Build Your Own Nextcloud File Server on CentOS 8 in 30 Minutes

1. Acquire a VPS

Select a cloud provider (e.g., UCloud) and purchase a CentOS 8 instance; obtain a domain name if you need public access.

2. Install required packages

2.1 Install DNF

yum install dnf
dnf update -y

2.2 Install Apache

dnf install -y httpd

Enable and start Apache:

systemctl enable httpd.service
systemctl start httpd.service

2.3 Install PHP and extensions

dnf install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm
dnf install https://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-8.rpm
dnf install yum-utils
dnf module reset php
dnf module install php:remi-7.4
dnf install -y php php-gd php-mbstring php-intl php-pecl-apcu php-mysqlnd php-opcache php-json php-zip php-dom

2.4 Install MariaDB

dnf install -y mariadb mariadb-server

Enable and start MariaDB:

systemctl enable mariadb.service
systemctl start mariadb.service

Secure the installation:

mysql_secure_installation

3. Deploy Nextcloud

3.1 Download and extract

wget https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/nextcloud-18.0.3.zip
unzip nextcloud-*.zip

Copy files to Apache’s web root: cp -R nextcloud/ /var/www/html/ Create a data directory for user files:

mkdir /var/www/html/nextcloud/data

3.2 Set permissions

chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/nextcloud
systemctl restart httpd.service

3.3 Adjust SELinux (if enabled)

semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t '/var/www/html/nextcloud/data(/.*)?'
semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t '/var/www/html/nextcloud/config(/.*)?'
semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t '/var/www/html/nextcloud/apps(/.*)?'
semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t '/var/www/html/nextcloud/.htaccess'
semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t '/var/www/html/nextcloud/.user.ini'
semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t '/var/www/html/nextcloud/3rdparty/aws/aws-sdk-php/src/data/logs(/.*)?'
restorecon -R '/var/www/html/nextcloud/'
setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

4. Complete web‑based configuration

Open http://your-domain/nextcloud in a browser, create the admin account, enter the MariaDB credentials, and follow the on‑screen steps to finish installation.

After setup, files are stored under /var/www/html/nextcloud/data/admin/files.