Installing Nextcloud 22 on Ubuntu Server 20.04

In this article we will learn Installing Nextcloud 22 on Ubuntu Server 20.04. The current update of the Nextcloud on-premise cloud server focuses on knowledge management and includes a few new features that may easily become your favourites. To further simplify the collaboration process, Nextcloud introduces Collectives, an app that enables users to share a collection of "handbooks" with one another. This app is integrated with the Nextcloud Text app's new group feature, Circles.

Collectives compile documents in groups, each of which is shared with a distinct circle. Within such Collectives, you can add new pages, and those pages can have sub-pages that combine to form a comprehensive knowledge base structure.

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Other enhancements/additions to Nextcloud include the following:

Chat and task management are integrated.
Simple approval process.
Calendar's trash bin function.
Signatures for documents with integrated PDF signing.
Nextcloud Mail now includes enhanced threading, email tagging, and Sieve filtering capabilities.
Knowledge management that is integrated.

I'll walk you through installing Nextcloud 22 on Ubuntu Server 20.04, so you can deploy this amazing cloud service to your on-premises (or cloud-based) data center.

What you’ll require in Installing Nextcloud 22 on Ubuntu Server 20.04

The only items required to make this work are the following:

A operating instance of Ubuntu Server 20.04 that has been updated.
A sudo user.

Installing web and database servers

We'll begin by installing the web and database servers. Connect to your Ubuntu Server instance and run the following command:

sudo apt-get install apache2 mysql-server -y

When that above command is executed, use the following commands to start and enable the servers:

sudo systemctl start apache2
sudo systemctl enable apache2
sudo systemctl start mysql
sudo systemctl enable mysql

How to complete the installation of the remaining dependencies

After installing the servers, let's take care of the remaining dependencies. To accomplish this, use the following command:

sudo apt-get install php zip libapache2-mod-php php-gd php-json php-mysql php-curl php-mbstring php-intl php-imagick php -xml php-zip php-mysql php -bcmath php-gmp zip -y

How to configure MySQL and create a database

With the following command, we’ll create a password for the MySQL admin user:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Create a strong/unique password for the MySQL administrator user and answer the remaining questions with y.

Following that, we'll log into the MySQL console using the following command:

mysql -u root -p sudo mysql

Create a new database using the following command:

CREATE DATABASE nextcloud;

Create a new user with the command:

CREATE USER 'nextcloud'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'PASSWORD';

Where PASSWORD is a strong, unique password.

Provide the new user with the required permissions using the command:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON nextcloud TO 'nextcloud'@'localhost';

With the following commands, flush the privileges and quit the console:

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit

The procedure for downloading and unpacking the Nextcloud file is as follows.

The following command will download the most recent version of Nextcloud:

wget https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/nextcloud-22.0.0.zip

The downloaded file should be unzipped as follows:

unzip nextcloud-22.0.0.zip

Transfer the freshly generated nextcloud directory to the Apache document root as follows:

sudo mv nextcloud /home/u627960270/domains/uttertechnology.com/public_html/

Assign appropriate ownership to the Nextcloud folder:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /home/u627960270/domains/uttertechnology.com/public_html/nextcloud

Configuration of Apache for Nextcloud

Create a Nextcloud-specific Apache.conf file using the command:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/nextcloud.conf

Paste the following into that file:

Alias /nextcloud "/home/u627960270/domains/uttertechnology.com/public_html/nextcloud/"
<Directory /home/u627960270/domains/uttertechnology.com/public_html/nextcloud/>
    Options +FollowSymlinks
    AllowOverride All
      <IfModule mod_dav.c>
        Dav off
      </IfModule>     
     SetEnv HOME /home/u627960270/domains/uttertechnology.com/public_html/nextcloud
    SetEnv HTTP_HOME /home/u627960270/domains/uttertechnology.com/public_html/nextcloud
</Directory>

The file should be saved and closed.

Using the command enable new site

sudo a2ensite nextcloud

Activate the required Apache modules:

sudo a2enmod rewrite headers env dir mime

Finally, modify the PHP memory limit as follows:

sudo sed -i '/^memory_limit =/s/=.*/= 512M/' /etc/php/7.4/apache2/php.ini

Note: If you are using a version of PHP other than 7.4, you must modify the above command appropriately.

Restart Apache for new configuration to take effect

sudo systemctl restart apache2

How to successfully complete the installation

Navigate to http://<SERVERIP>/nextcloud in a web browser where <SERVERIP> is IP address or domain of the hosting server in your data center. Create an administrator user in the window that appears and put in the relevant information as follows:

Put information of Database user which is nextcloud
Put password for the nextcloud database user. Password you created for the nextcloud database user.
Put Nextcloud is the database name which is nextcloud
To complete the installation, click Finish Setup.

You'll be logged in as the admin user at this point, and you can begin customising your Nextcloud 22 instance.

Finally your are good to go and now begin utilising the most recent release of the industry's leading on-premise cloud solution within your company's data centre.