How to install Nextcloud on Nginx Server

Ankur Gupta
Ankur Guptahttps://antarjaal.in
Web developer by profession, Over 10 years experience of building websites and web applications. Currently working on Epaper CMS Cloud (Software As Service based product). Special interest in computer and technology. After writing on the blogger platform for years, started his own tech portal Antarjaal.In.

In our previous post Nextcloud : Free Open Source Alternative to Dropbox we discussed about what Nextcloud is and how it can be installed on your server via Snap Package Manager. If you are already running an http server, then installing Nextcloud via snap will not be good idea. In this post, we will learn about how we can install Nextcloud in Nginx server.

In this post, we are assuming that you already have Nginx Server, PHP7.4 FPM and MySql Server installed. So let’s start.

Step 1: Download Nextcloud

Go to the following link and download Nextcloud’s ZIP file.
https://nextcloud.com/install/#instructions-server

Step 2: Now unzip it in a folder on your server root.

Step 3: Setup Nginx’s configuration file.

If you are installing nextcloud at the root on your domain name (eg: cloud.example.com) then your configuration should be something like this:

upstream php-handler {
    server 127.0.0.1:9000;
    server unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name cloud.example.com;

    # Enforce HTTPS
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443      ssl http2;
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
    server_name cloud.example.com;

    # Use Mozilla's guidelines for SSL/TLS settings
    # https://mozilla.github.io/server-side-tls/ssl-config-generator/
    ssl_certificate     /etc/ssl/nginx/cloud.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/nginx/cloud.example.com.key;

    # HSTS settings
    # WARNING: Only add the preload option once you read about
    # the consequences in https://hstspreload.org/. This option
    # will add the domain to a hardcoded list that is shipped
    # in all major browsers and getting removed from this list
    # could take several months.
    #add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=15768000; includeSubDomains; preload;" always;

    # set max upload size
    client_max_body_size 512M;
    fastcgi_buffers 64 4K;

    # Enable gzip but do not remove ETag headers
    gzip on;
    gzip_vary on;
    gzip_comp_level 4;
    gzip_min_length 256;
    gzip_proxied expired no-cache no-store private no_last_modified no_etag auth;
    gzip_types application/atom+xml application/javascript application/json application/ld+json application/manifest+json application/rss+xml application/vnd.geo+json application/vnd.ms-fontobject application/x-font-ttf application/x-web-app-manifest+json application/xhtml+xml application/xml font/opentype image/bmp image/svg+xml image/x-icon text/cache-manifest text/css text/plain text/vcard text/vnd.rim.location.xloc text/vtt text/x-component text/x-cross-domain-policy;

    # Pagespeed is not supported by Nextcloud, so if your server is built
    # with the `ngx_pagespeed` module, uncomment this line to disable it.
    #pagespeed off;

    # HTTP response headers borrowed from Nextcloud `.htaccess`
    add_header Referrer-Policy                      "no-referrer"   always;
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options               "nosniff"       always;
    add_header X-Download-Options                   "noopen"        always;
    add_header X-Frame-Options                      "SAMEORIGIN"    always;
    add_header X-Permitted-Cross-Domain-Policies    "none"          always;
    add_header X-Robots-Tag                         "none"          always;
    add_header X-XSS-Protection                     "1; mode=block" always;

    # Remove X-Powered-By, which is an information leak
    fastcgi_hide_header X-Powered-By;

    # Path to the root of your installation
    root /var/www/;

    # Specify how to handle directories -- specifying `/index.php$request_uri`
    # here as the fallback means that Nginx always exhibits the desired behaviour
    # when a client requests a path that corresponds to a directory that exists
    # on the server. In particular, if that directory contains an index.php file,
    # that file is correctly served; if it doesn't, then the request is passed to
    # the front-end controller. This consistent behaviour means that we don't need
    # to specify custom rules for certain paths (e.g. images and other assets,
    # `/updater`, `/ocm-provider`, `/ocs-provider`), and thus
    # `try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$request_uri`
    # always provides the desired behaviour.
    index index.php index.html /index.php$request_uri;

    # Default Cache-Control policy
    expires 1m;

    # Rule borrowed from `.htaccess` to handle Microsoft DAV clients
    location = / {
        if ( $http_user_agent ~ ^DavClnt ) {
            return 302 /remote.php/webdav/$is_args$args;
        }
    }

    location = /robots.txt {
        allow all;
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
    }

    # Make a regex exception for `/.well-known` so that clients can still
    # access it despite the existence of the regex rule
    # `location ~ /(\.|autotest|...)` which would otherwise handle requests
    # for `/.well-known`.
    location ^~ /.well-known {
        # The following 6 rules are borrowed from `.htaccess`

        rewrite ^/\.well-known/host-meta\.json  /public.php?service=host-meta-json  last;
        rewrite ^/\.well-known/host-meta        /public.php?service=host-meta       last;
        rewrite ^/\.well-known/webfinger        /public.php?service=webfinger       last;
        rewrite ^/\.well-known/nodeinfo         /public.php?service=nodeinfo        last;

        location = /.well-known/carddav     { return 301 /remote.php/dav/; }
        location = /.well-known/caldav      { return 301 /remote.php/dav/; }

        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }

    # Rules borrowed from `.htaccess` to hide certain paths from clients
    location ~ ^/(?:build|tests|config|lib|3rdparty|templates|data)(?:$|/)  { return 404; }
    location ~ ^/(?:\.|autotest|occ|issue|indie|db_|console)              { return 404; }

    # Ensure this block, which passes PHP files to the PHP process, is above the blocks
    # which handle static assets (as seen below). If this block is not declared first,
    # then Nginx will encounter an infinite rewriting loop when it prepends `/index.php`
    # to the URI, resulting in a HTTP 500 error response.
    location ~ \.php(?:$|/) {
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+?\.php)(/.*)$;
        set $path_info $fastcgi_path_info;

        try_files $fastcgi_script_name =404;

        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $path_info;
        fastcgi_param HTTPS on;

        fastcgi_param modHeadersAvailable true;         # Avoid sending the security headers twice
        fastcgi_param front_controller_active true;     # Enable pretty urls
        fastcgi_pass php-handler;

        fastcgi_intercept_errors on;
        fastcgi_request_buffering off;
    }

    location ~ \.(?:css|js|svg|gif)$ {
        try_files $uri /index.php$request_uri;
        expires 6M;         # Cache-Control policy borrowed from `.htaccess`
        access_log off;     # Optional: Don't log access to assets
    }

    location ~ \.woff2?$ {
        try_files $uri /index.php$request_uri;
        expires 7d;         # Cache-Control policy borrowed from `.htaccess`
        access_log off;     # Optional: Don't log access to assets
    }

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$request_uri;
    }
}

In the above configuration you can change the root folder according to the path of Nextcloud on your server.

If you are installing Nextcloud on your server in a folder within your domain name (eg cloud.example.com/nextcloud) then your configuration should be something like this:

upstream php-handler {
    server 127.0.0.1:9000;
    server unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name cloud.example.com;

    # Enforce HTTPS just for `/nextcloud`
    location /nextcloud {
        return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
    }
}

server {
    listen 443      ssl http2;
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
    server_name cloud.example.com;

    # Use Mozilla's guidelines for SSL/TLS settings
    # https://mozilla.github.io/server-side-tls/ssl-config-generator/
    ssl_certificate     /etc/ssl/nginx/cloud.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/nginx/cloud.example.com.key;

    # HSTS settings
    # WARNING: Only add the preload option once you read about
    # the consequences in https://hstspreload.org/. This option
    # will add the domain to a hardcoded list that is shipped
    # in all major browsers and getting removed from this list
    # could take several months.
    #add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=15768000; includeSubDomains; preload;" always;

    # Path to the root of the domain
    root /var/www/nextcloud;

    location = /robots.txt {
        allow all;
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
    }

    location /.well-known {
        # The following 6 rules are borrowed from `.htaccess`

        rewrite ^/\.well-known/host-meta\.json  /nextcloud/public.php?service=host-meta-json    last;
        rewrite ^/\.well-known/host-meta        /nextcloud/public.php?service=host-meta         last;
        rewrite ^/\.well-known/webfinger        /nextcloud/public.php?service=webfinger         last;
        rewrite ^/\.well-known/nodeinfo         /nextcloud/public.php?service=nodeinfo          last;

        location = /.well-known/carddav   { return 301 /nextcloud/remote.php/dav/; }
        location = /.well-known/caldav    { return 301 /nextcloud/remote.php/dav/; }

        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }

    location ^~ /nextcloud {
        # set max upload size
        client_max_body_size 512M;
        fastcgi_buffers 64 4K;

        # Enable gzip but do not remove ETag headers
        gzip on;
        gzip_vary on;
        gzip_comp_level 4;
        gzip_min_length 256;
        gzip_proxied expired no-cache no-store private no_last_modified no_etag auth;
        gzip_types application/atom+xml application/javascript application/json application/ld+json application/manifest+json application/rss+xml application/vnd.geo+json application/vnd.ms-fontobject application/x-font-ttf application/x-web-app-manifest+json application/xhtml+xml application/xml font/opentype image/bmp image/svg+xml image/x-icon text/cache-manifest text/css text/plain text/vcard text/vnd.rim.location.xloc text/vtt text/x-component text/x-cross-domain-policy;

