How to Set Up Nextcloud on Ubuntu 16.04

In this guide, we will install and configure a Nextcloud instance on an Ubuntu 16.04 server.

Prerequisites

In order to complete the steps in this guide, you will need the following:

• A sudo user on your server:
• A LAMP stack: Nextcloud requires a web server, a database, and PHP to properly function. Setting up a LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) server fulfills all of these requirements.
• An SSL certificate: How you set this up depends on whether or not you have a domain name that resolves to your server. - If you have a domain name... the easiest way to secure your site is with Let's Encrypt, which provides free, trusted certificates. Follow the Let's Encrypt guide for Apache to set this up. - If you do not have a domain... and you are just using this configuration for testing or personal use, you can use a self-signed certificate instead. This provides the same type of encryption, but without the domain validation. Follow the self-signed SSL guide for Apache to get set up.

 

Downloading Nextcloud

To begin, visit the Nextcloud Releases page:


Scroll down to the bottom of the page, right-click and copy the .tar.bz2 link for the latest stable release.

There may be a more recent version available than the one shown in the image below:


On the server, move into a writable directory:

cd /tmp 

Then, use the curl command and the link from Nextcloud to download the tarball file:

• curl -LO https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/nextcloud-10.0.1.tar.bz2

Although we downloaded the tarball directly from the project’s website, it is best practice to verify both the authenticity and integrity of items downloaded from the Internet. This verification method certifies that the file was neither tampered with nor corrupted or damaged during the download process.

Return to the Releases page right-click and copy the link for the .sha256 file that matches the version of the tarball file that you previously downloaded. Back on the server, use the curl command and the new link to download the check sum file:

• curl -LO https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/nextcloud-10.0.1.tar.bz2.sha256

Next, use the shasum command to calculate the hash for the .tar.bz2 file and compare it to the checksum value in the .sha256 file. The -a flag defines the algorithm and the -c flag reads the sum from a specified file and checks it against the hash of the .tar.bz2 file:

shasum -a 256 -c nextcloud-10.0.1.tar.bz2.sha256 < nextcloud-10.0.1.tar.bz2 

Output

nextcloud-10.0.1.tar.bz2: OK

You can safely delete the .sha256 file with the rm command:

rm nextcloud-10.0.1.tar.bz2.sha256 

With Nextcloud downloaded, and the integrity of the file validated, let's proceed with the installation.

Installing Nextcloud

The installation of Nextcloud consists of extracting the tarball to create a document root directory for Apache, executing a script to set the proper ownership and permissions of the extracted files and updating Apache's configuration to make it aware of the new application.

Start by using the tar command with the -C flag to save the content of the archive into a specified directory. The -x flag performs the extraction function, -v produces a verbose output, -j filters the archive through the bzip2 compression utility, and -f specifies the filename to perform the actions on:

sudo tar -C /var/www -xvjf /tmp/nextcloud-10.0.1.tar.bz2 

The tarball is not distro specific and therefore the ownership and permissions of the files are not correct. However, Nextcloud has a script that we can use to address this. Create a shell script file with the nano editor:

nano /tmp/nextcloud.sh 

Add the following to the file:

#!/bin/bash
ocpath='/var/www/nextcloud'
htuser='www-data'
htgroup='www-data'
rootuser='root'

printf "Creating possible missing Directories\n"
mkdir -p $ocpath/data
mkdir -p $ocpath/assets
mkdir -p $ocpath/updater

printf "chmod Files and Directories\n"
find ${ocpath}/ -type f -print0 | xargs -0 chmod 0640
find ${ocpath}/ -type d -print0 | xargs -0 chmod 0750
chmod 755 ${ocpath}

printf "chown Directories\n"
chown -R ${rootuser}:${htgroup} ${ocpath}/
chown -R ${htuser}:${htgroup} ${ocpath}/apps/
chown -R ${htuser}:${htgroup} ${ocpath}/assets/
chown -R ${htuser}:${htgroup} ${ocpath}/config/
chown -R ${htuser}:${htgroup} ${ocpath}/data/
chown -R ${htuser}:${htgroup} ${ocpath}/themes/
chown -R ${htuser}:${htgroup} ${ocpath}/updater/

chmod +x ${ocpath}/occ

printf "chmod/chown .htaccess\n"
if [ -f ${ocpath}/.htaccess ]
 then
  chmod 0644 ${ocpath}/.htaccess
  chown ${rootuser}:${htgroup} ${ocpath}/.htaccess
fi
if [ -f ${ocpath}/data/.htaccess ]
 then
  chmod 0644 ${ocpath}/data/.htaccess
  chown ${rootuser}:${htgroup} ${ocpath}/data/.htaccess
fi

