Best way to deploy NextCloud 16 for a Managed Service Provider (multiple clients)?

šŸš§ Installation
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Hi,

I already read here some topics about my question, but all where related with ā€œoldā€ NextCloud versions. Now that v16 has been released I wanted to know what is the best way to be a NextCloud Managed Service Provider to multiple clients.

In a simple way, I have multiple clients and each client is a different company. I want to offer them a hosted fully managed NextCloud service. So, to do that do I need one NextCloud installation for each client or can I just buy a big server, make one NextCloud installation and inside that single installation add multiple clients/companies.

Of course, privacy is a major factor and since they are different clients/companies they cannot have access to others files or users.

Thanks

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Hello, and welcome to Nextcloud!

Iā€™m not sure if you found this thread while searching, but itā€™s still fairly recent, and I donā€™t think NC16 changes things substantially on this front.

Building separate Nextcloud installations (usually on Docker or similar, behind a shared reverse-proxy) is viable, but not usually worth the duplication of effort. Youā€™re likely going to get similar results by disabling sharing with other groups, so that users from different companies donā€™t show up in suggestions.

There are a few apps and settings that canā€™t be changed independently, but thatā€™s the exception rather than the rule, and Iā€™ve yet to come across a show-stopper. Your mileage may vary.

Best of luck to you!
mactrent

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that depends on your client needs. or?

if you want to automate your installation:

or on docker

both could be modified to install multiple instances of nextcloud to one server.

and what about kubernetes?

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@nqserv and the third one:

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Personally I would run different installations in separate containers on one machine. Docker is an obvious choice but I personally prefer Ubuntuā€™s LXC (i.e. LXD) as itā€™s as fast as metal whereas Docker has overhead. You can create just one container and clone it so easily using ā€˜lxc copy ā€¦ā€™ that the effort is less than trivial.

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Totally agree about LXD. Iā€™ve got a small hosting system thatā€™ll run in as little as 200MB of ram (when using SQLite) and I use LXD for testing the system with some scripts that set up the Ubuntu server system automatically. Adding Nextcloud to any vhost, with itā€™s own uid:gid, is just a ā€œaddncā€ script invocation away. Also ideal for those who want a local mail server for Nextcloud in a LXD container on their desktop machineā€¦

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Every containerization tech have an overhead. It however may be less noticeable than Docker.

For example just like a ā€œrealā€ solid container takes more resources than itā€™s contents verses a plastic bag that barely takes up more resources than itā€™s stored contents.

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if his client are only uploading some picture from their mobiles they wonā€™t see the difference between docker and lxc. i guess.

if his client are big corporations, internatiol players, i would still suggest a kubernetes cluster.

@nqserv about what are we talking here?

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If you wanted to (and didnā€™t mind maintaining several Nextcloud instances), you could install Nextcloud in multiple folders or subdomains on the same host. This wouldnā€™t require any virtualisation, and they could share the same database and memory caching instances.

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Yes you are right, but with LXC it is not user noticeable. You have to run analytical tests and take careful measurements. I will change my statement to ā€œalmost as fast as bare metalā€ as I donā€™t want to create distractionary thread here.

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