First Nextcloud Deployement - Build Questions

🚧 Installation
#1

Greetings.

As the title states this would be my first deployment using Nextcloud for a company of about 50 - 60 people that tend to be very security focused. These people avoid WhatsApp/Skype or Apps in general as a means of communications so they use text seldomly.

I was wondering what would be the server requirements for using a NextCloud Hub. I have to make it a small build since there is no rack, and they want to place it on a shelf. The storage space is roughly a 10 TB HDD that I have to purchase. It will be used to store a large amount of docs/excel/scanned images/pdfs and jpg that people should be able to pull of the server, or talk about and edit at the same time.
Questions:

Should I buy NAS?
Do I need RAID 1? So 2 x HDD 10 TB?
Operatings System and installation of the hub - a good guide to follow?
Requirements to use the videochat function from the hub?
Is a Ryzen 5 3600 enough? (I’ll probably go with a mini-ITX case)
What is the recommended RAM for such a build?
Can all of their email attachments (which they keep at the moment on a mail server hosted on a cpanel) be backed up / or sync-ed to the cloud from outlook or the server?

If you could give me a few hints as I have to start taking action this Monday, I would greatly appreciate it.

#2

Consider doing it all in one box like this

Get at least 32GB RAM (can have 64GB), two M.2 SSD to run the VMs on (256/512 GB each, in RAID1), four HDD (maybe RAID10). Maybe 10Gbps network card… Should be under CDN$4K…
It will run 2-3 VMs easy (Nextcloud, Office, coturn, for example), have a lot of storage.

If more power/VMs is needed consider stepping up

#3

Thanks for the reply. I’d like to go a little into it, as I am a tad confused.

These seem needlessly expensive… - the second one clearly is out of their budget for this as I have to buy 2 HDD that will add another 600 euro to the costs.

I can agree with having 2 M2 SSD for the OS.
And do they really need the 10Gbps network card for pdfs and word files - when I imagine mostly 1-2 groups of 5-6 people will be working at a time? And for the seldom video call that will happen to clarify the files? Again, I asked and no more than 2-3 video calls taking place at once using the hub would happen.

  • Is there a need for 2-3 VMs?
  • Also HowTo: Setup Nextcloud Talk with TURN server - coturn for what?
  • Also why do I need office? What would I be doing with it?
    Finally, building a machine like this - motherboard + case + ryzen + 16 gb ram - I estimate it would go up to about 700 euro.
#4

Yes, they are.
And for this very reason I’d not recommend them for home.
But for a business of 50-60 people I think just the convenience factor justifies the price.

What components you include is up to you. The referenced CDN$4K number was for a maxed out configuration with four NAS 10TB drives, two 500GB M.2 SATA drives, 64GB RAM and Intel 2-port 10Gbps network card. I put one together just before COVID lockdown (using 14TB drives).

RE: Office
If users are especially security-minded, keep the files on the server at all times.
Office - OnlyOffice or Collabora - will allow them to be edited without being downloaded…

RE: Coturn.
If video conference attendants come from behind firewalls (e.g. at home), you’ll need it…

If you feel comfortable doing this yourself, look into FreeNAS/TrueNAS.
Or you can put together a mITX box with a few drives and run ESXi off a USB stick…

Don’t forget about backups…