9 posts tagged with "optional"

Two of the oldest options of this guide got a complete rewrite: Pi-hole works again and the VPN server is now WireGuard with a web interface instead of PiVPN.

The Pi-hole script had to be deprecated a while ago because too much had changed in the upstream project, and it simply broke. It now runs in a Docker container, which means that it no longer patches a third-party installer, no longer installs lighttpd next to your Apache and no longer scatters files all over your host system. Network wide ads- and tracker-blocking for every device in your home network is back - and unbound as recursive DNS server is still part of the deal, so your DNS queries stay yours instead of being handed to Google or Cloudflare.

The VPN server got the bigger change. PiVPN was always a bit of a detour: it installed WireGuard on the host, and every new device meant another trip to the command line to generate a profile and print a QR code into your terminal. The new WireGuard option runs wg-easy in a container and gives you a web interface in your local network instead. Adding a device is now a click, the QR code is right there on the screen, and you can see at a glance which of your devices are connected.

Both containers get updated automatically together with your server during the regular updates, so there is nothing left to maintain by hand. The separate Pi-hole update cronjob is gone as well.

If you already have the old Pi-hole or PiVPN installed, the scripts will notice and tell you exactly which commands to run to remove them first. Please be aware that this means starting fresh: your old blocklists and settings and your old VPN profiles don't carry over, so plan a few minutes to set up your devices again in the new web interface.

You can find the instructions here: Pi-hole and WireGuard

AppAPI is a new option in the Nextcloud Configuration menu that prepares your server for External Apps.

Some of the most interesting things that Nextcloud can do today don't ship as ordinary apps anymore. Speech-to-text, the Assistant with a local language model, translations, context chat - they all run in their own containers next to Nextcloud instead of inside it. To install any of them from the app store, Nextcloud first needs someone who is allowed to start those containers, and that is exactly what the new script sets up for you.

The script walks you through it. When it asks for a deployment method, choose HaRP - the current one that Nextcloud recommends. Everything else - installing Docker, detecting your GPU, configuring Apache, registering the daemon - happens on its own, and the script offers to run a full deploy test at the end so you know it actually works before you install your first app.

A word of caution: the AI apps in particular are hungry. Each one wants its own container, several GB of RAM and a lot of CPU time. On a home server without a GPU they will run, but don't expect miracles. And if you don't plan to use External Apps at all, simply don't select AppAPI - it gets disabled automatically then.

You can find the instructions how to configure AppAPI on your server here: click here

Imaginary is a new option in the Additional Apps menu that takes over the generation of previews in your Nextcloud and replaces the Preview Generator.

Scrolling through a folder full of photos should be a pleasure and not a waiting game. Imaginary makes exactly that happen: your thumbnails appear noticeably faster in the Files app, in the Photos app and on your phone. And it does so while replacing Imagick, which was not only slow but also had a track record of security issues.

The best part is what disappears along with it. No more cronjob that grinds through your library at night, and no more mountain of pre-generated previews eating up your disk space - the script offers to clean all of that up for you. Previews are now simply created the moment you need them.

You can find the instructions how to install Imaginary on your server here: click here

Talk Recording is a new option that comes with the High-Performance backend for Nextcloud Talk and lets you record your calls right inside Nextcloud Talk.

Not everyone can always be there. A colleague on vacation, a family member in another timezone, or simply someone who had to leave halfway through - with Talk Recording you just hit record and everyone else can catch up later. Meetings, workshops, family calls: whatever you want to keep, you can keep.

And it stays yours. The recording is rendered on your own server and lands as a video file directly in the Nextcloud of whoever started it, ready to be shared with the others. No external service, no cloud provider, no third party ever sees your call.

You can find the instructions how to install Talk Recording on your server here: click here

Jellyfin is a media server for your own server and now available as a new option now. It is a full alternative to PLEX Media Server.

Jellyfin turns your movies, series, music and photos into a beautiful library with cover art, descriptions and everything else you'd expect - ready to enjoy on your TV, phone, tablet or browser, at home and on the go. And the best part: Jellyfin is completely free and open source. No account, no subscription, no cloud service in between. Features that other media servers reserve for their paying customers are simply included here.

Your media stays exactly where it is and Jellyfin only ever reads from it. Your library gets its own encrypted address and is protected against unwanted visitors right from the start, so you can just lean back and press play.

You can find the instructions how to install Jellyfin on your server here: click here

In the recent past, we've created three new articles that you might be interested in.

The first one is an addition to Nextcloud that allows you to edit/comment PDF files. See this article

Second is a FAQ article about how to use MusicBrainz Picard to edit the metadata of your Audio/Music files. You can find it here: click here

The last is an article about a script that allows you to shrink your database if it got too big which may happen over time if you are using the external storage app that is part of the Nextcloud-Nas-Guide. See this article

In order to make your server as secure as possible, you might consider blocking all access from outside your home network. To be able to connect to your server yourself from outside your home network afterwards, you'll need to establish a VPN connection to your home network first before you can access your server. We've implemented the whole process in a way that automatic certificate renewal via Let's Encrypt will still work after blocking the access to your server which is usually a limitation of this process but not by following this guide. Additionally, scan.nexcloud.com will still be able to scan your Nextcloud regarding security problems as well as observatory.mozilla.org.

You can find the instructions how to only allow access to your server from inside your home network here: click here

If you've followed this guide, you will have configured automatic updates. Those get executed every saturday at 18:00 and will cause a reboot of your server afterwards. This is especially problematic if you've configured Pi-hole as your local DNS server for your home network since any DNS request will not work for as long as the server reboots and the Pi-hole isn't reachable. Also, if you've installed Pi-hole it will try to update itself every saturday at 19:30 which causes the same effect if an update is available.

To fix this, you can change the time when the updates get executed. Here is how to do this (instructions)

There are two new options available that make your server even more secure.

You can find the instructions how and why you should enable the Firewall on your server here: click here