Posts made by scooke

Some recent posts have dealt with issues due to running out of space. I too had this challenge when I first started , and it was constraining to say the least. I eventually moved up to larger VPSes (my current one has 708GB), which allowed me to try different apps. However, apps like Peertube and Mastodon and Cubby all start taking up lots of space, more than before.

To help with this I started using the free tier of object storage offered by Scaleway, who gives you up to 75GB free! Amazing! But you know what, even with that I started hitting the limit after a few months.

So, now that I was using Object Storage, that got me looking for other ways it might help. My search led me to Minio - self-hosted object storage!? Cool. I also frequent lowendtalk and serverhunter, which eventually led to me snag a KS-1 from OVH/KimSufi. On this I installed Minio, using both the Minio instructions, but also this site was super helpful. I lucked out and discovered that my 1TB VPS was actually a 2TB drive. Double cool.

You may have seen some of my posts on this forum asking for help to get the various apps working with Minio. Thanks to all who helped! And let me tell you... I have set up my various Wordpress sites (using Media Cloud), Mastodons, Peertubes, and now the new XBackBone app, and OBJECT STORAGE IS LIT.

The best thing, for me, is that I can now back up ALL my Cloudron apps and not worry about how much space they are taking up because most of the media is stored in my Minio. I notice this most with Peertube, of course, but also Mastodon. The way I've set mine up, within a few hours it had several GBs of data. Backing all this up took forever, and in some cases, the backups wouldn't work because of either how long it took, or due to some file issue. But, the apps back up nicely, and their media is already on the Minio instance.

The most recent coolness is discovering XBackBone. I had no idea what that was. I had to google what "XShare" was... and holy smokes, what a lifesaver. I take tons of screenshots, and sometimes lose track of where they are. But with XShare uploading to XBackBone which I've set up to use my Minio (meaning the screenshots go straight to its bucket). Amazing!

I'm assuming that the Minio offered by Cloudron will be just as useful. Give it a try! So, grab one of those KS-1s (took me months), install Cloudron in it, and you're set!

@hustler Hi! Are you saying you are actually, currently, right now, running Cloudron on a PI?!

@hustler If you read the whole thread you'd realise that basically there is no support for installing on a Pi unless you do it by yourself, by hand, tweaking configs here and there. Probably your best bet is to write @malvim who seems to have the most interest and has made the most progress. They might share their tweaked install scripts. Good luck!

I see there option is there in Database configuration, but I think it depends on some python thingies to be installed for it to work. Can anyone confirm if it does (before I give it a try)?

@girish Holy smokes. That did it. I just # commented out those two base_url lines, restarted the app, and now the upload works, and the download.

Now, I thought I had reached a similar point before, but I think what I had missed was copying the new cert to the proper directory. Thus, it wasn't working.

Now, it is. You sir are a magician.

@scooke Well, I'm getting ahead of myself. I've managed to set it up to upload to my Minio... but now there is a problem with playback. As in, the video doesn't playback. When I try to download it, the initial link says https://peertube.example.com/download/videos/longfilename.mp4 but then starting the download results in a failed white screen saying that the following can't be reached, https://peertube-miniobucket.minio.myserver.com/peertube-miniobucket/videos/longfilename.mp4 .

The documentation I find online seems conflicting - some say Peertube doesn't work with S3, others say yes, and still a third says "yes but with a CDN directive". So I'm off to see what I can find out.

@girish I got it. THANK YOU.

I'm going to rewrite the steps in the way that helped click for me. In a nutshell, I didn't realize that I needed to enter the bucket name within the base_url config ( virtual-hosted style). The error messages WERE telling me what the problem was, and you were pointing me in the right direction, I just didn't comprehend it.

IF
peertube.example.com - this is the domain of Peertube instance on Cloudron
peertube-miniobucket- this is the name of the bucket on my Minio
minio.myserver.com - this is the domain of my Minio instance elsewhere

