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18% of people running Nextcloud don't know what database they are using
(programming.dev)
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?
If you're running it in a prebuilt container, as long as it works it shouldn't matter and you don't need to care.
Of course, when your database gets corrupted after Nextcloud updates because you had an app running that isn't supported in the new version, it will suddenly matter a lot.
I‘m using a hosted Nextcloud instance from Hetzner and I have no idea what this is running on either. There’s a significant number of people who didn’t set up their Nextcloud instance, so people not knowing what it’s running on isn’t too surprising.
Will Nextcloud run apps not marked as compatible with that version?
No.
You can specify the behavior in a few places, gui, occ command, config.php. By default no, but if you have an app you want to force in regardless of the version compatibility you can make it so https://help.nextcloud.com/t/help-what-is-app-install-overwrite-for/71523
Bugs still happen. Just did with the most recent version and the polls app and mysql
And if you don't know what database you're running, how are you backing it up?
If you don't know what database you're running, are you bothering to do a full shutdown before backups? Are you doing backups at all...
Exactly. It's not important ... until it is. :D
If you're using the AIO image, backup/restore can handled for you, so no need to worry about the manual steps involved. Or if you're using a VM, a backup can take the form of full system snapshots, so also no need to understand how data are stored. Granted it's always helpful to know what your running, but not necessarily requisite, even for backups.
The poll did not ask specifically for self-hosted instances. You know you can buy hosted Nextclouds where the service provider hopefully cares for that stuff? So customers wouldn't know which database they use. I don't know which database my mail provider uses ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Fair enough, I did assume the target audience was selfhosters based on the question.
As for provider backups - well, you'd hope. But M$ doesn't do user available backups, so I'd be surprised if that was bundled by the average SaaS provider.