HowTo: Change / Move data directory after installation

[scooter]

After installing nextcloud using the packaged VM from Tech and Me, I realized that it doesn’t offer the opportunity to move the data directory during installation. The one I used also comes preconfigured as a 20GB disk VHD. Immediately after installation I realized the need to move the data directory to a larger virtual disk. Michalng’s guide tougher with his personal assistance made it all possible as described here:

How to move data directory on VM installation under Windows 8.1 host PC

Hmm, the /dev/... folder contains the direct hardware connectors, you shouldn’t be able to store something there and cannot copy data FROM there. From there you can mount drives the the actual mount points, which are/should be located inside /mnt/.... You could check your fstab where the drive is really mounted to or add the related entry to mount it to a desired location: cat /etc/fstab Or use df to get an overview: root@micha:~# df Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounte…

During that exercise I discovered that under nextcloud 13.1, it wasn’t necessary to modify the oc_storages table. Once a new entry is added to config.php for the datadirectory (described below), after exiting maintenance mode, oc_storages is automatically updated with the new data directory path added.

Since I’m new to Ubuntu and Nextcloud, I drafted a guide using actual defaults and variables for my installation, which is posted below. Note: This is assuming a new installation with NO DATA other than files & folders installed by default.

Move Data to New Directory Location
1. Create New Data Directory & Mount Point

mkdir /mnt/ncdata # create new directory.
sudo mount /dev/sdb /mnt/ncdata # mount new directory [FN1].
sudo chmod 0770 /mnt/ncdata # change permissions to 770.

Note: Default Permissions is set to 0770 on original data directory in Nextcloud 13 [FN2].

Get list of all attached drives and mountpoints to confirm to confirm that sdb mount point /mnt/ncdata was created.

lsblk # list blocks
dvices: lshw -class disk -short # confirm disks
fdisk -l # confirm partition tables

2. Modify Owner for New Data Directory

chown -R www-data:www-data /mnt/ncdata # change new directory owner.
cd /mnt/ncdata # change to the mount directory.

3. Copy Folders & Files to New Data Directory

cd /var/ncdata # change to new directory.
rsync -av . /mnt/ncdata # use resync to copy files.
ls -a # confirm that files were copied.

Note: As an alternative you can use Webmin File Manager or other file utility to copy files to new location and confirm Owner and Rights settings.

4. Turn Maintenance Mode On

sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ maintenance:mode --on

5. Edit fstab (File System Tables) Files
Get drive & mount point information.

blkid

Copy UUID for /dev/sdb to update fstab (Recommend using the UUID instead of device Name.) [FN3]

Unmount new drive.

umount /mnt/ncdata

Edit fstab

sudo vim /etc/fstab

Add new line at bottom for the new drive mount point. Use the UUID for the disk ID.

UUID=02C22F1539D54F25 /dev/ncdata ext4 0 2

Save and exit. (Note: UUID is a dummy – use your actual drive ID.)

6. Edit config.php File to Add New datadirectory

sudo vim /var/www/nextcloud/config/config.php

Modify ‘datadirectory’ line to add new mount point/directory. Use Insert key to start editing:

‘datadirectory’ => ‘/mnt/ncdata’,

Be sure to include single quotes, also preserve the coma at end of the line.
Hit Esc to end editing mode, save & exit: :wq

Note: After updating the cofig.php file, the new data directory entry will be automatically added to the oc_storages table if the table was not updated before the config file. [FN4]

7. Turn Maintenance Mode Off

sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ maintenance:mode –off

8. Exit & Re-Start Nextcloud

Test logging in using browser.

FOOTNOTES
[1] The device “sdb” was used to create the mount point since the drive will be used exclusively for the Nextcloud VM data. Change as required to match installation.

[2] Default Permissions for the data directory on original install of Nextcloud 13 is set to 0770. Some other versions of Nextcloud may use a different permission classification. Confirm for your installation.

[3] It is recommended to use the UUID for a storage drive rather than the mount/path.

The advantage of using the UUID is that it is independent from the device number the operating system gives your hard disk (such as sdb1, etc). If another hard disk is added to the system the OS could change the drive label (sda, sdb, sda1, etc). In which case, the drive would no longer be associated with the intended mount point for a given device. However, if the UUIDs, the mount point will maintain its association with the specific drive/device.

[4] When the ‘datadirectory’ line is changed in config.php the newly added data directory path is automatically added to the oc_storages table in the nextcloud_db database. It does not delete the original path which may be left in place.