THEN in production.yaml:

object_storage:
  enabled: true
  # Without protocol, will default to HTTPS
  endpoint: 'https://minio.myserver.com:9000' #I entered https:// anyway.
  region: 'fr-rbx-5' # This is my own made-up region entered in Minio
  # Set this ACL on each uploaded object
  upload_acl: 'public'
  credentials:
    # You can also use AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID env variable
    access_key_id: 'acess_key'
    # You can also use AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY env variable
    secret_access_key: 'secret_key'
  # Maximum amount to upload in one request to object storage
  max_upload_part: 2GB
  streaming_playlists:
    bucket_name: 'peertube-miniobucket'
    # Allows setting all buckets to the same value but with a different prefix
    prefix: 'streaming-playlists/'
    # Example: 'streaming-playlists:'
    # Base url for object URL generation, scheme and host will be replaced by this URL
    # Useful when you want to use a CDN/external proxy
    base_url: 'https://peertube-miniobucket.minio.myserver.com/'
  # Same settings but for webtorrent videos
  videos:
    bucket_name: 'peertube-miniobucket'
    prefix: 'videos/'
    base_url: 'https://peertube-miniobucket.minio.myserver.com/'

For this to work I did have to make a new A Record of peertube-miniobucket.minio.myserver.com.

Then, I had to regenerate the cert using sudo certbot certonly --standalone -d minio.myserver.com -d peertube-miniobucket.minio.myserver.com. The first time I did this I ran it only for the new subdomain. PLUS, since this is --standalone, I forgot to copy the certs to where Minio looks for them. So, having regenerated a new cert with the two domains in it, I could then do:

sudo cp /etc/letsencrypt/live/minio.myserver.com/fullchain.pem /etc/minio/certs/public.crt
and
sudo cp /etc/letsencrypt/live/minio.myserver.com/privkey.pem /etc/minio/certs/private.key (note that even thought the new cert had only the main domain in it's name, both domains were expanded into the new cert.)

Then,

sudo chown minio-user:minio-user /etc/minio/certs/public.crt
sudo chown minio-user:minio-user /etc/minio/certs/private.key

And finally, sudo systemctl restart minio.

**https://vegastack.com/tutorials/how-to-set-up-an-object-storage-server-using-minio-on-ubuntu-18-04/ was super helpful with the cert work.

What threw me the first time was thinking @awnzky's base_url: 'https://peertube.e4u6.la11.idrivee2-5.com' was their Minio domain. I didn't realize that the peertube was the ALSO the bucket name. I also thought that the software was putting the domain together by itself, somehow magically.

So, all this time spent simply because I didn't realize the bucket name has to be part of the base_url in the yaml file. Thank you @girish and @awnzky . Hopefully my write-up can help others with a mind like mine.

Well, thank you @girish for your help. I don't know what to do. I've made an A record for bucketname.minio.myserver.com, and pinging it shows it is reachable. I've even used certbot to generate a certificate for it. I still get the same error.

So, this is something within Peercode then, right? Because I have not had near the same kinds of problems with using my Minio with either Wordpress sites or Mastodon. I just punch in the right deets and it works. Not so with Peertube.

So I wonder how @awnzky has theirs working?? Or did he say he doesn't have it working?

@girish yeah, just a copy paste error here. Good eye!

Sadly, this is STILL not working for me. I've tried EVERY combo but it keeps failing at the point of uploading the video to my Minio. Here is the error with an explanation:

peertube.example.com - this is the domain of Peertube instance on Cloudron
peertube-miniobucket- this is the name of the bucket on my Minio I'm using
minio.myserver.com - this is the domain of my Minio instance elsewhere

[peertube.example.com:443] 2022-06-22 16:36:33.539 error: Cannot move video https://peertube.example.com/videos/watch/a8be4cf6-0004-4522-b38d-bc67dfb8d0c1 to object storage. {
Jun 22 18:36:33 "err": {
Jun 22 18:36:33 "stack": "Error: getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND peertube-minobucket.minio.myserver.com\n at GetAddrInfoReqWrap.onlookup [as oncomplete] (node:dns:71:26)",
Jun 22 18:36:33 "message": "getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND peertube-miniobucket.minio.myserver.com",
Jun 22 18:36:33 "errno": -3008,
Jun 22 18:36:33 "code": "ENOTFOUND",
Jun 22 18:36:33 "syscall": "getaddrinfo",
Jun 22 18:36:33 "hostname": "peertube-miniobucket.minio.myserver.com",
Jun 22 18:36:33 "$metadata": {
Jun 22 18:36:33 "attempts": 1,
Jun 22 18:36:33 "totalRetryDelay": 0
Jun 22 18:36:33 }
Jun 22 18:36:33 }
Jun 22 18:36:33 }

For some bizarre reason it seems to be PREPENDING the bucket name to the Minio domain. I've even made a new DNS entry for peertube-miniobucket.minio.myserver.com, just in case. But that didn't make a difference.

