Guides - Deploy Nextcloud through the Linode Marketplace

Nextcloud is an open source solution to file hosting and sharing. With Nextcloud, you can synchronize files from a local computer to the Linode server and share them with collaborators. Nextcloud’s customizable security features and intuitive user interface help to keep files safe and easy to manage.

Deploying a Marketplace App

The Linode Marketplace allows you to easily deploy software on a Compute Instance using the Cloud Manager. See Get Started with Marketplace Apps for complete steps.

1. Log in to the Cloud Manager and select the Marketplace link from the left navigation menu. This displays the Linode Create page with the Marketplace tab pre-selected.

2. Under the Select App section, select the app you would like to deploy.

3. Complete the form by following the steps and advice within the Creating a Compute Instance guide. Depending on the Marketplace App you selected, there may be additional configuration options available. See the Configuration Options section below for compatible distributions, recommended plans, and any additional configuration options available for this Marketplace App.

4. Click the Create Linode button. Once the Compute Instance has been provisioned and has fully powered on, wait for the software installation to complete. If the instance is powered off or restarted before this time, the software installation will likely fail.

To verify that the app has been fully installed, see Get Started with Marketplace Apps > Verify Installation. Once installed, follow the instructions within the Getting Started After Deployment section to access the application and start using it.

Configuration Options

• Supported distributions: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
• Recommended minimum plan: All plan types and sizes can be used.

NextCloud Options

Limited Sudo User

You need to fill out the following fields to automatically create a limited sudo user, with a strong generated password for your new Compute Instance. This account will be assigned to the sudo group, which provides elevated permissions when running commands with the sudo prefix.

• Limited sudo user: Enter your preferred username for the limited user. No Capital Letters, Spaces, or Special Characters.

  Locating The Generated Sudo Password

  A password is generated for the limited user and stored in a .credentials file in their home directory, along with application specific passwords. This can be viewed by running: cat /home/$USERNAME/.credentials

  For best results, add an account SSH key for the Cloud Manager user that is deploying the instance, and select that user as an authorized_user in the API or by selecting that option in the Cloud Manager. Their SSH pubkey will be assigned to both root and the limited user.

• Disable root access over SSH: To block the root user from logging in over SSH, select Yes. You can still switch to the root user once logged in, and you can also log in as root through Lish.

  Accessing The Instance Without SSH

  If you disable root access for your deployment and do not provide a valid Account SSH Key assigned to the authorized_user, you will need to login as the root user via the Lish console and run cat /home/$USERNAME/.credentials to view the generated password for the limited user.

Custom Domain (Optional)

If you wish to automatically configure a custom domain, you first need to configure your domain to use Linode’s name servers. This is typically accomplished directly through your registrar. See Use Linode’s Name Servers with Your Domain. Once that is finished, you can fill out the following fields for the Marketplace App:

• Linode API Token: If you wish to use the Linode’s DNS Manager to manage DNS records for your custom domain, create a Linode API Personal Access Token on your account with Read/Write access to Domains. If this is provided along with the subdomain and domain fields (outlined below), the installation attempts to create DNS records via the Linode API. See Get an API Access Token. If you do not provide this field, you need to manually configure your DNS records through your DNS provider and point them to the IP address of the new instance.
• Subdomain: The subdomain you wish to use, such as www for www.example.com.
• Domain: The domain name you wish to use, such as example.com.

Getting Started after Deployment

Configure and Start Your Nextcloud Instance

Before you can use Nextcloud, you must set up your deployment with the Nextcloud AIO tool. This tool manages the containers, add-ons, and the configuration needed to run and maintain your Nextcloud instance.

1. Open a browser window and navigate to the following URL to access the NextCloud AIO interface: https://[domain]:8443/, replacing [domain] with the custom domain you entered during deployment or your Compute Instance’s rDNS domain (such as 192-0-2-17.ip.linodeusercontent.com).

   If the browser displays a message similar to “Client sent an HTTP request to an HTTPS server”, you are likely connecting using the HTTP protocol instead of HTTPS. Adjust your URL so that it starts with https://.

2. The initial Nextcloud AIO setup screen is displayed, which includes an automatically generated password. Save the password and click the Open Nextcloud AIO login button.

3. In the login page that appears, enter the password from the previous screen and click Login.

4. Once you have successfully logged in, you are prompted to either create a new AIO instance or restore from a backup. If your intention is to install a fresh Nextcloud instance, enter the domain you specified earlier when deploying the Marketplace app or use your rDNS value if no domain was specified. Then, click Submit.

5. In the next screen that appears, select any additional add-ons you’d like to enable for this instance, specify the time zone, and then click the Start Containers button. This button may be labeled Download and start containers if you are downloading a new version of Nextcloud. This process starts all of the containers required by your Nextcloud instance and will take a few minutes to complete.

6. Once all of the Nextcloud Containers are in a Running state, the Nextcloud admin username and password are displayed. Save these credentials in a secure location as they are required to log in to the Nextcloud app. If any of your containers appear to be stuck in a Starting state, click the reload button to refresh the status.

   

7. You have now successfully initialized your Nextcloud instance and have obtained the admin credentials. To log in to the instance, click the Open your Nextcloud button and enter your admin credentials or follow the log in steps below.

Log in to Your Nextcloud Dashboard

After performing the initial setup and configuration steps within Nextcloud AIO, you can now log in to your Nextcloud dashboard.

1. Open a browser window and navigate to https://[domain]/login, replacing [domain] with the custom domain you entered during deployment or your Compute Instance’s rDNS domain (such as 192-0-2-17.ip.linodeusercontent.com).

2. In the login prompt that appears, enter the credentials that were provided to you by Nextcloud AIO in the previous section. Then, click the Log in button.

3. Once you are successfully logged in, the Nextcloud dashboard is displayed. From here, you can view and manage your files, photos, calendars, contacts, and much more. To add a new user for yourself and to collaborate with your teammates, follow the Nextcloud Creating a User guide.

Next Steps

• Configure Nextcloud to use Linode Object Storage as an External Storage Mount. You can use Object Storage as a secondary place to store your Nextcloud files. Using Linode Object Storage to store files prevents you from running out of storage space that is limited by your Linode’s plan size.
• Install the Nextcloud desktop synchronization client on a local computer to easily synchronize the desktop files to the Nextcloud server.

More Information

You may wish to consult the following resources for additional information on this topic. While these are provided in the hope that they will be useful, please note that we cannot vouch for the accuracy or timeliness of externally hosted materials.

• Nextcloud Documentation Overview
• Nextcloud AIO github