Nextcloud 12 Server Administration Manual

Installation on Linux¶

If there are no packages for your Linux distribution, you have the option to install Snap Packages. See Installing via Snap Packages

In case you prefer installing from the source tarball, you can setup Nextcloud from scratch using a classic LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL/MariaDB, PHP). This document provides a complete walk-through for installing Nextcloud on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Server with Apache and MariaDB, using the Nextcloud .tar archive.

Installing via Snap Packages
Prerequisites for Manual Installation
Example Installation on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Server
BINLOG_FORMAT = STATEMENT
Apache Web Server Configuration
Pretty URLs
Enabling SSL
Installation Wizard
SELinux Configuration Tips
php.ini Configuration Notes
php-fpm Configuration Notes
Other Web Servers

Note

Admins of SELinux-enabled distributions such as CentOS, Fedora, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux may need to set new rules to enable installing Nextcloud. See SELinux Configuration Tips for a suggested configuration.

Installing via Snap Packages¶

A snap is a zip file containing an application together with its dependencies, and a description of how it should safely be run on your system, especially the different ways it should talk to other software. Most importantly snaps are designed to be secure, sandboxed, containerized applications isolated from the underlying system and from other applications.

To install the Nextcloud Snap Package, run the following command in a terminal:

sudo snap install nextcloud

Note

The snapd technology is the core that powers snaps, and it offers a new way to package, distribute, update and run OS components and applications on a Linux system. See more about snaps on snapcraft.io.

Prerequisites for Manual Installation¶

The Nextcloud .tar archive contains all of the required PHP modules. This section lists all required and optional PHP modules. Consult the PHP manual for more information on modules. Your Linux distribution should have packages for all required modules. You can check the presence of a module by typing php -m | grep -i <module_name>. If you get a result, the module is present.

Required:

PHP (>= 5.6, 7.0 or 7.1)
PHP module ctype
PHP module dom
PHP module GD
PHP module iconv
PHP module JSON
PHP module libxml (Linux package libxml2 must be >=2.7.0)
PHP module mbstring
PHP module openssl
PHP module posix
PHP module SimpleXML
PHP module XMLReader
PHP module XMLWriter
PHP module zip
PHP module zlib

Database connectors (pick the one for your database:)

PHP module pdo_sqlite (>= 3, usually not recommended for performance reasons)
PHP module pdo_mysql (MySQL/MariaDB)
PHP module pdo_pgsql (requires PostgreSQL >= 9.0)

Recommended packages:

PHP module curl (highly recommended, some functionality, e.g. HTTP user authentication, depends on this)
PHP module fileinfo (highly recommended, enhances file analysis performance)
PHP module bz2 (recommended, required for extraction of apps)
PHP module intl (increases language translation performance and fixes sorting of non-ASCII characters)
PHP module mcrypt (increases file encryption performance)

Required for specific apps:

PHP module ldap (for LDAP integration)
PHP module smbclient (SMB/CIFS integration, see SMB/CIFS)
PHP module ftp (for FTP storage / external user authentication)
PHP module imap (for external user authentication)

Recommended for specific apps (optional):

PHP module exif (for image rotation in pictures app)
PHP module gmp (for SFTP storage)

For enhanced server performance (optional) select one of the following memcaches:

PHP module apcu (>= 4.0.6)
PHP module memcached
PHP module redis (>= 2.2.6, required for Transactional File Locking)

See Configuring Memory Caching to learn how to select and configure a memcache.

For preview generation (optional):

PHP module imagick
avconv or ffmpeg
OpenOffice or LibreOffice

For command line processing (optional):

PHP module pcntl (enables command interruption by pressing ctrl-c)

You don’t need the WebDAV module for your Web server (i.e. Apache’s mod_webdav), as Nextcloud has a built-in WebDAV server of its own, SabreDAV. If mod_webdav is enabled you must disable it for Nextcloud. (See Apache Web Server Configuration for an example configuration.)

Example Installation on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Server¶

On a machine running a pristine Ubuntu 16.04 LTS server, you have two options:

You can either install the Nextcloud Snap Package, just run the following command in a terminal:

sudo snap install nextcloud

Or you can use .deb packages to install the required and recommended modules for a typical Nextcloud installation, using Apache and MariaDB, by issuing the following commands in a terminal:

apt-get install apache2 mariadb-server libapache2-mod-php7.0
apt-get install php7.0-gd php7.0-json php7.0-mysql php7.0-curl php7.0-mbstring
apt-get install php7.0-intl php7.0-mcrypt php-imagick php7.0-xml php7.0-zip

This installs the packages for the Nextcloud core system. libapache2-mod-php7.0 provides the following PHP extensions: bcmath bz2 calendar Core ctype date dba dom ereg exif fileinfo filter ftp gettext hash iconv libxml mhash openssl pcre Phar posix Reflection session shmop SimpleXML soap sockets SPL standard sysvmsg sysvsem sysvshm tokenizer wddx xmlreader xmlwriter zlib. If you are planning on running additional apps, keep in mind that they might require additional packages. See Prerequisites for Manual Installation for details.
At the installation of the MySQL/MariaDB server, you will be prompted to create a root password. Be sure to remember your password as you will need it during Nextcloud database setup.