Here is my production.yaml:

object_storage:
  enabled: true
  # Without protocol, will default to HTTPS
  endpoint: 'minio.myserver.com:9000' # 's3.amazonaws.com' or 's3.fr-par.scw.cloud' for example
  region: 'fr-rbx-5'
  # Set this ACL on each uploaded object
  upload_acl: 'public'
  credentials:
    # You can also use AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID env variable
    access_key_id: 'acess_key'
    # You can also use AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY env variable
    secret_access_key: 'secret_key'
  # Maximum amount to upload in one request to object storage
  max_upload_part: 2GB
  streaming_playlists:
    bucket_name: 'peertube-miniobucket'
    # Allows setting all buckets to the same value but with a different prefix
    prefix: 'streaming-playlists/'
    # Example: 'streaming-playlists:'
    # Base url for object URL generation, scheme and host will be replaced by this URL
    # Useful when you want to use a CDN/external proxy
    base_url: 'https://minio.myserver.com/buckets/'
  # Same settings but for webtorrent videos
  videos:
    bucket_name: 'peertube-miniobucket'
    prefix: 'videos/'
    base_url: 'https://minio.myserver.com/buckets/'

For base_url I've tried every combo of minio.myserver.com, minio.myserver.com:9000, with the /buckets, or /peertube-miniobucket, or even commenting it out.

For endpoint I've also tried with or without https:// and with and without the :9000.

I had to do alot of this kind of fiddling with my Minio and my Mastodon, but it only took about 10-15 minutes to get it working with the correct combo of details. But this. THIS is taking forever!

Can anyone help?

Though it is possible, I've always gotten the impression that this type of upgrade is a risky thing to do. Fortunately, with Cloudron's easy backup, and easy restore to new server options, you can give it a try. But in all my years of fiddling with servers I've never once managed to upgrade the OS successfully. Back then all I ran were LAMP stacks so it wasn't a big deal to just start with a new VPS running the new OS and copy everything back. But once things like npm, node, ruby and rails, python, etc., started getting used for web stuff, forget it! Too many things break!

Make that backup, try to upgrade, but do it when you have a window that gives you enough time to fallback on the "restore Cloudron from backup" option.

I can hardly wait to get an update on this!

According to their page above all you need to do is change fonts.googleapis.com to api.fonts.coollabs.io in your head tags, and that's all! Well, for Wordpress sites, it doesn't seem that straight forward. In one Wordpress site of mine, I couldn't really find the fonts.googleapis.com line in the header.php nor index.php nor anywhere else really. But I was using a Google fonts plugin, so I searched throughout the files for that and did the replacement. It still seems to work. I guess I'm not using the Google Fonts API anymore, which for EU/Germany is important.

Anyone give this a try, and if so, what are your results/solutions?

Hello!
Previously a few kind Cloudronians (Cloudronites? Cloudronstanis? Cloudronists? Cloudroni?) had installed BBB and offered it for use. Does anyone still have a BBB running that my Greenlight could tap into please? Thank you!

@girish I'm not sure if what you shared applies to my situation since my Minio is self-hosted on another non-Cloudron VPS. But I'm reading it anyway a few times as all these concepts slowly get understood by me.

@awnzky said in Peertube and S3/Minio Objectstorage:

its my working config. insert after storage section.

Great, thank you!
And do I also delete or comment out the video and streaming-playlist sections under storage;? I mean, it seems like that would make sense, but you never know!

Did you delete video and streaming-playlist sections under storage;?

@awnzky Super, thank you for answering. Four more questions which I think you can help with.

For endpoint:, do I use https://minio.example.com:9000, or minio.example.com:9000? (For a S3/Minio Wordpress plugin Media Cloud, which I mention again below, the custom endpoint includes the https://, but the suggested entry here leaves out the https://.

A detail all the links I shared left out is where exactly does this object_storage: go in relation to the already-existing storage: settings?

Under object_storage: there are two settings for video and streaming-playlists. These are initially under storage: So, do I insert the object_storage: section before storage:? And if so, do I then delete or comment out the two video and streaming-playlists settings that are already under storage:? Or do I leave everything uder storage: as-is?

