Configuring S3 and OpenStack Swift as Primary Storage

[MariusBluem]

Currently it is only possible to mount S3, Google Drive, Dropbox etc. as external storage in a subfolder.
Mounting S3 as primary storage is implanted in the Enterprise Edition. This could be interesting for the community too, so I think we should rewrite it. What do you think?

Reference: https://doc.owncloud.org/server/8.0/admin_manual/enterprise_external_storage/s3_swift_as_primary_object_store_configuration.html

[MorrisJobke]

You could use a normal object store as primary storage (like Swift, but not S3) https://doc.owncloud.org/server/9.0/admin_manual/configuration_server/config_sample_php_parameters.html#using-object-store-with-owncloud

[lsteamgeo]

It would be great to be able to mount Amazon S3 as primary storage !

[despens]

S3 is still generating lots of overhead connections. owncloud/core#13147

[MariusBluem]

Ref: https://github.com/nextcloud/files_primary_s3

[MorrisJobke]

Ref: https://github.com/nextcloud/files_primary_s3

Yes. I'm working on this. I have a working prototype locally. Will try to get this up this week.

[flypenguin]

also a migration mechanism would be really nice then. I am very much looking forward to this feature if it's coming!

[markseddon]

@MorrisJobke did this get anywhere? I'm just setting up NextCloud and would really really like this feature!

[MorrisJobke]

@MorrisJobke did this get anywhere? I'm just setting up NextCloud and would really really like this feature!

This was taken over by @icewind1991 who did some code in #768

[oquidave]

I would also be excited to see this come in the next release.

[MariusBluem]

...maybe we could also introduce a function in the external_files which allows admins to tick a box called "use as primary storage" for "group/user/all" 🤔

cc @icewind1991 @MorrisJobke

[matrss]

So, the idea here is to have the external storage as the root storage of a user, meaning it's the only storage/directory he can write to, right? if I'm wrong ignore me.

The occ command seems to be capable of setting the mount point of external storage to / (root) with:
./occ files_external:config <Mount_ID> mount_point /
meaning you can mount for example a sftp share on / instead of needing a subfolder like /SFTP.

I tested this with external storage configured by the admin and set to one user being able to user it. Haven't tested other configurations.

As far as I can see only the web ui is blocking this. The above thing also seems to be resetted if you go into the configuration tab as admin.

[flypenguin]

the use case for me would be that I use one s3 bucket for all data stored in owncloud. basically S3 replaces the data directory.

I don't know if I understand you correctly, you would want to do this on a per-user basis, right?

[markseddon]

Agreed.

My use case is that I would like S3 (or whichever cloud storage is your poison!) to be the only storage for all the users, the same as @flypenguin. Admittedly I could just use something like s3fs-fuse but I'd prefer to use an actual plugin / functionality if it was offered.

[matrss]

Yes, my approach would be on a per user basis. Also have not tested if this breaks other external storage because you would mount those inside of an external storage itself.
If I wanted the whole data directory inside of an external storage I would personaly mount it in the OS level.

[leinelissen]

@Risebell Performance and consistency-wise this seems like a pretty bad idea. S3 mounting might be a good idea locally, but not on 100+ user servers.

[MorrisJobke]

#768 is merged

[flypenguin]

#2315 now open :) . thx!

[jgallucci32]

From what I can tell looking at the merge, this only covered known Amazon S3 endpoints with hard-coded regions. Is there plan to support S3 Compatible (i.e. Ceph) backends as primary storage. This is an OC Enterprise feature keeping me from going to NextCloud at the moment.

Also I should mention the lack of Swift Auth V1 support in OC Enterprise was a big problem, since object storage deployments using only Swift, and not all of OpenStack, use only the V1 Auth and do not have V2 (keystone) implemented.

[MorrisJobke]

From what I can tell looking at the merge, this only covered known Amazon S3 endpoints with hard-coded regions. Is there plan to support S3 Compatible (i.e. Ceph) backends as primary storage. This is an OC Enterprise feature keeping me from going to NextCloud at the moment.

