Install Nextcloud on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS – Complete Guide 2026

To install Nextcloud on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, set up a LAMP/LEMP stack with PHP 8.3, create a database, download the latest Nextcloud to /var/www/nextcloud, configure Apache or Nginx with HTTPS, enable Redis caching and cron, then complete the web installer. This 2026 step by step guide covers optimal settings, security, and performance.

This complete guide shows how to install Nextcloud on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS using best practices for 2026. You’ll learn the fastest, most secure way to deploy Nextcloud with Apache or Nginx, PHP 8.3, MariaDB or PostgreSQL, Redis, Let’s Encrypt SSL, and cron—plus hardening and performance tips proven in real world production.

What is Nextcloud and why Ubuntu 24.04 LTS?

Nextcloud is a self hosted, private cloud platform for file sync, sharing, Office/Collabora, Talk, calendars, and more. Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble) ships with current, secure packages (PHP 8.3, OpenSSL 3) and a 5 year support window ideal for a stable, future proof Nextcloud stack in 2026.

Prerequisites and system requirements

• An Ubuntu 24.04 LTS server (1–2 vCPU, 2–4 GB RAM minimum; 8+ GB RAM recommended for large teams)
• A domain or subdomain (e.g., cloud.example.com) pointing to the server’s public IP
• SSH access with sudo privileges
• Open ports: 80/tcp and 443/tcp
• Optional: Swap enabled on low RAM VPS, and a separate data disk for Nextcloud data

For business grade performance, choose SSD/NVMe storage and enable server side caching (Redis). Managed NVMe VPS from YouStable includes Ubuntu 24.04 images, free SSL, and support that can pre install this stack on request.

Step 1 – Update server and set hostname

sudo apt update && sudo apt -y upgrade
sudo hostnamectl set-hostname cloud
sudo apt -y install ufw unzip bzip2 curl software-properties-common

Enable the firewall and allow web traffic:

sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw allow 80,443/tcp
sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw status

Step 2 – Choose your web server: Apache or Nginx

Apache is beginner friendly and integrates cleanly with Certbot. Nginx is lean and performs excellently at scale. Both are fully supported by Nextcloud.

Option A: Install Apache (recommended for most users)

sudo apt -y install apache2 libapache2-mod-fcgid

Option B: Install Nginx (performance focused)

sudo apt -y install nginx

Step 3 – Install PHP 8.3 and required extensions

Nextcloud requires PHP 8.1+; Ubuntu 24.04 provides PHP 8.3. Install FPM plus all needed extensions:

sudo apt -y install php8.3-fpm php8.3-cli php8.3-gd php8.3-curl php8.3-xml php8.3-zip \
php8.3-mbstring php8.3-bz2 php8.3-intl php8.3-gmp php8.3-bcmath php8.3-imap \
php8.3-redis php8.3-apcu php8.3-imagick

Tune PHP for Nextcloud:

sudo sed -i 's/^memory_limit.*/memory_limit = 512M/' /etc/php/8.3/fpm/php.ini
sudo sed -i 's/^upload_max_filesize.*/upload_max_filesize = 2G/' /etc/php/8.3/fpm/php.ini
sudo sed -i 's/^post_max_size.*/post_max_size = 2G/' /etc/php/8.3/fpm/php.ini
sudo sed -i 's/^max_execution_time.*/max_execution_time = 360/' /etc/php/8.3/fpm/php.ini
sudo sed -i 's/;opcache.enable=1/opcache.enable=1/' /etc/php/8.3/fpm/php.ini
sudo sed -i 's/;opcache.memory_consumption=.*/opcache.memory_consumption=256/' /etc/php/8.3/fpm/php.ini
sudo sed -i 's/;opcache.interned_strings_buffer=.*/opcache.interned_strings_buffer=16/' /etc/php/8.3/fpm/php.ini
sudo sed -i 's/;opcache.max_accelerated_files=.*/opcache.max_accelerated_files=10000/' /etc/php/8.3/fpm/php.ini
sudo systemctl restart php8.3-fpm

Step 4 – Install and prepare the database

You can use MariaDB/MySQL or PostgreSQL. Both work well; PostgreSQL scales very nicely for larger instances.