Finally, for the base_url:, is that my minio url with, or without, the :9000? I ask this because I set up a Wordpress plugin, Media Cloud, so that my WP site could also use my Minio (and it all works), and the url for the uploaded media in this case includes :9000/bucket_name.

Thank you again!

I recently discovered how to host media from my Cloudron-hosted Mastodon instance on my Minio instance (non-Cloudron), and it works great. So I started exploring what else I can use my Minio storage for, and found a plugin for Wordpress, , that also works well. So now, I'm trying to see how to use it for Peertube, which apparently can use objectstorage. I've found the following links with sample yaml files, but I haven't been able to get it working on my own Cloudron-hosted Peertube instance. Has anyone else had success?

https://docs.joinpeertube.org/admin-remote-storage

https://framacolibri.org/t/redundancy-videos-not-able-to-use-object-storage/14668

https://github.com/Chocobozzz/PeerTube/blob/develop/support/docker/production/config/custom-environment-variables.yaml#L24

https://github.com/Chocobozzz/PeerTube/blob/develop/config/production.yaml.example

https://github.com/Chocobozzz/PeerTube/blob/develop/support/docker/production/config/production.yaml

https://framagit.org/framasoft/peertube/PeerTube/-/blob/c342726ad4ccbb90b8ff29f1cc1c89f9f7e8d98f/config/production.yaml.example

@robi Great idea. If my Mastodon keeps working fine without these, that would be so good. I've currently had to exclude it from my regular backups because of its size, and because sometimes the backup process would choke on some file and fail. I'll give that a go and report back.

Hello everyone. I just finished setting up my Mastodon instance to use Minio (my own install but hosted elswhere, not on my Cloudron) rather than local storage. One of the guides I read (but can't recall) said that once everything was working I could delete the public/system directory because all the media would now be on Minio... is this true? That would save me 30GB of space, but I don't want to bork my instance either! What do you think, should I do it?
Thank you.

PS: I should add that everything seems to be working. After 7 hours the Minio bucket has 1718 objects and is already 488MB in size.

EDIT: I just found the link which advises deleting the public folder https://stanislas.blog/2018/05/moving-mastodon-media-files-to-wasabi-object-storage/, it's down near the bottom where they write: You can now remove your public/system folder on your server! :D

@drew Let us know if you install this. It does look good.

@roofboard Phew! Good work persisting, and thanks for sharing the solution.

@doodlemania2 Is there a difference between Vaultwarden and Bitwarden? I started with BW before it was renamed to VW, and on my Windows 10 machine these email aliases are already there, but somewhat "hidden". (EDIT: I just read up some more and realized that Cloudron uses the Vaultwarden version, which official Bitwarden apps can still use. So my setup is the Cloudron Vaultwarden using an official Windows Bitwarden Desktop app.)

I thought it would be found by clicking the plus sign (Add Item), but it wasn't. So I reread the post, and saw that this is in the "Bitwarden Generator" of Bitwarden. But, there is no "Bitwarden Generator" as written. There is a Menu option called Generate, under the View menu.

And even then the email alias option is still not obviously visible until you press OPTIONS.

And even then the Alias feature is only visible if you choose Forwarded Email Alias.

@girish Great, I'll give it a try. Indeed, I need something like this because the size of my main Mastodon installation on Cloudron is already over 28GB! I've had to turn off Auto-Backup for it since it takes so long.

Hello! I'm trying to figure out how to get my cloudron Mastodon to use a Minio instance on another VPS.

Based on https://docs.joinmastodon.org/admin/optional/object-storage-proxy/, I see this:

At last, you'll want to make sure Mastodon is using your new proxy to generate file URLs. Edit your Mastodon's .env.production to add:

S3_ALIAS_HOST=files.example.com

But the previous instructions seem to assume I'm using an nginx proxy for a Minio setup on the same machine as the Mastodon instance.

For my situation, would I simply just need to write

S3_ALIAS_HOST=ip:port/bucketname

Has anyone else successfully set this up? Thank you!

FWIW, when I looked at cloudron.io, there is no mention of being able to (possibly) package any app I want and run it. There is a specific offer of running production ready apps. So, I pay for and support what Cloudron offers; I've never paid for the Wishlist.

