Raspberry Pi 4/5 setup for a personal local cloud

I don’t like GAFAM’s way of eating my personal data. So I decided to self-host my personal cloud to protect my privacy and have full powers on my data instead of Google.

This page describes a basic Raspberry Pi installation:

• Hardware setup: personal data center based on a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 and an SSD
• Software setup: configurable and semi-automated setup script from a regular Linux PC
  • preparation and installation of a RaspiOS image
  • configuration of the OS
  • remote access configuration (ssh)
  • basic software installation and network configuration (shell, git, tmux, fail2ban, dynamic DNS, SSL certificate, …)
  • CalDav/CardDav server (Radicale)
  • torrent downloader (qBittorrent)
  • Web server (Apache)
  • Cloud services to replace evil Google services (Nextcloud)
  • UPnp media server

All being run on a small pretty Raspberry Pi ;-)

Hardware setup

The server will run 24/7 so running on a regular desktop PC is no good idea. We are going to install it on a Rapsberry Pi connected to the local network.

For this you will need:

• a Raspberry Pi (ideally a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 with at least 4 Gb or RAM)
• an external USB HD or SSD to avoid SD card issues
• a Raspberry Pi power supply
• an Ethernet cable if you don’t want to use the Raspberry Pi WiFi connection.

My own data center is also equipped with a nice aluminium open case with two fans:

Just plug everything and let’s continue with the software setup.

Software setup

The software setup is completely made from a Linux PC connected to the same local network than the Raspberry Pi (Ethernet or WiFi).

The whole installation is scripted. My script is available here: rrpi.

rrpi connects to the Raspberry Pi with ssh. The Raspberry Pi hostname shall be given on the command line. The default host name is raspberrypi.local. The script shows a menu for a step-by-step installation.

WARNING: This script is provided for free and with no guaranty. Please read it before using it. It may fail and you may have to fix issues that are not described here.

Installation of RaspiIO on the external SSD.

RaspiOS image download and configuration

1. Run rrpi and select Prepare.
2. Wait for RaspiOS being downloaded (it is saved to ~/raspios).
3. An admin password may be asked to mount and configure the image.
4. Enter your WiFi SSID (leave it empty if you want to connect the Raspberry Pi to an Ethernet network).
   1. Enter your WiFi password.
   2. Enter your WiFi country (a two-letter country code).

Installation to the external SSD

1. Run rrpi and select Flash.
2. Plug the SSD to the Linux PC (rrpi should auto-detect it).
3. Check the partition has been correctly detected and confirm (be sure the detected partition is actually the SSD or you may overwrite important data).
4. Wait for the image to be completely written to the SSD.
5. Unplug the SSD from the Linux PC and plug it to the Raspberry Pi.

First configuration of RaspiOS

We will start by configuring the Raspberry Pi with raspi-config.

1. Run rrpi and select Configure
2. In the Raspberry Pi Configuration Tool some parameters can be changed:
   1. System Options / Password: change the pi user password and choose a strong password.
   2. System Options / Hostname: choose a different hostname (this hostname will be a parameter of rrpi in the next steps, e.g. mypi).
   3. Interface Options / SSH: Enable SSH.
   4. Localisation Options / Locale.
   5. Localisation Options / Timezone.
   6. Advanced Options / Network Interface Names: Enable predictable network i/f names.

SSH configuration

To connect with SSH keys instead of password, you need to push your keys to the Raspberry Pi.

1. Run ssh-keygen to create your SSH keys if you don’t have one.
2. Run rrpi and select Keys to push your public key to the Raspberry Pi.
3. Select Ssh to try your SSH configuration. You should now be connected to the Raspberry Pi.
4. Run sudo reboot to reboot with the new configuration (hostname, …).

From now on you shall start rrpi with the right hostname (e.g. rrpi mypi.local).

Installation/configuration of some basic packages

The following steps use a configuration files that must be created on the Linux PC used to configure the Raspberry Pi:

• ~/.myconf

This file is a Lua script that shall be executable and define the following parameters:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- GANDI API
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

gandi = {
    api_key = "Your Gandi API key here",
    domain = "your domaine name",
    subdomain = "subdomain pointing to the Raspberry Pi (e.g. mypi)",
    ipversion = 4 or 6,
}

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Network monitor
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

netmon = {
    router = "local IP of the local router (may be your ISP modem or a local router)",
    box    = "local IP of your ISP modem",
    web    = {
        "first Internet server to ping",
        "second Internet server to ping",
        "third Internet server to ping",
    },
}

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- AbuseIPDB
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

abuseipdb = {
    api_key = {
        ssh = "Key used to report SSH attacks",
        web = "Key used to report Apache attacks",
    }
}

Dynamic DNS configuration (gdns)

If the server shall be accessed from Internet, it shall have a fixed IP or a domain named. rrpi can configure a DNS entry on a Gandi DNS record. You will need to buy a domain name at Gandi (or adapt the script for your own needs) and create a configuration table with Gandi API key (~/.myconf).