This should work. We tested also with different local implementations of the S3 APIs.

Also I should mention the lack of Swift Auth V1 support in OC Enterprise was a big problem, since object storage deployments using only Swift, and not all of OpenStack, use only the V1 Auth and do not have V2 (keystone) implemented.

We plan to also update the underlying library to support new Auth levels. But I don't know what is currently supported. Maybe @icewind1991 knows more here.

[Razva]

Any news about this feature? I would also like to connect NextCloud with SwiftStack or OpenIO via S3 API.

@markseddon any idea if NextCloud + s3fs-fuse is a good idea in production? Never tried it.

[MariusBluem]

Implemented! @Razva

https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/11/admin_manual/configuration_files/primary_storage.html

[Razva]

@MariusBluem is it production ready, 100+ users?

[MariusBluem]

Feel free to test it in a staging-instance and report us about your experience - I think it is as production-ready as every other part of the Nextcloud server ...

Of course, if you find bugs - please report back!

You may also want to ask in our forum (https://help.nextcloud.com) about the experiences of other administrators - but, to be honest: I think it has not such a large user-base as maybe the calendar-app has.

If you need enterprise support or custom consulting about S3 implementation or Nextcloud in general (especially for larger instances in a critical eviroment) you are welcome to request a quote by the Nextcloud GmbH team over here: https://nextcloud.com/enterprise

[sumanyam]

@MorrisJobke
Is S3 as primary storage working. https://github.com/nextcloud/files_primary_s3 is not found. what is the correct git url for this S3 implementation.

[MariusBluem]

S3 as primary storage is part of the server and has no own repository. You will find instructions how to set this up in our documentation: https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/12/admin_manual/configuration_files/primary_storage.html

[sohighsoquiet]

Hello, Im wondering if would be possible to make the same thing with Google Drive. Thnx

[iJebus]

@MariusBluem That documentation doesn't appear to exist anymore and running a search for 'primary', 'primary storage' etc does not give any useful results :<

[zoic21]

Same for me....

[jdenly]

@iJebus @zoic21

The instructions are still available for version 11, I've tested with 13 and you can still mount S3 as primary storage.

https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/11/admin_manual/configuration_files/primary_storage.html

My config file looks similar to Dan_Smith's file from here:

https://help.nextcloud.com/t/external-storage-set-amazon-s3-region/13254/7

'objectstore' => array(
    'class' => 'OC\\Files\\ObjectStore\\S3',
    'arguments' => array(
      'bucket' => 'bucket-name-in-here',
      'autocreate' => true,
      'key'    => 'awskeyinhere',
      'secret' => 'awssecretinhere',
      'use_ssl' => true,
      'region' => 'aws-region-in-here'
    ),
  ),

[sealionking]

how about mount the bucket as /var/www/nextcloud/data ? I am using the oss object storage offered by aliyun in China, and can mount it as a disk by using the ossfs forked from s3fs. And which performance concerns I should pay attention to?

Or better to mount the buckets follow the instruction https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/11/admin_manual/configuration_files/primary_storage.html and as

@jdenly did? But oss is a bit different as Amazon s3.

@iJebus @zoic21

The instructions are still available for version 11, I've tested with 13 and you can still mount S3 as primary storage.

https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/11/admin_manual/configuration_files/primary_storage.html

My config file looks similar to Dan_Smith's file from here:

https://help.nextcloud.com/t/external-storage-set-amazon-s3-region/13254/7

'objectstore' => array(
    'class' => 'OC\\Files\\ObjectStore\\S3',
    'arguments' => array(
      'bucket' => 'bucket-name-in-here',
      'autocreate' => true,
      'key'    => 'awskeyinhere',
      'secret' => 'awssecretinhere',
      'use_ssl' => true,
      'region' => 'aws-region-in-here'
    ),
  ),

[kesselb]

https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/stable/admin_manual/configuration_files/primary_storage.html