Ever since the Wishlist started, I've watched with keen interest. But I've also viewed it as just that, a wishlist. I found it quite generous of the Cloudron team to even openly offer the chance of user-demanded apps. On the other similar platforms (Caprover, Yunohost, even FLAP, but less so as FLAP has a strict app offering), there is the potential for anyone to package any app they want... but if you've tried those you will know that the chances those apps launching, much less working after an update, are very low! So, the fact the Cloudron has actually listened to User wishes (along with the awesome help of many Users) and packaged apps is incredible.

I think I get the allure of KVM images/VM Containers. I imagine that would be a ton of work to rework every currently functioning app into such a format. I also feel like this would turn Cloudron into more of an actual Enterprise-oriented company, rather than one that caters to users like me. Mostly because Wordpress, Ghost, Nextcloud, most of the chat apps, heck, even Mautic, Odoo and SOGo don't need the techiness of a KVM image to just be used. The sort of apps that would benefit from this are probably apps I don't really need, or would use*. And if those ignore the built-in LDAP and email services... well, that ain't Cloudron anymore (for me!)

@marcusquinn I'm curious which apps you are thinking about that are currently impossible to package for Cloudron. For example, I was checking out https://www.egroupware.org/en/download and they have already gone the Container route. There are a few LMSes too, whose names I don't recall at the moment, who seem to prefer a Container approach rather than just a docker-compose container approach.

Something I would find useful is a per/language walk-though guide, using an existing, functioning Cloudron-polished App as an example. So, line by line/segment by segment (not sure if that is feasible), explain why this was organized/written the way it was. So, one for Nodejs, one PHP, although I guess the presence of DBs might complicate the one app per language approach.

Cool tweak, I tried it, it works, I get to my files quicker. Thanks!

@Benoit Less technical jargon is fine, but I've always appreciated that Cloudron doesn't obfuscate the name of the software being used. I think it is better that any level of user know that they are using APP_NAME, rather than a rebranded or just renamed software. As an example, I came across another project that does this - https://www.colibris-outilslibres.org/. I'm not sure why they renamed Sondage from Framadate to Sondage, YesWiki to Wiki, Jitsi to Visio (although this one is less "hidden" since it is clearly a Jitsi instance on the homepage), Mattermost to TChat, Peertube to Video, Polr to Colibris.Link, and Scrumblr to Post-It. I don't know why they do this; I would think that promoting the use of open source and self-hosted software would gain even more credence by using the well-known name of well-used software. Is it to give the impression "they" created this software? Wouldn't users feel more at ease knowing that the code is the same as what everyone else who openly and clearly uses APP_NAME? Are they trying to establish a market name? For me, looking back at my own journey, I feel I'd be surprised to find out that "TChat" is not their app but is in fact Mattermost, which I've heard about, as an example.
I think in another post where I brought this up ppl pointed out that the nature of the licences allows people to rename the software. I just hope this isn't part of whatever "Package" option that Cloudron develops.

EDIT: I just checked out your company and am happy to see you've taken the Cloudron route and displayed exactly what the software is you are offering without renaming it. Cool.

Yunohost, for one, does allow an admin to see ALL the possible apps available for installation, BUT they categorize these apps by reliability and stability.

Could the same idea/process be adapted for a Superadmin to "categorize" Cloudron App Store apps, making only certain ones visible to the next level Admin. Come to think of it, a Reseller account on MXRoute allows the Superadmin to do exactly this - create a Package, name it, define it's parameters, and allow the Customer the option to choose from the prepared Packages. The Customer never really knows if you've overbooked the VPS or not, or if "better or stronger" options could be available - they only see what the SuperAdmin has packaged as choices.

So, the SuperAdmin would need a way to create a Package, and then assign specific App Store apps to each Package.

In fact, a similar process must already be in use for Cloudron, because only those apps that are "ready" are in the App Store (and even then some are labelled as Unstable)! So, can that be tweaked to let a SuperAdmin make visible only those apps being offered?

I'm babbling on now. Time for bed.

EDIT: I guess the same ability to tweak (using APIs?) could also make the SuperAdmin visible or not in the Admin's Dashboard User list; or hide it from the users in the User List.

@micmc I totally get what you are saying. Perhaps one work around for now could be promoting the packages as you suggested, and then when the initial Admin account is created you also make one each of the Package apps (Education - Moodle, Chat, NC, e.g.) using typical subdomains (moodle.example.com, chat.example.com, cloud.example.com) and assign those to a Group that that Admin can see, and only those apps. Then, if they wish to change the url, they can from their Admin Dashboard. But they won't see all the other apps. (Or will they? I've only ever made regular users and in those cases they only see the Apps for which they have permission).

