Category: Howtos

Once again I made a newbie-friendly and easy-to-follow guide for self-learners like myself. I'm not an expert, but I have enough knowledge to get the job done. So jump on in!

This time I made a step-by-step tutorial in building your own cloud store file hosting and sharing service using free and open-source software called Nextcloud. So in this post, I'll teach you how you would install Nextcloud on your own and private server or VPS using Ubuntu 18.04 Linux Server.

Note: Throughout this post, I mean Nextcloud when I say NC.

Jump Links

• Setup Overview
• VPS Creation
• Installing Apache, MySQL and PHP
• Virtual Host Setup
• Manual Nextcloud Installation

• Nextcloud Post-installation Setup

  • Enabling Pretty URL
  • Enabling HTTPS
  • Enabling Cache
  • APCu Installation on Ubuntu 18.04
  • Redis Installation on Ubuntu 18.04

Things Needed in Building Your Own Cloud Storage Server

Before going further with this guide, make sure you have the following stuffs hand. Domain Name (if you don't have it yet). Use a sub-domain to host your cloud server (i.e nc.chubbable.com) Server or VPS from DigitalOcean At least 2GB of RAM. A minimum of 4GB RAM if you want to use Online Office functionalities (Spreadsheet and Docs editing and sharing.) At least 25GB of hard drive space. * Nextcloud software suite (server/client).

NOTE: Domain/Registrar Setup is not covered in this post.

What is Nextcloud?

Next Cloud - stylized as Nextcloud is a set of client/server software for building your own file sharing/hosting service and private cloud storage system. It's like Dropbox, pCloud, Mega, Google Drive or OneDrive. However Nextcloud is a self-hosted solution, that is free and open source. It is the opposite of the aforementioned file hosting/sharing services, which come in a monthly paid plan. With NC, you only pay for the hosting service of your VPS or Dedicated server. Or you pay for nothing at all, when using within your LAN.

NC is an open source software licensed under ‎AGPLv3, and constantly being improved and developed by Nextcloud GmBH and a community of volunteer developers.

NC is a set of client/server software that you can use in building a file sharing or hosting service or your private cloud storage solution. The client software is used to sync files across your devices, it can run on iOS, Android, macOS, Linux and Windows. The server software can only be installed on a Linux environment. However, you can also run it inside a virtual machine guess, where the host is either Windows or macOS.

NC is a fork of ownCloud by the original developer Frank Karlitschek. Frank (born 25 July 1973) is a German open source software developer living in Stuttgart, Germany. Fork in software engineering means a copy of a source code from a software package and development on it is independent. It becomes a separate piece of software,

Related to ownCloud: HTPC File Server Combo Using ownCloud

Personally, I'm using Nextcloud to share media files across devices within my LAN. I used it with Kodi and other Media Center App.

Various Ways of Creating a Nexcloud Instance

Building your own file hosting/sharing using Nextcloud is not limited to one option. There are several ways of setting it up depending on your environment, needs or technical skill.

Below are options in setting up your own Nextcloud Server:

Manual Installation on Linux Server

If you're a bit techie, then probably you would opt to install Nextcloud on a dedicated server or VPS. You can host the server either on cloud or on a local machine within your local network.

This option in my opinion lets you have more control over the whole Nextcloud setup. You can configure it the way you want it, tweak your settings and a lot more.

Shared Hosting Installation

One easy way of deploying NC for online use is to set it up on a shared hosting service. You would only need a hosting account, domain name, NC files, database and kaboom! Done!

You won't be going through the seemingly daunting task of manually installing NC from scratch.

You won't need to install Apache, MySQL, PHP, modules and dependencies yourself.

In my opinion, this is not the best option. But for self-learners like myself, you can easily setup NC on a shared hosting environment. However, one caveat I found and why I mentioned it is not the best option is - server resources are limited or throttled once the server or your account had reached a certain threshold.

Nextcloud on Virtual Machine

Another easy way of building your own GoogleDrive or Dropbox-like service is through a Virtual Machine. You can do this on a Windows machine.

Tech and Me maintains a VM designed for less technical users to get Nextcloud up and running. It is built on Ubuntu Linux and is fully set up and configured with a secure SSL/TLS connection.

To get NC running, you just need to download the pre-configured VM and run it with VirtualBox.

Once caveat I find with this option is that, you can't easily share your files over the Internet, especially if you're your on dynamic IP address and you're on a LTE network. Punching through closed ports and firewall can really be challenging for less technical users.

Manually Installing Nextcloud 13 on Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver

Setup Overview: How to Install Nextcloud on Ubuntu Server

Phase 1: Ubuntu Web Server Preparation

Phase 1 involves server preparation for Nextcloud's exclusive use. Take note that only Nextcloud should only be the sole Web App running on your server. No other web app or whatsoever.

1. Create a Droplet on DigitalOcean
2. Setup LAMP Server
3. Secure MySQL
4. Setup Apache Virtual Host for Nextcloud
5. Install Required Softwares/Dependencies

Phase 2: Nextcloud Installation

Phase 2 involves the actually steps in installing Nextcloud on Ubuntu Server. Below is the overview of the procedure.

1. Download and extract Nextcloud Installation Files
2. Copy Nextcloud files to your chosen web root
3. Apply necessary file and folder permission to your web root
4. Create DATA folder and apply proper file/folder permission
5. Create Database for Nextcloud and a user for it
6. Initiate installation wizard using your favorite browser

Phase 1: Web Server Preparation

I highly recommend that you use a sub-domain to host your NC, so you can still use your primary domain for other purpose (i.e Web Site).

Step 1: Create a Droplet on DigitalOcean

Login to your DigitalOcean account and create the server from your dashboard. See referene image below.

