How to manage and configure HPB client push for Nextcloud snap

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Configure HPB client push for Nextcloud snap

Developers GitHub: GitHub - nextcloud/notify_push: Update notifications for nextcloud clients

This app attempts to solve the issue where Nextcloud clients have to periodically check the server if any files have been changed. In order to keep sync snappy, clients wants to check for updates often, which increases the load on the server.

With many clients all checking for updates a large portion of the server load can consist of just these update checks.

By providing a way for the server to send update notifications to the clients, the need for the clients to make these checks can be greatly reduced.

Update notifications are provided on a “best effort” basis, updates might happen without a notification being sent and a notification can be sent even if no update has actually happened. Clients are advised to still perform periodic checks for updates on their own, although these can be run on a much lower frequency.

FQDN / trusted proxy configuration

Verify FDQN is correctly configured and trusted proxies are correctly set up.
See Hosts & FQDN configuration

Install

A. Install the Nextcloud app

Install the “Client Push” app via the App Store or via the cli:
sudo nextcloud.occ app:enable notify_push

B. Create the systemd unit

  1. Create and open a new systemd unit file via sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/notify_push.service and paste the following template in:
[Unit]
Description = Push daemon for Nextcloud clients
After = snap.nextcloud.nextcloud-fixer.service

[Service]
Environment=SOCKET_PATH=/tmp/snap-private-tmp/snap.nextcloud/tmp/sockets/notify_push.sock
Environment=DATABASE_URL=mysql://nextcloud:CHANGEME@localhost/nextcloud?socket=/tmp/snap-private-tmp/snap.nextcloud/tmp/sockets/mysql.sock
Environment=REDIS_URL=redis+unix:///tmp/snap-private-tmp/snap.nextcloud/tmp/sockets/redis.sock
ExecStartPre=/bin/bash -c 'while /bin/systemctl is-active --quiet snap.nextcloud.nextcloud-fixer.service; do sleep 10; done'
TimeoutStartSec=15m
ExecStart=/var/snap/nextcloud/current/nextcloud/extra-apps/notify_push/bin/ARCHITECTURE/notify_push /var/snap/nextcloud/current/nextcloud/config/config.php
Type=notify
User=root

[Install]
WantedBy = multi-user.target
  1. Adjust the template with some system configurations:
  • Replace ARCHITECTURE with one of the following, depending on your system. Some examples:
    • x86_64
    • aarch64
    • armv7
  • Replace CHANGEME in DATABASE_URL with the config value dbpassword.
    Get via cli with: sudo nextcloud.occ config:system:get dbpassword.

C. Start & enable the systemd unit

  1. sudo systemctl start notify_push
  2. sudo systemctl enable notify_push

D. Enable the reverse proxy

Enable the reverse proxy configuration for notify_push using the following command:
sudo snap set nextcloud http.notify-push-reverse-proxy=true

E. Setup the Nextcloud app

Setup the app via the following command:
sudo nextcloud.occ notify_push:setup https://cloud.example.com/push
Replacing cloud.example.com with your instance domain.

Verify client push operation

Verify notify_push metrics using occ commands

View client push metrics:

sudo nextcloud.occ notify_push:metrics

example output

Active connection count: 1
Active user count: 1
Total connection count: 10
Total database query count: 2
Events received: 12
Messages sent: 0
Messages sent (file): 0
Messages sent (notification): 0
Messages sent (activity): 0
Messages sent (custom): 0

Notify push self test

testing notify push functionality:

sudo nextcloud.occ notify_push:self-test

result should be something like:

âś“ redis is configured
âś“ push server is receiving redis messages
âś“ push server can load mount info from database
âś“ push server can connect to the Nextcloud server
âś“ push server is a trusted proxy
âś“ push server is running the same version as the app

Notify push logging and debugging

Debug option for notify_push

sudo nextcloud.occ notify_push:log debug

and

sudo journalctl -eu notify_push

By default, the push server only logs warnings, you can temporarily change the log level with an occ command

sudo nextcloud.occ notify_push:log <level>

Where level is error, warn, info, debug or trace, or restore the log level to the previous value using

sudo nextcloud.occ notify_push:log --restore

Uninstall

A. Stop & disable the systemd unit

  1. sudo systemctl stop notify_push
  2. sudo systemctl disable notify_push

B. Uninstall the Nextcloud app

Uninstall the “Client Push” app via the App Store or via the cli:
sudo nextcloud.occ app:remove notify_push

C. Disable the Reverse Proxy

Disable the reverse proxy configuration for notify_push using the following command:
sudo snap set nextcloud http.notify-push-reverse-proxy=false

Troubleshooting

  • Ensure you configured overwrite.cli.url if required. Otherwise you may not be able to continue the setup.
  • Ensure you added 127.0.0.1 to trusted_proxies in config.php:
'trusted_proxies' =>
array (
  0 => '127.0.0.1',
),

Configuration when using Caddy as a reverse proxy

Nextcloud

When using Caddy as a reverse proxy in front of you nextcloud instance, you also have to take this into account: the trusted_proxies array must contain all IP addresses in the chain that will forward connections to the server.

In the following example, where Caddy and the Nextcloud snap are both running as containers on an Incus server, and the Caddy container has two network interfaces:

  1. one physical (eth0) connected to the home network (with range 192.168.0.1/24),
  2. and another one (enp4s0) to the bridge network (incusbr0 with range 10.177.116.1/24).
+------------------------------------------+----------------------------------+
|                   NAME                   |            IPV4                  |
+------------------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| caddy-container                          | 10.177.116.10 (eth0)             |
|                                          | 192.168.0.25 (enp4s0)            |
+------------------------------------------+----------------------------------+
| nextcloud-container                      | 10.177.116.11 (eth0)             |
+------------------------------------------+----------------------------------+

You would need to add the following to the trusted_proxies array:

$ sudo nextcloud.occ config:system:get trusted_proxies
127.0.0.1
10.177.116.10
192.168.0.25
<public-IP>

Caddy

Besides that, the <public-IP> needs to be in the Caddy’s trusted_proxies:

Following the example above, this should be added to the Caddyfile:

{
        servers {
                trusted_proxies static <public-IP>/32
        }
}

[!TIP]
Set Nextcloud Talk push notification in config.php to enable notification

Setting Talk push notification

edit config.php and add/edit line in config.php

'has_internet_connection' => 'true',

or issue command on host:

sudo nextcloud.occ config:system:set has_internet_connection --value="true"