Introduction

Nextcloud is a popular open-source software that provides a secure and private file-sharing and collaboration platform. It is a self-hosted alternative to cloud-based services such as Google Drive and Dropbox.

In this article, we will guide you through the step-by-step process of installing Nextcloud on Debian 10.

Prerequisites

• A Debian 10 machine with root access.

Install LAMP Server

1. The first step is to update your Debian 10 system to the latest version.

   $ sudo apt update -y

2. Next, you need to install the Apache web server on your Debian 10 system. You can do this by running the following command.

   $ sudo apt -y install apache2
   

3. Once installed, verify the status of Apache using the command.

   $ systemctl status apache2

4. Nextcloud requires a database to store its data. Install MariaDB as the database server for Nextcloud.
   

   $ sudo apt -y install mariadb-server
   

5. Start and enable the MariaDB server.

   $ sudo systemctl start mariadb
   $ sudo systemctl enable mariadb
   

6. login to your MariaDB server.

   $ sudo mysql -u root
   

7. Once you are logged in, run the following commands to create a new database, user, and grant privileges to the user.

   CREATE DATABASE nextcloud;
   GRANT ALL ON nextcloud.* TO 'nextclouduser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
   FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
   EXIT;
   

8. Next, you need to install PHP and the required PHP modules on your Debian 10 system.

   $ sudo apt -y install php7.3 php7.3-gd php7.3-mysql php7.3-curl php7.3-mbstring php7.3-intl php7.3-gmp php-imagick php7.3-xml php7.3-zip

Download Nextcloud

1. Download the latest version of Nextcloud from the official website.

   $ wget https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/nextcloud-21.0.9.zip

2. Next, unzip the compressed file and move the unzipped folder to the Webroot directory using the below commands.

   $ sudo apt -y install unzip
   $ sudo unzip nextcloud-*.zip
   $ mv nextcloud /var/www/html

3. Set the correct permissions.

   $ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/nextcloud/
   $ sudo  chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/nextcloud/

4. Restart the Apache server.

   $ sudo systemctl restart apache2

 Install  Nextcloud via a browser

1. Complete the Nextcloud installation by visiting "http://your-ip-address/nextcloud/index.php" in a web browser and following the on-screen instructions. When you are all set and then click on "Install"  This should redirect you to Next Cloud’s dashboard as shown below.