Seafile is a true open source, self-hosted cloud storage service with high performance and reliability that you host in your own environment on your own private servers.
Like Dropbox and other cloud storage services, Seafile provides similar functions and unlike the other proprietary storage providers, Seafile is free to use… For those who have tried OwnCloud, NextCloud and other storage services and they’re still not sold, they may want to try Seafile instead.
Seafile enables private cloud services on users’ own servers. It’s a self-hosted file sync and share app platforms and with it you can access & sync your files, contacts and data across your devices.
This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to install Seafile on with Apache2 and MariaDB support on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 and 18.10 servers.
To get started with installing Seafile, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Install Apache2 HTTP Server on Ubuntu
Apache2 HTTP Server is the most popular web server in use. so install it since Seafile needs it.
To install Apache2 HTTP on Ubuntu server, run the commands below.
sudo apt update sudo apt install apache2
After installing Apache2, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable Apache2 service to always start up with the server boots.
sudo systemctl stop apache2.service sudo systemctl start apache2.service sudo systemctl enable apache2.service
To test Apache2 setup, open your browser and browse to the server hostname or IP address and you should see Apache2 default test page as shown below. When you see that, then Apache2 is working as expected.
Step 2: Install MariaDB Database Server
MariaDB database server is a great place to start when looking at open source database servers to use with Seafile. To install MariaDB run the commands below.
sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client
After installing MariaDB, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable MariaDB service to always start up when the server boots.
Run these on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
sudo systemctl stop mysql.service sudo systemctl start mysql.service sudo systemctl enable mysql.service
Run these on Ubuntu 18.04 and 18.10 LTS
sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service sudo systemctl start mariadb.service sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service
After that, run the commands below to secure MariaDB server by creating a root password and disallowing remote root access.
sudo mysql_secure_installation
When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.
- Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter
- Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
- New password: Enter password
- Re-enter new password: Repeat password
- Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
- Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
- Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]: Y
- Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]: Y
Next, run the commands below to open MariaDB default config file…
sudo nano /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf
Then add the lines below and save…
innodb_file_format = Barracuda
innodb_large_prefix = 1
innodb_file_per_table = 1
innodb_default_row_format = dynamic
Restart MariaDB server
To test if MariaDB is installed, type the commands below to logon to MariaDB server
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then type the password you created above to sign on. if successful, you should see MariaDB welcome message
Step 3: Install Seafile Dependencies
There are some dependencies that must be installed and available for Seafile to function. to get those installed, run the commands below.
sudo apt install python2.7 libpython2.7 python-setuptools python-pil python-ldap python-urllib3 ffmpeg python-pip python-mysqldb python-memcache python-requests
Step 4: Create Seafile Database
Now that you’ve installed all the packages that are required for Seafile to function, continue below to start configuring the servers. First run the commands below to create a blank Seafile database.
To logon to MariaDB database server, run the commands below.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then create a database called seafiledb, ccnetdb, seahubdb
CREATE DATABASE seafiledb; CREATE DATABASE ccnetdb; CREATE DATABASE seahubdb;
Create a database user called seafileuser with new password
CREATE USER 'seafileuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';
Then grant the user full access to the databases created above.
GRANT ALL ON seafiledb.* TO 'seafileuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION; GRANT ALL ON ccnetdb.* TO 'seafileuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION; GRANT ALL ON seahubdb.* TO 'seafileuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Finally, save your changes and exit.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;
Step 5: Download Seafile Latest Release
When you’re ready, run the commands below to download Seafile installer. At the time of this writing, the latest version is 6.3.4.
cd /tmp wget tar -xvzf seafile-server_6.3.4_x86-64.tar.gz sudo mv seafile-server-6.3.4 /var/www/html/seafile
After that, run the commands below to configure Seafile.
cd /var/www/html/seafile sudo ./setup-seafile-mysql.sh
Doing that should prompt you to enter the database connection info you created above and setup your environment.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This script will guide you to setup your seafile server using MySQL.
Make sure you have read seafile server manual at
Press ENTER to continue
-----------------------------------------------------------------
What is the name of the server? It will be displayed on the client.
3 - 15 letters or digits
[ server name ] Seafile
What is the ip or domain of the server?
For example: www.mycompany.com, 192.168.1.101
[ This server's ip or domain ] example.com
Where do you want to put your seafile data?
Please use a volume with enough free space
[ default "/var/www/html/seafile-data" ]
Which port do you want to use for the seafile fileserver?
[ default "8082" ]
-------------------------------------------------------
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
What is the host of mysql server?
[ default "localhost" ]
What is the port of mysql server?
[ default "3306" ]
Which mysql user to use for seafile?
[ mysql user for seafile ] seafileuser
What is the password for mysql user "seafileuser"?
[ password for seafileuser ]
verifying password of user seafileuser . done
Enter the existing database name for ccnet:
[ ccnet database ] ccnetdb
verifying user "seafileuser" access to database ccnetdb . done
Enter the existing database name for seafile:
[ seafile database ] seafiledb
verifying user "seafileuser" access to database seafiledb . done
Enter the existing database name for seahub:
[ seahub database ] seahubdb
verifying user "seafileuser" access to database seahubdb . done
---------------------------------
This is your configuration
---------------------------------
server name: Seafile
server ip/domain: example.com
seafile data dir: /var/www/html/seafile-data
fileserver port: 8082
database: use existing
ccnet database: ccnetdb
seafile database: seafiledb
seahub database: seahubdb
database user: seafileuser
---------------------------------
Press ENTER to continue, or Ctrl-C to abort
---------------------------------
Generating ccnet configuration .
done
Successly create configuration dir /var/www/html/ccnet.
Generating seafile configuration .
Done.
done
Generating seahub configuration .
----------------------------------------
Now creating seahub database tables .
----------------------------------------
creating seafile-server-latest symbolic link . done
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Your seafile server configuration has been finished successfully.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
run seafile server: ./seafile.sh { start | stop | restart }
run seahub server: ./seahub.sh { start | stop | restart }
-----------------------------------------------------------------
If you are behind a firewall, remember to allow input/output of these tcp ports:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
port of seafile fileserver: 8082
port of seahub: 8000
When problems occur, Refer to
for information.
You need to add a line in seahub_settings.py to set the value of FILE_SERVER_ROOT. You can also modify FILE_SERVER_ROOT via web UI in “System Admin->Settings”. (Warning: if you set the value both via Web UI and seahub_settings.py, the setting via Web UI will take precedence.)
FILE_SERVER_ROOT = 'http:/example.com/seafhttp'
Next, run the commands below to set the correct permissions for Seafile to function.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/
Step 6: Configure Apache2
Finally, configure Apahce2 site configuration file for Seafile. This file will control how users access Seafile content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called seafile.conf
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/seafile.conf
Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your own domain name and directory root location.
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin [email protected]
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/seafile/
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
Alias /media "/var/www/html/seahub/media"
<Directory /var/www/html/seafile/>
Options +FollowSymlinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
<IfModule mod_dav.c>
Dav off
</IfModule>
SetEnv HOME /var/www/html/seafile
SetEnv HTTP_HOME /var/www/html/seafile
</Directory>
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
ProxyRequests Off
<Proxy *>
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Proxy>
ProxyPass /
ProxyPassReverse /
ProxyPass /seafhttp
ProxyPassReverse /seafhttp
RewriteRule ^/seafhttp - [QSA,L]
</VirtualHost>
Save the file and exit.
Step 7: Enable the Seafile and Rewrite Module
After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below
sudo a2ensite seafile.conf sudo a2enmod rewrite sudo a2enmod headers sudo a2enmod env sudo a2enmod dir sudo a2enmod mime sudo a2enmod proxy sudo a2enmod proxy_http
Step 8 : Restart Apache2
To load all the settings above, restart Apache2 by running the commands below.
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
Run the commands below to start and stop Seafile inside Seafile home directory at /var/www/html/seafile.
cd /var/www/html/seafile sudo su -p -l www-data -s /bin/bash -c "./seafile.sh start" sudo su -p -l www-data -s /bin/bash -c "./seafile.sh stop"
To create Seafile backend admin account, run the commands below to start seahub.
sudo su -p -l www-data -s /bin/bash -c "./seahub.sh start"
That should prompt you to create Seafile admin account.
LC_ALL is not set in ENV, set to en_US.UTF-8
Starting seahub at port 8000 .
----------------------------------------
It's the first time you start the seafile server. Now let's create the admin account
----------------------------------------
What is the email for the admin account?
[ admin email ] [email protected]
What is the password for the admin account?
[ admin password ]
Enter the password again:
[ admin password again ]
----------------------------------------
Successfully created seafile admin
----------------------------------------
Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name. You should see Seafile logon page.
Type in the admin account and password created above and login.
That’s it! You can now begin using Seafile self storage service.
Congratulation! You have successfully installed Seafile on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 and may work on upcoming 18.10.
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