In 2016, the self-hosted community witnessed the public launch of Nextcloud, a vastly-improved fork of ownCloud. Having almost finished migrating data on my home server to Nextcloud and experimenting with some of the more optional features such as caching, pretty links, theming and more, I felt it would be a good time to document some of this in one simple-to-follow guide.

 1. What is Nextcloud?

As mentioned above Nextcloud is a fork of ownCloud that has becoming the better and faster-developed alternative to the self-hosted cloud storage software of old. If you’re an ownCloud user and have ever been frustrated by the dual licenses, the paid vs free model and – as part of it – lack of some of the better features, Nextcloud have gone completely FOSS (Free and Open-Source Software) following the Red Hat model of charging for enterprise support rather than enterprise features.

Some of the previously enterprise-only features released as part of the standard FOSS Nextcloud installation include FileDrop, an alternative to Dropbox’s “File Requests”, LibreOffice online (Collabora), an alternative to Google Docs or Office Online, two-factor authentication, improved federation and more.

 2. In this guide

After completing this guide we’ll have the following:

• A newly installed Nextcloud server
• PHP caching provided by ACPu and Redis for a notable speed increase when navigating even the largest thumbnail-heavy folders
• Pretty links that remove /index.php from the URL
• SSL-enabled with default self-signed certificates and all non-HTTPS traffic redirected

 3. Environment

For this guide Nextcloud will be installed on a remote Ubuntu VM, however it can equally be installed on a local Ubuntu server, a Raspberry Pi or a Linux Container such as Docker or LXD.

 3.1. Hardware

Nextcloud don’t provide a lot of detail for minimum recommended spec, only advising 512MB of RAM. As the server is a full VM and not simply a container, we’ll provide a bit of a buffer to avoid any possible contention.

• 1GHz CPU
• 1GB RAM
• 20GB HDD

20GB of disk will be enough for this guide, but naturally the amount chosen should reflect the amount of data to be stored. Furthermore, if redundancy isn’t offered as standard it’s always a good idea to mirror/RAID the storage area to avoid downtime as best as possible. Typically this is only a consideration required with dedicated servers, but there’s no harm in checking.

 3.2. Software

• Ubuntu server (LTS preferred) with root (sudo) access
• Apache2
• PHP 7
• mySQL / MariaDB
• The latest version of Nextcloud (this guide has been tested as far back as v.9 however)

Besides the above-mentioned packages and their respective dependencies, we should aim to keep the amount of additional software installed to a minimum; the Ubuntu-minimal image is a good place to start here as it requires adding packages after installation rather than sifting through and removing those that aren’t required. From a security perspective this is advised in order to lower to attack surface should an exploit allow a 3rd party to gain shell access to the server – the fewer additional services an attacker can latch onto, the lower the chance of gaining root and doing any real damage. In this case, the VPS provider offers a relatively minimal install, meaning there’s no requirement to upload an Ubuntu-minimal ISO to install from.

Due to the advanced requirements in this guide, root/sudo access to the Ubuntu instance is mandatory.

 4. Setting up the environment

For those with a functioning Ubuntu server and required components, please skip to step 4.1.

First we need to spin up a VM or container, examples of which are as follows:

• LXD, ZFS and bridged networking on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS+
• Setting up an Elastichosts Ubuntu VM

Once the server is setup and we’re logged in, we can continue.

 4.1. Update the server & install LAMP, APCu, Redis

As this is a brand new installation based on images that likely don’t update very often, it’s a good idea to upgrade the server before we begin:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

When the update has completed, it’ll provide a list of packages to be upgraded. Providing we’re happy with what we see, tap Enter.

With the server updated, if one doesn’t already exist, a non-root user should be created with sudo privileges and the root account should disabled, once complete we’ll now install the required components for Nextcloud:

apt install lamp-server

This command will install Apache, MySQL and PHP along with several PHP/Apache modules to ensure seamless collaboration between the packages. Once happy with the package selection to be installed, tap Enter.

MySQL will request a root user password. Ensure this is strong and keep the password safe; losing it can cause all manner of issues.

Once installed, we’ll now install APCu and Redis:

apt install php-apcu redis-server php-redis

Confirm the packages to be installed match expectations and hit Enter.

