Nextcloud asked in a poll at https://mastodon.social/@nextcloud@mastodon.xyz/115095096413238457 what database its users are running. Interestingly one fifth replied they don’t know. Should people know better where their data is stored, or is it a good thing everything is running so smoothly people don’t need to know what their software stack is built upon?
Should’ve specifically asked the operators/hosters if they need a better answer. But this has more engagement so
“18% of car owners don’t know their brake fluid DOT rating.”
I have five users, max, and barely any files. I don’t know which one Nextcloud AIO uses and I don’t care. There’s no wrong answer for such a small deployment. It uses whatever database Nextcloud felt was sensible as the default. They know more about picking the right tool for their requirements than I do.
If I’m building something for myself, then I care.
Theres heaps of hosted nextcloud services. Those users wouldn’t know.
That is actually good news. Means that people more likely to be “normies” are adopting an alternative solution.
I can confirm I’m a newer user (not a normie) to Nextcloud and I don’t know or really care what it uses because it works so I haven’t had to learn what it is or how to debug it.
It’s awesome that you don’t have to remember what software you’re using underneath. I looked into it before I installed it, but I’d have to check which one I went with. I also have no idea what graphics card I’m using, which headset I’m using, what brand of eyeglass cleaner I’m using etc. I looked into it at the time, made a choice and promptly forgot about why and filled my brain with other things.
If I remembered which database I was running it means that I’d have enough problems with it that I’d look at it a lot.
Where’s the option for “what’s a database?”
Agree - I’m sharing files, not databases…
I’m not even sharing files, I’m sharing mp3’s and some zips. Duh.
I think that’s really beautiful.
I mean… I set it up many many years ago… Without looking it up I can also just guess.
Nextcloud is pushed as an easy to use docker setup these days, heck most people I know who “use” it don’t do much with it at all so what database it is using is gonna be way back in their list of priorities…
Plus the users outweigh the admins surely (as in those that just install then forget)I don’t think it matters
You could deploy a container and not know what DB is used
People don’t care and/or haven’t looked at the serverinfo page. That actually mentions the type of database in use.
So the “I don’t know” option was probably just the easiest.
My instance did required me to fix some db issue after an update(it still works but the fix was recommended*). So I knew I am using mariadb. Its not super smooth sailing.
I also have no idea if my place has PVC or galvanized steel plumbing; or its designed electrical load. Why should users care about the DBMS.
I found this way funnier then I think you meant it… PVC wasn’t persistent volume claim was it?
Unless he installed kubernetes pipes, no.
I write software for a living, and have worked with all 3 database options in the past. I don’t know what DB backend my nextcloud server is using, nor do I care.
Yeah, that is the kind of concern for the service developer or a very opinionated sys admin. For self-hosting, few people will reach the workload where such a decision has any material or measurable impact.
Exactly. Unless you are actively doing maintenance, there is no need to remember what DB you are using. It took me 3 minutes just to remember my nextcloud setup since it’s fully automated.
It’s the whole point of using tiered services. You look at stuff at the layer you are on. Do you also worry about your wifi link-level retransmissions when you are running curl?
Sorry for the newbie question, but how is your nextcloud setup automated? Is that like a compose/yaml file?
Self hosting doesn’t mean “being wasteful and letting containers duplicate services”. I want to know which DB application X is using, so I pool it for applications Y and Z.
This is one of my pet peeves with containerized services, like why would I want to run three or four instances of mariadb? I get it, from the perspective of the packagers, who want a ‘just works’ solution to distribute, but if I’m trying to run simple services on a 4 GB RPi or a 2 GB VPS, then replicating dbs makes a difference. It took a while, but I did, eventually, get those dockers configured to use a single db backend, but I feel like that completely negated the ‘easy to set up and maintain’ rationale for containers.
Precisely what pre-devops sysadmins were saying when containers were becoming trendy. You are just pushing the complexity elsewhere, and creating novel classes of problems for yourself (keeping your BoM in control and minimal is one of many others that got thrown away)
For most applications the overhead of running a second DB server is negligible.
And if it’s SQLite (which I believe is the default) it’s really just reading and writing a file on the file system.