The script bin/gdns will be created on the Raspberry Pi. It regularly checks the external IP and updates the Gandi DNS record when the external IP changes.

Network monitoring scripts (netmon)

rrpi creates two scripts used to monitor the Internet connectivity and the Raspberry Pi:

1. ~/bin/status: updates /var/www/html/status.html (some statistics about the Raspberry Pi).
2. ~/bin/netmon: updates /var/www/html/netmon.html (regularly pings some servers to check Internet is reachable). To reset this file, please delete /var/www/html/netmon.csv.

netmon is configured by ~/..myconf.

My ISP modem is very bad and regularly looses Internet connection. A simple workaround is to reboot the modem every night at 4 AM. netmon ignores errors around 4 AM. This behaviour can be changed in rrpi.

Fail2ban

Fail2ban is used to ban IPs that try to hack the Raspberry Pi. Its configuration is hard-coded in rrpi. Banned IPs are reported to AbuseIPDB. AbuseIPDB keys shall be defined in ~/.myconf.

CDSoft programs

hey is used to install some LuaX based softwares.

This will install some CDSoft programs precompiled for Raspberry Pi:

• LuaX
• bang
• calculadoira
• lsvg
• panda
• tagref
• ypp

and also some great tools:

• pandoc
• typst
• PlantUML
• ditaa

Configuration

1. Run rrpi mypi.local and select Install.

   This will install some Debian packages:

   • fail2ban
   • fd-find
   • mc
   • neofetch
   • neovim
   • ripgrep
   • sshfs
   • tmux
   • …

   and configure:

   • the shell (aliases, …)
   • tmux
   • the firewall
   • fail2ban
   • gdns
   • netmon
   • status

Apache web server

The Apache web server can be used to host an HTTP server on the Raspberry Pi. It is also required if you plan to install Nextcloud.

1. Run rrpi mypi.local and select Apache.
2. Select Ssh to connect to the Raspberry Pi.
3. Run sudo certbot --apache to configure and install SSL certificates.

Radicale

Radicale is a small but powerful CalDAV (calendars, to-do lists) and CardDAV (contacts) server. You can install Radicale if you don’t need Nextcloud.

1. Run rrpi mypi.local and select Radicale.
2. Choose Radicale user name and password.

Nextcloud

Nextcloud is a complete alternative to Google (calendars, contacts, drive, …) and Dropbox (file synchronization). It works pretty well and integrates perfectly with Thunderbird, Android, … I have a 500 Gb cloud for just the price of a 500 Gb SSD and my data remain mine.

1. Run rrpi mypi.local and select Nextcloud.
2. Enter the MySQL password.
3. Some parameters must be applied manually to /var/www/html/nextcloud/config/config.php (see rrpi output).
4. Connect to http:mypi.local/nextcloud to configure the Nextcloud server.

UPnP

The Debian packet minidlna can be used to store and shared media files (music, video, …). Shared files will be stored in /home/pi/dlna.

1. Run rrpi mypi.local and select UPnP.

qBittorrent

1. Run rrpi mypi.local and select qBittorrent.
2. Run qbittorrent-nox on the Raspberry Pi to start the qBittorrent server (Ctrl-C to stop it).

WORK IN PROGRESS…

This script is constantly updated and the documentation may be outdated. The best is always to read the sources and change them to fit your requirements.

Git server

GitHub and GitLab are great but if you need private repositories, you may want better privacy and control over your data.

And Git can be installed locally on a Raspberry Pi.

Git installation

The procedure described here is a summary of Build your own Raspberry Pi Git Server.

1. Connect to the Raspberry Pi

   ssh pi@pi

2. Ensure git is installed

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt upgrade
   sudo apt install git

Create a repository on the Raspberry Pi

1. Create a directory

   mkdir -p /home/pi/git/hello
   cd /home/pi/git/hello

2. Initialize the Git repository

   git init --bare

Create the repository on your PC

1. Create the repository

   git init
   git remote add hello pi@git.example.com:/home/pi/git/hello

2. Push the first commit

   git add .
   git commit -m "Initial commit"
   git push hello master

3. Clone the repository on another PC

   git clone pi@git.example.com:/home/pi/git/hello