I'm leaving Seafile after many years

Seafile Server Docker
1

I have been running Seafile on Ubuntu for many years. With the latest version 12 and 13 seafile is moving to container based. As such a good idea. However if you have a running server where Apache2 is your frontend I have not be able to get Seafile with all components working. Seafile as such with apache proxy works. But trying to get seadoc working I have given up. 5 days of all kind of different configurations. No chance. And the documentation is not really helpful.

As a result I have deleted seafile from my server and started fresh with OpenCloud. As well as container based. But without any issue of getting it working including Collabora, CalDav etc behind my apache proxy. You just follow the documentation.

So bye bye Seafile.

2 Likes
2

I have a lot of sympathy for posts like this. I used to manage a couple of Seafile installs for clients (and a NextCloud), and they’ve all moved to OneDrive for two primary reasons: 1) no hosting/support costs (the usual reason for anything cloud) and 2) if you have to use Word etc. then you almost get SharePoint/OneDrive for free.

So the only Seafile install I’ve got is the one we use as a tiny 2-man business. One may have seen lots of posts from me as I attempt to migrate a v10 Centos v7 bare-metal system to a new bare-metal system and then, hopefully, onto docker. But to say it’s been a nightmare is an understatement and I’m not quite there yet. I find following the Seafile documentation very difficult, almost the style. Sure, I’m full of cold today so not the best of moods but I’ve been working with computers for 50 years (yes, I’m that old) - installing, updating and migrating Seafile is up there as one of the hardest tasks I’ve ever undertaken.

It’s a shame because for many years our Centos v7 system has worked flawlessly for our needs. I still like the idea of owning our own data and not in the hands of megacorps. Yes, I’m a bit of a conspiracy theorist at time :slight_smile:

It’s interesting that you mentioned Nextcloud because I’ve mentioned before that their documentation just seems to work. Sure, the upgrade system sometimes broke but you could fall back to command line and see exactly what was going on.

Seafile documentation has been discussed before many times. It’s written as a snapshot in time and doesn’t cater for the fact that people might be installing on older versions of Linux

Particular pain points I’ve encountered are:

  1. The exact list of apt-get modules needed per version and per OS version
  2. Similarly, and more problematic, the exact list of Python modules needed per version and per OS version. For example, the version of Pillow specified for Seafile 11 throws an error when installed on Debian 13. One Debian 12 the packages throw depreciation errors (yes I appreciate this is why docker is attractive)
  3. The documentation meanders between separate pages which makes it hard to follow
  4. Documentation not up to date. For example, Installation - Seafile Admin Manual documents updating v7 to v11 but where is v12?
  5. Lag in covering new major OS versions not documented, e.g. Debian 13. Okay, so that’s only been out two months but it’ll have been in beta for a long time
  6. Documentation for extra/updated Python modules often forgets about Python virtual environments: screenshot. Okay so this change (and I fully get why) is outside Seafile’s control but it needs mentioning in documentation - I’ve never sure which user and/or environment I’m in (to be fair, I need to educate myself more on Python venv)
  7. Configuration nightmare! How many different configuration files?? How many different formats? Once again, I appreciate how you’ve got here - individual components have their own methods. It’s not much better in the Windows world with XML, JSON, text, registry etc
  8. I don’t really understand how Seafile works at a kind of block level. I’m a programmer at heart so I’m interested in it’s basic architecture
  9. If I have to type /data/seafile/seafile-server-latest once more, I’ll scream!
  10. Documentation for migration from older versions to docker is lacking. A migration tool would be wonderful - after all, “all” Seafile consists of is a handful of databases, folders with data files in them

Sorry that was a rant. Must be this cold! But I feel the pain of the original poster. Part of my problem is that I’m not a Linux guru - I’m a lot better than I was and understand much more about how Linux does things. This is a general “issue” with Linux though esp. if you come from the Windows world where you’ve been spoilt by graphical interfaces and seamless (!) upgrades. Want to upgrade Veeam? Run the installer and have a cup of tea…

Now I’ve been an IT manager for many years and I always say “Don’t come to me with a problem without a proposed solution” and I do have some ideas how to improve the above but… is it worth it? This is the tough bit - I get the feeling from the level of discussion here that Seafile usage is reducing esp. if people are decamping to Nextcloud. A sad situation but not unknown.

Is all of this part of the reason? Dunno, I’m not party to Seafile 5 year plan. Could be that they’ve decided they can’t improve documentation, upgrade and migration processes because they haven’t got the resources. I’m mad, I love Mikrotik networking gear - their RouterOS is wonderfully powerful and flexible but I’d have a quieter life if I just stuck to installing Unifi - why? Partly because the documentation and training is lacking. Part of the reason is because Mikrotik isn’t that popular in many parts of the world so general documentation and support is lower.

