Introduction
In a previous tutorial we talked about the installation of Nextcloud on an Ubuntu 16.04 server with Apache. Remember, Nextcloud is a cloud storage system. In this guide we’ll look at how to install and configure it on a CentOS 7 system, with Nginx as the web server, and MariaDB as the database.
Install Nginx and PHP7-FPM
First of all, add the EPEL repository, which contains Nginx:
# yum install epel-release
Next, install Nginx:
# yum install nginx
PHP7-FPM is available on an external repository. Yu want to use the webtatic one. To add it:
# rpm -Uvh https://mirror.webtatic.com/yum/el7/webtatic-release.rpm
Now, it’s possible to install PHP7-FPM and some Nextcloud dependencies:
# yum install php70w-fpm php70w-pecl-apcu-devel php70w-json php70w-pecl-apcu php70w-gd php70w-mcrypt php70w-mysql php70w-cli php70w-pear php70w-xml php70w-mbstring php70w-pdo
Check the PHP version to be sure that everything went well, with:
# php -v
Configure PHP-FPM
After installation, a configuration of PHP is required for use with Nginx. With a text editor, edit the
file. In there, search lines containing user and group strings and modify as follows:
user = nginx group = nginx
In the same file, look for listen string, and modify that too:
listen = 127.0.0.1:9000
PHP will listen on port 9000.
Uncomment the following lines:
env[HOSTNAME] = $HOSTNAME env[PATH] = /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin env[TMP] = /tmp env[TMPDIR] = /tmp env[TEMP] = /tmp
Save and exit.
Create a new directory in
and change its owner to nginx user:
# mkdir -p /var/lib/php/session # chown nginx:nginx -R /var/lib/php/session/
Start and enable both Nginx and PHP7-FPM:
# systemctl start php-fpm # systemctl start nginx # systemctl enable php-fpm # systemctl enable nginx
Install MariaDB
As previously said, MariaDB will be the database system, so install it like this:
# yum install mariadb-server mariadb
Next:
# systemctl start mysql # systemctl start mysql
Then, configure the root account for MariaDB:
# mysql_secure_installation
Set root password? [Y/n] New password: my_strong_root_password Re-enter new password: my_strong_root_password Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n] Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]
Now, it’s time to login to MariaDB and configure it for use with Nextcloud:
# mysql -u root -p
In its shell:
mysql> CREATE DATABASE my_nextclouddb; mysql> CREATE USER ncuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'ncuser@'; mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON my_nextclouddb.* TO ncuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'ncuser@'; mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES; mysql> EXIT;
Generate a SSL certificate
For using Nextcloud with HTTPS connection with the client, you’ll need an SSL certificate. Generate a self-signed one with OpenSSL. First, create a new directory for that file:
# mkdir -p /etc/nginx/cert/
and generate it:
# openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -nodes -out /etc/nginx/cert/nextcloud.crt -keyout /etc/nginx/cert/nextcloud.key
N.B: the /etc/nginx/cert/ will contain all the SSL certificates your server will require eventually.
Change permissions:
# chmod 700 /etc/nginx/cert # chmod 600 /etc/nginx/cert/*
Install Nextcloud
Now it’s time to download and install Nextcloud. Download the archive with:
# https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/nextcloud-11.0.2.zip
Extract it and move to
# unzip nextcloud-11.0.2.zip # mv nextcloud/ /usr/share/nginx/html/
Create a new
directory for Nextcloud:
# mkdir -p /usr/share/nginx/html/nextcloud/data/
Change the owner of
to nginx user:
# chown nginx:nginx -R /usr/share/nginx/html/nextcloud
Configure a Virtual Host for Nextcloud
Create a new Virtual Host configuration file,
. There, paste the following configuration:
upstream php-handler {    server 127.0.0.1:9000;    #server unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock; } server {    listen 80;    server_name storage.mydomain.com;    # enforce https    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri; } server {    listen 443 ssl;    server_name storage.mydomain.com;    ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/cert/nextcloud.crt;    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/cert/nextcloud.key;    # Add headers to serve security related headers    # Before enabling Strict-Transport-Security headers please read into this    # topic first.    add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=15768000;    includeSubDomains; preload;";    add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;    add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";    add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";    add_header X-Robots-Tag none;    add_header X-Download-Options noopen;    add_header X-Permitted-Cross-Domain-Policies none;    # Path to the root of your installation    root /usr/share/nginx/html/nextcloud/;    location = /robots.txt {        allow all;        log_not_found off;        access_log off;    }    # The following 2 rules are only needed for the user_webfinger app.    # Uncomment it if you're planning to use this app.    #rewrite ^/.well-known/host-meta /public.php?service=host-meta last;    #rewrite ^/.well-known/host-meta.json /public.php?service=host-meta-json    # last;    location = /.well-known/carddav {      return 301 $scheme://$host/remote.php/dav;    }    location = /.well-known/caldav {      return 301 $scheme://$host/remote.php/dav;    }    # set max upload size    client_max_body_size 512M;    fastcgi_buffers 64 4K;    # Disable gzip to avoid the removal of the ETag header    gzip off;    # Uncomment if your server is build with the ngx_pagespeed module    # This module is currently not supported.    #pagespeed off;    error_page 403 /core/templates/403.php;    error_page 404 /core/templates/404.php;    location / {        rewrite ^ /index.php$uri;    }    location ~ ^/(?:build|tests|config|lib|3rdparty|templates|data)/ {        deny all;    }    location ~ ^/(?:\.|autotest|occ|issue|indie|db_|console) {        deny all;    }    location ~ ^/(?:index|remote|public|cron|core/ajax/update|status|ocs/v[12]|updater/.+|ocs-provider/.+|core/templates/40[34])\.php(?:$|/) {        include fastcgi_params;        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.*)$;        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;        fastcgi_param HTTPS on;        #Avoid sending the security headers twice        fastcgi_param modHeadersAvailable true;        fastcgi_param front_controller_active true;        fastcgi_pass php-handler;        fastcgi_intercept_errors on;        fastcgi_request_buffering off;    }    location ~ ^/(?:updater|ocs-provider)(?:$|/) {        try_files $uri/ =404;        index index.php;    }    # Adding the cache control header for js and css files    # Make sure it is BELOW the PHP block    location ~* \.(?:css|js)$ {        try_files $uri /index.php$uri$is_args$args;        add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=7200";        # Add headers to serve security related headers (It is intended to        # have those duplicated to the ones above)        # Before enabling Strict-Transport-Security headers please read into        # this topic first.        add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=15768000;        includeSubDomains; preload;";        add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;        add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";        add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";        add_header X-Robots-Tag none;        add_header X-Download-Options noopen;        add_header X-Permitted-Cross-Domain-Policies none;        # Optional: Don't log access to assets        access_log off;    }    location ~* \.(?:svg|gif|png|html|ttf|woff|ico|jpg|jpeg)$ {        try_files $uri /index.php$uri$is_args$args;        # Optional: Don't log access to other assets        access_log off;    } }
Save, exit and test Nginx with:
# nginx -t
Then, restart it:
# systemctl restart nginx
Conclusions
The last thing to do is to complete a graphical installation wizard. With a web browser go to storage.mydomain.com, create an admin account and enter informations about the database created in the previous steps.
At the end, a complete Dropbox-like storage system will be available on the server!