Set up Owncloud for personal data management and Android sync

If privacy is a concern and you’d be feeling better to host your own CalDav and CarDav (calendar and contact) data but still would like to access it from your smartphone and web Owncloud is a straightforward open-source tool to use. Remark: hosting your email would only be a possibility if high availability server hardware and internet connection is available for use.

  • Register a cheap domain with Namecheap and configure DynamicDNS
  • Add this script to CRON to regularly update Namecheap on your IP address
    • Do this on the Internet interface of your host or OpenWRT router
    • Use this script
urllib2.urlopen("http://dynamicdns.park-your-domain.com/update?host=%s&domain=%s&password=%s" % ("subdomain", "yourdomain.com", "hash.by.namecheap..82d9365e23be655"))
  • Set it in crontab
crontab -e

#Add this to run IP update script every 0:05

        5 0 * * * /path/to/script
  • Use an Ubuntu Server (14.04 64)
#Install Owncloud from Repository

cd ~

wget http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/isv:ownCloud:community/xUbuntu_14.04/Release.key

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/isv:/ownCloud:/community/xUbuntu_14.04/ /' >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/owncloud.list"

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install owncloud

sudo apt-get install mysql-server

#Define MySQL password



#Create MySQL table

sudo mysql -u root -p #DefinedPwHere

	CREATE DATABASE owncloud;

	GRANT ALL ON owncloud.* to 'owncloud'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'database_password';

	exit



#Set file permissions

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/owncloud

find /var/www/owncloud -type d -exec chmod 750 {} ;

find /var/www/owncloud -type f -exec chmod 640 {} ;



#Enable Apache SSL

sudo a2enmod ssl

sudo a2ensite default-ssl

sudo service apache2 reload

sudo a2enmod rewrite



#Generate SSL certs

sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.key -out /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.crt



#Modify Apache configuration

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/default-ssl



#Add this to the file being edited with Nano

	

	

        	ServerName YourServerName

	        ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost

        	DocumentRoot /var/www

	        

        	        Options FollowSymLinks

                	AllowOverride None

	        

	        

	                Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews

	                AllowOverride None

	                Order allow,deny

	                allow from all

	        

        	ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log

	        LogLevel warn

        	CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/ssl_access.log combined

	        SSLEngine on

		SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.crt

		SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.key

	        ".(cgi|shtml|phtml|php)$">

	                SSLOptions +StdEnvVars

        	

	        

        	        SSLOptions +StdEnvVars

	        

	        

        	        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews

                	AllowOverride All

	                Order allow,deny

        	        Allow from all

                	# add any possibly required additional directives here

	                # e.g. the Satisfy directive (see below for details):

        	        Satisfy Any

	        







sudo service apache2 restart
  • Access your Owncloud at http://host/owncloud
    • Follow install steps, use MySQL, owncloud as database and use your database password as root or owncloud user
  • Use your Owncloud
  • Configure your router to forward requests of yourdomain:443 to yourowncloudhost:443 to access Owncloud from the Internet
  • Configure mobile device sync
    • Use DavDroid for your Android phone
      • CalDAV: https://yourowncloudhost/remote.php/caldav/
      • CardDAV: https://yourowncloudhost/remote.php/carddav/
    • As most likely a self-signed certificate is used, set it up with CADroid accessible from FDroid market
securitycaldavcardavdavdroidnamecheapdyndnsandroid