MIGRATE TO NEXTCLOUD AIO
TWEAK NEXTCLOUD SETTINGS
EXPAND NEXTCLOUD’S CAPABILITIES
IF, LIKE US, you’ve previously run Nextcloud using a thirdparty container, there’s a lot to recommend switching to Nextcloud AIO, not least the effortless integration of all its services. However, there is one wrench in the works you need to consider: Migrating your users from your current instance to your new one.
AS ADMINISTRATOR, you should go through the Administration settings, which let you set up system-wide defaults for all users. The “Overview” screen provides a shortcut to the Nextcloud AIO interface for adding, updating, and removing components. It’s also the place to review security and setup warnings—you’re prompted to set up an email server so Nextcloud can notify users by email, for instance. This can be achieved by visiting the “Basic settings” section, while a trip to “Security” enables you to force all users to log in with two-factor authentication, a recommended step for a public-facing service such as yours. You can also enable server-side encryption, but note the performance penalty. Most other settings here— including the Antivirus for Files feature (assuming you enabled ClamAV during setup) —should be left as they are.
NEXTCLOUD HUB is almost infinitely customizable thanks to its support for plugins, better known as apps. Select “Apps” under your profile menu to see that dozens come pre-installed with your Nextcloud instance—the “Administrative Settings > System” screen is one example of this (it’s the Monitoring app).
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The following assumes you’re installing Nextcloud AIO alongside your Nextcloud installation, which runs perfectly in parallel. This means giving the AIO instance its own dedicated domain or subdomain. Once set up, create users for each person you’re migrating. Navigate to “Apps” on your existing Nextcloud instance to search for and install “User Migration.” Once in place, a new “Data Migration” option appears under “Personal Settings.” Each user must access this and decide if they want to migrate everything—including data—or just a subset of their profile. Once exported to a file, which is stored in your current Nextcloud instance’s root directory, you can install “Data Migration” in the new AIO instance and then each user must choose the “Import” option under “Data Migration,” and upload the exported file.
Select “Sharing” to finetune Nextcloud’s sharing behavior—you can, for example, force users to set expiration dates for shared links, set default shared permissions, and restrict access to other servers. Visit “Theming” to personalize the look and feel, not just of your web interface, but of any supported clients, too (you can also prevent users overriding these settings).
There’s a wide range of categories in the left-hand menu—you can add social sharing buttons for files, warnings for users when they exceed a certain quota, add protection against brute force attacks, and integrate Nextcloud into other services, such as file viewers, translation services, other online apps (like the Draw.io diagrams editor), and more. Think of all the services offered on your phone through Google, Apple, and various third parties, and imagine having access to similar services—from maps and phone trackers to formcreation tools—without having to worry about who can access your data.
IN THESE DAYS
of password breaches and encroaching government agencies, how much do you trust any third party with your data? Cloud storage is baked into Windows with Microsoft’s OneDrive, but despite the generous 1TB of storage space with any subscription, how sure can you be that your data is truly beyond the reach of bad actors?
Depending on how much data you’ve got stored in Nextcloud, this may be impractical—if your data runs into the tens of gigabytes or more, you’re better off simply exporting everything except files and deleted files, then porting these across manually. The simplest way to do this, once you’ve imported your account settings, is to log out of your current instance on the Nextcloud desktop app, then log into your new instance. When prompted to set up the new sync folder, point it to your current Nextcloud folder on your desktop, and it starts synching back to the new instance. Once everything’s been ported across, remove the old instance, and delete its data folders to free up space.
If you’d like to grant limited access to certain parts of the administrative settings, use “Administration “Privileges”— add users to trusted groups, then assign those groups to specific settings. You can also find dedicated settings for each of the optional components, from the full-text search to Groupware features, as well as Office and Talk.