I’ll stop now… :slight_smile:

2 Likes
3

I tried running it as a fresh Docker installation, but beyond that, I’m still using version 11 (for convenience). I haven’t yet tested whether the Docker version is supposedly incompatible with Apache.
The only problem I encountered after upgrading from Debian 12 to 13 was that the Python modules for Server 11 required an older ldap library than the one available in Debian 13. This obviously argues for a container-based solution.
But I compiled the ldap library from the Openldap 2.5.20 source code (without configuring the ldap server) and installed it in /usr/local. Then it continued to work with Server version 11 under Debian 13.

I hope the developers will release a server version again; otherwise, the alternative is:

  • Admit defeat and roll out a container-based solution
  • Look into alternatives, like OpenCloud
4

Great post, never underestimate the impact of good, bad documentation.

May refer to Traefik their number of new topics in their forum is surprisingly low, could be to very good documentation

I share your pain :grin:

5

Just to follow-up here, whilst there is no reference to v12 in the above link, there is on this page:

Upgrade notes for 12.0.x - Seafile Admin Manual

It’s inconsistencies like this that don’t half confuse!

6

Plus my comment about not mentioning switching to the correct user and Python venv for libraries. I’m pretty sure I have to switch to the seafile user AND enable the virtual environment?

image
image803Ă—265 25 KB

But I must say whilst I was griping about documentation, the v12 notes are understandable so far…

7

companies perfer to self host their data, i was running seafile 6 for since 2020, and we were getting too much sync issues, told my boss we can either opt for the cloud or upgrade to ver 12, he opted for self hosted ver 12, plus i have about 5 TB of data, lots of media and considering the cost to pay for a one drive cloud sub to cover that + 30 users, yeah self hosted was a no brainer, most of the sync issues were resolved, i still have some gripes with seafile 12, i think the way some of the implementation are steps backwards, like the trash icon, the web interface is not a 2025 iteration, it still feels it belongs in 2018. but solid sync of data and thats what matters

8

I’ve found upgrading the server running in docker from v11 to v12 is very confusing. A better document would be very helpful.

9

@Wanni , @Rob_Nicholson, I have been using and working with Seafile for over a decade and, sadly, I have to concur with you that Seafile has become a burdensome experience to deploy and maintain.

I read this forum almost every day and it seems that new (clean) installations go reasonably well but upgrades (sometimes even updates) and integrations into existing systems (Apache, Nginx; MySQL, MariaDB; custom ports) are fraught with peril.

My guess is that the Official Seafile Manual is not terrible regarding new installs but it seems to miss on some of the fine points of upgrading and integrating Seafile into real/existing networks. I would love to see some detailed tutorials and “cookbooks” written to address these issues but nothing current has been forthcoming as far as I know.

I have come to use the Official Seafile Manual, this forum, and the Admin Manual from the folks at DataMate ( Welcome to the Seafile Admin Manual - Seafile Admin Manual ) when planning an upgrade, for example. I recommend the DataMate Manual to anyone saddled with installing or maintaining a Seafile Server.

In the end it doesn’t seem unreasonable to consider time spent “futzing” with a server as part of the calculation for Total Cost of Ownership. After all, in many cases, someone has to pay for it and, depending on where you are and who your customer is, the “futz factor” might be considerable. I would really like to minimize the “futz factor” for the sake of my customers.

I want to echo @Narendra_Rajcoomar that while certain of the new features can be praised or passed over, the core function of Seafile, i.e., the file syncing is quite good, perhaps exemplary. For that reason Seafile is still worth some effort getting to know assuming, of course, you can get it running in the first place. My fear is that the bar is only getting higher and shortly it will become unapproachable by many prospective users.

10

I feel your pain.

Seafile 12 as a docker deployment is working with Apache2 as an reverse proxy but i can not geht seadoc to work.

11

That’s interesting to hear, as my experience was the complete opposite. I actually started using Seafile precisely because I found its documentation much more straightforward than the guides for OwnCloud and OpenCloud, which seemed scattered all over the place. Anyway, glad you found something that works well for you now.

12

Some update on my move away: I gave up with Opencloud. As such it worked great, but a key feature is missing compared to Seafile: To mark whatever directory you like to be sync. You had to move all folders into the opencloud folder.

So moved again. This time to Nextcloud. And nicely surprised. Runs all based on one container you start in the beginning who starts more containers based on your needs. No problem of having it work behind my Apache2 proxy without only 1 redirect - and all extras like collabora, video-talk etc. work without any additional setup. Nice Smartphone client which uploads as well all fotos and video as you make them. So not missing seafile anymore.

1 Like