Reference Image 1:

[caption id="attachment_2454" align="aligncenter" width="703"] Ubuntu 18.04 VPS Creation in DigitalOcean[/caption]

Choose an image. Under Distribution tab select Ubuntu, then click on the drop-down button. Then select 18.04 x64

Reference Image 2: [caption id="attachment_2455" align="aligncenter" width="671"] Creating a Droplet in DigitalOcean[/caption]

Choose a Droplet size. A 1GB RAM would be enough for this tutorial, only IF you are wanting to test the install guide. But for a production server with busy traffic and multi-user environment, I recommend to start with a 4GB Droplet for a decent and optimum performance. See reference image below.

Reference Image: [caption id="attachment_2456" align="aligncenter" width="551"] Choosing a Droplet Size in DigitalOcean[/caption]

NOTE: If you'd like a GoogleDrive-like function, where you can share Google sheets and docs for team collobration, then a 4GB RAM is the minimum.

Install Collabora APP on NC, for team-based collab and editing.

Collobora is a for a powerful LibreOffice-based online office suite with collaborative editing, which supports all major document, spreadsheet and presentation file formats and works in all modern browsers.

Choose a Regions closest to your location:

• New York
• San Francisco
• Amsterdam
• Singapore
• London
• Frankfurt
• Toronto
• Bangalore

Add your SSH key. Not sure how to create and add your SSH? Then watch one of these videos:

• SSH Key Creation in Windows
• SSH Key Creatin in Linux

Next, Choose a hostname. It should be a fully qualified domain name. In my example, I used nc.chubbable.com. This is the hostname of my server and at the same time, the domain name for my NC installation. See reference image below.

Reference Image: [caption id="attachment_2457" align="aligncenter" width="593"] Final Step in DigitalOcean Droplet Creation[/caption]

Finally, click on the CREATE button and wait for the process to finish. Once done, take note of your server IP address. You'll be using if when logging in via SSH.

Registrar Settings

Don't forget to change yoiur Registrar setting and point your DNS Servers to DigitalOcean, or as instructured by whoever is your provider.

If using DO, go to your Registrar's Admin Dashboard and change your domain name servers to the following:

ns1.digitalocean.com
ns2.digitalocean.com
ns3.digitalocean.com

Propagation may take up to 72-hours. But in my experience with Gandi and Namecheap, It only takes 2-3 hours, for full propagation.

Once complete, you can visit your server by typing your domain name. Just make sure that you named your Droplet the same as your domain name, plus the hostname (i.e. nc.chubbable.com)

Tools To Check DNS Propagation

You can use https://www.whatsmydns.net/ to check how your DNS config is doing.

Reference Image (NS Lookup): [caption id="attachment_2467" align="aligncenter" width="766"] NS Lookup Tool[/caption]

Reference Image (A Record Lookup): [caption id="attachment_2468" align="aligncenter" width="776"] A Record Lookup Tool using WhatsMyDNS[/caption]

Step 2: Setup LAMP Server

Now we created a new Ubuntu 18.04 VPS, next is to setup the Web Server using Apache, MySQL and PHP. Don't get intimidated by this, since the setup woulld be easy and semi-automated. Sort of.

So let's get started.

Login to your Ubuntu Droplet via SSH:

ssh [email protected]

Once logged in as root, create a new user account which is going to be your primary user account.

Invoke command below:

adduser your-chosen-name

...then follow the prompt. Take note, you must enter yoiur password twice.

Once completed, make the newly created user account as a sudoer. To do that, simply add the user-account to the sudo group.

usermod -aG sudo your-user-account

Next, copy your SSH public key to your newly created user account's home folder. For this, we need to copy the whole .ssh folder recursively. Why so? Because we need the authorized_keys file for the newly created account. It holds the SSH public key which is needed to access the server via SSH with the newly created user account.

Command would be (while logged in as root):

cp -r /root/.ssh/ /home/user-name-here/

Then:

chown -R your-user-name:your-user-name /home/user-name/.ssh/

In my case:

chown -R chubbable:chubbable /home/user-name/.ssh/

Set proper read/write permission:

chmod 700 /home/user-name/.ssh/
chmod 600 /home/user-name/.ssh/authorized_keys

In my case:

chmod 700 /home/chubbable/.ssh/
chmod 600 /home/chubbable/.ssh/authorized_keys

Once done, you should be able to login via SSH using the newly created user account. Next we need to disable root login and only allow your user account to access your server via SSH. We need to do this for security measure.

While still logged in as root, do the following:

nano -c /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Around line 32, look for PermitRootLogin yes and changed it to PermitRootLogin no

Save and exit:

ctrl + o

Make sure you save the file with the following file name, then hit Enter Key. ctrl + x to exit the editor:

File Name to Write: /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Now, restart SSH Server so the changes will take effect:

systemctl restart sshd

Next, let's try the new setup. Exit SSH and log in again, but this time use your newly created SSH user name:

ssh [email protected]

At this point, you can no longer use root but the newly created user, to login to your server.

Why root over SSH is bad?

There are a lot of bots out there which try to log in to your computer over SSH. These bots work the following way.

They execute something like ssh root@$IP and then they try standard passwords like "root" or "password123". They do this as long as they can, until they find the right password. On a world wide accessible server you can see a lot of log entries in your log files. I can go up to 20 per minute or more.

When the attackers have luck (or enough time), and find a password, they would have root access and that would mean you are in trouble.

Step 3: Configure MySQL for Basic Security

On this step, we'll configure MySQL for production use. You need to log in to your server using the user-name to made previously. All commands from now henceforth should be prepended with sudo.

Command:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

This will take you through a series of prompts where you can make some changes to your MySQL installation’s security options.