Option A: MariaDB

sudo apt -y install mariadb-server
sudo mysql_secure_installation

Create a database and user:

sudo mysql -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE nextcloud CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci;
CREATE USER 'ncuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPasswordHere';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON nextcloud.* TO 'ncuser'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Option B: PostgreSQL

sudo apt -y install postgresql
sudo -u postgres psql -c "CREATE USER ncuser WITH PASSWORD 'StrongPasswordHere';"
sudo -u postgres psql -c "CREATE DATABASE nextcloud TEMPLATE template0 ENCODING 'UTF8' LC_COLLATE='C' LC_CTYPE='C' OWNER ncuser;"

Step 5 – Download and place Nextcloud

cd /tmp
curl -O https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/latest.tar.bz2
curl -O https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/latest.tar.bz2.asc
# (Optional) Import & verify signature per Nextcloud docs
sudo tar -xjf latest.tar.bz2 -C /var/www/
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/nextcloud
sudo find /var/www/nextcloud/ -type d -exec chmod 750 {} \;
sudo find /var/www/nextcloud/ -type f -exec chmod 640 {} \;

Step 6 – Configure your web server

Apache virtual host (PHP-FPM)

Create a site file at /etc/apache2/sites-available/nextcloud.conf (replace cloud.example.com):

sudo tee /etc/apache2/sites-available/nextcloud.conf >/dev/null <<'EOF'
<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName cloud.example.com
  DocumentRoot /var/www/nextcloud

  <Directory /var/www/nextcloud/>
    Require all granted
    AllowOverride All
    Options FollowSymLinks MultiViews
  </Directory>

  <FilesMatch \.php$>
    SetHandler "proxy:unix:/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost/"
  </FilesMatch>

  <IfModule mod_headers.c>
    Header always set Referrer-Policy "no-referrer"
    Header always set X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff"
    Header always set X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN"
    Header always set X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block"
  </IfModule>

  ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/nextcloud_error.log
  CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/nextcloud_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
EOF

sudo a2enmod rewrite headers env dir mime proxy_fcgi setenvif
sudo a2ensite nextcloud
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Nginx server block

Create /etc/nginx/sites-available/nextcloud and enable it (replace cloud.example.com):

sudo tee /etc/nginx/sites-available/nextcloud >/dev/null <<'EOF'
server {
  listen 80;
  server_name cloud.example.com;

  root /var/www/nextcloud;
  index index.php;

  client_max_body_size 2G;
  fastcgi_buffers 64 4K;

  add_header Referrer-Policy "no-referrer" always;
  add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff" always;
  add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN" always;
  add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block" always;

  location = /robots.txt { allow all; log_not_found off; access_log off; }
  location = /.well-known/carddav { return 301 /remote.php/dav; }
  location = /.well-known/caldav { return 301 /remote.php/dav; }

  location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$request_uri;
  }

  location ~ ^/(?:build|tests|config|lib|3rdparty|templates|data)/ {
    deny all;
  }
  location ~ \.php(?:$|/) {
    include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
    fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.*)$;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;
  }
  location ~ \.(?:css|js|woff2?|svg|gif)$ {
    try_files $uri /index.php$request_uri;
    expires 6M; access_log off;
  }
  location ~ \.(?:png|jpg|jpeg|ico|webp)$ {
    try_files $uri /index.php$request_uri;
    expires 6M; access_log off;
  }

  error_log /var/log/nginx/nextcloud_error.log;
  access_log /var/log/nginx/nextcloud_access.log;
}
EOF

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/nextcloud /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx

Step 7 – Enable HTTPS with Let’s Encrypt

Issue and auto renew a free SSL certificate.