Now download the archive of the latest Nextcloud version:

Go to the Nextcloud Download Page.
Go to Download Nextcloud Server > Download > Archive file for server owners and download either the tar.bz2 or .zip archive.
This downloads a file named nextcloud-x.y.z.tar.bz2 or nextcloud-x.y.z.zip (where x.y.z is the version number).
Download its corresponding checksum file, e.g. nextcloud-x.y.z.tar.bz2.md5, or nextcloud-x.y.z.tar.bz2.sha256.

Verify the MD5 or SHA256 sum:

md5sum -c nextcloud-x.y.z.tar.bz2.md5 < nextcloud-x.y.z.tar.bz2
sha256sum -c nextcloud-x.y.z.tar.bz2.sha256 < nextcloud-x.y.z.tar.bz2
md5sum  -c nextcloud-x.y.z.zip.md5 < nextcloud-x.y.z.zip
sha256sum  -c nextcloud-x.y.z.zip.sha256 < nextcloud-x.y.z.zip

You may also verify the PGP signature:

wget https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/nextcloud-x.y.z.tar.bz2.asc
wget https://nextcloud.com/nextcloud.asc
gpg --import nextcloud.asc
gpg --verify nextcloud-x.y.z.tar.bz2.asc nextcloud-x.y.z.tar.bz2

Now you can extract the archive contents. Run the appropriate unpacking command for your archive type:
```
tar -xjf nextcloud-x.y.z.tar.bz2
unzip nextcloud-x.y.z.zip
```
This unpacks to a single nextcloud directory. Copy the Nextcloud directory to its final destination. When you are running the Apache HTTP server you may safely install Nextcloud in your Apache document root:
```
cp -r nextcloud /path/to/webserver/document-root
```
where /path/to/webserver/document-root is replaced by the document root of your Web server:
```
cp -r nextcloud /var/www
```

On other HTTP servers it is recommended to install Nextcloud outside of the document root.

BINLOG_FORMAT = STATEMENT¶

If your Nextcloud installation fails and you see this in your Nextcloud log:

An unhandled exception has been thrown: exception ‘PDOException’ with message
'SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1665 Cannot execute statement: impossible to
write to binary log since BINLOG_FORMAT = STATEMENT and at least one table
uses a storage engine limited to row-based logging. InnoDB is limited to
row-logging when transaction isolation level is READ COMMITTED or READ
UNCOMMITTED.'

See db-binlog-label.

Apache Web Server Configuration¶

On Debian, Ubuntu, and their derivatives, Apache installs with a useful configuration so all you have to do is create a /etc/apache2/sites-available/nextcloud.conf file with these lines in it, replacing the Directory and other filepaths with your own filepaths:

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

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

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

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

</Directory>

Then create a symlink to /etc/apache2/sites-enabled:

ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/nextcloud.conf /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/nextcloud.conf

Additional Apache Configurations¶

For Nextcloud to work correctly, we need the module mod_rewrite. Enable it by running:
```
a2enmod rewrite
```
Additional recommended modules are mod_headers, mod_env, mod_dir and mod_mime:
```
a2enmod headers
a2enmod env
a2enmod dir
a2enmod mime
```
If you’re running mod_fcgi instead of the standard mod_php also enable:
```
a2enmod setenvif
```
You must disable any server-configured authentication for Nextcloud, as it uses Basic authentication internally for DAV services. If you have turned on authentication on a parent folder (via e.g. an AuthType Basic directive), you can turn off the authentication specifically for the Nextcloud entry. Following the above example configuration file, add the following line in the <Directory> section:
```
Satisfy Any
```
When using SSL, take special note of the ServerName. You should specify one in the server configuration, as well as in the CommonName field of the certificate. If you want your Nextcloud to be reachable via the internet, then set both of these to the domain you want to reach your Nextcloud server.
Now restart Apache:
```
service apache2 restart
```
If you’re running Nextcloud in a subdirectory and want to use CalDAV or CardDAV clients make sure you have configured the correct Service discovery URLs.