        # Pagespeed is not supported by Nextcloud, so if your server is built
        # with the `ngx_pagespeed` module, uncomment this line to disable it.
        #pagespeed off;

        # HTTP response headers borrowed from Nextcloud `.htaccess`
        add_header Referrer-Policy                      "no-referrer"   always;
        add_header X-Content-Type-Options               "nosniff"       always;
        add_header X-Download-Options                   "noopen"        always;
        add_header X-Frame-Options                      "SAMEORIGIN"    always;
        add_header X-Permitted-Cross-Domain-Policies    "none"          always;
        add_header X-Robots-Tag                         "none"          always;
        add_header X-XSS-Protection                     "1; mode=block" always;

        # Remove X-Powered-By, which is an information leak
        fastcgi_hide_header X-Powered-By;

        # Specify how to handle directories -- specifying `/nextcloud/index.php$request_uri`
        # here as the fallback means that Nginx always exhibits the desired behaviour
        # when a client requests a path that corresponds to a directory that exists
        # on the server. In particular, if that directory contains an index.php file,
        # that file is correctly served; if it doesn't, then the request is passed to
        # the front-end controller. This consistent behaviour means that we don't need
        # to specify custom rules for certain paths (e.g. images and other assets,
        # `/updater`, `/ocm-provider`, `/ocs-provider`), and thus
        # `try_files $uri $uri/ /nextcloud/index.php$request_uri`
        # always provides the desired behaviour.
        index index.php index.html /nextcloud/index.php$request_uri;

        # Default Cache-Control policy
        expires 1m;

        # Rule borrowed from `.htaccess` to handle Microsoft DAV clients
        location = /nextcloud {
            if ( $http_user_agent ~ ^DavClnt ) {
                return 302 /nextcloud/remote.php/webdav/$is_args$args;
            }
        }

        # Rules borrowed from `.htaccess` to hide certain paths from clients
        location ~ ^/nextcloud/(?:build|tests|config|lib|3rdparty|templates|data)(?:$|/)    { return 404; }
        location ~ ^/nextcloud/(?:\.|autotest|occ|issue|indie|db_|console)                { return 404; }

        # Ensure this block, which passes PHP files to the PHP process, is above the blocks
        # which handle static assets (as seen below). If this block is not declared first,
        # then Nginx will encounter an infinite rewriting loop when it prepends
        # `/nextcloud/index.php` to the URI, resulting in a HTTP 500 error response.
        location ~ \.php(?:$|/) {
            fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+?\.php)(/.*)$;
            set $path_info $fastcgi_path_info;

            try_files $fastcgi_script_name =404;

            include fastcgi_params;
            fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
            fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $path_info;
            fastcgi_param HTTPS on;

            fastcgi_param modHeadersAvailable true;         # Avoid sending the security headers twice
            fastcgi_param front_controller_active true;     # Enable pretty urls
            fastcgi_pass php-handler;

            fastcgi_intercept_errors on;
            fastcgi_request_buffering off;
        }

        location ~ \.(?:css|js|svg|gif)$ {
            try_files $uri /nextcloud/index.php$request_uri;
            expires 6M;         # Cache-Control policy borrowed from `.htaccess`
            access_log off;     # Optional: Don't log access to assets
        }

        location ~ \.woff2?$ {
            try_files $uri /nextcloud/index.php$request_uri;
            expires 7d;         # Cache-Control policy borrowed from `.htaccess`
            access_log off;     # Optional: Don't log access to assets
        }

        location /nextcloud {
            try_files $uri $uri/ /nextcloud/index.php$request_uri;
        }
    }
}

You have to change the directory of root and ssl certificate. You can also tweak both of the above configurations according to your needs.

Step 4: Now open http://yourdomain.com/nextcloud/ or http://yourdomain.com/ on the browser. Wherever you have installed Next Cloud.

how to install nextcloud on nginx.

Here you can create the ID and password of the Super Admin. Also fill in the details of your MySql Server. Click on the checkbox of Install recommended Apps and click on Finish Setup button.

Now wait a little bit. You will see something like this:

how to install nextcloud on nginx.

And in a few moments, the dashboard will appear in front of you.

how to install nextcloud on nginx. easient way to install nextcloud

Here, by clicking on the files icon in the top left corner, you can upload files and share them with others.

In this post we learned about how to install Nextcloud in Nginx. Hope you find this post useful. Thank You.

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