The first prompt will ask whether you’d like to set up the Validate Password Plugin, which can be used to test the strength of your MySQL password. Regardless of your choice, the next prompt will be to set a password for the MySQL root user. Enter and then confirm a secure password of your choice.

From there, you can press Y and then ENTER to accept the defaults for all the subsequent questions. This will remove some anonymous users and the test database, disable remote root logins, and load these new rules so that MySQL can implement the changes.

Step 4: Setup Apache Virtual Host for Nextcloud

Create the following directory structure, if you don't have it yet.

/var/www/nc.chubbable.com/public_html
/var/www/nc.chubbable.com/logs
/var/www/nc.chubbable.com/data

Where:

• public_html - will hold the NC files.
• logs - will hold the log files.
• data - will hold user-data.

To create those directories in one command:

mkdir -p /var/www/nc.chubbable.com/{public_html,logs,data}

Then create access.log and error.log files:

touch /var/www/nc.chubbable.com/{access,error}.log

We now need to create a .conf file for Apache Virtual Host.

Change directory to Apache's sites-available directory:

cd /etc/apache2/sites-available

Create a .conf file for your domain (change nc.chubbable.com to your domain):

sudo nano nc.chubbable.com.conf

...and copy/paste the following (change nc.chubbable.com to your domain):

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName nc.chubbable.com

    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
    DocumentRoot /var/www/nc.chubbable.com/public_html

    ErrorLog /var/www/nc.chubbable.com/logs/error.log
    CustomLog /var/www/nc.chubbable.com/logs/access.log combined

<Directory /var/www/nc.chubbable.com/public_html>
    Options FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride All
    Require all granted
    Satisfy Any
</Directory>

<IfModule mod_dav.c>
Dav off
</IfModule>

SetEnv HOME /var/www/nc.chubbable.com/public_html
SetEnv HTTP_HOME /var/www/nc.chubbable.com/public_html

Save the file and exit:

ctrl + o

...then hit ENTER key. Type ctrl + x to exit.

Next, while still in sites-available directory, Enable your newly created virtualhost and disable the default one. Invoke these commands in succession.

sudo a2ensite nc.chubbable.com.conf
sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf
sudo systemctl restart apache2

At this point, you can test your domain to confirm it's working. Launch a browser and visit your IP address or domain name, if you see a 404-error, then that's fine. That a good indication your virtualhost is working. The reason for the error is because we disabled indexing in our virtualhost config and our web root is empty at this point.

Step 5: Install Required Softwares/Dependencies

While php7.2 comes with Ubuntu 18.04, PHP-mcrypt which is needed by NC, has been removed in php 7.2 - so we need to manually install it on our server.

Installing mcrypt in Ubuntu 18.04 php7.2

To install mcrypt in php7.2, first install the requisites:

sudo apt-get install php-dev libmcrypt-dev gcc make autoconf libc-dev pkg-config

Then install mcrypt:

sudo pecl install mcrypt-1.0.1

Just press enter key, when it reached the point where libmcrypt prefix is being asked.

Enable extension for apache:

echo "extension=mcrypt.so" | sudo tee -a /etc/php/7.2/apache2/conf.d/mcrypt.ini

Restart apache:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Install dependencies and enable modules

Install NC dependencies, you can copy/paste;

sudo apt install -y php7.2-gd php7.2-json php7.2-mysql php7.2-curl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-intl php7.2-imagick php7.2-xml php7.2-zip php7.2-curl php7.2-dom php7.2-ctype php7.2-iconv php7.2-json php7.2-bz2

Enable modules needed by NC:

sudo a2enmod rewrite expires headers env dir mime ssl

And that's it with Phase 1, you can now proceed to the actual Nextcloud Setup Guide below.

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Phase 2: Step-by-step Procedure

On this phase of the guide, you will learn how to install Nextcloud on Ubuntu 18.04 Server (Bionic Beaver).

We'll be using the latest version of NC, which is 13.0.4, as of July 3, 2018.

Step 1: Download and extract Nextcloud Installation Files

Login to your VPS via SSH and keep it open.

Launch your favorite browser and go to Nextcloud download page and click on the Download button, then right-click on the big blue Download Nextcloud button from the pop-up and copy the link address. You'll need that when you download the Nextcloud file to your server. See reference image below.

Reference Image 1: [caption id="attachment_2458" align="aligncenter" width="715"] Downloading Nextcloud Installer File[/caption]

Reference Image 2: [caption id="attachment_2459" align="aligncenter" width="695"] Download Link for Nextcloud Server Installer[/caption]

Go back to your commandprompt and paste in your copied download link along with wget command.

So the command you'd type in is:

wget https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/nextcloud-13.0.4.zip

NOTE:

At the time of writing, the latest version is Nextcloud 13.0.4.

And the download link which was copied from the button is: https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/nextcloud-13.0.4.zip

Next, extract the download file using unzip command. Yes, we use this command to extract downloaded Nextcloud installer file which is in .zip format.

Extract the installer by invoking the following command ():

unzip nextcloud-x.x.x.zip

Or in this case:

unzip nextcloud-13.0.4.zip

A directory named nextcloud should be extracted from the zip file. To check the files, do a ls -la nextcloud command. All files including hidden files (.htaccess) should be listed.

Step 2: Copy Nextcloud Files to Your Chosen Web Root

Make sure you already created the needed directories before proceeding to this step. In my case I chose to use public_html as my web root and this is how I structured it, see below.

/var/www/nc.chubbable.com/public_html
/var/www/nc.chubbable.com/logs

Where public_html will hold the Nextcloud files, while logs will hold Apache error and access log files.

Let's proceed.

Go back to your command-prompt and type in cd to make sure you're on your home directory.

Then copy all the files and directories inside nextcloud using the Linux copy command. See below command.

cp -ra nextcloud/. /var/www/nc.chubbable.com/public_html/.

