How to install NextCloud 18 on Ubuntu 16.04/18.04/19.04/19.10

Open a terminal and input the following commands:

# apt-get install apache2 php7.2 bzip2
# apt-get install libapache2-mod-php php-gd php-json php-mysql php-curl php-mbstring
# apt-get install php-intl php-imagick php-xml php-zip

Open a terminal and input the following commands:

# apt-get install apache2 php7.0 bzip2
# apt-get install libapache2-mod-php php-gd php-json php-mysql php-curl php-mbstring
# apt-get install php-intl php-mcrypt php-imagick php-xml php-zip

With these step we download the software and extract it:

# cd /var/www
# wget https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/latest-18.tar.bz2 -O nextcloud-18-latest.tar.bz2
# tar -xvjf nextcloud-18-latest.tar.bz2
# chown -R www-data:www-data nextcloud
# rm nextcloud-18-latest.tar.bz2

Now we need to create a new file in /etc/apache2/sites-available/nextcloud.conf . Feel free to use whatever editor you feel comfortable with and add the following lines:

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>

Once done it’s time to enable the new site, enable apache mods that are needed by NextCloud and raise PHP’s memory limit:

# a2ensite nextcloud
# a2enmod rewrite headers env dir mime
# sed -i '/^memory_limit =/s/=.*/= 512M/' /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini
# systemctl restart apache2

UFW is the default firewall in Ubuntu, if you’re using one, you’re probably using UFW.

# ufw allow http
# ufw allow https

Open a terminal and input the following commands:

# apt-get install php-opcache

Now you need to edit a file located at /etc/php/7.2/apache2/conf.d/10-opcache.ini . Replace 7.2 with the version of PHP you have installed. With your favorite editor, edit the file adding the missing lines:

; configuration for php opcache module
; priority=10
zend_extension=opcache.so
opcache.enable=1
opcache.enable_cli=1
opcache.interned_strings_buffer=8
opcache.max_accelerated_files=10000
opcache.memory_consumption=128
opcache.save_comments=1
opcache.revalidate_freq=1

These values are suggested by NextCloud, but you’re free to tweak them to suit your needs. Once you’re done you can restart apache:

# systemctl restart apache2

Open a terminal and input the following commands:

# apt-get install redis-server php-redis

Now you must configure NextCloud to use Redis. To do so you need to edit the NextCloud configuration file located at /var/www/nextcloud/config/config.php . The file will look like this, add the highlighted lines:

<?php
$CONFIG = array (
  'instanceid' => '',
  'passwordsalt' => '',
  'secret' => '',
  'trusted_domains' =>
    array (
          0 => 'YOUR_IP',
    ),
  'datadirectory' => '/var/www/nextcloud/data',
  'dbtype' => 'mysql',
  'version' => '15.0.0.10',
  'overwrite.cli.url' => 'http://YOUR_IP/nextcloud',
  'dbname' => 'nextcloud',
  'dbhost' => 'localhost',
  'dbport' => '',
  'dbtableprefix' => 'oc_',
  'dbuser' => 'nc_user',
  'dbpassword' => 'YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE',
  'installed' => true,
  'memcache.locking' => '\OC\Memcache\Redis',
  'memcache.distributed' => '\OC\Memcache\Redis',
  'memcache.local' => '\OC\Memcache\Redis',
  'redis' => [
  'host' => 'localhost',
    'port' => 6379,
    'timeout' => 3,
  ],
);

These settings will enable NextCloud to use Redis for caching and file locks. Of course these settings are just an example, you can tweak them to suit your needs.

Lastly, restart the webserver:

# systemctl restart apache2

Using your favorite text editor, edit the file we created previously at /etc/apache2/sites-available/nextcloud.conf . And make it look like this:

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName YOURDOMAIN.TLD
  ServerAdmin [email protected]
  DocumentRoot /var/www/nextcloud

  <directory /var/www/nextcloud>
    Require all granted
    AllowOverride All
    Options FollowSymLinks MultiViews
    SetEnv HOME /var/www/nextcloud
    SetEnv HTTP_HOME /var/www/nextcloud
  </directory>
</VirtualHost>

It is important to set ServerName according to a domain you own and have configured correctly. Now you need to add YOURDOMAIN.TLD to the trusted domains in the NextCloud config file. You can do so with the following command:

$ sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ config:system:set trusted_domains 2 --value=YOURDOMAIN.TLD

Once you complete this step you won’t be able to access NextCloud through http://YOUR_IP_ADDRESS/nextcloud anymore. Instead you will be able to access it through http://YOURDOMAIN.TLD (notice /nextcloud is gone).

Lastly, restart the webserver:

# systemctl restart apache2

Open a terminal and input the following commands:

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
$ sudo add-apt-repository universe
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install python-certbot-apache 

Now you will run the command to install a certificate, follow the procedure and you will get everything configured out of the box:

$ sudo certbot --apache

Lastly, restart the webserver:

# systemctl restart apache2

If you need further help you can follow my other tutorial on Let’s Encrypt on Ubuntu (the apache part).