If the Admin though is going to be more like an actual admin and want to, and is able to, fiddle with all the other settings, then I guess they will be able to see all the other apps in the App Store. I agree, an ability to present "Packages" for clients would be great.

So I'm reading up on API's, partly in my quest to expand my knowledge. I have a few conceptual questions I hope someone can shed some light on for me.

API - I've always come across this as though it is a "simple command" to run or call. But then there are lines of code that are the API, and they get "called". In most cases the example is then what looks like an url, such as https://my.example.com/api/v1/cloudron/status (from https://docs.cloudron.io/api.html#tag/Cloudron/paths/~1cloudron~1status/get).

so...

1. I need to be able to write the code of the API in order to use it, and;
2. the code that makes up the API is then saved as a file somewhere from which it is called (or run or activated or executed).

For 1) In many cases I should be able to replace whatever the examples are in an API with my own info for it to work, right?

For 2) it seems like these commands, saved in files, need to be accessible, either in/by a web browser, or by a CLI (either called by options or by making sure they are in the $PATH), right?

So, using the examples from https://docs.cloudron.io/api.html#tag/Cloudron/paths/~1cloudron~1status/get, does this mean I need to have these various APIs (saved in files) hosted on a local Apache instance or something, in order for me to be able to "call" them? But, how would that work since the API is https://my.example.com/api/v1/cloudron/status, and not localhost? ** Or would I actually run it from localhost/status, since (from the example) the file "status" is what contains the important info:

{
"version": "5.1.0",
"apiServerOrigin": "https://api.cloudron.io",
"webServerOrigin": "https://cloudron.io",
"provider": "linode",
"cloudronName": "My Space",
"footer": "&copy; 2020  &nbsp;  [Cloudron](https://cloudron.io) &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;  [Forum <i class=\"fa fa-comments\"></i>](https://forum.cloudron.io)",
"adminFqdn": "my.example.com",
"activated": true,
"setup": {
"active": false,
"message": "Fetching SSL certificate ...",
"errorMessage": null
},
"restore": {
"active": false,
"message": "Downloading backups ...",
"errorMessage": null
}
}

Or do I need to save all these API files in /opt, or /sbin or something like that?
I've been trying to read online tutorials, but like I mentioned in a similar post, most of these tuts assume a level of familiarity or grasp of the concepts, when for a user like me, lots doesn't make sense and the questions I have don't seem to be asked!

Thanks everyone and anyone!

Now I'm hungry for a bag of Doritos.

@jdaviescoates Check out my answer to your other question about the Keys! Basically, Minio views Access Key/Secret Key as the same as User/Password, so by clicking to the User section in Minio you can reset the Secret Key.... but it's called "Password" in this Dashboard! Not too intuitive. Then, use your self-hosted VaultWarden or Joplin to save your newly reset Access Key/Password!

I believe these are under the User pane. The Access key is essentially a Username, and the Secret Key is essentially a password. If you haven't written down the Secret Key/Password when creating the User, then you can reset it by clicking on the User, then the Access Key (which is basically the username), and then on the far right clicking on Change Password.

Other than that, the only thing I've found online advises checking a config.json file - https://www.linuxhelp.com/how-to-change-access-key-and-secret-key-for-minio-on-centos-7, but I'm not sure if this refers to the Admin user, or to any User?password, Access Key/Secret Key combo that's been created. And I don't know if that config.json file is accessible in the Cloudron install (I've set mine up natively).

Good luck!

@robi You know, one benefit of these Forums is how much info and experience people share, which helps me learn more and more. Thank you again for your input.

@robi Yeah, this part here is what has been confusing me: "ANY site that has a copy of its tracker.js script embedded in the site"... The other analytics software out there that I've tried simply has the script url inserted before the closing /header of a site, not the actual js script in the code of the site! But once my head got around that the other terminology makes sense. But overall, I'll stick with Umami and even GA. I don't like the idea of sticking an actual piece of js script in my site(s). Thanks for this extra clarifying comment though!

