Intro
Cloudron is a platform that allows you to run web applications on your own server, in the cloud or on-premises. It is designed to make it easy for you to manage and deploy web applications, without having to worry about the underlying infrastructure.
With Cloudron, you can install and manage popular web applications, such as email servers, file sharing platforms, wikis, and more, all from a single dashboard. The platform provides automatic updates and backups, ensuring that your applications are always up-to-date and secure.
One of the key benefits of using Cloudron is that it abstracts away the complexity of managing and deploying web applications, making it easier for you to focus on using the applications themselves. The platform also provides a secure environment for your applications, with features such as SSL encryption, access control, and firewall management.
In short, Cloudron is a platform that provides a convenient, secure, and efficient way to run web applications on your own server, whether in the cloud or on-premises. Whether you’re a small business, an educational institution, or an individual, Cloudron makes it easy to manage and deploy the web applications you need, without having to worry about the underlying infrastructure.
You can find more indepth documentation on Cloudron at their website https://www.cloudron.io/
Installing Cloudron is very simple and can be done usually in 3 steps, with few requirements.
System Requirements
System requires at least 1GB RAM, 20GB Disk space.
Make sure the firewall does not block port 80 (http) and 443 (https).
Cloudron does not support running on ARM, LXC, Docker or OpenVZ.
If your system dosent meet these requirements the install will fail.
Other Requirements
You will need a Domain name for most things to work, i haven’t tested Cloudron with out a Domain name
Installation.
- Fire up a fresh VM running Ubuntu Jammy 22.04 (x64) server either in your home lab or VPS provider of your choice
- SSH into the VM using the credentials used when setting up the vm
- Open terminal and sun the command # sudo wget https://cloudron.io/cloudron-setup
- Then # sudo chmod +x cloudron-setup
- Then finally run # sudo ./cloudron-setup
After the last command Cloudron should automatically install. leave it for 5 to 10 minutes, you can follow the install by copying the command displayed in the terminal window in a separate SSH terminal.
If the logs start displaying IPV6 errors (could not pull image) sort of things you can run the command
# sudo ./cloudron-setup –version 7.2.5 –redo
this will install a slightly older version of cloudron but will ignore ipv6 if your system does not support that connection.
Home Labs might have the IPV6 issue but most VPS (Virtual Private Server) providers such as Linode, Digital Ocean or Oracle shouldn’t have this problem.
Post Install
Once the install has finished navigate to the VM’s IP address eg; https://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx and accept the self signed certificate.
Create Login information and create a Cloudron.io account (needed for the built in app store)
Provide you DNS/ Domain name providers API access or details as needed as Cloudron will configure subdomains automatically
Then Navigate to the App Store and browse and install apps as you choose, Only 2 app can be installed at a time on a free account but if you choose to upgrade to a Paid account you can run as many apps as you like, But there is no limit on how many different Cloudron server you can host so this can be avoided if you choose.
If Hosting at home make sure your firewall is forwarding the required ports of the apps to the Cloudron VM as some apps require other ports than just 80 and 443 like ad-guard that needs 853 and 53 for dns resolution