Hello everyone, I have a question. If I have a Windows desktop computer (let’s say Windows 11) that I use as a regular personal computer, and now I want to deploy a Seafile server on it so that it can function as both a personal computer and a Seafile server, is there a way to achieve this? (Ideally, I would like the Seafile server to run automatically once the computer starts up.)
I have deployed a Seafile server on a Windows 7 computer in the past, and I know that Seafile server no longer supports Windows systems. What is the best solution for this scenario? Has anyone used this before?
You can use a Linux virtual machine (Virtualbox/VMware) and install Seafile on it.
You can also add a scheduled task on Windows to automatically start the virtual machine at boot (see this post Start VirtualBox and VM in Windows boot - Stack Overflow).
If we install the server inside the virtual machine, can we use the client to access it from the external network? My question is, when deploying a Seafile server on a virtual machine, does it function the same as a regular Seafile server? I am currently not very familiar with the network relationship between a virtual machine and the host machine. For example, what is the relationship between their IP addresses?
It would be great to have a complete tutorial on installing a Seafile server within a virtual machine.
Additionally, for a home-based Seafile server, if I want to dedicatedly equip a machine, what entry-level hardware configurations do you recommend? How does everyone typically use it?
Yes, you can easily connect to the Seafile server running inside the virtual machine.
For the networking, you would usually use a NAT network adapter or a bridge network adapter. If you know that you’ll use Seafile just from the same computer where the VM is running, I’d say that the NAT network adapter is fine, but you have to configure it to expose the Seafile ports.
But you can also use a bridge network adapter; in that way the VM will be assigned an IP address in your local network and that makes it reachable also from other computers in your local network.
It would be great to have a complete tutorial on installing a Seafile server within a virtual machine.
You can start by looking at tutorials on how to install Linux on a VM, and then look at another tutorial on how to install Seafile on Linux.
Hi, @mlazzarotto , I read your replies again after doing some work and found it very helpful! Thank you!
Now I still have some questions:
1.
I also found there are mainly two approaches to install Seafile server, Setup on Linux or Setup with Docker, as the official manual says. I wonder what’s the difference between them? Which one is better?
If the server PC doesn’t have a public IPv4 address but only has accessible public IPv6 address with a domain name it bounds to, can I successfully complete the server deployment? In this case, do you have any recommended solutions?
I also found there are mainly two approaches to install Seafile server, Setup on Linux or Setup with Docker, as the official manual says. I wonder what’s the difference between them? Which one is better?
IMO, Docker is a better option for deployment because it is easier to update the containers when a new version comes out.
If the server PC doesn’t have a public IPv4 address but only has accessible public IPv6 address with a domain name it bounds to, can I successfully complete the server deployment? In this case, do you have any recommended solutions?
Yes, it would work the same. IPv4 or IPv6 doesn’t make much difference after all. I’ve never worked with IPv6, therefore I don’t have any recommendations.
I’ll have a try someday.