of what is and isn't working.

It would also be easier for someone here to help with a specific step in a guide if it can be assumed you followed all the other steps (so we can be on the same page).

I followed both video tutorials which DaSnipe mentioned:

TrueNAS SCALE - Adding LetsEncrypt Certificates

Adding a LetsEncrypt certificate on TrueNAS SCALE is not very straight forward. This video showcases how to add a certificate to TrueNAS SCALE using Cloudfla...

www.youtube.com

TrueNAS SCALE - Installing Traefik using TrueCharts

This video shows a basic installation of Traefik as an "Ingress" reverse proxy on TrueNAS SCALE using the TrueCharts Community App Catalog.Due to complicatio...

www.youtube.com

I also followed this one:

TrueNAS SCALE - Setting up Traefik and Cloudflare

Some users want some more handholding for their Traefik setup than the quick-start guides are currently offering. This video by community member HeavyBullets...

youtu.be

However, the Nextcloud app doesn't show any Ingress option in it's editable settings.

The LetsEncrypt tutorial only deals with using Cloudflare services ... and up until yesterday afternoon I didn't have anything to do with Cloudflare. So out of desperation I opened a Cloudflare account and tried to add my already purchased domain - couldn't .. Cloudflare doesn't like my (Swiss) domain. So then I purchased a new domain in Cloudflare itself, followed the tutorials - still not working!
Either I'm doing things wrong, or the tutorials are not comprehensive enough - they do seem quite narrow in scope.

I would REALLY like to get this working, but I've been at this now for weeks and still can't get going what took me a couple hours with Ubuntu Server to setup.

 

[eab]

I removed the NC app completely and wanted to reinstall it, only this time when I searched for it in Available Applications I saw there were two of them - one from the Official repo (this is the one I had been using) an another from TureCharts. I decided to try out the one from TrueCharts and now ... TaaDaa! ... I can access the NextCloud app using the domain and the SSL cert is also working!

Odd though that the subdomain URL for NextCloud works, but that the root domain for the TNS host itself returns a 404 page not found message.

 

[stavros-k]

However, the Nextcloud app doesn't show any Ingress option in it's editable settings.

That's because you are using the Nextcloud from the iX-Systems.

Only TrueCharts Nextcloud has the ingress option

 

[eab]

I now have Nextcloud and Collabora installed (from TrueCharts). Both are 'Active' and reachable via their respective domains.
I am now trying to connect the Nextcloud Office app to the Collabora instance using https://domain:10105 but am getting 'Could not establish connection to the Collabora Online server.'.

The port number is the one in the Collabora app settings.
Any hints would be appreciated.

 

[stavros-k]

I now have Nextcloud and Collabora installed (from TrueCharts). Both are 'Active' and reachable via their respective domains.
I am now trying to connect the Nextcloud Office app to the Collabora instance using https://domain:10105 but am getting 'Could not establish connection to the Collabora Online server.'.

The port number is the one in the Collabora app settings.
Any hints would be appreciated.

If you are using Ingress for collabora, (which is reccomended) it should be `https://subdomain.yourdomain.com` without ports.

 

[eab]

If you are using Ingress for collabora, (which is reccomended) it should be `https://subdomain.yourdomain.com` without ports.

Hey thanks! Yes, I was using Ingress and the domain URL without the port number worked!
I now have a working NextCloud + Collabora server running

 

[eab]

Last thing ... I almost forgot ... I need to get DDNS working because the server is behind my home internet. I saw there is a ddns-updater app available which works with Cloudflare. I found the documentation here https://github.com/qdm12/ddns-updater#setup. Has anyone set this up before and are there any pointers/tips which would be good to know?

(BTW: when I am done with all this I intend to write up a shiny How-To )