Seafile server 13 without Docker?

Seafile Server
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1

Hello

I have read some discussion about seafile13 and its constraint about deployment/installation.

Docker looks as developer part an easy approach to provide a tool, but looks ugly choice when user try to deploy it.

Until 12,documentation was enough to deploy in many case. Was not perfect but at least all information were provides to manage it.

Now with only docker approach, is not possible to respect is own infrastructure. Is no more possible to use bare metal approach or any other virtualisation solution.

Actually only solution looks to buy pro version without any warranty to install outside docker.

Seafile team could be possible to provide a documentation as before and permit simple installation without any infrastructure requirement ?

Thanks a lot

2

Maintaining a manual installation option for the Seafile community edition is no longer practical because it is too time consuming and error-prone. With the complexity of modern software dependencies and the speed at which software evolves, supporting and documenting manual installations across diverse environments is increasingly difficult.

Docker provides a standardized, predictable deployment platform that ensures reliability for users and greatly reduces the maintenance burden for the Seafile (our) team.

While we understand the desire for bare metal or custom infrastructure deployments, the move to containerization allows us to deliver updates and security fixes more consistently, reducing the chance of misconfiguration or failed manual setups.

For these reasons, the manual installation option cannot be maintained alongside Docker-based deployment.

For pro edition users, we also recommend to use docker based deployment. The manual installation option is maintained for customers that not able to change to docker based deployment in short time.

3

Hello

Thanks for your reply, I understand partially this approach but Docker is a lock. It’s ugly to use an another approach or diverge from initial configuration. Also we must accept images provided as black box.

Provide a “recipe“ to build docker image or any infrastructure context could be helpful.

As experience, I’ve yet due to extract discourse installation (only docker based) to fresh Debian although docker image are in fact fresh debian based, really a non sense.

I hope an evolution could be provided to help us, as earlier/old user, to continue to maintain their infrastructure.

Thank a lot

4

Hello

It’s time to me to change my cloud solution :confused: I

I think alternative are less impressive/easy/efficient but I can’t use docker. It’s not compatible with any server I manage (bare metal, incus or ceph like). It’s too complex to convert a dockerfile to simple deployment script.

I’m very confused, I hope a change but as I understand actual approach I can’t have any chance about that.

Have a nice day :slight_smile:

5

Hello.

I’m currently trying to build deb-packages from the seafile-server to suit my needs. If this installation method works for you, please follow my fork on GitHub. Since I can’t post links, you can find the repository using my nickname.

2 Likes
6

Hello

Thanks a lot for your proposition :slight_smile: I’ve checked and I presume it’s related to branch “features/debianize” :

When you’re ready for a try, you’re welcome and i could do some test.

Have a nice day,

7

Hello

Any update about this work in progress ?

thanks

8

Is there documentation how to move from binary install to docker based install while at the same time maintaining all users, links, databases and repositories? Or is moving to docker always requiring a fresh, start from scratch, do everything new from 0 approach?

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Yes, there is documentation on how to migrate from a binary Seafile installation to a Docker-based installation while maintaining all users, links, databases, and repositories. You do not need to start from scratch.Migrate from non-docker deployment - Seafile Admin Manual

The recommended steps generally involve:

  1. Shutting down the existing Seafile, Nginx, and cache server services.
  2. Backing up your MySQL database and Seafile libraries data.
  3. Deploying Seafile Docker on a new machine (or the same machine with careful attention to tips in the document).
  4. Recovering the Seafile libraries and MySQL database in the new Docker environment.
  5. Starting the Seafile Docker and shutting down the old MySQL service if it’s no longer needed.Migrate from non-docker deployment - Seafile Admin Manual

The documentation provides detailed instructions for each of these steps, including specific commands to execute.

10

Hello

To note : you can manage a client synchronisation with nextcloud. In case we can’t continue for any reason with a only docker approach.

My initial post with a more complete use case / return of experience was delete. Then I don’t say any more about this :slight_smile:

11

Actually, there are build scripts (readme uses docker but nothing prevents you to run them on the host):

I’m quite familiar with them, feel free to ask if you’re struggling.

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Step 2: Seafile libraries data — where is this located and how is this backed up? SQL Backup is self explanatory, “Seafile libraries data” not.

And then: how would I recover those “Seafile libraries data”?

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Those files would be wherever you told your system to save them. In the .env file (when using docker at least) has an entry “SEAFILE_VOLUME=” where you set where the seafile container should be saving data. So a backup would be backing up that data, and the matching database. A restore would be putting those files back, and restoring the database.

Details here: Backup and Recovery - Seafile Admin Manual

15

In my research, I came across these scripts and was horrified by them :smiley:
It’s absolutely unclear why they had to complicate the build so much…