The command should copy all files/folders inside the nextcloud folder and puts them inside of public_html.

For the sake of following through, I highly recommend that you use similar directory structure like I did in this tutorial. So you may just change nc.chubbable.com to your own domain or sub-domain.

Step 3: Apply Necessary File and Folder Permission to Your Web Root

Okay so we've copied all the installer files and it's now time to set the necessary and proper permission for the nextcloud web root.

The goal here is to set apache user/group to own the files/folder and then set the needed read/write permission.

To do just that, do the following:

1. public_html directory and files within it should be owned by Apache user and group, so invoke the following command:

   chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/nc.chubbable.com/public_html

2. Set read/write permission for public_html folder.

   chmod 755 /var/www/nc.chubbable.com/public_html

3. Set read/write permission for files and folders inside of public_html.

   Go to your public_html folder:

   cd /var/www/nc.chubbable.com/public_html

   Then set proper permission for files and folders, you should invoke the two commands below:

   For all folders recursively, type this and press enter

   find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

   For all files recursively, type this and press enter

   find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

Step 4: Create DATA Folder and Apply Proper File/Folder Permission

For very obvious reason, you need to put your user-data folder outside of your nextcloud web root - the public facing folder. You don't want smart people peaking in to your files do you? So move the DATA folder outside of nextcloud installation folder and place it else where.

The best location to place your nextcloud data folder is anywhere outside your web root folder.

For me, the best place and easiest would be the /var/www directory. In this guide, I'm going to place the data folder under /var/www/nc.chubbable.com directory in Ubuntu Linux.

NOTE: In this Nextcloud Guide my web root diretory is under /var/www/nc.chubbable.com/public_html

Okay, now we get to the actual step of creating the data folder. Follow steps below.

1. While still logged in to your server, go back to your command prompt and type in:

   mkdir /var/www/nc.yourdomain.tld/data

   In my case:

   mkdir /var/www/nc.chubbable.com/data

2. Next, set files and folder permission. The data folder should be owned by Apache user and group and that it should be writable the Apache user.

   To do just that enter following command (change domain part to yours):

   chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/nc.chubbable.com/data

   Then set read/write permission:

   chmod 755 /var/www/nc.chubbable.com/data

   And that's it! Proceed to next step.

Step 5: Create Database for Nextcloud and a User For It

Using only the commandline, we will create a new database for Nextcloud and a database user.

1. First login as root to MySQL.

   Do it like so:

   mysql root -u root -p

   After hitting enter key a password prompt should appear. Enter the password you created under the mysql_secure_installation step. Take note that typing your password won't be shown in screen.

2. Create the database.

   After successfully logging in, create a database called nextcloud and same name for the database user.

   To do just that, do the following:

   create database nextcloud; 

   Hit enter key, then:

   grant all on nextcloud.* to 'nextcloud'@'localhost' identified by 'yourpasswordhere';

   Hit enter key, then:

   flush privileges;

   Hi entery key and quit MySQL:

   quit

Step 6: Initiate Installation Wizard Using Your Favorite Browser

So now that we have taken care of the requisites of Nextcloud Installation, you can now launch your favorite browser and start the Nextcloud Installation Wizard.

Type in your Droplet's IP address or your Nextcloud domain name and hit enter key. You should be taken to a page like below. See reference image below.

Reference Image: [caption id="attachment_2460" align="aligncenter" width="1321"] Installation Wizard Page for Nextcloud[/caption]

On the installation wizard screen, you should fill in your:

1. Nextcloud Admin User Name and Password.
2. DATA folder location.
3. Database user name and password.
4. Database name.

Once done, hit Finish Setup button to start the Nextcloud installation.

If everything goes well, you should be presented with a page like you see on the image below. If so, then congratulations! You've installed Nextcloud on your Ubuntu 18.04 Server.

Reference Image: [caption id="attachment_2461" align="aligncenter" width="1316"] Nextcloud Successfully Installed![/caption]

As you see in this post, it's not that difficiult to install. As long as you have the basic Linux skill and this guide, you can get through it.

So there you have it noobs! I Hope this tutorial answered your question - "How to Install and Configure Nextcloud on Ubuntu 18.04 Server"

Next, go through the post-install procedure.

Nextcloud Post-installation Setup

On this phase (post-installatin setup) of this tutorial, we should be dealing with caching setup for optimum NC performance, pretty urls and https. NC actually recommends going through these under Security & setup warnings page of NC Admin Dashboard (see reference image below) where it says...

It's important for the security and performance of your instance that everything is configured correctly. To help you with that we are doing some automatic checks. Please see the Tips & Tricks section and the documentation for more information.

Reference Image: [caption id="attachment_2462" align="aligncenter" width="1084"] Nextcloud Security & Setup Warnings[/caption]

So on this part of the guide, we should tackle the following recommendations:

1. Your data directory and files are probably accessible from the Internet. The .htaccess file is not working. It is strongly recommended that you configure your web server so that the data directory is no longer accessible, or move the data directory outside the web server document root.

2. Accessing site insecurely via HTTP. You are strongly adviced to set up your server to require HTTPS instead, as described in the security tips. No memory cache has been configured. To enhance performance, please configure a memcache, if available. Further information can be found in the documentation.

3. The PHP OPcache is not properly configured. For better performance it is recommended to use the following settings in the php.ini:

NOTE: We don't have to deal with recommendation No. 1 above since we've gone through it already under - Step 4: Create DATA Folder and Apply Proper File/Folder Permission.

Setting Up PrettyURLs on Nextcloud

PrettyURLs gets rid of the index.php part of all NC URLs to make the URl clean and neat. It should be very useful in sharing file links.

