Installation wizard

Quick start

When Nextcloud prerequisites are fulfilled and all Nextcloud files are installed, the last step to completing the installation is running the Installation Wizard. This is just three steps:

1. Point your Web browser to http://localhost/nextcloud
2. Enter your desired administrator’s username and password.
3. Click Finish Setup.

You’re finished and can start using your new Nextcloud server.

Of course, there is much more that you can do to set up your Nextcloud server for best performance and security. In the following sections we will cover important installation and post-installation steps.

• Data Directory Location
• Database Choice
• Trusted Domains

Data directory location

Click Storage and Database to expose additional installation configuration options for your Nextcloud data directory and database.

You should locate your Nextcloud data directory outside of your Web root if you are using an HTTP server other than Apache, or you may wish to store your Nextcloud data in a different location for other reasons (e.g. on a storage server). It is best to configure your data directory location at installation, as it is difficult to move after installation. You may put it anywhere; in this example is it located in /opt/nextcloud/. This directory must already exist, and must be owned by your HTTP user.

Database choice

SQLite is the default database for Nextcloud Server and it is good only for testing and lightweight single-user setups without client synchronization. Supported databases are MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle 11g, and PostgreSQL, and we recommend MySQL/MariaDB. Your database and PHP connectors must be installed before you run the Installation Wizard. When you install Nextcloud from packages all the necessary dependencies will be satisfied (see Installation on Linux for a detailed listing of required and optional PHP modules). You will need the root database login, or any administrator login that has permissions to create and modify databases, and then enter any name you want for your Nextcloud database.

After you enter your root or administrator login for your database, the installer creates a special database user with privileges limited to the Nextcloud database. Then Nextcloud needs only the special Nextcloud database user, and drops the root dB login. This user is named for your Nextcloud admin user, with an oc_ prefix, and then given a random password. The Nextcloud database user and password are written into config.php:

'dbuser' => 'oc_molly',
'dbpassword' => 'pX65Ty5DrHQkYPE5HRsDvyFHlZZHcm',

Click Finish Setup, and start using your new Nextcloud server.

Now we will look at some important post-installation steps.

Trusted domains

All URLs used to access your Nextcloud server must be whitelisted in your config.php file, under the trusted_domains setting. Users are allowed to log into Nextcloud only when they point their browsers to a URL that is listed in the trusted_domains setting. You may use IP addresses and domain names. A typical configuration looks like this:

'trusted_domains' =>
  array (
   0 => 'localhost',
   1 => 'server1.example.com',
   2 => '192.168.1.50',
   3 => '[fe80::1:50]',
),

The loopback address, 127.0.0.1, is automatically whitelisted, so as long as you have access to the physical server you can always log in. In the event that a load balancer is in place there will be no issues as long as it sends the correct X-Forwarded-Host header. When a user tries a URL that is not whitelisted the following error appears: