Installation Wizard — Nextcloud 11 Server Administration Manual 11 alpha documentation

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# Installation Wizard

## Quick Start

When Nextcloud prerequisites are fulfilled and all Nextcloud files are installed, the last step to completing the installation is running the Installation Wizard. This is just three steps:

1. Point your Web browser to `http://localhost/nextcloud`
2. Enter your desired administrator’s username and password.
3. Click Finish Setup.

You’re finished and can start using your new Nextcloud server.

Of course, there is much more that you can do to set up your Nextcloud server for best performance and security. In the following sections we will cover important installation and post-installation steps. Note that you must follow the instructions in Setting Strong Permissions in order to use the occ Command.

- Data Directory Location
- Database Choice
- Trusted Domains
- Setting Strong Permissions

## Data Directory Location

Click Storage and Database to expose additional installation configuration options for your Nextcloud data directory and database.

You should locate your Nextcloud data directory outside of your Web root if you are using an HTTP server other than Apache, or you may wish to store your Nextcloud data in a different location for other reasons (e.g. on a storage server). It is best to configure your data directory location at installation, as it is difficult to move after installation. You may put it anywhere; in this example is it located in `/var/oc_data`. This directory must already exist, and must be owned by your HTTP user (see Setting Strong Directory Permissions).

## Database Choice

SQLite is the default database for Nextcloud Server and it is good only for testing and lightweight single-user setups without client synchronization. Supported databases are MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle 11g, and PostgreSQL, and we recommend MySQL/MariaDB. Your database and PHP connectors must be installed before you run the Installation Wizard. When you install Nextcloud from packages all the necessary dependencies will be satisfied (see Manual Installation on Linux for a detailed listing of required and optional PHP modules). You will need the root database login, or any administrator login that has permissions to create and modify databases, and then enter any name you want for your Nextcloud database.

After you enter your root or administrator login for your database, the installer creates a special database user with privileges limited to the Nextcloud database. Then Nextcloud needs only the special Nextcloud database user, and drops the root dB login. This user is named for your Nextcloud admin user, with an `oc_` prefix, and then given a random password. The Nextcloud database user and password are written into `config.php`:

    'dbuser' => 'oc_molly',
    'dbpassword' => 'pX65Ty5DrHQkYPE5HRsDvyFHlZZHcm',

Click Finish Setup, and start using your new Nextcloud server.

Now we will look at some important post-installation steps.

## Trusted Domains

All URLs used to access your Nextcloud server must be whitelisted in your `config.php` file, under the `trusted_domains` setting. Users are allowed to log into Nextcloud only when they point their browsers to a URL that is listed in the `trusted_domains` setting. You may use IP addresses and domain names. A typical configuration looks like this:

    'trusted_domains' =>
      array (
       0 => 'localhost',
       1 => 'server1.example.com',
       2 => '192.168.1.50',
    ),

The loopback address, `127.0.0.1`, is automatically whitelisted, so as long as you have access to the physical server you can always log in. In the event that a load balancer is in place there will be no issues as long as it sends the correct X-Forwarded-Host header. When a user tries a URL that is not whitelisted the following error appears:

## Setting Strong Directory Permissions

For hardened security we recommend setting the permissions on your Nextcloud directories as strictly as possible. This should be done immediately after the initial installation and before running the setup. Your HTTP user must own the `config/`, `data/` and `apps/` directories so that you can configure Nextcloud, create, modify and delete your data files, and install apps via the Nextcloud Web interface.

You can find your HTTP user in your HTTP server configuration files. Or you can use PHP Version and Information (Look for the User/Group line).

- The HTTP user and group in Debian/Ubuntu is `www-data`.
- The HTTP user and group in Fedora/CentOS is `apache`.
- The HTTP user and group in Arch Linux is `http`.
- The HTTP user in openSUSE is `wwwrun`, and the HTTP group is `www`.

Note

When using an NFS mount for the data directory, do not change its ownership from the default. The simple act of mounting the drive will set proper permissions for Nextcloud to write to the directory. Changing ownership as above could result in some issues if the NFS mount is lost.

The easy way to set the correct permissions is to copy and run this script. Replace the `ocpath` variable with the path to your Nextcloud directory, and replace the `htuser` and `htgroup` variables with your HTTP user and group:

    #!/bin/bash
    ocpath='/var/www/nextcloud'
    datapath='/var/www/nextcloud/data'
    htuser='www-data'
    htgroup='www-data'
    rootuser='root'

    printf "Creating possible missing Directories\n"
    mkdir -p $ocpath/data
    mkdir -p $ocpath/updater

    printf "chmod Files and Directories\n"
    find ${ocpath}/ -type f -print0 | xargs -0 chmod 0640
    find ${ocpath}/ -type d -print0 | xargs -0 chmod 0750

    printf "chown Directories\n"
    chown -R ${rootuser}:${htgroup} ${ocpath}/
    chown -R ${htuser}:${htgroup} ${ocpath}/apps/
    chown -R ${htuser}:${htgroup} ${ocpath}/config/
    chown -R ${htuser}:${htgroup} ${datapath}
    chown -R ${htuser}:${htgroup} ${ocpath}/themes/
    chown -R ${htuser}:${htgroup} ${ocpath}/updater/

    chmod +x ${ocpath}/occ

    printf "chmod/chown .htaccess\n"
    if [ -f ${ocpath}/.htaccess ]
     then
      chmod 0644 ${ocpath}/.htaccess
      chown ${rootuser}:${htgroup} ${ocpath}/.htaccess
    fi
    if [ -f ${datapath}/.htaccess ]
     then
      chmod 0644 ${datapath}/.htaccess
      chown ${rootuser}:${htgroup} ${datapath}/.htaccess
    fi

If you have customized your Nextcloud installation and your filepaths are different than the standard installation, then modify this script accordingly.

This lists the recommended modes and ownership for your Nextcloud directories and files:

- All files should be read-write for the file owner, read-only for the group owner, and zero for the world
- All directories should be executable (because directories always need the executable bit set), read-write for the directory owner, and read-only for the group owner
- The `apps/` directory should be owned by `[HTTP user]:[HTTP group]`
- The `config/` directory should be owned by `[HTTP user]:[HTTP group]`
- The `themes/` directory should be owned by `[HTTP user]:[HTTP group]`
- The `data/` directory should be owned by `[HTTP user]:[HTTP group]`
- The `[ocpath]/.htaccess` file should be owned by `root:[HTTP group]`
- The `data/.htaccess` file should be owned by `root:[HTTP group]`
- Both `.htaccess` files are read-write file owner, read-only group and world

These strong permissions prevent upgrading your Nextcloud server; see Setting Permissions for Updating for a script to quickly change permissions to allow upgrading.

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