For example:

http://nc.chubbable.com/s/Sv1b7krAUqmF8QQ

Instead of:

http://nc.chubbable.com/index.php/s/Sv1b7krAUqmF8QQ

Procedure

Here goes the actual steps to enable pretty url in Nextcloud 13.0.4

1. Login to your NC server via SSH.

2. Edit config.php.

   To edit, go to your NC config directory:

   cd /var/www/nc.chubbable.com/public_html/config

   Then edit config.php

   sudo nano config.php

   Add below overwrite.cli.url:

   'htaccess.RewriteBase' => '/',

   In my case, I got this:

   'overwrite.cli.url' => 'http://nc.chubbable.com',
   'htaccess.RewriteBase' => '/',

   Then save the file:

   ctrl + o

   Reference Image: [caption id="attachment_2463" align="aligncenter" width="751"] Enabling Pretty URL[/caption]

   ---

   NOTE:

   If you installed NC on a sub-directory of your domain, then you should do like so:

   'overwrite.cli.url' => 'https://example.org/nextcloud',
   'htaccess.RewriteBase' => '/nextcloud',

3. Finally run this occ-command to update your .htaccess file:

   sudo -u www-data php /path/to/nextcloud/webroot/occ maintenance:update:htaccess

   Note: Change the path to your own.

   In my case:

   sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nc.chubbable.com/public_html/occ maintenance:update:htaccess

   After that, changes are automatically applied to the .htaccessfile.

Setup HTTPS

For this part, we'll be using a free SSL for NC - it's called Letsencrypt SSL.

To setup HTTPS on Nextcloud using Letsencrypt, do the steps below.

Procedure

1. Login to your server via SSH

2. Go to Certbot website and download it.

   URL:

   https://certbot.eff.org/lets-encrypt/ubuntuother-apache

   On that page, dowload the certbot-auto script for use with Ubuntu 18.04. Just copy the code on that page.

   This step is specifically for Ubuntu 18.04.

   wget https://dl.eff.org/certbot-auto

   then set execute permission:

   chmod a+x certbot-auto

   certbot-auto accepts the same flags as certbot; it installs all of its own dependencies and updates the client code automatically.

3. Create the SSL certificate and setup HTTPS.

   In my case:

   ./certbot-auto --apache --agree-tos --rsa-key-size 4096 --email [email protected] --redirect -d nc.chubbable.com

   To explain the switches a bit:

   • --apache - tells the script what web server you use
   • --redirect - tell the script to setup a permanent redirect from http to https
   • -d- tells the script to setup and create the SSL Certificate for the domain nc.chubbable.com
   • email - use to send notifications regarding your SSL status

Configure PHP OPcache in Nextcloud for Better Performance

Edit your php.ini file and enable these settings:

• opcache.enable=1
• opcache.enable_cli=1
• opcache.interned_strings_buffer=8
• opcache.max_accelerated_files=10000
• opcache.memory_consumption=128
• opcache.save_comments=1
• opcache.revalidate_freq=1

Procedure

1. Open your php.ini file.

   sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini

2. Search for [opcache] line in your php.ini file. Hit ctrl + w to bring up the search field and type in [opcache] then hit enter key.

   Then below [opcache], paste the following:

   opcache.enable=1
   opcache.enable_cli=1
   opcache.interned_strings_buffer=8
   opcache.max_accelerated_files=10000
   opcache.memory_consumption=128
   opcache.save_comments=1
   opcache.revalidate_freq=1

3. Save the file:

   ctrl + o

4. Restart apache2:

   sudo systemctl restart apache2

5. Visit your NC Admin Dashboard and go to Settings > Basic.

   OPcache warning should no longer appear.

Configure Memory Caching in Nextcloud

For enhanced performance, NC recommends configuring a memory cache. So in this guide, I'm gonna be using APCu for initial caching, while Redis to manage file locking and distributed caching.

You can opt NOT to do these on your NC instance.

But if you intend to use NC on a busy and multi-user environment, where files and folders are expected to increase faster than you thought of, then you should configure caching.

Procedure: APCu Installation on Ubuntu 18.04

1. Install APCu in Ubuntu 18.04

   sudo apt install php7.2-apcu -y

2. Add in config.php:

   'memcache.local' => '\OC\Memcache\APCu',

   In my case, I added the line below:

   'htaccess.RewriteBase' => '/',

Procedure: Redis Installation on Ubuntu 18.04

1. Install Redis:

   sudo apt install -y redis

   To check if installed successfully:

   redis-server -v

   Sample output:

   Redis server v=4.0.9 sha=00000000:0 malloc=jemalloc-3.6.0 bits=64 build=1bc80a08306a3efd

   Output above states that Redis was installed.

   Furthermore, confirm that Redis server is up and running as expected by checking for its listening socket on port number 6379:

   ps aux | grep redis

   Sample Output:

   redis 1501  0.0 0.3 51660 3732 ?  Ssl 15:36 0:00 /usr/bin/redis-server 127.0.0.1:6379

   And based on the output, it is running.

2. Configure Redis to start on boot:

   The Redis server should start after reboot. When not, NC will throw an error, provided that you've already added the configs to config.php

   Make sure Redis start after reboot:

   sudo systemctl enable redis-server

3. Configure Redis to use unix-socket instead of the default TCP socks. Unix sockets can get you some extra performance boost. I'm talking about microsecond benefits here. But still worth doing it, especially on a busy and multi-user deplyment.

   Edit /etc/redis/redis.conf

   sudo nano -c /etc/redis/redis.conf

   Around line 92, change port 6379 to port 0

   Around line 110, uncomment (remove # sign):

   unixsocket /var/run/redis/redis-server.sock
   unixsocketperm 700

   Then change unixsocketperm 700 to unixsocketperm 770

   Save and quit:

4. Add the Apache user www-data to the redis group:

   sudo usermod -aG redis www-data

   At this point, you've already installed and configured Redis server on Ubuntu 18.04. Next step will be to add the configs to NC's config.php file.

