Install and Configure Nextcloud on AlmaLinux 8

In this guide, we want to teach you to Install and Configure Nextcloud on AlmaLinux 8.

Nextcloud is open-source software, first developed in 2016, that allows you to run a personal cloud storage service. It has features that are comparable to other services such as Dropbox.

The Nextcloud server software can be installed free of charge on Linux, and the client software can be installed on computers running Windows, OS X, or Linux. Mobile apps are also available for Android and iOS.

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Install and Configure Nextcloud on AlmaLinux 8

Install and Configure Nextcloud on AlmaLinux 8

To install Nextcloud, you need to log in to your server as a non-root user with sudo privileges and set up a basic firewall. To do this, you can follow our guide the Initial Server Setup with AlmaLinux 8.

Also, you need to have the LAMP stack installed on your server. To do this, you can check How To Install LAMP Stack on AlmaLinux 8.

When you are done with these requirements, follow the steps below to complete this guide.

Disable SELinux on AlmaLinux 8

At this point, you should put SELinux in permissive mode, which means disabling it temporarily until the next reboot. This will make sure there will be no unwanted restrictions in installing NextCloud. To do this, run the following command:

# sudo setenforce 0
# sudo sed -i 's/^SELINUX=.*/SELINUX=permissive/g' /etc/selinux/config

Check the SELinux status by running the following command:

sestatus

Install Additional PHP Extensions for Nextcloud

At this point, you need to install some additional PHP extensions for Nextcloud on your server. To do this, run the command below:

sudo dnf -y install php-cli php-mysqlnd php-zip php-devel php-gd php-mcrypt php-mbstring php-curl php-xml php-pear php-bcmath php-json php-pdo php-pecl-apcu php-pecl-apcu-devel php-ldap

Then, you need to make a configuration change to the php.ini file. Open the file with your favorite text editor, here we use vi:

sudo vi /etc/php.ini

At the file, find memory_limit and set the value to 512M:

memory_limit = 512M

When you are done, save and close the file.

Create a Nextcloud Database on AlmaLinux 8

At this point, you need to create a user and database for Nextcloud. First, log in to your MariaDB shell with the following command:

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then, from your MariaDB shell run the command below to create your user, here we named it nextcloud-user, remember to choose a strong password for it:

MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE USER 'nextcloud-user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY "password";

Next, use the command below to create your database, here we named it nextclouddb:

MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE DATABASE nextclouddb;

Now you need to grant all the privileges to your Nextcloud DB with the command below:

MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON nextclouddb.* TO 'nextcloud-user'@'localhost';

Flush the privileges and exit from your MariaDB shell with the commands below:

MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
MariaDB [(none)]> exit;

Set up Nextcloud on AlmaLinux 8

At this point, you need to visit the Nextcloud official page and download it. Right-click on the Download for server from the Archive file and copy the link address.

Then, use the wget command to download Nextcloud on ALmaLinux 8:

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

Unzip your downloaded file with the command below:

unzip latest.zip

Next, move your extracted file to the /var/www/html/ directory:

sudo mv nextcloud/ /var/www/html/

Now you need to create a data folder to store uploaded data in Nextcloud on AlmaLinux 8:

sudo mkdir /var/www/html/nextcloud/data

Set the correct ownership for your Nextcloud directory:

sudo chown apache:apache -R /var/www/html/nextcloud

Create an Apache Virtualhost file for Nextcloud

At this point, you need to create an Apache configuration file for NextCloud, to serve the file in case you are using the domain name or multiple websites are running on the same server.

Create and open your file with your favorite text editor, here we use vi:

sudo vi /etc/httpd/conf.d/nextcloud.conf

Add the following content to your file:

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName example.com
ServerAdmin [email protected]
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/nextcloud
<directory /var/www/html/nextcloud>
Require all granted
AllowOverride All
Options FollowSymLinks MultiViews
SetEnv HOME /var/www/html/nextcloud
SetEnv HTTP_HOME /var/www/html/nextcloud
</directory>
</VirtualHost>

When you are done, save and close the file.

Restart Apache, to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart httpd

Now allow traffic on HTTP and HTTPs with the command below:

# sudo firewall-cmd --add-service={http,https} --permanent
# sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Access Nextcloud Web Interface

When all the above steps are completed you are ready to access the web interface for setting up NextCloud further on your AlmaLinux 8 system.

Open your web browser and type your server’s IP address or domain name:

http://your-server-ip-address
or
http://your-domain.com

You will see the following screen. You need to create an Admin user and password and then, you need to select MySQL/MariaDB as Database. Then enter the details of the Database you have created. At the end, click Install.