My Nextcloud has always been sluggish — navigating and interacting isn’t snappy/responsive, changing between apps is very slow, loading tasks is horrible, etc. I’m curious what the experience is like for other people. I’d also be curious to know how you have your Nextcloud set up (install method, server hardware, any other relevent special configs, etc.). Mine is essentially just a default install of Nextcloud Snap.
Edit (2024-03-03T09:00Z): I should clarify that I am specifically talking about the web interface and not general file sync capabilites. Specifically, I notice the sluggishness the most when interacting with the calendar, and tasks.
I am very happy with mine and have only ever had one hiccup during updating that was due to my Dockerfile removing one dependency to many. I’ve run it bare metal (apache, mariadb) as well as containerized (derived custom image, traefik, mariadb). Both were okay in speed after applying all steps from the documentation.
Having the database on your fastest drive is definitely very important. Whenever I look at htop while making big copies or moves, it’s always mariadb that’s shuffling stuff around.
In my opinion there are 2 things that make nextcloud (appear) slow:
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Managing the ton of metadata in the db that is used by nextcloud to provide the enhanced functionality
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It is/was a webpage rendered mostly on the server.
The first issue is hard to tackle, because it is intrinsic and also has different optimums for different deployment scales. Optimizing databases is beyond my skillset and therefore I stick to the recommendations.
The second issue is slowly being worked around, because many applications on nextcloud now resemble SPAs, that are highly interactive and are rendered by your browser. That reduces page reloads and makes it feel more smooth.
All that said, I barely use the webinterface, because I rarely use the collaboration features. If I have to create a share I usually do that on the app because that’s where I send the link to people. Most of my usecase is just syncing files, calendars and contacts.
Containers run on “bare metal”…
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I use it on cheap vps since ~4yrs and work “well” but I’ve never had a single major update that didn’t have an issue on my LXC/Alpine container 😒 One moment it’s the packages name that have changed, one time it’s PHP version, another it’s a config, another is a addon, last time that was opcache, … and I’m a bit tired of having to spend hours each time doing maintenance of it.
I really think I’m going to go back to something simpler but more solid like an SSHFS or similar.
mine was really sluggish for a long time, then I saw someone in here explaining their similar issue and their fix. I don’t have the post link, but it was related to DNS settings. Basically for some reason using my pihole dns made only nextcloud sluggish, the fix suggestion was to use 1.1.1.1, which worked. Now, it is a pretty fast nextcloud.
So on your Nextcloud server you use an external DNS and it greatly sped up you nextcloud? Because I noticed a few years back mine got slow and I cannot figure out why. It was about the time I enforced pihole dns with pfsense. I might need to try this.
That would make sense if the cause is some looping from hanging DNS lookups. Someone should (and likely has) notified the devs about this.
Another possible solution, from https://help.nextcloud.com/t/server-hangs-and-then-is-fine-for-a-bit-then-hangs-again/153917/16
I’m going to have to give this a shot tonight, need to make a pfsense rule to allow the server to get out and then change its DNS. Regarding php, my current config is the following because I have over 64gigs of ram and went through great length to get Nextcloud to cache MORE into ram:
pm.max_requests = 50000 #set higher, the process is recyled after 50k calls to prevent memory leaks pm.max_children = 1000 pm.start_servers = 60 pm.min_spare_servers = 30 pm.max_spare_servers = 120
Same.
I’ve always run Nextcloud as a docker behind an NGINX/Let’s Encrypt proxy and login sometimes takes over a minute, even if I access the Nextcloud docker directly without the proxy. It’s a very frustrating experience to use a self hosted Nextcloud.
Which docker did you use, out of curiosity?
This one: https://hub.docker.com/_/nextcloud/
Mine is not great but is ok. Main special thing I did was put it on a vps very close to home, for short ping time. That was to get lower latency voice chat with nextcloud talk, but I haven’t been using that at all.
Mine is… eh. It’s alright. I don’t use any of the apps. Just the actual sync functionality. Sometimes when I’m moving files around there’s a problem where the entire thing just stops responding. My MediaWiki instance still works, just not Nextcloud. Not sure why this happens and not sure if it also happens to other people.
For comparison, it is running on a Contabo VPS M
@Kalcifer @selfhosted it’s quite slow for me. AIO docker setup
It was way worse when I tried the snap tho
As long as it’s faster than the snap, it’s worth it to me 😜
What hardware are you running it on? I set mine up originally on a raspberry pi 3b and the web interface was very slow, but upgrading it to a RPi4 with 4GB RAM made a massive difference. Though I suspect some of that was that the data and database were being stored on an external SSD in both cases, the RPi4 had a usb 3 interface and dedicated Ethernet, but the 3b had a single USB 2 bus to share between the Ethernet and SSD.
MIne is on a RPi4 4 GB as well (the AIO container) with two SSD and the performance of the frontend are meh… But I seldom use the web part anyway and mainly rely on the desktop client/android App, which work just fine.
Mine is nice and quick in regards to the web interface and general functions. However I run it on a server at home and my upload speed isn’t the best, so if I need to pull a larger file (Files On Demand enabled) then obviously the transfer speed of the file is a bit sluggish.
Hosted on a VM with 16GB RAM, 4 cores. Using the NextcloudAIO docker deployment option, all behind an Apache reverse proxy (I have a bunch of other services on another VM that all have reverse proxy access in place as well).
Did you do anything special configuration-wise, or did you, more or less, just deploy the AIO docker as-is?
Nothing too special, just had to do some fiddling to get the Apache reverse proxy working correctly. Now I believe they have a pre-made example for it, but back then they only had nginx. I stick with Apache because that’s still what I know. Might start learning nginx, but my main work isn’t in web stuff.
I run linuxserver.io docker container, disabled almost all apps and its been running rock solid and quite fast on old celeron. It takes 3-5 sec to open a web page, but I mostly use desktop/android app anyway
Nextcloud pleases A LOT 10% of it’s users. Those 10% are composed by tech savvy people, coders and developpers that spent countless hours tinkering with their instance.
I’m one of the 90% left. Despite really wanting to use nextcloud and trying to set it up correctly for 2 years, I finally gave up and I feel much happier in my life, in my work, with my family and friends, and they thank me for that.
Now I just recommend Owncloud or seafile. They’re both really easy to install and just work out of the box.
Out of habit and convenience, I keep a nextcloud running on oracle free tier just for what it’s good at: caldav and contacts.
Never had an issue with mine. And running fine. Only thing I have done is use mariadb.
The out of the box experience of the containerized nextcloud is actually really bad. Had it running bare metal with apache and it was way faster.
But have you tried the official AIO docker compose file? Basically copy the redis stuff from there and you are good to go.
Containers run on “bare metal”.
Not in this context. Bare metal means all packages and services installed and running directly on the host, not through docker/lxc/vms
Yes - in this context containers run on bare metal. They run directly on the host. They even show up in the host’s process list with PIDs. There is no virtual machine between an executable running in a docker image and the CPU on the host.
Have you read my comment? It’s about where the packages and services are installed.
In this case, they’re installed in the container, not on the host
What is it you think the “metal” is in in the phrase “running on bare metal?”
Your comment is irrelevant. Who cares in what directory or disk image the packages are installed? If I run in a “chroot jail” am I not “running on bare metal?” What if I include a library in /opt/application/lib? Does it matter if the binaries are on an NFS share? This is all irrelevant.
The phrase means to be not running in any emulation. To answer my question above - the “metal” is the CPU (edit: and other hardware).
edit2: I mean - it’s the defining characteristic of containers that they execute on bare metal unlike VMs and (arguably - I won’t get into it) hypervisors. There is no hardware abstraction at all. They just run natively.
It’s just what it means in this specific context.
They’re not running directly on the host, with directly meaning directly.
If you go by definition, I agree with you, but the definition is not always the thing to go off of.
It’s all about where the packages and services are installed
No. Your packages and services could be on a network share on the other side of the world, but where they are run is what matters here. Processes are always loaded into, and run from main memory.
“Running on bare metal” refers to whether the CPU the process is being run on is emulated/virtualized (ex. via Intel VT-x) or not.
A VM uses virtualization to run an OS, and the processes are running within that OS, thus neither is running on bare metal. But the purpose of containers is to run them wherever your host OS is running. So if your host is on bare metal, then the container is too. You are not emulating or virtualizing any hardware.
Here’s an article explaining the difference in more detail if needed.
More specifically, the container is run on bare metal if the host is running on bare metal. You are correct in this thread, not sure why you’re being downvoted. I guess people don’t know what virtualization technology is or when it is used.
If the nextcloud container is slow, it’s for reasons other than virtualization.
not sure why you’re being downvoted.
LaNgUaGe EvOlVeS. 🙄
Wait what? I’m saying what you said is correct. Am I the one who’s confused here?
Edit: oh maybe you meant that’s the excuse people give for being wrong? lol
Yes, that’s the excuse I’ve been getting. Sorry to be vague.
I just moved my files from nextcloud to seafile, founded that I don’t really need chat, calendar, tasks and other things, only need to store files and have it synced between my devices.
Nextcloud works for my small company and I’m not going to change it for now.
Now I just recommend Owncloud or seafile. They’re both really easy to install and just work out of the box.
Which one is lighter on your opinion?
Lighter, I dont know. Faster, I’d say owncloud. YMMV
Docker behind a Traefik proxy with crowdsec checking (adds additional lag). Ryzen 2700x 32GB local machine. All storage on SSD.
The web interface is very usable, switching subpages takes maybe half a second max without it being cached by the browser.
Could of course be quicker (as basically everything ever), but as we mostly use it with the Windows sync clients and Android apps we never really have any issues.
Dito. It’s not blazing fast, but always usable and fast enough. Especially with Redis and Postgres
Which docker image do you use? AIO?
No. This installation is so old it precedes the AIO image. “Standard” docker image, redis, mariadb.
Use the AIO. Its much faster than any other way I’ve had it set up and I’ve used NC for years. Easy to update, full featured, supported.
And anyone that tells you to use Own cloud instead doesn’t have a clue.
An issue I have with AIO is I can’t use an internal IP address, and I’m required to have a domain or revese proxy.
OwnCloud for now, NC for the manual install.
What do you mean no internal IP? I can access the instance on my local network via RPI address no problem.
EDIT: Realized I didn’t use AIO. Sorry.
Ooooh, I just checked and I am indeed not running the AIO. Must be a new thing, and I though I had it because I didn’t set up much, but I really just used a premare docker-compose.yml, which is why I didn’t remember any advanced setup. It still uses multiple containers.
I stand corrected.
Mine runs very smoothly. I set it up on a Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB) with an external 1TB drive. I run it in docker with the official (?) image and can’t remember having set any special config. If you have any questions, I’m happy to answer them. :)
Which docker are you using? Is it the AIO docker?
I had to look it up. It’s the community image (apache version) from https://hub.docker.com/_/nextcloud/ which I use together with a mariadb and redis image.
Configuring a Redis cache really helps in my experience.
But I also recently noticed something odd: it works quite well on my usual internet connection, but when I traveled abroad it became excruciatingly slow, more so than the admittably worse mobile connection would have let me assume. Something about it seems to require a relatively stable internet connection on the client side it seems.
That might be due to your ISP’s routing and interconnects. They usually have good routes to big services and might lack good connections between home users in different countries or on different continents.