   Proceed to the next step below to do just that.

5. Add configuration to NC config.php file.

   With Redis configured, we can now add the caching configuration to the NC config file:

   sudo nano /var/www/nc.chubbable.com/public_html/config/config.php

   Then copy/paste these block of texts, below the APCu line we added awhile back.:

   'memcache.locking' => '\\OC\\Memcache\\Redis',
   'filelocking.enabled' => 'true',
   'redis' => 
     array (
     'host' => '/var/run/redis/redis-server.sock',
     'port' => 0,
     'timeout' => 0.0,
     ),

   Save the file and exit.

   Reference Image: [caption id="attachment_2464" align="aligncenter" width="751"] APCu and Redis Configuration for Nextcloud[/caption]

6. Reboot your NC server.

   After rebooting, login to your NC admin dashboard and check on the Security & setup warnings page.

   Go to Settings > Basic Settings menu from the left pane.

   Warnings should have been cleared and says All checks passed

File Syc Client

Now that you have installed and configured NC, you can now start adding your files. But before you can do that, you need to first install the NC Sync Client App. It's like a Google Drive or Dropbox Sync App.

Go to:

    https://nextcloud.com/install/

..and download the Desktop for your chosen OS or Mobile Client.

Reference Images:

[caption id="attachment_2469" align="aligncenter" width="805"] Nextcloud File Sync App[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2470" align="aligncenter" width="597"] Nextcloud Desktop Sync Client App[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2471" align="aligncenter" width="741"] Nextcloud Nextcloud Mobile File Sync App[/caption]

It's a Wrap!

So there you have it folks!

If you encounter issues while following this guide, please don't hesitate to post your comments below. I will try my best to answer them when I have the time.

If it worked for you, then post a comment as well, and say "thank you, it worked!".

Building your own cloud storage server is not that hard as you thought. All you need is a step-by-step guide written by newbie for newbies. However, you definitely need some Linux skills especially if you want customize the system, or there would be a need for extra-special deployment or troubleshooting needs. There will be no one-size-fits-all tutorial for that.

Another step-by-step guide on how to install a Point-of-Sale software called uniCenta (v4.4.2), you need; 64-bit supported OS, Java SE Runtime Environment, and the latest version of uniCenta installed. v4.4.2 is the latest version (for x64 OS) at the time of writing this guide.

So, on this step-by-step guide, we'll be using Linux Mint 19 Mate 64-bit Edition as our host OS for uniCenta. Though you can use Ubuntu 18.04 Desktop Edition or Linux Mint Cinnamon with this procedure, since LM is based on Ubuntu.

Please take note that in this post, when I mention UC, I mean uniCenta. And when I mention LM, I mean Linux Mint.

Overview of the installation

Before getting started with this guide, make sure you already have a clean and working instance of LM 19 (64-bit) or Ubuntu 18.04 64-bit Desktop Edition. As I can't post the guide for now.

1. Setup a clean instance of LM 19 (64-bit) or Ubuntu 18.04 64-bit Desktop Edition
2. Download the 64-bit version of Java JRE then Install
3. Download and Install UC 4.4.2
4. Create Launcher for UC 4.4.2 in Linux Mint 19

Note: 4.3.2 version of uniCenta is for 32-bit/x86 OS only.

Procedure

I like to mention again that we'll be using Linux Mint 19 Mate 64-bit version and Unicenta 4.4.2 64-bit. So, to easily follow this guide, I highly recommend that you should use the same version and architecture. Once you learned the process, it would be easy for you to install any version you'd want. Further more, using the same setup as mine, you can just copy/paste the command or copy part of it and make necessary adjustment.

Also take note of this , you could use it as video reference along with this guide.

The Step-by-step Guide in Installing Unicenta 4.2.2

Step 1: Setup a clean instance of Linuxmint 19 (64-bit) or Ubuntu 18.04 64-bit Desktop Edition.

Install LM 19 64-bit edition with the Mate Desktop environment. This version is a better choice for low resource PC.

Sorry, I don't have the tutorial part for this particular step.

If you already have a working LM19, then please proceed to Step 2.

Step 2: Download the 64-bit version of Java JRE then Install

To download the latest Java JRE, which is compatible with the latest version of UC, head over to (https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jre8-downloads-2133155.html).

Note: If we are using a distribution based on Ubuntu, it might already have OpenJDK Java installed, like LM 19 or Ubuntu 18.04 does. But we need "Java SE Runtime Environment 8u20x" to successfully run UC. So in this step, we need to install and configure Java JRE.

Step 2.1: Download JavaJRE for Linux Mint 19 64-bit

We need to download the compatible version, in our case, we need the 64-bit version for Linux with the tar.gz package. At the time of writing this guide, the latest compatible version are 8u201 and 8u202.

With this guide, we'll be downloading the 8u201 version. The right package is jre-8u201-linux-x64.tar.gz

Reference Image:

So, now let's go to our LM 19 Mate Desktop and launch Firefox, download (https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jre8-downloads-2133155.html) and extract it. Take note, you need to tick the "Accept License Agreement" before you can download the package.

Step 2.2: Extract JavaJRE Package

Once downloaded, extract the jre-8u201-linux-x64.tar.gz package using LM's GUI. Browse to the file location, right-click on the file and click Extract here.

In Linuxmint, the default download location for Firefox is in /home/your-user-name/Downloads.

Step 2.3: Move The Package

After extracting the package, you should have a new directory named jre1.8.0_201.

