Run Nextcloud for FREE on Red Hat’s Developer Sandbox (OpenShift)
Hey Nextcloud community!
I wanted to share a project I’ve been working on: a zero-privilege Nextcloud deployment that allows people to test Nextcloud on Red Hat’s free Developer Sandbox. No credit card. No complex setup. Just Nextcloud running on enterprise-grade Kubernetes.
What is the Developer Sandbox?
Red Hat offers a completely free way to test drive the OpenShift environment for developers:
| Resource | Allocation |
|---|---|
| RAM | 14 GB |
| Storage | 40 GB |
| CPU | 3 cores |
| Duration | 30 days |
| Cost | $0 — no credit card required |
It runs the latest OpenShift version (currently 4.20.x, based on Kubernetes 1.33.5), running on AWS. This is the same platform that runs mission-critical containers and virtualized workloads for many Fortune 500 companies and governments.
What Makes This Deployment Special?
OpenShift is designed for secure multi-tenency. Most Nextcloud-on-Kubernetes guides require elevated privileges (anyuid, privileged SCCs). This deployment runs under OpenShift’s most restrictive security policy — the same constraints applied to untrusted multi-tenant workloads:
Runs as non-root with random UID- No privilege escalation
- Seccomp profile enforced
- Nextcloud Office (Collabora) pre-configured
One-Command Deployment
git clone https://github.com/ryannix123/nextcloud-on-openshift.git
cd nextcloud-on-openshift/nextcloud-simple-custom
./deploy-nextcloud-simple.sh deploy quay.io/ryan_nix/nextcloud-openshift:latest \
nextcloud-$NAMESPACE.apps.sandbox.x8i5.p1.openshiftapps.com
That’s it. MariaDB, Redis, persistent storage, TLS — all configured automatically.
Auto-Hibernation (It’s a Feature!)
The Sandbox hibernates deployments after ~12 hours of inactivity. Your data persists in the PVCs — only the pods stop. Wake everything up with:
oc scale deployment --all --replicas=1
Links
- GitHub: https://github.com/ryannix123/nextcloud-on-openshift
- Pre-built Image:
quay.io/ryan_nix/nextcloud-openshift:latest - Developer Sandbox Signup: https://developers.redhat.com/developer-sandbox
- OpenShift Command Line tool includes Kubectl: https://developers.redhat.com/learn/openshift/download-and-install-red-hat-openshift-cli
Who Is This For?
- Learners wanting to explore Nextcloud + Red Hat OpenShift
- Developers testing Nextcloud apps or integrations
- Anyone curious about running Nextcloud on enterprise hardened Kubernetes
What’s Included
- Nextcloud 32.x
- MariaDB + Redis for performance
- Nextcloud Office (Collabora CODE) — edit documents in-browser
- 4 persistent volumes for data, config, apps, and database
- Automatic WOPI configuration
- CentOS Stream 9 + PHP 8.3 + nginx
Give it a try and let me know what you think! Happy to answer questions or take feedback. Pull requests are always welcome.
Disclaimer: I work for Red Hat, but this is a personal project, not an official Red Hat product. The Developer Sandbox is a free service to test OpenShift, available to anyone.