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!
