NextCloud-updating storage?

[wove]

I set up a NextCloud instance on the Raspberry Pi at first just to see if I could and if it would be useful. And boy has it ever been useful and handy. I shut it down and did updates a few months back and there are updates available again. It is setup with data being store on an old and small nvme to USB adapter and I would like to use a bigger drive this time around. The current data drive is encrypted.

If I clone the current data drive to a larger capacity drive, would I be able to just seamlessly replace the existing drive with the larger drive and have it all just work? That would be the easy desired solution or would I need to start with a blank data drive and repopulate it by syncing. The internal network NextCloud is using is wireless "n" and moving data takes around 5 minutes to move a gig of data which is not horrible, but a total fresh sync would take several hours.

Google, OneDrive, iCloud always seemed very handy services, but from a privacy standpoint I am leery of them. My ISP limits my uploads to ~300Kbps, which in reality makes them really useless except for very small files. NextCloud does an excellent job of providing very similar services locally and is truly a handy service on the local network.

[tlmiller]

I haven't used nextcloud, but I'd think if you cloned the drive, then used parted/gparted/etc. to grow the partition to the new drives size, it SHOULD be seemless since it should also clone the UUID of the partition.

[wove]

Thanks for the info. I decided to give it a try, but then found I lacked the proper adapter to go from nvme to usb. I was sure I had every adapter known to man, but as is common I lacked the right adapter, so I had to order one. I run into the same problem with cables. I have boxes full of cables, yet every time I need one, I find it is one I do not have.

[crosscourt]

Ive got boxes and boxes of adapters for both my newer and older hardware.

[tlmiller]

I USED to have tons of adapters for everything, but then I ended up getting rid of most. I'm mostly adapter free nowadays. I do wanna get a external reader for m.2 that has both SATA & NVMe for pulling information off drives, but since I only get a VERY occasional request to do this, it's not a big thing. And I never need to pull information from one of my own drives, I don't keep anything on my own stuff.

[wove]

The adapter I need is for a "m" key and the adapter I have is for a "b"key. I do not understand why the "m" key adapter is ~$30 while the "b" key ones are ~$10. For $30 the adapter options are more plentiful, so I put that project on hold for a bit.

I do have a lot of adapters. I think I can take any video signal and have it work with any monitor. Need an S-Video to hdmi I got it. Need to take 68 pin SCSI to SATA, I got that too. How about ADB to PS2? I think new connectors and protocols are developed solely to suck money out of my pocket.

[tlmiller]

B-key = SATA. USB spec includes native SATA commands, so there is no actual translation going on. It's just a physical adapter that allows a device to from a physical m.2 connector to a physical USB connector.

M-key = NVMe x4 connection (M-key + B-key can mean SATA, or it can mean NVMe x2 connection, or it could have both of those connections available, I don't like when a board has m+b). NVMe is NOT included in the USB spec native. Therefore the adapter requires a bridge chip to do translation. More chips = more complexity = more cost.

[wove]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I had done a bit of digging and found that one adapter is ACHI compatible while the other is not. I will probably end up pulling an m.2 card from an x220 or x230 for which I have an adapter, or just pick up a new drive for the NextCloud.

I took the opportunity to update both the Debian base and Nextcloud. Since the drive is only a data drive it does have a few more GB free than I thought. So a bigger drive is more something for me to play with than essential at this point. When shutting down Raspberry Pi reported an uptime of 97 days, which is not world class server time, but I thought that was pretty good. The Pi has 1 GB of RAM and usage is between 600-800MB. When accessing NextCloud via the web interface, the limited resources are really pressed though. I would suspect that if one went from a couple home users to a small office the Pi would just not be up to the task.

[tlmiller]

Which Pi do you actually use for this? Is the original? If so, I'd suspect you're correct, if however it was one of the newer ones like the Pi 4 8GB version, I would expect it would do quite adequately for a small office.

[wove]

I have a Pi 3b+. The only real limitation it probably has is that it has 1GB of soldered RAM. I imagine its limitation would show up more if it is being accessed via the web interface. NextCloud itself can really be expanded so it becomes almost Google suite, office apps, photo albums, including viewers for a large variety of files. For just syncing pim type data I image it could handle a group of 10+/-. NextCloud is very scalable, however the Pi at least before the Pi 4 have limitations.