Next, move the whole jre1.8.0_201 directory to the /opt directory. In Linux, this directory should hold all the 3rd-party apps. To do the move, we need to launch a terminal and use the command-line to move the entire folder.

So, launch a terminal, use hot-key ctrl + alt + t, then type in:

cd ~/Downloads

...to go to the download location of the Java JRE package. In case you downloaded the package to somewhere, then you have to cd to that location first.

Next, from the Download location move the entire package to /opt directory. To do that, enter the following command and hit enter key:

sudo mv jre1.8.0_201 /opt/.

The JRE package should now be in /opt directory. To confirm, enter command ls -l /opt. Be sure to include the . at the end of the command.

Sample output:

drwxr-xr-x 6 chubbable chubbable 4096 Feb 28 04:50 jre1.8.0_201

Step 2.4: Install The Java JRE Package

Install the JavaJRE package for Linux Mint 19 and make it the default Java for UC. Let's set a higher priority number to make it the default. In our case we set it to 110.

Type command and press enter key:

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /opt/jre1.8.0_201/bin/java 110

Next, type below command and press enter key:

sudo update-alternatives --config java

Then select the number that corresponds to the Java JRE version we downloaded in Step 2.1. In our case, it is jre1.8.0_201/bin/java inside the /opt directory. So, choose the number that matches it. In our case, it's Selection 1.

So, type in 1 and press the enter key.

Sample output:

sudo update-alternatives --config java
There are 2 choices for the alternative java (providing /usr/bin/java).

  Selection    Path                                         Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /usr/lib/jvm/java-11-openjdk-amd64/bin/java   1101      auto mode
  1            /opt/jre1.8.0_201/bin/java                    110       manual mode
  2            /usr/lib/jvm/java-11-openjdk-amd64/bin/java   1101      manual mode

Press <enter> to keep the current choice, or type selection number: 1
update-alternatives: using /opt/jre1.8.0_201/bin/java to provide /usr/bin/java (java) in manual mode

Step 2.5: Set User Environment for Java JRE

Set environment so Linux Mint users can use your configured Java JRE location.

Command should be:

sudo nano /etc/environment

Expected screen output should be similar to the following:

PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games"

Now, below that line of text, insert this line (location of Java JRE directory):

JAVA_HOME="/opt/jre1.8.0_201"

Next, save the file (ctrl + 0) then exit the editor (ctrl + x).

Next, while still in our terminal, type:

source /etc/environment

No text output will appear, but to verify, type:

echo $JAVA_HOME

Expected output in this case is:

/opt/jre1.8.0_201

If you get the output above, then you have successfully installed Java JRE for Unicenta 4.4.2.

But, we're not ready to install uniCenta yet, we need to reboot our machine. To reboot LM from commandline, simply type: sudo reboot.

Once rebooted, you're now ready to install uniCenta 4.4.2. The Step-by-Step Guide to do this is below.

Step 3: Download and Install Unicenta POS 4.4.2

Step 3.1: Downloading the Installer

To download uniCenta 4.4.2 or any community version, go to their Sourceforge and download the package for our OS. In our case, we should download the (https://sourceforge.net/projects/unicentaopos/files/releases/linux/).

For this guide, we need the file with the name: (https://sourceforge.net/projects/unicentaopos/files/releases/linux/unicentaopos-4.4.2-linux-x64-installer.run/download)

Step 3.2: Run the Installer

To run the installer, you need to have administrative privilege. In Linux, the user account you're using should have a sudo privilege. In simpler term, the user should be a member of the sudo group. If all are set, then we can now run the installer.

We can run the installer from the commandline or using file explorer with the right-click context menu.

From Commandline

To run from commandline, you need to use sudo command + the path to the installer file with .run file extension. To do this, type in:

sudo ./path/to/unicenta/installer.run

In our case, the installer was downloaded to our Downloads directory, since it is the default Download directory for Firefox.

Sample command:

sudo ./home/chubbable/Downloads/unicentaopos-4.4.2-linux-x64-installer.run

In case we save the installer somewhere, then we need to use that path with the command.

Notice the dot (.) there before file path? You need that to run the installer.

The command will prompt us to type our password, after hiting Enter key. Then, installation continues.

From Right-click Context Menu

WE can also run the installer using the file browser by right-clicking on unicentaopos-4.4.2-linux-x64-installer.run and click Run As Administrator.

Reference Image:

This step will require us to type in our password. Make sure the user account that we use during this step, should be a sudo user.

After successful authentication, this dialogue will pop up (langguage selection):

Reference Image:

Choose your preferred one and click OK.

Next, select the right Java JRE. In our case, we should pick the one in /opt/jre1.8.0_201. So tick that choice, then go through the process and finish the installation. We need to accept the License Agreement, and accept the recommended uniCenta install directory for Linux - which is /opt/unicentaopos-4.4.2.

At this point, we should have installed uniCenta successfully. We can now proceed to the next step below.

Step 4: Create a Launcher

To create the launcher, we simply need a new file and name it whatever we want, but should have a file extension of .desktop. We can name it like uniCenta Launcher or anything we may come up with.

For the sake of demonstration, We'll name the launcher as uniCenta. But before we proceed, we need to take a test launch.

Step 4.1: Test Launch

We need to run the app using the supplied start.sh file. We can launch the app from command-line using sh command.

So let's get started.

Launch a terminal and go to uniCenta app directory:

cd /opt/unicentaopos-4.4.2

Set execute permission for all .sh file, so users can use the app from their own user account:

sudo chmod a+x *.sh

Launch start.sh:

sh start.sh

If it fails due to the following errors or similar:

• bash: ./start.sh: /bin/sh^M: bad interpreter: No such file or directory
• start.sh: 28: start.sh: Syntax error: word unexpected (expecting "in")

...then we need to fix the problem first, using the guide below.

