How to try out the ownCloud Enterprise Apps
While ownCloud is entirely free to use, you might consider the ownCloud Enterprise features, too. A lot of professional features wait to be tested. This tutorial shows how to set up the 30 days Enterprise Trial.
The ownCloud Server has a modular architecture. It consists out of the core, and several apps which contain additional functionality. Some of these apps are commercial Enterprise apps.
When you have an ownCloud Server, you can extend it by installing more apps. You can do so in the Market app, which is shipped with the ownCloud Server. The ownCloud Marketplace hosts all ownCloud apps. If you are in an offline environment, you can also download them from there and install them manually with the command line.
ownCloud is free software, and is completely open source. You can trust our software, because you can read every line of source code which runs on your server. This also applies to our Enterprise features, which are also available on the Marketplace.
This tutorial shows you the options to deploy ownCloud and how to activate the 30-day Enterprise Trial.
The ownCloud Enterprise apps
When you activate the Enterprise Trial, you will get following apps, which enhance your ownCloud:
Ransomware Protection: Protect data from ransomware threats
SAML/SSO Integration: Single Sign-on integration for SAML 2.0 compatible Identity Providers
Workflows: Automated File Operations based on Collaborative Tags
Collaborative Tags Management: Admin interface for managing Collaborative Tags of an ownCloud instance
Object Storage Support: Backend to integrate object storages via S3 as primary storage
ownCloud X Enterprise Theme: Equip your ownCloud instance with the official ownCloud X Enterprise Theme
LDAP Home Connector: Integration of Windows User Directories via LDAP/AD attributes
File Firewall: Rule-based access control engine to enforce fine-grained compliance policies
Auditing: Keep track of user and admin actions. In some cases this is needed for compliance with corporate guidelines
External Storage – Sharepoint: Integrate Sharepoint as external storage
External Storage – Windows Network Drives: Integrate Windows and Samba/CIFS shared network drives as external storages
Enterprise License Key: validates the Enterprise Key, necessary for all other Enterprise features to work
Step 1: Install ownCloud Server
To install the ownCloud Enterprise apps, you need an ownCloud server first. There are several ways to install ownCloud:
1. ownCloud Univention appliance
The ownCloud Univention appliance runs on Windows, MacOS, and Linux. You don’t have to be a system administrator to set it up, it’s easy. The installation will take around 30 minutes, so grab a coffee and take some time.
To setup ownCloud with Docker you need a few more skills and a Linux machine, but this guide explains it quite well. The installation is way faster and only takes about 3 minutes.
Install ownCloud on a Linux server with a tarball. For experienced system administrators, it takes about 30 minutes. It allows for many configuration options.
For the next steps, it does not matter which you choose – but to continue, you need an admin account at a running ownCloud server.
Step 2: Activate Enterprise Trial
1. Marketplace
Login to the Marketplace – or register, if you have not already. On the Marketplace website, you can start the Enterprise Trial. You will then see a few steps – they are also explained here for the sake of redundancy. On the Marketplace, they are explained for the ownCloud Appliance, but they are the same for any other ownCloud server. As we already installed ownCloud, we can skip step 1.
2. Add the API key
Now you have to add the API key to your ownCloud server. You can find it in your profile in the Marketplace or in the Enterprise Trial overview. In the Market app you can add it by clicking on “Edit API key”, pasting the key into the field, clicking on “Save”, and “Close”.
In the Market app, add the API key to your ownCloud
3. Start the Trial
Now you can click on the “Start Enterprise Trial” button. You then have to accept the license terms, as the Enterprise apps are not licensed under aGPL like the rest of the ownCloud server, but under the ownCloud Commercial License.
4. Install the Enterprise Apps
Finally you can install the Enterprise apps. To do this, go to Bundles section in the Market app. You will see a list of all the apps contained in the “ownCloud Enterprise Edition Apps” bundle. At the bottom of the page, click on “Install Bundle”, and watch how they get installed one by one.
This is it! Now you can test the apps, play around with the various 3rd party integrations, and look how it benefits your use case.
The Enterprise bundle in the Market app
That’s it! And next?
After 30 days, the Enterprise Trial is deactivated automatically. You can continue to use ownCloud without the Enterprise apps like before.
