Install Cells on Raspberry

This guide explains how to install and configure Cells on a Raspberry Pi system.

Use case

Deploy a self-contained Pydio Cells instance on your local home network with a simple Raspberry Pi.

Requirements

• Although we tested and could start Cells on a Rasberry Pi 3B with only 1GB of RAM, we suggest to use a version 4B with at least 4 GB RAM.
• Storage: 32 SD card
• Operating System:
  • Raspbian (Bullseye, Buster or Stretch), the official Raspberry Pi desktop OS (which a Raspbian repackaged the Raspberry Pi team) also works out of the box.
  • An admin user with sudo rights that can connect to the server via SSH
• Networking: TODO.

Installation

Dedicated user and file system layout

We recommend to run Pydio Cells with a dedicated pydio user with no sudo permission:

# Create pydio user with a home directory
sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash pydio

# Create necessary folders
sudo mkdir -p /opt/pydio/bin /var/cells/certs
sudo chown -R pydio: /opt/pydio /var/cells

# Add system-wide ENV var
sudo tee -a /etc/profile.d/cells-env.sh << EOF
export CELLS_WORKING_DIR=/var/cells
EOF
sudo chmod 0755 /etc/profile.d/cells-env.sh

Verification

Login as user pydio and make sure that the environment variables are correctly set:

user@raspberrypi:~$ sudo su - pydio 
pydio@raspberrypi:~$ echo $CELLS_WORKING_DIR
/var/cells
pydio@raspberrypi:~$ exit

Database

We use the default mariadb-server package shipped with Bullseye, it installs the 10.5 version with no hassle:

sudo apt install mariadb-server
# You should run the script to secure your install
sudo mysql_secure_installation

# Open MySQL CLI to create your database and a dedicated user
sudo mysql -u root -p

Start a MySQL prompt and create the database and the dedicated pydio user.

CREATE DATABASE cells;
CREATE USER 'pydio'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '<PUT YOUR PASSWORD HERE>';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON cells.* to 'pydio'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit

Verification

Check the service is running and that the user pydio is correctly created:

sudo systemctl status mariadb
mysql -u pydio -p

Retrieve binary

Note: we only started shipping the necessary ARM build for Cells at v4.

# As pydio user
sudo su - pydio 

# Download correct binary
distribId=cells 
# or for Cells Enterprise
# distribId=cells-enterprise 
wget -O /opt/pydio/bin/cells https://download.pydio.com/latest/${distribId}/release/{latest}/linux-arm/${distribId}

# Make it executable
chmod a+x /opt/pydio/bin/cells
exit

# As sysadmin user 
# Add permissions to bind to default HTTP ports
sudo setcap 'cap_net_bind_service=+ep' /opt/pydio/bin/cells

# Declare the cells commands system wide
sudo ln -s /opt/pydio/bin/cells /usr/local/bin/cells

Verification

Call the command version as user pydio:

sudo su - pydio 
cells version

Configuration

Configure the server

Call the command configure as user pydio:

sudo su - pydio 
cells configure

If you choose Browser install at the first prompt, you can access the configuration wizard at https://<YOUR PUBLIC IP>:8080 after accepting the self-signed certificate. (Ensure the port 8080 is free and not blocked by a firewall).

You can alternatively finalise the configuration from the command line by answering a few questions.

Verification

If you used the browser install, you can login in the web browser as user admin.

If you have done the CLI install, you first need to start the server:

sudo su - pydio 
cells start

Connect and login at https://<YOUR PUBLIC IP>:8080

Note:
At this stage, we start the server in foreground mode. In such case, it is important that you always stop the server using the CTRL + C shortcut before calling the start command again.

Finalisation

Run your server as a service with systemd

Create a configuration file sudo vi /etc/systemd/system/cells.service with the following:

[Unit]
Description=Pydio Cells
Documentation=https://pydio.com
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target
AssertFileIsExecutable=/opt/pydio/bin/cells

[Service]
User=pydio
Group=pydio
PermissionsStartOnly=true
AmbientCapabilities=CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE
ExecStart=/opt/pydio/bin/cells start
Restart=on-failure
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=inherit
LimitNOFILE=65536
TimeoutStopSec=5
KillSignal=INT
SendSIGKILL=yes
SuccessExitStatus=0
WorkingDirectory=/home/pydio

# Add environment variables
Environment=CELLS_WORKING_DIR=/var/cells

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Reload systemd daemon, enable and start cells:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now cells

Verification

# you can check the system logs to insure everything seems OK
journalctl -fu cells -S -1h

You are now good to go. Happy file sharing!

Troubleshooting

Main tips

With cells as a service, you can access the logs in different ways:

# Pydio file logs
tail -200f /var/cells/logs/pydio.log
# Some of the microservices have their own log files, check:
ls -lsah /var/cells/logs/

# Check systemd files
journalctl -fu cells -S -1h