Install fails when external data folder is symlinked

[mtchetch]

Background

I like using Portainer NFS volumes because that mechanism prevents docker from starting the containers if there is an issue connecting to the NFS share that would normally lead to an empty mountpoint if using fstab and mounting NFS globally.

Steps to reproduce

1. Install Nextcloud AIO via portainer and define an NFS volume in portainer and link it to the configuration
2. set external data path to /mnt/ncdata - Chosen because it was default and there were some warnings about changing it to something custom
3. Symlink the Portainer mounted volume to /mnt/ncdata (ln -s /var/lib/docker/volumes/nextcloud-mt/_data/ ncdata)

Expected behavior

The installation should be able to create the required data directories to the symlinked NFS share.

The Nextcloud install works if the initial install is done with out the symlinked NFS folder to a plain folder and the data is moved to the NFS share and the symlink is put into place after data is migrated to it.

Actual behavior

Nextcloud container does nat start and gives an error about it.

2024-10-11T08:24:21.263429836Z Connection to nextcloud-aio-database (172.18.0.4) 5432 port [tcp/postgresql] succeeded!
2024-10-11T08:24:21.266350196Z + '[' -f /dev-dri-group-was-added ']'
2024-10-11T08:24:21.266364805Z ++ find /dev -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -name dri
2024-10-11T08:24:21.266368742Z + '[' -n '' ']'
2024-10-11T08:24:21.266371938Z + set +x
2024-10-11T08:24:21.693527155Z Enabling Imagick...
2024-10-11T08:24:22.378132179Z WARNING: opening from cache https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.20/main: No such file or directory
2024-10-11T08:24:22.378200107Z WARNING: opening from cache https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.20/community: No such file or directory
2024-10-11T08:24:22.395656727Z Connection to nextcloud-aio-redis (172.18.0.5) 6379 port [tcp/redis] succeeded!
2024-10-11T08:24:22.527903938Z Initializing nextcloud 29.0.7.1 ...
2024-10-11T08:24:28.226077144Z Initializing finished
2024-10-11T08:24:28.226112040Z New Nextcloud instance.
2024-10-11T08:24:28.231167507Z Installing with PostgreSQL database
2024-10-11T08:24:28.231182475Z Starting Nextcloud installation...
2024-10-11T08:24:40.740006073Z 
2024-10-11T08:24:40.744947925Z In Local.php line 540:
2024-10-11T08:24:40.744957002Z                                      
2024-10-11T08:24:40.744960408Z   Following symlinks is not allowed  
2024-10-11T08:24:40.744963414Z                                      
2024-10-11T08:24:40.744966631Z 
2024-10-11T08:24:40.744970218Z maintenance:install [--database DATABASE] [--database-name DATABASE-NAME] [--database-host DATABASE-HOST] [--database-port DATABASE-PORT] [--database-user DATABASE-USER] [--database-pass [DATABASE-PASS]] [--database-table-space [DATABASE-TABLE-SPACE]] [--admin-user ADMIN-USER] [--admin-pass ADMIN-PASS] [--admin-email [ADMIN-EMAIL]] [--data-dir DATA-DIR]
2024-10-11T08:24:40.744974145Z 
2024-10-11T08:24:40.755798036Z Installation of Nextcloud failed!

Other information

Host OS

Debian 11

Output of sudo docker info

Docker run command or docker-compose file that you used

Portainer Stack Definition:

