Nextcloud VM: an easy way to deploy ONLYOFFICE on Nextcloud Server

As you may already know, you can use ONLYOFFICE editors together with Nextcloud. What you may not know though is that there are several ways of installing it and Nextcloud VM is one of the easiest.

Installation ways

The most common ways of installing ONLYOFFICE on your Nextcloud server are:

• The official Dockerized version from the ONLYOFFICE team. Get it on Docker Hub
• Community Document Server, a rework of ONLYOFFICE Document Server from Nextcloud team. Install from Nextcloud app store

What’s the difference between them? Shortly speaking, the Dockerized version is more stable and requires some Linux skills. You can read more about their difference in this post.

Also, there’s a brand new way to integrate ONLYOFFICE editors into your Nextcloud:

• Scripts built into the Nextcloud VM. Both ONLYOFFICE Document Server and Community Document Server can be installed using it, so you are free to choose.

It totally suits lazy sysadmins and those who just don’t have time to study the docs!

Nextcloud VM for lazy sysadmins

The maintainers behind the Nextcloud VM have the mission of making installation of both Nextcloud and ONLYOFFICE as easy as possible. It means that basically the only thing you have to do is to download their VM, run the script, and follow the on-screen instructions.
In comparison, what you do need to prepare to run the Dockerized Document Server is:

1. A second subdomain; e.g. office.yourcloud.com
2. Point that subdomain to the same IP as you Nextcloud server
3. Open port 80 and 443 if they are not already opened.
4. Download and run this script (RAW file), and just follow the instructions.

 

What you will get with Nextcloud VM

In a minute you will have:

• ONLYOFFICE up and running as a Docker image with all the Apache stuff already set.
• All traffic are TLS encrypted with a real certificate from Let’s Encrypt.
• The Docker image will automatically update once a new version is out, so you don’t need to bother with pulling the latest updates all the time – the trick is called watchtower.

In other words, you will get a maintenance-free installation of ONLYOFFICE, secured and set up with all the bells and whistles without you having to touch any configuration files yourself. Pretty neat, right?

Future plans for Nextcloud VM

In future versions of the Nextcloud VM, it will be possible to choose between the integrated Community Document Server and the Dockerized version directly when running the script. It still needs some development though. Stay tuned!

This post is sponsored by T&M Hansson IT AB.

Commentary from ONLYOFFICE team

We highly appreciate the work of the team behind Nextcloud VM. It’s a great way to adopt our editors indeed. However, we will add a few remarks.

• Nextcloud VM suggests that you can install either our Document Server or a rework by the Nextcloud team. We recommend opting for ONLYOFFICE Document Server.
• ONLYOFFICE Document Server is supported by our developers on GitHub, Community Document Server is supported by Nextcloud Community. Please address the issues accordingly.