Nextcloud on SSD or HDD
 

Hi,

I am setting up a Nextcloud server on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS running on a ESXI VM with 4GB of RAM.

Do you recommend installing the O/S and Nextcloud on 1 HDD or installing the O/S to a SSD and the nextcloud data on a HDD?

If any of you already have a Nextcloud server, please let me know how you configure storage.

Thank you!

# of users: 5

Xeon E3-1225 v5 3.3GHz Quad Core
500GB Samsung SSD
2TB WD Black 64MB cache

To answer this question, one needs to know if the server is used for other tasks, and which other tasks, and what the expected Nextcloud usage is.

Normally, I would say that an SSD is not needed for the OS, as the OS doesn't cause disk I/O worth speaking of. Except if you foresee frequent reboots.

If you expect a lot of I/O by Nextcloud, I would put Nextcloud data on the SSD. If not, it's fine to use the same disk for OS and data. It might be a good idea to configure a separate partition or logical volume for Nextcloud data, though.

Hi,

No, the server is just dedicated to Nextcloud. Expected usage is probably a few times a day.

Yes, that's what I was thinking of doing. A 500GB perhaps, 50GB for home and the rest of / since the nextcloud data typically resides in /var

This is on a vm? Why even attach a separate drive for anything except the nextcloud data? And only then if there is a lot of change in the content. The entire vm can be easily backed up. The data can be easily backed up. The best of both worlds in data reliability.

IMHO there is no need for Nextcloud data to be on a SSD. I run multiple instances of Nextcloud both in the cloud and on bare metal (in a container) and I don't think that drive speed is a bottleneck.

1. When using the web front-end you will not notice any speed difference because the web GUI is much slower than any drive
2. When using the sync client drive speed is no bottleneck since the whole sync process take MUCH longer than any drive delay
3. When editing documents online using the build-in Collabora server, the speed of a drive will have no impact on your experience

Now I may have overlooked something, so please correct me if I'm wrong.

I do think you will be very pleased with Nextcloud. I have been using it for about two years now and I won't be going anywhere else..

Yes, it will be on a VM host which has 3 drives. (1 SSD and 2 HDDs). I think I will use one of the HDD since SSD vs HDD seems to not impact nextcloud performance.

UPDATE: I installed the server OS and nextcloud on a HDD. Comparing it to my old installation where I installed the OS and everything else on an SSD and the nextcloud data on a HDD, the server running the SSD is slightly faster than the one running on a HDD.

Now, do I want to re-install the O/S and nextcloud on a SSD and create a separate drive for the nextcloud data on a HDD? ummm not sure.. lol

Installing nextcloud does not take that long; however, fixing the errors/notifications on the admin page is a whole different story...