#+title: Nextcloud on Ubuntu
#+date: 2022-03-23
#+description: A guide to self-hosting the NextCloud application on your own server.
#+filetags: :selfhosting:

* What is Nextcloud?
[[https://nextcloud.com/][Nextcloud]] is a self-hosted solution for
storage, communications, editing, calendar, contacts, and more.

This tutorial assumes that you have an Ubuntu server and a domain name
configured to point toward the server.

* Install Dependencies
To start, you will need to install the packages that Nextcloud requires:

#+begin_src sh
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
#+end_src

* Set Up MySQL
Next, you will need to log in to MySQL as the =root= user of the
machine.

#+begin_src sh
sudo mysql -uroot -p
#+end_src

Once you've logged in, you must create a new user so that Nextcloud can
manage the database. You will also create a =nextcloud= database and
assign privileges:

#+begin_src sql
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;
quit;
#+end_src

* Download & Install Nextcloud
To download Nextcloud, go the
[[https://nextcloud.com/install/#instructions-server][Nextcloud
downloads page]], click on =Archive File= and right-click the big blue
button to copy the link.

Then, go to your server and enter the following commands to download,
unzip, and move the files to your destination directory. This example
uses =example.com= as the destination, but you can put it wherever you
want to server your files from.

#+begin_src sh
wget https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/nextcloud-23.0.3.zip
sudo apt install unzip
unzip nextcloud-23.0.3.zip
sudo cp -r nextcloud /var/www/example.com
#+end_src

* Configure the Apache Web Server
Now that the database is set up and Nextcloud is installed, you need to
set up the Apache configuration files to tell the server how to handle
requests for =example.com/nextcloud=.

First, open the following file in the editor:

#+begin_src sh
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/nextcloud.conf
#+end_src

Once the editor is open, paste the following information in. Then, save
and close the file.

#+begin_src config
<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com
    ServerName  example.com
    ServerAlias www.example.com
    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

    <Directory /var/www/example.com/nextcloud/>
        Require all granted
        AllowOverride All
        Options FollowSymLinks MultiViews
        Satisfy Any

        <IfModule mod_dav.c>
            Dav off
        </IfModule>
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>
#+end_src

Once the file is saved, enable it with Apache:

#+begin_src sh
sudo a2ensite nextcloud.conf
#+end_src

Next, enable the Apache mods required by Nextcloud:

#+begin_src sh
sudo a2enmod rewrite headers env dir mime
#+end_src

Finally, restart Apache. If any errors arise, you must solve those
before continuing.

#+begin_src sh
sudo systemctl restart apache2
#+end_src

For the app to work, you must have the correct file permissions on your
=nextcloud= directory. Set the owner to be =www-data=:

#+begin_src sh
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/example.com/nextcloud/
#+end_src

* DNS
If you do not have a static IP address, you will need to update your DNS
settings (at your DNS provider) whenever your dynamic IP address
changes.

For an example on how I do that with Cloudflare, see my other post:
[[../updating-dynamic-dns-with-cloudflare-api/][Updating Dynamic DNS
with Cloudflare API]]

* Certbot
If you want to serve Nextcloud from HTTPS rather than plain HTTP, use
the following commands to issue Let's Encrypt SSL certificates:

#+begin_src sh
sudo apt install snapd
sudo snap install core
sudo snap refresh core
sudo snap install --classic certbot
sudo ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot
sudo certbot --apache
#+end_src

* Results
Voilà! You're all done and should be able to access Nextcloud from your
domain or IP address.

See the screenshots below for the dashboard and a settings page on my
instance of Nextcloud, using the =Breeze Dark= theme I installed from
the Apps page.

#+caption: Nextcloud Dashboard
[[https://img.cleberg.net/blog/20220323-installing-nextcloud-on-ubuntu/nextcloud_dashboard.png]]

/Figure 01: Nextcloud Dashboard/

#+caption: Nextcloud Settings
[[https://img.cleberg.net/blog/20220323-installing-nextcloud-on-ubuntu/nextcloud_settings.png]]

/Figure 02: Nextcloud Security Settings/