Run the script with the bash command:

sudo bash /tmp/nextcloud.sh 

Output

Creating possible missing Directories
chmod Files and Directories
chown Directories
chmod/chown .htaccess

Next, create a site configuration file in the /etc/apache2/sites-available directory:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/nextcloud.conf 

Add the following lines to the file:

Alias /nextcloud "/var/www/nextcloud/"


    Options +FollowSymlinks
    AllowOverride All


        Dav off


    SetEnv HOME /var/www/nextcloud
    SetEnv HTTP_HOME /var/www/nextcloud

Save and exit the file. To enable the site use the a2ensite command:

sudo a2ensite nextcloud 

Output

Enabling site nextcloud.
. . .

In addition to enabling the site, use the a2enmod command to enable the mod_rewrite Apache module, which Nextcloud requires to function properly.

sudo a2enmod rewrite 

Output

Enabling module rewrite.
. . .

Finally, before restarting Apache, install some optional PHP modules for additional functionality within Nextcloud:

• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install php-bz2 php-curl php-gd php-imagick php-intl php-mbstring php-xml php-zip

Now, use the systemctl utility with the reload command to apply the changes to Apache:

sudo systemctl reload apache2 

With Nextcloud installed and the web server properly configured, we'll move on to setting up a database for the application to use.

Creating a MySQL Database

To get started, log into MySQL with the administrative account:

mysql -u root -p 

Enter the password you set for the MySQL root user when you installed the software.

Nextcloud requires a separate database for storing administrative data. While you can call this database whatever you prefer, we decided on the name nextcloud to keep things simple.

CREATE DATABASE nextcloud; 

Note: Every MySQL statement must end in a semi-colon (;). Be sure to check that this is present if you are running into any issues.

Next, create a separate MySQL user account that will interact with the newly created database. Creating one-function databases and accounts is a good idea from a management and security standpoint. As with the naming of the database, choose a username that you prefer. We elected to go with the name nextcloud in this guide.

• GRANT ALL ON nextcloud.* to 'nextcloud'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'set_database_password';

Warning: Be sure to put an actual password where the command reads: set_database_password
With the user assigned access to the database, perform the flush-privileges operation to ensure that the running instance of MySQL knows about the recent privilege assignment:

FLUSH PRIVILEGES; 

This concludes the configuration of MySQL, therefore we will quit the session by typing:

exit 

With the database set up, we are ready to turn our attention to configuring Nextcloud.

Configuring Nextcloud

To access the Nextcloud web interface, open a web browser and navigate to the following address:

https://server_domain_or_IP/nextcloud

If a self-signed certificate is being used, you will likely be presented with a warning because the certificate is not signed by one of your browser's trusted authorities. This is expected and normal. We are only interested in the encryption aspect of the certificate, not the third-party validation of our host's authenticity. Click the appropriate button or link to proceed to the Nextcloud admin page.

You should see something like this:


Create an admin account by choosing a username (it is recommended to avoid using something like "admin" for security reasons) and a password.


Under the Storage & database section leave the Data folder setting as-is and enter the database information, you created in the previous step, in the Configure the database section. Below is an example, which matches the database credentials that we used in this guide:


Click the Finish setup button to sign into Nextcloud. a safe home for all your data splash screen should appear:






Click the X in the top-right corner of the splash screen to access the main interface:


Here, you can create or upload files to your personal cloud.

Conclusion

Nextcloud can replicate the capabilities of popular third-party cloud storage services. Content can be shared between users or externally with public URLs. The advantage of Nextcloud is that the information is stored securely in a place that you control.

Explore the interface and for additional functionality, install plugins using Nextcloud's app store.