@girish You know, I think I understand now, but let me add this suggested rewording of the instructions. This is because, to my non-techie mind, ACKEE_ALLOW_ORIGIN sounds like it refers to my Ackee site, but it strikes me as weird that I have to "allow" it. The various instructions also remain unclear to me as to whether I am embedding the script in the tracked site, or the track that has Ackee installed. Anyway, the rewording:

**Adding a domain**
First, add a domain inside Ackee's Settings page. If the website where you've installed Ackee is www.cloudron.space, add it like so:


Next, add CORS configuration by editing /app/data/env using the File manager and adding the website where you've installed Ackee in ACKEE_ALLOW_ORIGIN.

(later)

Embed Ackee's tracker.js script in the website you wish to track. Be sure to replace the ackee URL and the domain ID. You can get the snippet below by clicking on the domain entry in Ackee's setting view as well.

In fact, the second sentence of the previous paragraph suddenly sounds to me like I now have to change the ackee url and domain id...???? Be sure to replace the ackee URL and the domain ID. But, why? Doesn't the site where ackee is installed, in your example, www.cloudron.space, remain the same for all tracker.js scripts? And in the docs, suddenly there is a new domain, analytics.cloudron.space... where did that come from? See, this isn't as clear as it may seem to you dev-types!

I may just uninstall this, seeing as conceptually it isn't clear to me. My GA shows activity on the domain I'm testing with, so does Umami, but after several days now nothing on Ackee.

@MooCloud_Matt I apperciate you taking time to answer, but this still isn't clear to me. If I understand what you are saying, the domain that Ackee is installed on, say, ackee.example.com, does NOT have to be the same place where the JS script (I think it's called tracker.js, yes?) is installed? It could be at random.test.com (https:://random.test.com/tracker.js)?? If so, then in the env that we were talking about, then the ACKEE_ALLOW_ORIGIN is random.test.com, yes? In which case, ackee.example.com is merely the dashboard showing the results from the JS script at random.test.com?

If that is all accurate, sure, ok, makes sense I guess. But it makes more sense to me that everything that Ackee does remains on the same server and domain where Ackee is. I just don't see why someone would put the tracker.js on another server/domain...

Wait a second, another question came to mind. Is random.test.com/tracker.js the site that is being tracked?

@MooCloud_Matt Could you explain how I do that? I've read the docs at https://github.com/electerious/Ackee/blob/master/docs/Options.md#environment but when it comes to the CORS header section, ACKEE_ALLOW_ORIGIN="https://example.com" I don't know if example.com is supposed to be the domain where Ackee is, or if it's the domain that Ackee is tracking.

At any rate, I've set it to both domains I'm testing with (the domain where Ackee is, and the domain I'm tracking), and still there is no immediate feedback letting me know I've set it up right like there was with Umami.

Cool, I'll get around to following everyone next week. I'm @shane@social.futurnumerique.com! (My site at futurnumerique.com is down because I'm moving from its Yunohost home to Cloudron.)

@girish This is really nice thus far. I installed both Ackee and Umami, 24hours+ ago and with Ackee I'm still waiting for data to see if I installed everything correctly. With Umami, I chose the "Live View" option and BAM! Immediate display of myself meandering through my site. So, a win for Umami for sure.

@timconsidine Gitbox was out before GDesktop, mostly. And I paid for it, so I want to use it! Also, it is sort of barebones compared to GD, all I do is pull, commit, push on my projects, so the extra GUI busyness didn't help.

@timconsidine said in Git utility ?:

Git GUI utility

On Windows I use Github Desktop. On Mac I use GitBox. On Ubuntu, I just hope for the best!

This is awesome! Thank you for making this available!

@timconsidine FWIW, I had the same situation, using Scaleway. The only way the two sets of backup info (what Cloudron shows me and what Scaleway shows me) were the same/in sync was when I "Cleaned Up" my backups from the Cloudron dashboard. Then the excess in Scaleway were removed. Since I was counting on the free tier on Scaleway (up to 70GB I think, or maybe it's 75GB) it went over sometimes because the older backups weren't removed automatically. So I still needed to checked once or twice a week both Scaleway and Cloudron.

I've since setup a Minio instance on a nice 1TB VPS, and have been using that with no stresses about going over a limit. Works super well!

@luckow For a more modern dancing video, I suggest Galvanize, by the Chemical Brothers (complete with the B&W aesthetic) Youtube Video

@qwinter Yep, I understood that. But, what DNS settings in the end worked?