Finally, we’ll install the minimal Nextcloud PHP modules required not to error during installation (more can be enabled later):

apt install php-zip php-dompdf php-xml php-mbstring php-gd php-curl unzip

And enable a few apache modules to support our configuration:

a2enmod rewrite headers env dir mime

Now we’ll restart Apache:

service apache2 restart

Before moving on check via a browser that Apache is up and running

 4.2. Enable SSL

With the server currently running over HTTP port 80, we can now additionally configure SSL to ensure the Nextcloud installation is secure.

 4.2.1. Let’s Encrypt

Let’s Encrypt offers completely free SSL certificates for securing websites. The client is entirely command line based offering simple setup and automated renewal via cron.

First, choose a location (such as /home/user/), download the Let’s Encrypt client and set it as executable:

wget https://dl.eff.org/certbot-auto && chmod a+x certbot-auto

Next, run the client:

./certbot-auto --apache --agree-tos --rsa-key-size 4096 --email user@domain.org --redirect -dnc.domain.org

Where:
--apache uses the Apache plugin to fully setup and integrate with the existing Apache configuration
--agree-tos simply pre-agrees to the TOS, preventing it popping up during installation
--rsa-key-size defines the length (and therefore security) of the RSA key. Default is 2048.
--email is the email address to register against the certificate (used for reminders by Let’s Encrypt)
--redirect will create both the SSL virtualhost configuration file and add a redirect for HTTP traffic to HTTPs (80 to 443)
-d is the domain to secure

On first run the Let’s Encrypt certbot will install all required dependencies (following approval), however with the added flags above, will not require any further input to set everything up.

Navigating now to the domain allocated to the server will show an SSL-enabled website! If the browser complains the site is not fully protected at this point, it’s due to the default Apache landing page requesting content over HTTP and not an issue with the certificate.

That’s all there is to it. Let’s Encrypt handles everything from certificate generation to Apache configuration, meaning nothing needs to be done beyond what’s documented above. The manual process (below) is far more involved.

One step from the manual process which is recommended is to add the following snippet to the Let’s Encrypt-created vhost.conf file in the same way as is documented in 4.2.2 below:

     <Directory /var/www/html/>
       Options +FollowSymlinks
       AllowOverride All

      <IfModule mod_dav.c>
        Dav off
      </IfModule>

       SetEnv HOME /var/www/html
       SetEnv HTTP_HOME /var/www/html
     </Directory>

     <IfModule mod_headers.c>
          Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=15768000; preload"
     </IfModule>

The text above may be pasted under the ServerName line in the file located at:

/etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default-le-ssl.conf

As the certificate currently expires after 90 days by default, to automatically renew the certificate let’s create a cronjob:

crontab -e

This will open the crontab file for the root user (as sudo was used) meaning sudo (and as such, password authentication) won’t need to be used when running the renew command. Add the following line to the crontab file:

0 0 * * 0 /home/jason/certbot-auto renew

Edit the area in bold, then Ctrl + X to quit followed by Y to save the file.

Skip 4.2.2 and continue to Installing Nextcloud.

 4.2.2. Manual

We’ll begin by enabling the SSL module for Apache:

a2enmod ssl

Apache sets up self-signed certificates as part of the installation, so for this guide we’ll use those. They can be replaced at any time with functioning 3rd party certificates by editing the vhost file we’ll create next. It’s highly recommended they’re switched sooner rather than later.

vim /etc/apache2/sites-available/nextcloud.conf

Insert the following (all items in bold can be changed to suit the environment):

<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
   <VirtualHost _default_:443>

     ServerAdmin you@domain.org
     ServerName nc.domain.org
     DocumentRoot /var/www/html

     <Directory /var/www/html/>
       Options +FollowSymlinks
       AllowOverride All

      <IfModule mod_dav.c>
        Dav off
      </IfModule>

       SetEnv HOME /var/www/html
       SetEnv HTTP_HOME /var/www/html
     </Directory>

     <IfModule mod_headers.c>
          Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=15768000; preload"
     </IfModule>

     SSLEngine on
     SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem
     SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key

   </VirtualHost>
</IfModule>

Save and quit, then enable the new configuration:

a2ensite nextcloud.conf

Now restart Apache:

service apache2 restart

SSL should now be enabled, allowing us to navigate to https://nc.bayton.org when we install Nextcloud later. Of course the page will show an error as the certificates are not trusted. Let’s Encrypt offer free SSL certificates and Mozilla offer a tool to help correctly set up SSL on the server. Check them out for more information.