If there are no errors, we can exit the app for now, then configure later. We can now proceed to the "App Launcher Creation" Step.

Fix start.sh Syntax Error

These are two possible errors thrown when launching the App using start.sh, it's either:

• /bin/sh^M: bad interpreter: No such file or directory
• Syntax error: word unexpected (expecting "in")

We need to fix the issue first before making the app launcher. Basically, the problem with the start.sh file is due to the improper line ending format. It should have a Linux/Unix compatible line ending format, instead of Windows DOS format. .sh files are unix (linux) shell executables files, and therefore be saved with the proper format.

That said, we can fix the issue by converting the file's line ending from Windows to Unix/Linux format.

To do that, simply open the file using the built-in text editor in LM 19 called Xed, then save it without modifying anything. When saving, use Save As menu, then choose Unix/Linux format for the Line Ending.

Command to type in our Terminal:

sudo xed /opt/unicentaopos-4.4.2/start.sh

Of course, we need to use the right file path if we installed uniCenta in a directory different from what is recommended in this tutorial.

Reference Image:

Step 4.2: Create a Launcher for Unicenta 4.4.2 in Linux Mint 19

After a successful test launch, we can now proceed to next step.

To create a launcher for uniCenta 4.4.2 in Linux Mint 19, we need to launch a Terminal and type in:

nano ~/Desktop/uniCenta.desktop

Then copy the following block of text and paste it inside the window. To paste, ctrl + shift + v. Then save the file, ctrl + o and hit enter key.

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open

Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Name=uniCenta
Comment=Launch Unicenta
Exec=/opt/unicentaopos-4.4.2/start.sh
Icon=/opt/unicentaopos-4.4.2/unicentaopos.ico

We should now have a neat looking shortcut icon on our desktop.

Reference Image:

Now, double-click to launch it! If you're greeted with a message mentioning about Untrusted application launcher, dont fret. We can safely ignore it and simply click on Mark as trusted. The next screen we'll see is the Database manager message, saying "unable to connect to the database". This is normal since it's the first time to launch the app. So what you should do is to click on OK, and proceed to configure the app.

Reference Image:

And there you have it, uniCenta has been launched!

Now, make the necessary configurations like; database, company name, skin, logo and etc.

How To Configure Unicenta 4.4.2 oPOS with MySQL Database Server

In this section of the guide, we need to install mysql-server via the commandline. With version 4.4.2, Apache Derby Embedded Database is no longer shipped with uniCenta, and only MySQL database should be used.

MySQL Installation

To install MySQL for uniCenta, launch a terminal (ctrl + alt + t) and type the following command:

sudo apt update; sudo apt install -y mysql-server

That command should install the latest version of MySQL Server for LM 19 or Ubuntu 18.04 Desktop edition. Version 5.7 is the latest version at the time of writing.

Note: You can install the Database on the same machine with UC. Plus, you can use the database for other UC machines in your local network.

MySQL Basic Configuration & Database Setup

So once installed, we need to add a database for UC along with database user and password.

Let's launch terminal if you haven't already, and type in the following command:

sudo mysql

That will log us in to mysql commandline prompt (mysql>):

Next, we'll create the database for UC:

create database unicentaopos;

Create database user and grant privilege to the unicentaopos database:

grant all on unicentaopos.* to 'unicentaopos'@'localhost' identified by 'Password';

Let's break the command down and further explain it:

• grant all on unicentaopos.* - This is the database we created
• 'unicentaopos'@'localhost' - We are granting unicentaopos (which is the database username) database privileges.
• identified by 'Password' - We are setting Password as the database user's password. We can change this to something more secure.

So what did we set using the command above:

• Database Name - unicentaopos
• Database User Name - unicentaopos
• Database User Pass - Password

uniCenta Database Setup

Next, we launch uniCenta and go to: System > Configuration > Database Setup

You should see similar page like this one:

Then we supply the database details:

• Driver Library: /opt/unicentaopos-4.4.2/./mysql-connector-java-5.1.39.jar

• Database: MySQL

• Driver Class: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver

• DB 1 Name: Main DB

• DB 1 URL: jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/unicentaopos?zeroDateTimeBehavior=convertToNull

• User: unicentaopos

• Password: Password

Now, let's test the connection and when successful, Click Save button and you should see a confirmation message. Click OK and then exit.

Reference Image:

uniCenta 4.x.x Errors You Might Encounter

Creation Script Did Not Run Successfully

I ran through this error during uniCenta's first launch. See reference image below.

If this issue is not fixed, you will go through an error when configuring employee's shifts and breaks settings. So what you should do is to run a couple of mysql commands.

The below procedure fixed the issue for me.

Note: I installed uniCenta from scratch, then went through this procedure before finally launching UC for the first time.

The Fix

The solution is to edit SQL mode and disable NO_ZERO_IN_DATE,NO_ZERO_DATE.

1. On your Linux Mint or Ubuntu machine, login as root to MySQL.

   sudo mysql

2. Then run the following commands successively. You may copy each command and paste it into your mysql command prompt:

   First Command:

   set sql_mode="ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY,STRICT_TRANS_TABLES,ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO,NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER,NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION";

   Second Command:

   set global sql_mode="ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY,STRICT_TRANS_TABLES,ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO,NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER,NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION";

The Wrap Up

You should now have a working instance of uniCenta 4.4.2 on Linux Mint 19. In case things didn't go well, feel free to comment below and I will help you with any installation related issues. Take note, that you can also use this guide with Ubuntu 18.04 Desktop instead of LM.

So I think that's pretty much it for this guide. In case you ran through issues, feel free to comment below.

If this guide did worked for you, you can thank me by:

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