services:
  nextcloud-aio-mastercontainer:
    image: nextcloud/all-in-one:latest
    init: true
    restart: always
    container_name: nextcloud-aio-mastercontainer # This line is not allowed to be changed as otherwise AIO will not work correctly
    volumes:
      - nextcloud_aio_mastercontainer:/mnt/docker-aio-config # This line is not allowed to be changed as otherwise the built-in backup solution will not work
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro # May be changed on macOS, Windows or docker rootless. See the applicable documentation. If adjusting, don't forget to also set 'WATCHTOWER_DOCKER_SOCKET_PATH'!
      - nextcloud-mt:/mnt/ncdata
    network_mode: bridge # add to the same network as docker run would do
    ports:
      # - 80:80 # Can be removed when running behind a web server or reverse proxy (like Apache, Nginx, Caddy, Cloudflare Tunnel and else). See https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one/blob/main/reverse-proxy.md
      - 8080:8080
      - 8443:8443 # Can be removed when running behind a web server or reverse proxy (like Apache, Nginx, Caddy, Cloudflare Tunnel and else). See https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one/blob/main/reverse-proxy.md
    environment: # Is needed when using any of the options below
      # AIO_DISABLE_BACKUP_SECTION: false # Setting this to true allows to hide the backup section in the AIO interface. See https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one#how-to-disable-the-backup-section
      APACHE_PORT: 11000 # Is needed when running behind a web server or reverse proxy (like Apache, Nginx, Caddy, Cloudflare Tunnel and else). See https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one/blob/main/reverse-proxy.md
      APACHE_IP_BINDING: 0.0.0.0 # Should be set when running behind a web server or reverse proxy (like Apache, Nginx, Caddy, Cloudflare Tunnel and else) that is running on the same host. See https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one/blob/main/reverse-proxy.md
      # BORG_RETENTION_POLICY: --keep-within=7d --keep-weekly=4 --keep-monthly=6 # Allows to adjust borgs retention policy. See https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one#how-to-adjust-borgs-retention-policy
      # COLLABORA_SECCOMP_DISABLED: false # Setting this to true allows to disable Collabora's Seccomp feature. See https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one#how-to-disable-collaboras-seccomp-feature
      NEXTCLOUD_DATADIR: /mnt/ncdata # Allows to set the host directory for Nextcloud's datadir. ⚠️⚠️⚠️ Warning: do not set or adjust this value after the initial Nextcloud installation is done! See https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one#how-to-change-the-default-location-of-nextclouds-datadir
      NEXTCLOUD_MOUNT: /mnt/ # Allows the Nextcloud container to access the chosen directory on the host. See https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one#how-to-allow-the-nextcloud-container-to-access-directories-on-the-host
      SKIP_DOMAIN_VALIDATION: true
      NEXTCLOUD_UPLOAD_LIMIT: 10G # Can be adjusted if you need more. See https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one#how-to-adjust-the-upload-limit-for-nextcloud
      NEXTCLOUD_MAX_TIME: 3600 # Can be adjusted if you need more. See https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one#how-to-adjust-the-max-execution-time-for-nextcloud
      NEXTCLOUD_MEMORY_LIMIT: 512M # Can be adjusted if you need more. See https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one#how-to-adjust-the-php-memory-limit-for-nextcloud
      # NEXTCLOUD_TRUSTED_CACERTS_DIR: /path/to/my/cacerts # CA certificates in this directory will be trusted by the OS of the nexcloud container (Useful e.g. for LDAPS) See See https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one#how-to-trust-user-defined-certification-authorities-ca
      # NEXTCLOUD_STARTUP_APPS: deck twofactor_totp tasks calendar contacts notes # Allows to modify the Nextcloud apps that are installed on starting AIO the first time. See https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one#how-to-change-the-nextcloud-apps-that-are-installed-on-the-first-startup
      NEXTCLOUD_ADDITIONAL_APKS: imagemagick # This allows to add additional packages to the Nextcloud container permanently. Default is imagemagick but can be overwritten by modifying this value. See https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one#how-to-add-os-packages-permanently-to-the-nextcloud-container
      NEXTCLOUD_ADDITIONAL_PHP_EXTENSIONS: imagick # This allows to add additional php extensions to the Nextcloud container permanently. Default is imagick but can be overwritten by modifying this value. See https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one#how-to-add-php-extensions-permanently-to-the-nextcloud-container
      # NEXTCLOUD_ENABLE_DRI_DEVICE: true # This allows to enable the /dev/dri device in the Nextcloud container. ⚠️⚠️⚠️ Warning: this only works if the '/dev/dri' device is present on the host! If it should not exist on your host, don't set this to true as otherwise the Nextcloud container will fail to start! See https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one#how-to-enable-hardware-transcoding-for-nextcloud
      # NEXTCLOUD_KEEP_DISABLED_APPS: false # Setting this to true will keep Nextcloud apps that are disabled in the AIO interface and not uninstall them if they should be installed. See https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one#how-to-keep-disabled-apps
      # TALK_PORT: 3478 # This allows to adjust the port that the talk container is using. See https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one#how-to-adjust-the-talk-port
      # WATCHTOWER_DOCKER_SOCKET_PATH: /var/run/docker.sock # Needs to be specified if the docker socket on the host is not located in the default '/var/run/docker.sock'. Otherwise mastercontainer updates will fail. For macos it needs to be '/var/run/docker.sock'
    # security_opt: ["label:disable"] # Is needed when using SELinux

  # # Optional: Caddy reverse proxy. See https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one/blob/main/reverse-proxy.md
  # # You can find further examples here: https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one/discussions/588
  # caddy:
  #   image: caddy:alpine
  #   restart: always
  #   container_name: caddy
  #   volumes:
  #     - ./Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile
  #     - ./certs:/certs
  #     - ./config:/config
  #     - ./data:/data
  #     - ./sites:/srv
  #   network_mode: "host"

volumes: # If you want to store the data on a different drive, see https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one#how-to-store-the-filesinstallation-on-a-separate-drive
  nextcloud_aio_mastercontainer:
    name: nextcloud_aio_mastercontainer # This line is not allowed to be changed as otherwise the built-in backup solution will not work
  nextcloud-mt:
    name: nextcloud-mt
    external: true

Other valuable info

[szaimen]

Hi, I think you are doing this not correctly. NEXTCLOUD_DATADIR creates a bind mount directly to the chosen location on the host which should be used instead of a symlink.

[mtchetch]

As explained in the description this is done because I want to use Portainer to do the NFS mount and fail to bring up the container in case the NFS mount is not available. Portainer handles mounts to its special volume directory and the symlink is a workaround for this.

If I mount NFS directly via fstab and the mount fails the container starts even when the datadir is not mounted and starts writing to the datadir. I dont like this and would like to avoid if possible.

The container works perfectly after Next Cloud is installed but the install seems to fail and there fore I created the issue.

[szaimen]

You can also use a docker volume with a specific name. See the description here: https://github.com/nextcloud/all-in-one?tab=readme-ov-file#how-to-change-the-default-location-of-nextclouds-datadir