Nextcloud with MariaDB and Apache on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

Nextcloud Installation Guide

# Nextcloud Installation Guide

**Complete Setup with MariaDB, PHP 8.3 FPM, Apache HTTP/2, and Redis**

## Difficulty Level

**Intermediate to Advanced** – This guide requires familiarity with Linux command line, web server configuration, and database management. Estimated completion time: 2-3 hours.

## Prerequisites

– Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or Debian 11/12 server

– Root or sudo access

– Basic knowledge of Linux commands

– Understanding of web server concepts

– Familiarity with database operations

## System Requirements

– Minimum 2GB RAM (4GB recommended)

– 20GB+ available disk space

– Network access for package downloads

– Domain name configured (optional but recommended)

—

## Step 1: System Preparation

### Update System Packages

“`bash

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

sudo apt install curl wget gnupg2 software-properties-common apt-transport-https -y

“`

### Install Required System Packages

“`bash

sudo apt install unzip zip p7zip-full htop tree -y

“`

—

## Step 2: Install and Configure Apache

### Install Apache

“`bash

sudo apt install apache2 -y

sudo systemctl enable apache2

sudo systemctl start apache2

“`

### Enable Required Apache Modules

“`bash

sudo a2enmod rewrite

sudo a2enmod headers

sudo a2enmod env

sudo a2enmod dir

sudo a2enmod mime

sudo a2enmod ssl

sudo a2enmod http2

sudo a2enmod proxy_fcgi

sudo a2enmod setenvif

“`

### Configure Apache for HTTP/2

Create or edit the main Apache configuration:

“`bash

sudo nano /etc/apache2/conf-available/http2.conf

“`

Add the following content:

“`apache

# Enable HTTP/2

Protocols h2 h2c http/1.1

# HTTP/2 specific settings

H2Direct on

H2Push on

H2PushPriority * after

H2PushPriority text/css before

H2PushPriority image/png after 32

H2PushPriority application/javascript interleaved

“`

Enable the configuration:

“`bash

sudo a2enconf http2

sudo systemctl restart apache2

“`

—

## Step 3: Install PHP 8.3 with FPM

### Add PHP Repository

“`bash

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php -y

sudo apt update

“`

### Install PHP 8.3 and Required Extensions

“`bash

sudo apt install php8.3-fpm php8.3-common php8.3-mysql php8.3-xml php8.3-xmlrpc \

php8.3-curl php8.3-gd php8.3-imagick php8.3-cli php8.3-dev php8.3-imap \

php8.3-mbstring php8.3-opcache php8.3-redis php8.3-soap php8.3-zip \

php8.3-intl php8.3-bcmath php8.3-gmp php8.3-apcu php8.3-memcached -y

“`

### Configure PHP-FPM

Edit the PHP-FPM pool configuration:

“`bash

sudo nano /etc/php/8.3/fpm/pool.d/www.conf

“`

Find and modify these settings:

“`ini

user = www-data

group = www-data

listen = /run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock

listen.owner = www-data

listen.group = www-data

listen.mode = 0660

pm = dynamic

pm.max_children = 50

pm.start_servers = 5

pm.min_spare_servers = 5

pm.max_spare_servers = 35

pm.max_requests = 500

“`

### Configure PHP Settings

Edit PHP configuration for better Nextcloud performance:

“`bash

sudo nano /etc/php/8.3/fpm/php.ini

“`

Modify these values:

“`ini

memory_limit = 512M

upload_max_filesize = 1G

post_max_size = 1G

max_execution_time = 300

max_input_time = 300

max_input_vars = 10000

date.timezone = “Europe/Berlin”

opcache.enable = 1

opcache.memory_consumption = 128

opcache.interned_strings_buffer = 8

opcache.max_accelerated_files = 4000

opcache.revalidate_freq = 2

opcache.fast_shutdown = 1

“`

### Start and Enable PHP-FPM

“`bash

sudo systemctl enable php8.3-fpm

sudo systemctl start php8.3-fpm

sudo systemctl restart apache2

“`

—

## Step 4: Install and Configure MariaDB

### Install MariaDB

“`bash

sudo apt install mariadb-server mariadb-client -y

sudo systemctl enable mariadb

sudo systemctl start mariadb

“`

### Secure MariaDB Installation

“`bash

sudo mysql_secure_installation

“`

Follow the prompts:

– Set root password: **YES**

– Remove anonymous users: **YES**

– Disallow root login remotely: **YES**

– Remove test database: **YES**

– Reload privilege tables: **YES**

### Create Nextcloud Database

“`bash

sudo mysql -u root -p

“`

Execute these SQL commands:

“`sql

CREATE DATABASE nextcloud CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci;

CREATE USER ‘nextclouduser’@’localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘your_strong_password_here’;

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON nextcloud.* TO ‘nextclouduser’@’localhost’;

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

EXIT;

“`

### Optimize MariaDB for Nextcloud

“`bash

sudo nano /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf

“`

Add under `[mysqld]` section:

“`ini

innodb_buffer_pool_size = 1G

innodb_io_capacity = 4000

skip-name-resolve

innodb_flush_method = O_DIRECT

innodb_log_file_size = 128M

innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit = 2

“`

Restart MariaDB:

“`bash

sudo systemctl restart mariadb

“`

—

## Step 5: Install and Configure Redis

### Install Redis

“`bash

sudo apt install redis-server -y

sudo systemctl enable redis-server

sudo systemctl start redis-server

“`

### Configure Redis

“`bash

sudo nano /etc/redis/redis.conf

“`

Modify these settings:

“`ini

# Memory optimization

maxmemory 256mb

maxmemory-policy allkeys-lru

# Security

requirepass your_redis_password_here

# Network

bind 127.0.0.1 ::1

port 6379

“`

Restart Redis:

