Nextcloud - Getting Started Guide

Step 1 - Verify Nextcloud Works

Your server's IP address and root password are shown on the Server Details page in your client panel. Nextcloud is already accessible by IP address - open http://your.server.ip in a browser to verify it works. You should see the Nextcloud login page.

Nextcloud admin login:

• Username: admin
• Password: the Admin Password you entered during the order

The admin panel is available at http://your.server.ip/settings/admin.

Note: Nextcloud login works by username only, not by email. Even if you add an email to your profile later, use admin as the login.

If you placed the server behind a VyOS router on a private network, either configure port forwarding (ports 22, 80 and 443) to make Nextcloud accessible from the internet, or connect over a VPN and reach the server on its private IP.

Step 2 - Point Your Domain to the Server

Go to your domain registrar's DNS settings and create A records pointing to your server's IP address:

Type	Name	Value
A	@	your.server.ip
A	www	your.server.ip

DNS changes usually take a few minutes, but can take up to 24 hours. You can check the status at dnschecker.org.

Step 3 - Access Nextcloud

Once DNS has propagated, your Nextcloud is live:

• Nextcloud: http://yourdomain.com
• Admin panel: http://yourdomain.com/settings/admin

Log in with username admin and the Admin Password from Step 1.

Step 4 - Enable SSL (Recommended)

Your site works over HTTP by default. To enable HTTPS with a free Let's Encrypt certificate, connect via SSH and run:

ssh root@your.server.ip

/opt/setup/get-ssl.sh

The script will verify DNS, obtain a Let's Encrypt certificate and switch Nextcloud to HTTPS automatically. It will also update the trusted domain setting in Nextcloud. Automatic renewal is already configured.

After completion, your Nextcloud is available at https://yourdomain.com.

Step 5 - Connect Fiberax S3 Storage (Optional)

You can connect your Fiberax S3 storage to Nextcloud as an external folder. This lets you and your users store files directly in S3 - ideal for backups, media, or large datasets.

Prerequisites:

• An active Fiberax S3 Storage service (order from your client panel if you don't have one)
• A bucket created in the S3 panel
• Your S3 credentials (endpoint, Access Key, Secret Key) - find them under S3 Credentials in your S3 service

5.1 Enable the External Storage app

Log in to Nextcloud as admin. Go to the top-right user menu > Apps. Find "External storage support" and click Enable.

5.2 Add your S3 bucket

Go to Settings > Administration > External storages. Click "Add storage" and select "S3 Storage".

Fill in the following fields:

Field	Value
Folder name	Any name (e.g. "S3Storage")
External storage	S3 Storage
Authentication	Access key
Bucket	Your bucket name from the S3 panel
Hostname	Your S3 endpoint (e.g. s3.w1.fiberax.com)
Port	Leave empty (defaults to 443)
Region	Leave empty
Storage Class	Leave empty
Enable SSL	✓ Checked
Enable Path Style	✓ Checked
Enable multipart copy	✓ Checked
Access Key	Your Access Key from S3 Credentials
Secret Key	Your Secret Key from S3 Credentials
Available for	All users, or select specific users/groups

Important: Enable Path Style must be checked for Fiberax S3. Without it, Nextcloud will fail to connect. Leave Port, Region and Storage Class empty.

5.3 Verify the connection

After saving, a green circle appears next to the mount if the connection is successful. Your users will see the S3 folder in their Files app.

Tip: You can also use S3 Service Accounts instead of your main Access Key. Create a service account in the S3 panel with read-only or read-write access to a specific bucket - this is more secure for shared environments.

Step 6 - Use an External Database (Optional)

By default, Nextcloud uses a local MariaDB database on the same server. This works well for most use cases. However, if you need to scale - for example, when the number of users or files grows significantly - you can move the database to a separate server.

