Cloud Hosting

Cloud services are all over the place. For most people, the usual options (such as Google, iCloud, etc.) are fine. For others who demand more security and control, there are additional options, such as Nextcloud.

Nextcloud is an open source platform that includes all the features you’ve grown accustomed to (such as files, editors, chat, version control and much more) and can be deployed to hardware on your network. Because of that, you don’t have to worry about third parties having access to your data. That’s a win for any security/privacy-minded individuals or companies.

I want to show you how to deploy Nextcloud to the open source AlmaLinux operating system. Unlike deploying to Ubuntu Server, there are a few more steps required, which can often trip people up.

Let me help you avoid those pitfalls.

Ready?

The only things you’ll need for this basic installment are a running instance of AlmaLinux 9 and a user with sudo privileges. Of course, if you want to point a domain name to the instance, you’ll need an FQDN and secure it with SSL. Since I’m only deploying this to an internal network, I’m not going to worry about those things at the moment.

With those things at the ready, let’s install them.

There are a few dependencies we have to take care of.

The first thing we’ll do is install the Apache web server. Log into AlmaLinux and issue the command:

sudo dnf install httpd -y

sudo systemctl enable --now httpd

sudo systemctl enable--now httpd

Next, we’ll install the necessary PHP release. First, enable the EPEL release with:

sudo dnf install epel-release -y

sudo dnf install epel-release-y

sudo dnf install https://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-9.rpm -y

sudo dnf install https://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-9.rpm-y

sudo dnf module reset php -y

sudo dnf module reset php-y

sudo dnf module enable php:remi-8.1 -y

sudo dnf module enable php:remi-8.1-y

We now need to configure PHP. Open the configuration file with:

Where YOUR_TIMEZONE is the timezone in which your server is located.

You can make a short-shrift of locating the above entries by using the nano search tool (which is called up with the Ctrl+w keyboard shortcut).

Save and close the file.

Next, open the PHP OPCache configuration file with:

sudo nano /etc/php.d/10-opcache.ini

sudo nano/etc/php.d/10-opcache.ini

Save and close the file.

Restart Apache and PHP with the following:

The next step is the installation of the MariaDB database. To do that, we must create a repository file with the command:

sudo nano /etc/yum.repos.d/MariaDB.repo

sudo nano/etc/yum.repos.d/MariaDB.repo

Save and close the file.

Install MariaDB with:

sudo dnf install MariaDB-server MariaDB-client -y

sudo dnf install MariaDB-server MariaDB-client-y

sudo systemctl enable --now mariadb

sudo systemctl enable--now mariadb

sudo mariadb-secure-installation

sudo mariadb-secure-installation

With the MariaDB installed, it’s time to create our database. Access the MariaDB console with:

CREATE DATABASE netxcloud_db;

CREATE DATABASE netxcloud_db;

CREATE USER nextuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'PASSWORD';

CREATE USER nextuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'PASSWORD';

Grant the required permissions with:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON netxcloud_db.* TO nextuser@localhost;

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON netxcloud_db.* TO nextuser@localhost;

Before you download Nextcloud, you’ll need to install a few more bits with:

sudo dnf install unzip wget setroubleshoot-server setools-console -y

sudo dnf install unzip wget setroubleshoot-server setools-console-y

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

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

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

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

Unless we configure SELinux properly, Nextcloud will not function. The first thing to do is to properly label all of the Nextcloud files and folders with the following commands:

Next, you must allow the webserver to connect to the network with the following commands:

We have to create a new policy module to ensure PHP-FPM can connect to the MariaDB socket. First, create a new file with the command:

Save and close the file.

Convert the file to an SELinux policy module with the command:

sudo checkmodule -M -m -o my-phpfpm.mod my-phpfpm.te

sudo checkmodule-M-m-o my-phpfpm.mod my-phpfpm.te

sudo semodule_package -o my-phpfpm.pp -m my-phpfpm.mod

sudo semodule_package-o my-phpfpm.pp-m my-phpfpm.mod

sudo semodule -i my-phpfpm.pp

sudo semodule-i my-phpfpm.pp

We now have to create a virtual host file with the command:

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

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

Save and close the file.

Restart Apache with:

sudo systemctl restart httpd

sudo systemctl restart httpd

You should now be able to point a web browser to http://SERVER (where SERVER is the IP address of the hosting server) and be greeted by the Nextcloud web-based installer, where you can create an admin user and finish up the process with a few clicks.

If you find there’s an error connecting to the database and writing to the data directory, temporarily disable SELinux (until the next reboot) with:

After the installation completes, reboot the machine and SELinux is back to keeping tabs on the system and Nextcloud is up and running.

And that, my friends, is how you deploy Nextcloud to AlmaLinux.

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See the rest here:
How to Deploy the Nextcloud Cloud Server on AlmaLinux - The New Stack