Pretty URLs¶

Pretty URLs remove the index.php-part in all Nextcloud URLs, for example in sharing links like https://example.org/nextcloud/index.php/s/Sv1b7krAUqmF8QQ`, making URLs shorter and thus prettier.

mod_env and mod_rewrite must be installed on your webserver and the .htaccess must be writable by the HTTP user. Then you can set in the config.php two variables:

'overwrite.cli.url' => 'https://example.org/nextcloud',
'htaccess.RewriteBase' => '/nextcloud',

if your setup is available on https://example.org/nextcloud or:

'overwrite.cli.url' => 'https://example.org',
'htaccess.RewriteBase' => '/',

if it isn’t installed in a subfolder. Finally run this occ-command to update your .htaccess file:

sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ maintenance:update:htaccess

After each update, these changes are automatically applied to the .htaccess-file.

Enabling SSL¶

Note

You can use Nextcloud over plain HTTP, but we strongly encourage you to use SSL/TLS to encrypt all of your server traffic, and to protect user’s logins and data in transit.

Apache installed under Ubuntu comes already set-up with a simple self-signed certificate. All you have to do is to enable the ssl module and the default site. Open a terminal and run:

a2enmod ssl
a2ensite default-ssl
service apache2 reload

Note

Self-signed certificates have their drawbacks - especially when you plan to make your Nextcloud server publicly accessible. You might want to consider getting a certificate signed by a commercial signing authority. Check with your domain name registrar or hosting service for good deals on commercial certificates.

Installation Wizard¶

After restarting Apache you must complete your installation by running either the graphical Installation Wizard, or on the command line with the occ command. To enable this, change the ownership on your Nextcloud directories to your HTTP user:

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

Note

Admins of SELinux-enabled distributions may need to write new SELinux rules to complete their Nextcloud installation; see SELinux Configuration Tips.

To use occ see Installing from Command Line.

To use the graphical Installation Wizard see Installation Wizard.

SELinux Configuration Tips¶

See SELinux Configuration for a suggested configuration for SELinux-enabled distributions such as Fedora and CentOS.

php.ini Configuration Notes¶

Keep in mind that changes to php.ini may have to be configured on more than one ini file. This can be the case, for example, for the date.timezone setting.

php.ini - used by the Web server:

  /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini
or
  /etc/php5/fpm/php.ini
or ...

php.ini - used by the php-cli and so by Nextcloud CRON jobs:

/etc/php5/cli/php.ini

php-fpm Configuration Notes¶

Security: Use at least PHP >= 5.6.6

Due to a bug with security implications in older PHP releases with the handling of XML data you are highly encouraged to run at least PHP 5.6.6 when in a threaded environment.

System environment variables

When you are using php-fpm, system environment variables like PATH, TMP or others are not automatically populated in the same way as when using php-cli. A PHP call like getenv('PATH'); can therefore return an empty result. So you may need to manually configure environment variables in the appropropriate php-fpm ini/config file.

Here are some example root paths for these ini/config files:

Ubuntu/Mint	CentOS/Red Hat/Fedora
`/etc/php5/fpm/`	`/etc/php-fpm.d/`

In both examples, the ini/config file is called www.conf, and depending on the distro version or customizations you have made, it may be in a subdirectory.

Usually, you will find some or all of the environment variables already in the file, but commented out like this:

;env[HOSTNAME] = $HOSTNAME
;env[PATH] = /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin
;env[TMP] = /tmp
;env[TMPDIR] = /tmp
;env[TEMP] = /tmp

Uncomment the appropriate existing entries. Then run printenv PATH to confirm your paths, for example:

$ printenv PATH
/home/user/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:
/sbin:/bin:/

If any of your system environment variables are not present in the file then you must add them.

When you are using shared hosting or a control panel to manage your Nextcloud VM or server, the configuration files are almost certain to be located somewhere else, for security and flexibility reasons, so check your documentation for the correct locations.

Please keep in mind that it is possible to create different settings for php-cli and php-fpm, and for different domains and Web sites. The best way to check your settings is with PHP Version and Information.

Maximum upload size

If you want to increase the maximum upload size, you will also have to modify your php-fpm configuration and increase the upload_max_filesize and post_max_size values. You will need to restart php5-fpm and your HTTP server in order for these changes to be applied.

.htaccess notes for Apache

Nextcloud comes with its own nextcloud/.htaccess file. Because php-fpm can’t read PHP settings in .htaccess these settings and permissions must be set in the nextcloud/.user.ini file.

Other Web Servers¶

Nginx Configuration

Other HTTP servers (Nextcloud)