# Apache
sudo apt -y install certbot python3-certbot-apache
sudo certbot --apache -d cloud.example.com

# Nginx
sudo apt -y install certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d cloud.example.com

# Test renewal
sudo systemctl list-timers | grep certbot

Step 8 – Configure Redis caching and file locking

Redis prevents file locking issues and boosts performance.

sudo apt -y install redis-server
sudo sed -i 's/^supervised .*/supervised systemd/' /etc/redis/redis.conf
sudo systemctl enable --now redis-server

Add caching to Nextcloud’s config.php:

sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ maintenance:install --database "mysql" \
 --database-name "nextcloud" --database-user "ncuser" --database-pass "StrongPasswordHere" \
 --admin-user "admin" --admin-pass "AnotherStrongPassword"

sudo -u www-data php -r '
$cfg="/var/www/nextcloud/config/config.php";
$c=include $cfg;
$c["memcache.local"]="\\OC\\Memcache\\APCu";
$c["memcache.locking"]="\\OC\\Memcache\\Redis";
$c["redis"]=["host"=>"127.0.0.1","port"=>6379];
$c["default_phone_region"]="US";
file_put_contents($cfg,"<?php\nreturn ".var_export($c,true).";\n");'

If you prefer PostgreSQL, change the maintenance:install flags accordingly (database=pgsql).

Step 9 – Set up background jobs (cron)

sudo -u www-data crontab -e
# Add:
*/5 * * * * php -f /var/www/nextcloud/cron.php >/dev/null 2>&1

In Settings > Basic settings, switch Background jobs to “Cron.”

Step 10 – Secure permissions and hardening

• Run Nextcloud under www-data
• Disable directory listing
• Force HTTPS with HSTS
• Isolate the data folder on a separate disk when possible
• Keep regular, offsite backups

# Permissions
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/nextcloud
sudo find /var/www/nextcloud/ -type d -exec chmod 750 {} \;
sudo find /var/www/nextcloud/ -type f -exec chmod 640 {} \;

# UFW profile for Apache or Nginx is already allowed; ensure SSH/HTTPS stay open
sudo ufw status

# Optional: enable HSTS on Apache (inside VirtualHost after SSL is active)
# Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

Step 11 – Complete the web installer

Visit https://cloud.example.com and log in as the admin user you created (or create via the web form). Point the data directory to the default (/var/www/nextcloud/data) or an attached volume with sufficient space. Confirm the database credentials and finish installation.

Post install commands and checks

# Add your domain to trusted domains
sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ config:system:set trusted_domains 1 --value=cloud.example.com

# Enable recommended preview providers (speeds up thumbnails)
sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ config:app:set previewgenerator squareSizes --value="32 256"
sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ config:app:set previewgenerator widthSizes --value="256 384 512 768 1024"
sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ config:app:set previewgenerator heightSizes --value="256 384 512 768 1024"

# Add missing DB indexes (if prompted in Admin > Overview)
sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ db:add-missing-indices

# Verify background jobs
sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ background:status

Performance tuning checklist (2026 best practices)

• Use PHP 8.3-FPM with OPcache and APCu
• Enable Redis for local cache and file locking
• Set client_max_body_size/upload_max_filesize to match your largest files
• Use HTTP/2 (default with modern Apache/Nginx on TLS)
• Place data on fast NVMe storage; consider object storage for large deployments
• PostgreSQL for big/complex instances; MariaDB for simplicity
• Prefer Nginx for very high concurrency setups
• Schedule previews generation during off peak hours

Troubleshooting essentials

• Logs: /var/www/nextcloud/data/nextcloud.log
• Web server logs: /var/log/apache2/*.log or /var/log/nginx/*.log
• PHP-FPM logs: journalctl -u php8.3-fpm
• Permissions: ensure www-data owns all Nextcloud files
• OPcache/APCu not loading: check php -m and phpinfo(); restart php8.3-fpm

# Quick health check
sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ status
sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ check

Alternative: Nextcloud Snap (quick install)

Snap is the fastest route but less flexible for tuning, custom PHP modules, or external database engines.

sudo apt -y install snapd
sudo snap install nextcloud
# Set domain and enable HTTPS
sudo nextcloud.manual-install admin StrongAdminPassword
sudo nextcloud.enable-https lets-encrypt

For production environments where you need deep control (Redis, PHP tuning, advanced Nginx rules), the manual install above is preferred.

Why host Nextcloud with YouStable

As a managed hosting provider, YouStable offers optimized Ubuntu 24.04 VPS with NVMe storage, free SSL, DDoS protection, and expert assistance setting up Nextcloud, Redis, and backups. If you want a hands off, production ready deployment with 24×7 support, our team can provision and tune this stack for your workload.

FAQs – Install Nextcloud on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS