Syncloud hardware info

1

Hello!

I am looking at buying a syncloud device to replace my current cloud-hosted servers. I am looking at a device for the following:

  • A wordpress site;
  • A nextcloud instance;
  • In the future? Maybe more, depending on how my Syncloud experience goes.

I would want to use my own, already-in-use custom domains (a different one for each), so I would need to buy Syncloud premium.

My idea is that I want to set it and forget about it without dealing with manual security updates, etc.

I have a few questions going into this:

  • What is the difference between the Syncloud H4 and the Syncloud N? They seem to have similar prices and few specs listed, but there’s a massive price difference between the two;
  • If I have an external hard drive, is it possible to connect this and use it as the primary storage? That way, I can upgrade easily in the future;
  • Can one machine generally handle Syncloud, Wordpress, and Nextcloud, or would I want to have 2 separate devices? Also, would wanting 2 different domains (one for the blog, one for my cloud) change this in any way?
  • Do you ship to/support the US? It seems you’re UK based, so just checking.
  • Anything else I should know before making a purchase?
  • How hard would it be to import my already-existing data? I don’t want to have to configure all of my Wordpress and Nextcloud plugins again

Thank you!

2

What is the difference between the Syncloud H4 and the Syncloud N? They seem to have similar prices and few specs listed, but there’s a massive price difference between the two;

Actually N is much more powerful than H4 as N is Intel i3 x64 while H4 is Arm64.

If I have an external hard drive, is it possible to connect this and use it as the primary storage? That way, I can upgrade easily in the future;

Yes, this is actually a preferred way of using a device. It will be used to store data generated by apps and regular app settings backup can also be enabled.

Can one machine generally handle Syncloud, Wordpress, and Nextcloud, or would I want to have 2 separate devices?

I have one Syncloud N with 8g RAM and a few more apps on it and it works ok. The main driver is actually the amount of users, family of 4 is perfect, small business with 100s clients you may think about separate devices.

Also, would wanting 2 different domains (one for the blog, one for my cloud) change this in any way?

Currently one device supports one domain for example domain.com so wordpress will be on wordpress.domain.com and nextcloud is on nextcloud.domain.com.

Even if you get two devices with domain-one.com and domain-two.com apps will be visible at wordpress.domain-one.com and nextcloud.domain-two.com

There is an open request to make a default app: Default app · Issue #441 · syncloud/platform · GitHub

Do you ship to/support the US? It seems you’re UK based, so just checking.

Yes

Anything else I should know before making a purchase?

We have this small list of questions to answer: Things to know before buying a device · syncloud/platform Wiki · GitHub

How hard would it be to import my already-existing data? I don’t want to have to configure all of my Wordpress and Nextcloud plugins again

Currently you will have to import data and install plugins again.

3

I must add you do not have to buy a device from us if you want to experiment with get a feeling how it works, you can use a virtual machine or an existing device if you are up to a DIY project follow this instruction: Home · syncloud/platform Wiki · GitHub

4

Unfortunately, the domains might be a deal breaker for me. Just to confirm, as of right now, there’s no way to make the domain directly point to the WordPress site? So, for example, I couldn’t make my blog show up at codegito.xyz - only wordpress.codegito.xyz?

Also, I just wanted to check - Syncloud os automatically handles system/os updates, right?

Thank you!

5

Unfortunately, the domains might be a deal breaker for me. Just to confirm, as of right now, there’s no way to make the domain directly point to the WordPress site? So, for example, I couldn’t make my blog show up at codegito.xyz - only wordpress.codegito.xyz?

Currently not possible. We have to show device admin ui somewhere, where would you show admin ui in your case?

Would you be ok to see app under www.codegito.xyz and device admin under codegito.xyz

I guess in theory we could do app under codegito.xyz and admin under admin.codegito.xyz

Also, I just wanted to check - Syncloud os automatically handles system/os updates, right?

We do not upgrade OS automatically, many arm based devices will not even have latest os from their developers. But what we do is packaging apps completely isolated from the OS using snap package which brings apps with all dependent libs in read-only images similar to docker. Those app packages are updated automatically as soon as we release new versions.

6

Would you be ok to see app under www.codegito.xyz and device admin under codegito.xyz

I guess in theory we could do app under codegito.xyz and admin under admin.codegito.xyz

Something like one of these would work nicely - that way, I don’t have to redirect any links pointing to my blog (including internal links) to the new site.

We do not upgrade OS automatically, many arm based devices will not even have latest os from their developers.

I’m just trying to see - if I bought your Syncloud hardware, do I still have to log into a shell myself to sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade, or are functions like this handled automatically?

Thank you so much for helping me out by answering these questions!

7

Ok I will try push www option as soon as it is almost done and we can see how it goes.

apt update

You should never do this, we will disable apt by default at some point.