The user limit has been reached and the user was not created

Hi! Since (and maybe a bit before?) updating to 25.0.0, I can’t add any more users, which is a serious issue for us right now. The error message is the following:

The user limit has been reached and the user was not created.

We’re currently at 138 users, which should not be and never was a problem.

I am running neither AIO/Docker, nor Nextcloud Enterprise.
Only the regular, normal, stable, FOSS version i manually installed myself on my own server.

Adding works neither via web nor via occ. Error message is the same.

I also had these 2 config options show up in my config.php:

  'one-click-instance' => true,
  'one-click-instance.user-limit' => 100,

they are not documented anywhere (web docs or documented config), so i don’t know where they come from or what they mean. Changing the user limit or disabling the first option does nothing unfortunately. Removing both also has no effect.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, this is really halting our operations right now since we can’t onboard new members. Thanks in advance!

System Data:
Nextcloud 25.0.0.18 Build 2022-10-18T08:34:52+00:00 20ea9a25353129b56d46951fe7d23939665ab2b2
FreeBSD 12.2-RELEASE-p12 (Jail)
PHP 7.4.32
mysql 8.0.30
nginx 1.22.0
redis 7.0.5

Sorry i also do not really understand the function of user limit . Maybe someone can explain it for the AGPL software nextcloud/server. I think user limit makes no sense.

But i found this code for you.

a.) change to

'one-click-instance' => false,

or increase one-click-instance.user-limit

But it makes all no really sense with the source code. But i am not a programmer. Sorry.

Hi, see GitHub - freenas/iocage-plugin-nextcloud: Artifact file(s) for nextcloud iocage plugin

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@devnull i already wrote that that didn’t work for me

@szaimen interesting, this wasn’t the case before though, was it? How could i have added more than 100 users otherwise?

Honestly I dont know. The limit is there since around a year IIRC.

Oof. We’re just a small student project, we don’t have that kind of money. Guess i’ll have to look for other options

Feel free to request a quote. It is possible that they will give you a license for free if you have good reasons.

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Alright, i’ve done so. Let’s see. I’ll keep this open and post a resolving comment once i have a reply

What? When has Nextcloud ever had a user limit?

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@szaimen

This appliance is developed and maintained by Nextcloud GmbH and meant for private, or small business use. This is why the appliance is limited to 100 users.

GitHub - freenas/iocage-plugin-nextcloud: Artifact file(s) for nextcloud iocage plugin

→ But the link was freenas → truenas? and not AIO and not FOSS version → Or does it belong together?

Unfortunately, I still do not understand how this can be related to the license. Why a limit of 100 (138?) users? How should that work with AGPL? Or is the software not AGPL? Maybe someone can explain this. Besides, it must be programmed in software somehow. Which license keeps me from changing this somehow?

I have no problem with the fact that there is an enterprise license. But this will probably not be used for > 100 or >138 users and has a completely different goal (e.g. support), right?

Strange values, 100 users, 136 users…

My theory: If 100 uers got assigned 10 GBytes of storage each, you will need a 1 TB disk as data storage. The 101st user will exceed the storage size. So more disk space will be assigned than available. - Could this initiate the error message?

I’m not an expert. But afaik the AGPL does not does not prohibit you from adding paid features, as long as you release the source code Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU Licenses - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation Of course someone could then the fork the project and release it without restrictions…

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@bb77
That’s right. But you don’t even have to fork the project. It only needs someone to write where this lock is coded in the source code, if this place exists in the source code at all. Maybe it’s all just a misunderstanding.

@Mornsgrans

I don’t think so. I do think that you can also overbook storage. On a few systems I have few users but the quota would far exceed the total storage. As a test you can set the memory to unlimited. Why would Nextcloud then come up with 1GB or 10GB as the default value for each user and e. g. 1TB for 100 users? This makes little sense. Can you change the quota to test ist?

Makes perfect sense to me because enterprise subscriptions start at a 100 users. And the 136 users were probably added before the limit was introduced.

As far as I understand it, this has nothing to do with the license or how much storage space you add to a user. It’s a simple limit on how much users you can add to their appliances, such as Nextcloud AIO or the TrueNAS plugins.

You would probably at least have to revert the changes after every upgrade, if it’s that easy as just replacing a file or changing a line of code.

It has to be in the source code, otherwise it would probably violate the AGPL. But again, I’m no lawyer… :wink:

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@Mornsgrans our users don’t have storage assigned to them, this is just a licensing issue, which the error notification also says

Apparently the FreeNAS plugin (which i apparently did use all those years ago, i didn’t remember it because i managed it manually for ages now) is now licensed like the AIO install.

@bb77 is right that i added the 138 users in the previous version where there was no limit. Then, the 100 user limit got introduced with a package update.

I do think it’s not very nice to pull a bait-and-switch like that, removing functionality and putting it behind a paywall with an update. But it is what it is an we’re going to have to deal with it.

I might pursue what @devnull is saying and try to patch out the limit if i can find it, as long as that doesn’t violate any ToS or Licenses

@GladOSkar
Sorry i do not use Freenas or Truenas, … But can you explain your installation? Do you really use this? I found this guide with iocage. Do you really use iocage (jail manager)? I do not know it. Perhaps the problem lies somewhere else entirely.

Please post your software components and the sources, installation guides, documentations, …

Yes, as my previous comment says. I used the plugin to create the iocage jail, and since then only managed the jail manually. But when i did an OS upgrade of the jail recently, it updated the plugin as well and therefore added the user limit.

The check seems to be in lib/private/Support/Subscription/Registry.php:161:delegateIsHardUserLimitReached(), but it looks like it would use the configuration options. I really don’t understand why they wouldn’t work

For iocage i found no restriction: license

Yeah of course, this has nothing to do with iocage, iocage is just the jail manager (like docker is for containers).