@atridad It looks nice and modern (at least the default theme). I just upgraded (on a different non-Cloudron server) from 3.6.11, and wow! Spartan and minimal, easier to read...just nicer. It doesn't look like some kind of Joomla monstrosity anymore.

@qwinter There were so many details above, can you share what exactly (well, as exact as you can be) what is working? That will be loads of help for the next person looking for similar help.

@qwinter Don't feel bad, I wasn't getting on your case for NOT reading the docs, looks like you have been. I'm just trying to encourage you to keep at it.

Although the latest screenshots show yet a different solution?? titan email? titan.email... Ah, I've just googled it. Yeah, I can't help you there atm. I'd need to read their docs! All I can say is choosing Paid-for email services can end up being very tricky, as either there ends up being some artificially enforced limitation that is removable by upgrading, or trying to move away from it ends up being a huge hassle due to, again, a price increase. But I get the draw, the appeal, these services promise of alot of connection and interconnectivity and calendering and scheduling... and you just want to get your community online and running! I wish you all the best!

@qwinter Well, now you need to go change the SPF records since you are using Postmark to send email! I'm pretty sure they will have a page explaining what info you need to include. The reason it won't be sending right now is that the various email systems out there see that the domain is using the Postmark smtp host, without anything about Postmark in the SPF records (which are all at your domain name registrar), but instead either just the domain, or the IP of the Cloudron server, which have nothing to do with Postmark. If you opt for Postmark, they will likely also give instructions on how to set up DKIM and DMARC. Happy reading!!

However, what is receiving your email? If you are using Cloudron to manage your email, it doesn't make sense to use an external SMTP (well, someone here might have a good valid reason, but then they are also likely a DNS Master). So, instead of trying to mix and match the SENDING and the RECEIVING sides of email, just stick with Cloudron, read what you can about SPF, DKIM, DMARC, DNS, starting with the Cloudron documentation, and stick it out. You've already been told that it might take a while for the new domain and email to get "warmed up". And you've been given some tips on how to help that. So, try it. But when you keep mixing and matching... well, you hit a point where it's tough for anyone to definitely say what the problem is.

Email is NOT a mystical black hole, you just need to patiently read the docs.

@RoundHouse1924 Nope, those issues don't apply to my use-case since I don't have 2FA turned on.

@RoundHouse1924 Just tried it from F-Droid, and it still won't connect to my self-hosted Pixelfed. Oh well. It actually does open the Authorize page on my instance, but fails. I even clicked the "Logout" button within this authorize page, and relogged back into my instance, but it STILL fails on "Connect to PixelFed."

"Could not get user information"

I ran your domain (assuming it's legit) and there are several issues with the SPF records, rDNS (or PTR record - something set up the server), and DKIM record. These are not super hard to fix - just read up on them, run your domain through the sites below to get an idea of the issues, and depending on your domain registrar, allow for up to several hours for any DNS changes to propagate. Once you've settled these, you'll Cloudron is just super for running your email off of.

https://mxtoolbox.com/domain/
https://www.emaillistverify.com/dns-health-checker
https://dnschecker.org/domain-health-checker.php
https://uptime.com/domain-health
https://dmarcian.com/domain-checker/

Be sure to set up Backup too. I use Scaleway's Block Storage and it gets me 70GB free.

YES. It does work. I have two different Mastodons using two different domains, and they are fine. Hope this helps anyone else with the same question.

@SamGreenwood Looks like you got a lot of reading to do! You will figure it out. Don't give up.

@qwinter It's not really a waste, especially as a newbie. Now you know there are different kinds of virtualization! This is something I didn't know either a few years back. I was trying to run Cloudron on Virtuozzo 7 images that SSDNodes was using back then. I also discovered a little important factor called FS - file systems, and that ext4 was needed. I actually just commented out that check in the install script to get it to work back then. Now, I just stick with KVM.

You will find great freedom in open source. Here in these Cloudron forums you will actually find lots of good people willing to help (unlike, dare I say the name, the LET/LEB forums where ppl are just as likely to cuss you out and insult you for daring to ask "such an obvious question"). But you also need patience and humility as you try all this out.

Good luck!

BTW, you may want to read more reviews about Contabo (even on the previously mentioned lowendtalk.com/ or lowendbox.com) just to be sure you want to go with them. I'm using Racknerd and Wishosting (which has it's own idiosyncrasies) and SSDnodes, for example.

@nebulon Working on it rn.