ownCloud is a free file-hosting application that users can use to create a personal online data storage space, providing access to their files via a web interface. However, you can also upload and download data and synchronize files over desktop clients and mobile apps. As well as functioning as a file server, ownCloud offers the following diverse functions:
- Calendar/planner
- Address book
- Music and video player
- Display of images, PDFs, and Microsoft Office files
- Editor for OpenDocument files
- Administration of rights (i.e. individual and group rights)
In addition, it’s possible to encrypt file transfers as well as the actual files themselves. This feature alone makes ownCloud an attractive alternative to larger cloud services. Many users value the software’s ability to save files on a private server or rented web space, rather than on the hard drive of a large, faceless corporation, where it could potentially be accessed at any time.
For file hosting, you need a computer with sufficient server software to allow the transfer of files to the internet. There are good arguments for hosting ownCloud with a Raspberry Pi computer. For starters, the acquisition cost for the mini-computer and its components is exceptionally good value for money – for setting up a self-hosted personal cloud, a Raspberry Pi computer offers one of the best benefit-cost ratios on the market. Furthermore, the single-board computer’s power consumption is very low, which is particularly advantageous for servers that are constantly running.
In general, there are many different programs and approaches for using Raspberry Pi as an ownCloud host. For the ownCloud server described below, an Apache web server version 2 is used, as Apache HTTP Servers are currently the most popular kind of web servers. The script language PHP5 is also used and SQLite provides the database (compared to other databases like MySQL, SQLite doesn’t rely as heavily on Raspberry Pi’s resources).