Seafile¶

Seafile is an enterprise file hosting platform with high reliability and performance. Put files on your own server. Sync and share files across different devices, or access all the files as a virtual disk.

Note

For this guide you should be familiar with the basic concepts of

Python and its package manager pip
MySQL
domains

License¶

All relevant legal information can be found here

https://www.seafile.com/en/product/private_server/

Prerequisites¶

You’ll need your MySQL credentials. Get them with my_print_defaults:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ my_print_defaults client
--default-character-set=utf8mb4
--user=isabell
--password=MySuperSecretPassword
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Your URL needs to be setup:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace web domain list
isabell.uber.space
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Installation¶

Download¶

Download the seafile server and extract it to a folder called seafile.

[isabell@stardust ~]$ mkdir seafile
[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd seafile/
[isabell@stardust ~]$ curl https://download.seadrive.org/seafile-server_6.3.4_x86-64.tar.gz | tar xzf -
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Install dependencies¶

Install the required python libraries.

[isabell@stardust ~]$ pip install 'Pillow==3.*' --user
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Create databases¶

Create the needed MySQL databases as the installer file won’t work on uberspace.

[isabell@stardust ~]$ mysql -e "create database ${USER}_ccnet character set = 'utf8';"
[isabell@stardust ~]$ mysql -e "create database ${USER}_seafile character set = 'utf8';"
[isabell@stardust ~]$ mysql -e "create database ${USER}_seahub character set = 'utf8';"
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Run installer¶

Run the seafile installer script.

[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd ~/seafile/seafile-server-*
[isabell@stardust ~]$ ./setup-seafile-mysql.sh
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Important answers:

Warning

Replace isabell with your username!

-------------------------------------------------------
Please choose a way to initialize seafile databases:
-------------------------------------------------------

[1] Create new ccnet/seafile/seahub databases
[2] Use existing ccnet/seafile/seahub databases

[ 1 or 2 ] 2

Which mysql user to use for seafile?
[ mysql user for seafile ] isabell

Enter the existing database name for ccnet:
[ ccnet database ] isabell_ccnet

verifying user "isabell" access to database isabell_ccnet ...  done

Enter the existing database name for seafile:
[ seafile database ] isabell_seafile

verifying user "isabell" access to database isabell_seafile ...  done

Enter the existing database name for seahub:
[ seahub database ] isabell_seahub

verifying user "isabell" access to database isabell_seahub ...  done

Configure¶

Enter your domain name in config; Edit ~/seafile/conf/ccnet.conf

Warning

Replace isabell with your username!

SERVICE_URL = https://isabell.uber.space/

Change seahub config; Edit ~/seafile/conf/seahub_settings.py and add the following lines:

Warning

Replace isabell with your username!

SITE_BASE = 'https://isabell.uber.space'
SITE_NAME = 'isabell.uber.space'

SECURE_PROXY_SSL_HEADER = ('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO', 'https')

FILE_SERVER_ROOT = SITE_BASE + '/seafhttp'
CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS = [SITE_NAME]

#redirect to $USER tmp, avoid conflict with other users
CACHE_DIR = "/home/isabell/seafile/tmp/logs"

import os

CACHES = {
  'default': {
    'BACKEND': 'django.core.cache.backends.filebased.FileBasedCache',
    'LOCATION': os.path.join(CACHE_DIR, 'seahub_cache'),
    'OPTIONS': {
      'MAX_ENTRIES': 1000000
    }
  }
}

Expose¶

Note

Seafile is running on multiple ports. You’ll need a backed at / for gunicorn on port 8000 and another backend on /seafhttp for the fileserver on port 8082. The latter also needs the parameter --remove-prefix.

To make the application accessible from the outside, configure a web backend:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace web backend set / --http --port <port>
Set backend for / to port <port>; please make sure something is listening!
You can always check the status of your backend using "uberspace web backend list".
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Finishing installation¶

Restart seafile and seahub¶

[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd ~/seafile/seafile-server-*
[isabell@stardust ~]$ ./seafile.sh restart
[isabell@stardust ~]$ ./seahub.sh restart
[isabell@stardust ~]$

With starting seahub for the first time, you have to create an admin account.

Now you can point your browser to your domain and login with your admin account.

Updates¶

Updating seafile is pretty easy. Just untar the new package into the “seafile” directory you created during the installation. Restart seafile and seahub after that.

[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd ~/seafile/
[isabell@stardust ~]$ curl https://download.seadrive.org/seafile-server_6.3.4_x86-64.tar.gz | tar xzf -
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Tested with seafile-server-6.3.4, Uberspace 7.1.13.0

Written by: Finn <mail@f1nn.eu>