Install and Configure Nextcloud on Rocky Linux 8

In this guide, we want to teach you How To Install and Configure Nextcloud on Rocky Linux 8.

Nextcloud is an open-source tool that allows you to store and share files online. In short, it is an open-source cloud solution. It allows free access and synchronization of your data between different devices (mobile or computer), or the exchange of information with several people (users or not). With this tool, you have complete control over your data, where it is stored, how it is shared, and how it is deleted.

It offers, among other things, collaborative work and communication functionalities. Various services revolve around the «Nextcloud Enterprise» solution, such as application maintenance, hosting, support requests, or specific developments. However, these are not free.

Nextcloud is a fork of the OwnCloud project, developed by many members of the original OwnCloud team. The two projects have many similarities, but differ in their respective interfaces and license agreements, especially for the Enterprise editions.

Steps To Install and Configure Nextcloud on Rocky Linux 8

To install Nextcloud on Rocky Linux 8, you need some requirements.

Requirements

First, you must log in t your server as a non-root user with sudo privileges and set up a basic firewall. To do this, you can follow the Initial Server Setup with Rocky Linux 8.

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

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

Disable SELinux on Rocky Linux 8

You should put SELinux in permissive mode at this point, 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

Output
SELinux status: disabled

Configure PHP for Nextcloud on Rocky Linux 8

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 Rocky Linux 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;

Installing Nextcloud on Rocky Linux 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 Rocky Linux 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 Rocky Linux 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 Apache Virtualhost file for Nextcloud on Rocky Liux 8

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 admin@example.com
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 Rocky Linux 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. In the end, click Install.