Optionally, we can also force a redirect from non-SSL to SSL with the following:

vim /etc/apache2/sites-available/nc-redir.conf

Insert the following (all items in bold can be changed to suit the environment):

<VirtualHost *:80>
   ServerName nc.domain.org
   ServerAdmin you@domain.org

   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}$1 [R=301,L]
</VirtualHost>

Save and quit, then enable the new configuration:

a2ensite nc-redir.conf

Then disable the default configuration:

a2dissite 000-default.conf

Then restart Apache:

service apache2 restart

With that, all traffic will be forced to HTTPS.

 5. Install Nextcloud

With the server environment ready (excluding some final NC-related configurations) we’ll move on to installing Nextcloud itself.

 5.1. Download Nextcloud

Change to the webroot directory at /var/www/html with cd /var/www/html

wget https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/latest.zip

NB: future and previous versions can be obtained from Nextcloud.

Unpack the compressed zip with sudo unzip latest.zip

As shown above with ls there’s now a nextcloud folder situated under /var/www/html/ but currently root owns it. We can change that:

chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/nextcloud

Now the Apache account, www-data, will have write-access to the Nextcloud installation directory.

 5.2. Create the Nextcloud database

Before switching to Chrome to run the web-based installer, we’ll first create a database.

We can open a session with mysql by running the command mysql -u root -p and providing the root password we entered earlier.

Now we’ll create a dedicated database and user for Nextcloud with the following commands:

CREATE DATABASE nextcloud;
CREATE USER 'ncuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'ncpassword';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON nextcloud . * TO 'ncuser'@'localhost';

Then exit the mysql session with quit

 5.3. Install Nextcloud

Open up a browser and navigate to ip-or-hostname/nextcloud. Hopefully by this point a DNS entry has propagated; we’ll navigate to nc.domain.org/nextcloud to continue installation.

Success! The Nextcloud installation screen is there and showing no errors. Installation from here is simple:

1. Provide a username and secure password for the admin account.
2. Select a location for the data directory.
3. Provide the database user we configured earlier: ncuser
4. Provide the database user password: ncpassword
5. Provide the database name: nextcloud
6. Confirm the database is on localhost (it is).

When selecting a location for the data directory, keeping it in the webroot is really only OK providing .htaccess rules work. If they do not, as is the case at this point due to the way Apache is setup by default, or fail at any point in the future, the data directory will be publicly visible. We don’t want that.

Ideally it’s best practice to situate the data directory outside of /var/www/ in a location inaccessible for guests browsing the website. Where it’s ultimately placed is at the discretion of the administrator, though ensure the user www-data can write to it in its final location with:

chown -R www-data:www-data /path/to/data

Scroll down and click Finish Setup.

 6. Configuration

As it stands currently, Nextcloud isn’t very happy.

Ignore the HTTP error, this will disappear when we access the site over HTTPS.

 6.1. Enable .htaccess

The .htaccess file doesn’t work because we’ve put Nextcloud in the main /var/www/html webroot controlled by the apache.conf file. By default it is set to disallow .htaccess overrides and we’ll need to change that:

Then change

<Directory /var/www/>        
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
        Require all granted
</Directory>
To

<Directory /var/www/>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
</Directory>

Save and quit, then restart Apache with:

service apache2 restart

 6.2. Enable caching

The difference in speed between a Nextcloud server without cache and one with is huge. Particularly as the file and folder counts increase and more multimedia files make their way onto the server, caching becomes increasingly important for maintaining speed and performance. ACPu will handle a lot of the caching initially, leaving Redis to manage file locking. As the server grows and ACPu demands more resources, we could configure Redis to take a more active role in distributed caching. Having installed both APCu and Redis earlier, we’ll now configure them.

First, open the Redis configuration file at /etc/redis/redis.conf

vim /etc/redis/redis.conf

Now, find and change:

port 6379 to port 0

Then uncomment:

unixsocket /var/run/redis/redis.sock
unixsocketperm 700 changing permissions to 770 at the same time: unixsocketperm 770

Save and quit, then add the Apache user www-data to the redis group:

usermod -a -G redis www-data

Finally, restart Apache with:

service apache2 restart

And start Redis server with:

service redis-server start

With Redis configured, we can add the caching configuration to the Nextcloud config file:

vim /var/www/html/nextcloud/config/config.php

Add the following:

'memcache.local' => '\\OC\\Memcache\\Redis',
'memcache.locking' => '\\OC\\Memcache\\Redis',
'filelocking.enabled' => 'true',
'redis' => 
array (
'host' => '/var/run/redis/redis.sock',
'port' => 0,
'timeout' => 0.0,
),

A reboot may be required before the configuration change takes effect, but before we do we’ll make sure Redis is enabled to start on boot with:

systemctl enable redis-server

Caching is now configured.

With both of these now resolved, the admin interface is looking a lot healthier:

 6.3. Pretty links

Much like theming, pretty links aren’t mandatory, but they add to the overall aesthetics of the server.

Most of the hard work was already done during the setup of the environment with the enabling of mod_env and mod_rewrite, however to complete the removal of index.php in every URL, re-open the Nexcloud config file:

vim /var/www/html/nextcloud/config/config.php

Add 'htaccess.RewriteBase' => '/nextcloud', (where nextcloud is the URL location – domain.com/nextcloud – of the installation) below one of the existing configuration options, for example:

Finally, from /var/www/html/nextcloud, run:

sudo -u www-data php occ maintenance:update:htaccess

From:

To (don’t simply refresh the page, remove index.php from the URL and load the page again, otherwise it looks like it doesn’t work):

 6.4. Max upload

Until we try to upload files this is easy to miss. By default PHP ships with a file-upload limitation reminiscent of file sizes in the early 2000’s – 2MB. As we’re installing a personal cloud that may hold on to files gigabytes in size, we can change the PHP configuration to allow far more flexibility.

Open the php.ini file (7.0 may need to be replaced with a newer version of PHP, like 7.2):

Locate and amend:

upload_max_filesize = 2048M
post_max_size = 2058M

The max size can be tweaked to suit, however be sure to always give post_max_size a bit more than upload_max_filesize to prevent errors when uploading files that match the maximum allowed upload size.

Restart Apache:

service apache2 restart

Log into the admin area of Nextcloud, navigate to additional settings and ensure the max upload setting there reflects the change made to the php.ini file (in this example, 2GB):

 6.5. Nextcloud 12+ PHP Opcache

From Nextcloud 12, additional configuration is required in order to correctly setup PHP Opcache. The following error displays until this is completed:

Re-open the php.ini file:

At the bottom of the file, add the following, as displayed above:

; Nextcloud Opcache settings
opcache.enable=1
opcache.enable_cli=1
opcache.interned_strings_buffer=8
opcache.max_accelerated_files=10000
opcache.memory_consumption=128
opcache.save_comments=1
opcache.revalidate_freq=1

Save the file and restart Apache:

service apache2 restart

On refreshing the browser, the warning should no longer be there.

 6.6. Server-side encryption (optional)

As we’re running our Nextcloud installation on a remote host, far outside the confines of our internal network, it’s a good opportunity to enable server-side encryption. This guarantees that should anyone gain access to the data hosted on the server, file contents won’t be readable.

First we’ll enable the default encryption app:

1. Click the Files link and switch to Apps
2. Click Not enabled from the side-menu
3. Click Enable on the Default encryption module

Next we’ll log into the Nexcloud administration area and navigate to Server-side encryption. Click Enable server-side encryption:

After reading through the warnings, click Enable encryption. We now need to log out and back in:

After logging back in and returning to this area, it will be possible to create a global recovery key:

However, if a global recovery key is considered too all-powerful, individual users may also recover encrypted files with their password by setting the following option to Enabled in Personal located when clicking the username in the top-right of the screen:

All data will now be encrypted at rest, as well as protected in transit when using SSL.

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