Install Nextcloud on a fresh VM

Before you begin

Run with care: These commands create containers that
will hold your files and database. Use a VM you control, take a
snapshot first, and choose strong passwords.

Sign in to the VM as root. Replace the example IP address with your own.

ssh root@YOUR_SERVER_IP

docker --version && docker compose version

Keep the Nextcloud configuration in its own folder.

mkdir -p /opt/nextcloud && cd /opt/nextcloud

Before copying, replace YOUR_SERVER_IP,
CHANGE_ME_ROOT, CHANGE_ME_DB,
CHANGE_ME_ADMIN, and the admin username as
you prefer. Keep the database password identical in both places.

cat > compose.yaml <<'EOF'
services:
  db:
    image: mariadb:11
    restart: always
    command: --transaction-isolation=READ-COMMITTED --log-bin=binlog --binlog-format=ROW
    volumes:
      - db:/var/lib/mysql
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: CHANGE_ME_ROOT
      MYSQL_DATABASE: nextcloud
      MYSQL_USER: nextcloud
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: CHANGE_ME_DB

  redis:
    image: redis:alpine
    restart: always

  app:
    image: nextcloud:apache
    restart: always
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    depends_on:
      - db
      - redis
    volumes:
      - nextcloud:/var/www/html
    environment:
      MYSQL_HOST: db
      MYSQL_DATABASE: nextcloud
      MYSQL_USER: nextcloud
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: CHANGE_ME_DB
      REDIS_HOST: redis
      NEXTCLOUD_ADMIN_USER: admin
      NEXTCLOUD_ADMIN_PASSWORD: CHANGE_ME_ADMIN
      NEXTCLOUD_TRUSTED_DOMAINS: YOUR_SERVER_IP

volumes:
  db:
  nextcloud:
EOF
chmod 600 compose.yaml

Before running: The Copy button copies the placeholders
exactly as shown. Replace them locally, never publish your real
passwords, and keep compose.yaml private because it
contains them.

Pull the images and start the containers in the background. The first
start can take a few minutes while Nextcloud installs itself.

docker compose up -d
docker compose logs -f app

Press Ctrl+C to stop following the logs; the containers keep running.
Wait until the log shows Apache is ready.

Open this address in your browser. Make sure TCP port 8080 is
permitted through your VM and provider firewalls:

http://YOUR_SERVER_IP:8080

Sign in with the administrator username and password from your
Compose file. Replace YOUR_SERVER_IP with your VM’s
actual IP address.

If you see an untrusted domain error when using a hostname, add it
with Nextcloud’s occ tool. Replace
cloud.example.com with your hostname.

docker compose exec -u www-data app php occ status
docker compose exec -u www-data app php occ config:system:set trusted_domains 2 --value=cloud.example.com

Keep building

Put Nextcloud behind an HTTPS reverse proxy before using it on the
internet, update it by running docker compose pull then
docker compose up -d from /opt/nextcloud, and
back up the db and nextcloud volumes
regularly. Nextcloud upgrades one major version at a time.

References:
Nextcloud Docker image
·
Nextcloud admin manual
·
Docker Compose