“`bash

sudo systemctl restart redis-server

“`

—

## Step 6: Download and Install Nextcloud

### Download Latest Nextcloud

“`bash

cd /tmp

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

“`

### Extract and Move to Web Directory

“`bash

sudo unzip latest.zip -d /var/www/

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

sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/nextcloud

“`

—

## Step 7: Configure Apache Virtual Host

### Create Nextcloud Virtual Host

“`bash

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/nextcloud.conf

“`

Add the following configuration:

“`apache

<VirtualHost *:80>

ServerName your-domain.com

DocumentRoot /var/www/nextcloud

<Directory /var/www/nextcloud>

Options +FollowSymlinks

AllowOverride All

Require all granted

<IfModule mod_dav.c>

Dav off

</IfModule>

SetEnv HOME /var/www/nextcloud

SetEnv HTTP_HOME /var/www/nextcloud

</Directory>

# PHP-FPM Configuration

<FilesMatch \.php$>

SetHandler “proxy:unix:/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost/”

</FilesMatch>

# Security Headers

Header always set Strict-Transport-Security “max-age=63072000; includeSubDomains; preload”

Header always set X-Content-Type-Options nosniff

Header always set X-Frame-Options DENY

Header always set X-XSS-Protection “1; mode=block”

Header always set Referrer-Policy “no-referrer”

ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/nextcloud_error.log

CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/nextcloud_access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

“`

### Enable Site and Restart Apache

“`bash

sudo a2ensite nextcloud.conf

sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf

sudo systemctl restart apache2

“`

—

## Step 8: Complete Nextcloud Installation

### Set Proper Permissions

“`bash

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

sudo find /var/www/nextcloud -type d -exec chmod 750 {} \;

sudo find /var/www/nextcloud -type f -exec chmod 640 {} \;

“`

### Web-based Installation

1. Open your browser and navigate to `http://your-domain.com`

2. Create an admin account

3. Configure database connection:

– Database user: `nextclouduser`

– Database password: `your_strong_password_here`

– Database name: `nextcloud`

– Database host: `localhost`

—

## Step 9: Post-Installation Configuration

### Configure Nextcloud for Redis

“`bash

sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ config:system:set memcache.local –value=”\\OC\\Memcache\\APCu”

sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ config:system:set memcache.distributed –value=”\\OC\\Memcache\\Redis”

sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ config:system:set memcache.locking –value=”\\OC\\Memcache\\Redis”

sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ config:system:set redis host –value=”localhost”

sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ config:system:set redis port –value=6379

sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ config:system:set redis password –value=”your_redis_password_here”

“`

### Configure Trusted Domains

“`bash

sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ config:system:set trusted_domains 0 –value=”your-domain.com”

“`

### Setup Cron Job

“`bash

sudo crontab -u www-data -e

“`

Add this line:

“`bash

*/5 * * * * php /var/www/nextcloud/cron.php

“`

—

## Step 10: SSL/TLS Configuration (Recommended)

### Install Certbot

“`bash

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache -y

“`

### Obtain SSL Certificate

“`bash

sudo certbot –apache -d your-domain.com

“`

### Update Virtual Host for SSL

The SSL configuration will be automatically created. Verify HTTP/2 is working:

“`bash

curl -I -L https://your-domain.com

“`

—

## Step 11: Performance Optimization

### Configure PHP OPcache

“`bash

sudo nano /etc/php/8.3/fpm/conf.d/10-opcache.ini

“`

Add optimized settings:

“`ini

[opcache]

opcache.enable=1

opcache.enable_cli=1

opcache.memory_consumption=128

opcache.interned_strings_buffer=8

opcache.max_accelerated_files=10000

opcache.revalidate_freq=1

opcache.save_comments=1

“`

### Restart Services

“`bash

sudo systemctl restart php8.3-fpm

sudo systemctl restart apache2

“`

—

## Verification and Testing

### Check Service Status

“`bash

sudo systemctl status apache2

sudo systemctl status php8.3-fpm

sudo systemctl status mariadb

sudo systemctl status redis-server

“`

### Test HTTP/2 Support

“`bash

curl -I -L https://your-domain.com | grep -i http

“`

### Verify Nextcloud Status

“`bash

sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ status

“`

—

## Troubleshooting

### Common Issues and Solutions

**Permission Problems:**

“`bash

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

sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/nextcloud

“`

**PHP-FPM Socket Issues:**

“`bash

sudo systemctl restart php8.3-fpm

sudo systemctl restart apache2

“`

**Database Connection Problems:**

– Verify MariaDB is running

– Check database credentials

– Ensure user has proper privileges

**Redis Connection Issues:**

“`bash

redis-cli ping

redis-cli -a your_redis_password_here ping

“`

—

## Security Recommendations

1. **Regular Updates:** Keep all components updated

2. **Firewall:** Configure UFW or iptables

3. **Backup Strategy:** Implement regular database and file backups

4. **Monitor Logs:** Regularly check Apache and Nextcloud logs

5. **Two-Factor Authentication:** Enable 2FA for admin accounts

—

## Maintenance Commands

### Update Nextcloud

“`bash

sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/updater/updater.phar

“`

### Database Maintenance

“`bash

sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ db:add-missing-indices

sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ db:convert-filecache-bigint

“`

### Clear Cache

“`bash

sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ maintenance:repair –include-expensive

“`

—

## Conclusion

Your Nextcloud installation is now complete with:

– PHP 8.3 FPM for optimal performance

– MariaDB for reliable data storage

– Redis for enhanced caching

– Apache with HTTP/2 support

– SSL/TLS encryption

– Performance optimizations

Access your Nextcloud instance at `https://your-domain.com` and begin configuring your cloud storage solution.