Nextcloud

Prerequisite

• Nginx
• PHP
• MariaDB

Install

Download

Download Nextcloud from https://nextcloud.com/install/#instructions-server and extract the archive in /var/www/nextcloud.

Fix file permissions using

$ sudo chown -r www-data: /var/www/nextcloud/

Configure PHP

Edit file /etc/php/7.0/mods-available/local-common.ini and add /var/www/nextcloud/:/dev/:/var/log/nextcloud/ to the open_basedir setting.

Reload PHP:

$ sudo systemctl reload php7.0-fpm.service

Configure Webserver

1. Create the config file /etc/nginx/sites-available/nextcloud.example.org

   server {
       include snippets/listen-http.conf;
       server_name nextcloud.example.org;
   
       access_log /var/log/nginx/nextcloud.example.org.access.log;
       error_log /var/log/nginx/nextcloud.example.org.error.log;
   
       include snippets/https-permanent-redirect.conf;
   }
   
   server {
       include snippets/listen-https.conf;
       server_name nextcloud.example.org;
   
       access_log /var/log/nginx/nextcloud.example.org.access.log;
       error_log /var/log/nginx/nextcloud.example.org.error.log;
   
       include snippets/acme-challenge.conf;
       #include snippets/ssl.conf;
       #ssl_certificate      /etc/letsencrypt/live/nextcloud.example.org/fullchain.pem;
       #ssl_certificate_key  /etc/letsencrypt/live/nextcloud.example.org/privkey.pem;
       #include snippets/hsts.conf;
   
       # Protect web interface during initial setup
       # The following two lines must be removed after initial configuration
       auth_basic            "You shall not pass!";
       auth_basic_user_file  /etc/nginx/htpasswd/generic.htpasswd;
   
       include snippets/security-headers.conf;
       # Using more_set_headers instead of add_header to be cascaded in sub location
       more_set_headers "X-Robots-Tag: none";
       more_set_headers "X-Download-Options: noopen";
       
       # Path to the root of your installation
       root /var/www/nextcloud/;
       
       location = /.well-known/carddav {
           return 301 $scheme://$host/remote.php/dav;
       }
       location = /.well-known/caldav {
           return 301 $scheme://$host/remote.php/dav;
       }
   
       client_max_body_size 10G; # set max upload size
       fastcgi_buffers 64 4K;
   
       location / {
           rewrite ^ /index.php$uri;
       }
   
       location ~ ^/(?:build|tests|config|lib|3rdparty|templates|data)/ {
           deny all;
       }
       location ~ ^/(?:\.|autotest|occ|issue|indie|db_|console) {
           deny all;
       }
   
       location ~ ^/(?:index|remote|public|cron|core/ajax/update|status|ocs/v[12]|updater/.+|ocs-provider/.+)\.php(?:$|/) {
           fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
           include fastcgi_params;
           fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
           fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
           fastcgi_param HTTPS on;
           fastcgi_param modHeadersAvailable true; #Avoid sending the security headers twice
           fastcgi_param front_controller_active true;
           fastcgi_pass php;
           fastcgi_intercept_errors on;
           fastcgi_request_buffering off;
       }
   
       location ~ ^/(?:updater|ocs-provider)(?:$|/) {
           try_files $uri/ =404;
           index index.php;
       }
   
       # Adding the cache control header for js and css files
       # Make sure it is BELOW the PHP block
       location ~* \.(?:css|js|woff|svg|gif)$ {
           try_files $uri /index.php$uri$is_args$args;
           add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=15778463";
       }   
       
       location ~* \.(?:png|html|ttf|ico|jpg|jpeg)$ {
           try_files $uri /index.php$uri$is_args$args;
       }
   }
   

2. Activate the configuration with

   $ sudo nginx_modsite -e nextcloud.example.org
   Would you like to reload the Nginx configuration now? (Y/n) Y
   

3. Edit file /usr/local/etc/certmanage/main.json and add the following to the list

   {
       "domains": ["nextcloud.example.org"],
       "reload": [["/bin/systemctl", "reload", "nginx.service"]]
   }
   

4. Get your certificate

   $ sudo /usr/local/sbin/certmanage
   Renewing certificate for nextcloud.example.org that will expire on 0001-01-01
   
   Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log
   Starting new HTTPS connection (1): acme-v01.api.letsencrypt.org
   Obtaining a new certificate
   Performing the following challenges:
   http-01 challenge for nextcloud.example.org
   Using the webroot path /var/www/acme-challenge for all unmatched domains.
   Waiting for verification...
   Cleaning up challenges
   Generating key (2048 bits): /etc/letsencrypt/keys/1764_key-certbot.pem
   Creating CSR: /etc/letsencrypt/csr/1764_csr-certbot.pem
   
   IMPORTANT NOTES:
    - Congratulations! Your certificate and chain have been saved at
      /etc/letsencrypt/live/nextcloud.example.org/fullchain.pem. Your cert
      will expire on 2026-03-05. To obtain a new or tweaked version of
      this certificate in the future, simply run certbot again. To
      non-interactively renew *all* of your certificates, run "certbot
      renew"
    - If you like Certbot, please consider supporting our work by:
   
      Donating to ISRG / Let's Encrypt:   https://letsencrypt.org/donate
      Donating to EFF:                    https://eff.org/donate-le
   
   Restarting services:
   systemctl reload nginx.service
   

5. Uncomment the ssl related lines in /etc/nginx/sites-available/nextcloud.example.org and run

   $ sudo systemctl reload nginx.service
   

Configure Nextcloud

//config.php

$ sudo tee "/usr/local/bin/occ" > /dev/null << EOF
> !/bin/sh
> sudo -u www-data /usr/bin/php /var/www/nextcloud/occ "\$@"
> EOF
$ sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/occ

Logs

First you need to create a folder for the logs

$ sudo mkdir /var/log/nextcloud
$ sudo chmod 750 /var/log/nextcloud
$ sudo chown www-data:adm /var/log/nextcloud

Create file /etc/logrotate.d/nextcloud with the following content

/var/log/nextcloud/nextcloud.log {
  rotate 6
  monthly
  compress
  delaycompress
  missingok
  notifempty
  create 640 www-data adm
}

Finally activate the new log location. Edit /var/www/nextcloud/config/config.php and add/edit the logfile line

'logfile' => '/var/log/nextcloud/nextcloud.log',

Cron

Create file /etc/cron.d/nextcloud

*/15 *   *   *   *   www-data /usr/bin/php -f /var/www/nextcloud/cron.php

Now open Nextcloud in your browser and go to the admin section and activate cron

Test

Security

Nextcloud is providing a security scanning service for public instances. Scan your instance to find configuration issues.