Benefits of an external database:

• Database gets dedicated CPU and RAM - Nextcloud stays responsive under heavy load
• Independent scaling - upgrade the database server or Nextcloud server separately
• Separate backups - easier to restore database and application independently

6.1 Prepare the external database

On your external database server (a separate server or Managed MySQL service), create a database and user for Nextcloud:

CREATE DATABASE nextcloud CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci;
CREATE USER 'nextcloud'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_strong_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON nextcloud.* TO 'nextcloud'@'%';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

6.2 Export data from local database

SSH into your Nextcloud server and export the current database:

sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ maintenance:mode --on
source /root/.nc_credentials
mysqldump -u nextcloud -p"$nc_mysql_pass" nextcloud > /tmp/nextcloud-db.sql

6.3 Import data to external database

mysql -h db.server.ip -u nextcloud -p nextcloud < /tmp/nextcloud-db.sql

6.4 Update Nextcloud configuration

Edit /var/www/nextcloud/config/config.php and change the database settings:

'dbtype'     => 'mysql',
'dbhost'     => 'db.server.ip',
'dbname'     => 'nextcloud',
'dbuser'     => 'nextcloud',
'dbpassword' => 'your_strong_password',

Replace db.server.ip with the IP address of your database server. If both servers are in the same virtual data center, use the private IP for better performance and security.

6.5 Verify and disable local database

sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ maintenance:mode --off
sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ status

If Nextcloud shows installed: true and works in the browser, the migration is successful. You can then stop the local MariaDB to free up resources:

systemctl stop mariadb
systemctl disable mariadb

Important: Keep the /tmp/nextcloud-db.sql backup until you confirm everything works. Make sure the external database server allows connections from your Nextcloud server's IP address.

SSL Certificate Renewal

Let's Encrypt certificates are valid for 90 days. Automatic renewal is configured. You can test it with:

certbot renew --dry-run

Fail2Ban - Brute-Force Protection

Your server comes with Fail2Ban pre-configured to protect both SSH and Nextcloud from brute-force attacks.

Rule	Max Attempts	Ban Duration
SSH	5 failed logins	10 minutes
Nextcloud	5 failed logins	1 hour

Useful commands:

# Check banned IPs
fail2ban-client status nextcloud
fail2ban-client status sshd

# Unban an IP
fail2ban-client set nextcloud unbanip 1.2.3.4

If you accidentally lock yourself out, connect via VNC console in your client panel and unban your IP.

Service Management

Nextcloud stack runs via systemd. Common commands:

# Check service status
systemctl status apache2
systemctl status mariadb
systemctl status redis
systemctl status php8.3-fpm

# Restart services
systemctl restart apache2
systemctl restart php8.3-fpm

Updating Nextcloud

When a new version is available, you'll see a notification in the admin panel. You can update through the web interface (Settings > Administration > Overview) or via SSH:

sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/updater/updater.phar
sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ upgrade

Desktop and Mobile Clients

Nextcloud offers sync clients for all platforms:

• Desktop: Windows, macOS, Linux - download at nextcloud.com/install
• Mobile: Android (Google Play / F-Droid), iOS (App Store)

When setting up the client, enter your Nextcloud URL (e.g. https://yourdomain.com) and log in with your credentials.

Adding Users

Go to Settings > Users to create accounts for your team. Each user gets their own storage space, calendar, contacts and can access shared folders including S3 storage.

Useful Apps

Extend Nextcloud from the built-in App Store (Apps in the top-right menu):

App	What it does
Nextcloud Office	Edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations in browser
Talk	Audio/video calls and chat
Calendar (pre-installed)	Shared calendars with CalDAV sync
Contacts (pre-installed)	Address book with CardDAV sync
Deck	Kanban-style project boards
Notes	Markdown note-taking

What's Pre-Configured

• Caching: APCu (local) + Redis (distributed and file locking) via Unix socket
• Background jobs: System cron every 5 minutes (recommended by Nextcloud)
• File uploads: Up to 16 GB per file
• PHP memory: 512 MB
• Apps: Calendar and Contacts are pre-installed

Server Credentials

MariaDB credentials are stored in /root/.nc_credentials. Nextcloud is pre-configured to use them.

Software Included

Component	Version
Ubuntu	24.04 LTS
Apache	2.4
MariaDB	10.11
PHP (FPM)	8.3
Redis	7.0
Nextcloud	Latest
Certbot	Latest
Fail2Ban	1.0

• Nextcloud Documentation: docs.nextcloud.com