Example installation on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

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:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install apache2 mariadb-server libapache2-mod-php7.4
sudo apt install php7.4-gd php7.4-mysql php7.4-curl php7.4-mbstring php7.4-intl
sudo apt install php7.4-gmp php7.4-bcmath php-imagick php7.4-xml php7.4-zip

  • This installs the packages for the Nextcloud core system. If you are planning on running additional apps, keep in mind that they might require additional packages. See Prerequisites for manual installation for details.

Now you need to create a database user and the database itself by using the MySQL command line interface. The database tables will be created by Nextcloud when you login for the first time.

To start the MySQL command line mode use the following command and press the enter key when prompted for a password:

sudo /etc/init.d/mysql start
sudo mysql -uroot -p

Then a MariaDB [root]> prompt will appear. Now enter the following lines, replacing username and password with appropriate values, and confirm them with the enter key:

CREATE USER 'username'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS nextcloud CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON nextcloud.* TO 'username'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

You can quit the prompt by entering:

quit;

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 -xjvf 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.

Next steps

After installing the prerequisites and extracting the nextcloud directory, you should follow the instructions for Apache configuration at Apache Web server configuration. Once Apache is installed, you can optionally follow the Installation on Linux guide from Pretty URLs until Other Web servers