this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2023

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Best way to have file sync on a local network? (self.selfhosted)

submitted 1 year ago by cakeofhonor to c/selfhosted

18 comments fedilink hide all child comments

So I have a NUC with Proxmox as the primary OS and OPNsense in a VM for my home network. I've been trying to move away from Google services but would still like to use them as a back up solution. Would it make sense to use Nextcloud in a VM as a replacement and use Rclone to encrypt and backup my files to Google Drive? Or should I use a NAS OS like Open Media Vault instead?

I'll also mention that I have an empty SSD that I can passthrough and that my primary draw to Nextcloud is that they have a Windows desktop syncing app like Google Drive does which makes things familiar and convenient. I don't plan on having my Nextcloud instance exposed to the web but might setup a Wireguard tunnel into the local network in the future.

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[–] fmo 28 points 1 year ago (5 children)

If you need instant replication then Syncthing is probably your best bet but don't forget to disable the relaying function

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I second this, if you only need to sync files on different locations. Syncthing is awesome and very reliable. Using it every day for several years

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I quote for Syncthing

[–] cakeofhonor 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks, I'll look more into it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Syncthing is great for mirroring files across any number of devices. I use it and love it. Just remember Syncthing itself, is not a backup solution.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I agree, syncthing is simply awesome. If I had to cut down all my selfhosted services but one, syncthing might take the number one spot.

[–] chimay 4 points 1 year ago

besides syncthing, there is also unison

[–] mholiv 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you are doing just local syncs the simplest solution might be rsync.

As for a solution with nice software clients, I use Seafile. Nextcloud is nice but it’s incredibly slow to sync files in my experience.

Another local option might be syncthing.

As for backup I use Rclone to do encrypted backups to GCPs Archive Srorage tier. The price is really good at $0.0012 USD / GB. 1TB of backups is like $1.25 USD per month. Be warned though retrieval costs are high.

[–] cakeofhonor 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll look more into Seafile. It's much closer to what I want than Nextcloud since I don't need all the extra services, but the downside from what I've read is that it doesn't allow for file access from the host OS and that parts of the code is proprietary.

[–] Getting6409 3 points 1 year ago

I was also choosing between seafile and nextcloud for a syncing and sharing solution. The no host access to files was a deal breaker for me. Having settled in with nextcloud for a year I would say it's still worth a test drive. The web ui is sluggish, but syncing seems fine. It definitely hits the ceiling for read/write speed in my environment, and the windows app picks up changes in the sync directory in seconds. I haven't methodically tested how long it takes for a change made on Android to propagate to the PC, but going on memory from real world use it would be a few minutes at most.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You could also consider a lesser known product, Duplicati. It creates encrypted 50MB chunks of data and maintains a database of what's in it. Have those chunks in Google Drive, and you have your encrypted backups in the cloud.

[–] cakeofhonor 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Duplicati looks very promising, but from a cursory glance it's more for backups? Since the files are split into chunks, I would still need to use a NAS or local cloud storage and have Duplicati do the final upload to GDrive.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Yes, it's only a TNO back up solution, not a full solution to your needs.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I've had a lot of good luck with Syncthing. If you're just syncing files locally you can disable nat traversal.

[–] cakeofhonor 2 points 8 months ago

I ultimately did go with Syncthing and uploading my files encrypted to Google Drive for backup. It's been working great for months. I've also been using Zeroteir to make this work with my laptop too while on the go.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Try Resilio Sync. Running it for 5+ years now and did not have a single synchronization issue. Syncing around 5 devices flawlessly, instantly and error free (not sponsored)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Do you actually need sync? I just have a bunch of network shares. I can access them externally with WireGuard if need be.

I know folks like Nextcloud, but I never found it particularly reliable.