Install ownCloud on Ubuntu 20.04

dmitry · February 18, 2022, 4:14pm

Install ownCloud on Ubuntu 20.04

Introduction

This is a short guide to installing ownCloud on a fresh installation of Ubuntu 20.04. Run the following commands in your terminal to complete the installation.

Prerequisites

A fresh installation of Get Ubuntu Server | Download | Ubuntu
This guide assumes that you are working as the root user.
Your ownCloud directory will be located in /var/www/owncloud/

Preparation

First, ensure that all the installed packages are entirely up to date and that PHP is available in the APT repository.
To do so, follow the instructions below:

apt update && \
  apt upgrade -y

Create the occ Helper Script

FILE="/usr/local/bin/occ"
/bin/cat <<EOM >$FILE
#! /bin/bash
cd /var/www/owncloud/
sudo -E -u www-data /usr/bin/php /var/www/owncloud//occ "\$@"
EOM

Make the helper script executable:

chmod +x /usr/local/bin/occ

Install the Required Packages

apt install -y \
  apache2 \
  libapache2-mod-php \
  mariadb-server \
  openssl redis-server wget \
  php-imagick php-common php-curl \
  php-gd php-imap php-intl \
  php-json php-mbstring php-mysql \
  php-ssh2 php-xml php-zip \
  php-apcu php-redis php-ldap

Install smbclient php module

apt-get install -y libsmbclient-dev php-dev php-pear
pecl install smbclient-stable
echo "extension=smbclient.so" > /etc/php/7.4/mods-available/smbclient.ini
phpenmod smbclient
systemctl restart apache2

Install the Recommended Packages

apt install -y \
  ssh bzip2 rsync curl jq \
  inetutils-ping coreutils \
  imagemagick

Installation

Configure Apache

Change the Document Root

sed -i "s#html#owncloud#" /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf
service apache2 restart

Create a Virtual Host Configuration

FILE="/etc/apache2/sites-available/owncloud.conf"
/bin/cat <<EOM >$FILE
Alias /owncloud "/var/www/owncloud/"

<Directory /var/www/owncloud/>
  Options +FollowSymlinks
  AllowOverride All

 <IfModule mod_dav.c>
  Dav off
 </IfModule>

 SetEnv HOME /var/www/owncloud
 SetEnv HTTP_HOME /var/www/owncloud
</Directory>
EOM

Enable the Virtual Host Configuration

a2ensite owncloud.conf
service apache2 reload

Configure the Database

systemctl start mariadb
mysql -u root -e "CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS owncloud; \
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON owncloud.* \
  TO owncloud@localhost \
  IDENTIFIED BY 'password'";

Enable the Recommended Apache Modules

echo "Enabling Apache Modules"
a2enmod dir env headers mime rewrite setenvif
service apache2 reload

Download ownCloud

cd /var/www/
wget https://download.owncloud.com/server/stable/owncloud-complete-latest.tar.bz2 && \
tar -xjf owncloud-complete-latest.tar.bz2 && \
chown -R www-data. owncloud

Install ownCloud

occ maintenance:install \
    --database "mysql" \
    --database-name "owncloud" \
    --database-user "owncloud" \
    --database-pass "password" \
    --admin-user "admin" \
    --admin-pass "admin" \
    --data-dir= "/var/www/owncloud"

Configure ownCloud’s Trusted Domains

my_ip=$(hostname -I|cut -f1 -d ' ')
occ config:system:set trusted_domains 1 --value="$my_ip"

Set Up a Cron Job

occ background:cron

echo "*/15  *  *  *  * /var/www/owncloud/occ system:cron" \
  > /var/spool/cron/crontabs/www-data
chown www.data.crontab /var/spool/cron/crontabs/www-data
chmod 0600 /var/spool/cron/crontabs/www-data

echo "*/15 * * * * /var/www/owncloud/occ user:sync 'OCA\User_LDAP\User_Proxy' -m disable -vvv >> /var/log/ldap-sync/user-sync.log 2>&1" >> /var/spool/cron/crontabs/www-data
chown www-data.crontab  /var/spool/cron/crontabs/www-data
chmod 0600  /var/spool/cron/crontabs/www-data
mkdir -p /var/log/ldap-sync
touch /var/log/ldap-sync/user-sync.log
chown www-data. /var/log/ldap-sync/user-sync.log

Configure Caching and File Locking

Execute these commands:

occ config:system:set \
   memcache.local \
   --value '\OC\Memcache\APCu'
occ config:system:set \
   memcache.locking \
   --value '\OC\Memcache\Redis'
occ config:system:set \
   redis \
   --value '{"host": "127.0.0.1", "port": "6379"}' \
   --type json

Configure Log Rotation

FILE="/etc/logrotate.d/owncloud"
sudo /bin/cat <<EOM >$FILE
/var/www/owncloud/data/owncloud.log {
  size 10M
  rotate 12
  copytruncate
  missingok
  compress
  compresscmd /bin/gzip
}
EOM

Finalise the Installation

Make sure the permissions are correct

cd /var/www/
chown -R www-data. owncloud

ownCloud is now installed. You can confirm that it is ready to use by pointing your web browser to your ownCloud installation.

spamless · May 9, 2022, 10:35pm

Hi, I’ve been having trouble with a new installation under Ubuntu 20.04. More on that later. But I wanted to say that while the help here is great, and while I thank you immensely for the work, there are a couple syntax errors that make it a tougher go than it needs to be.

I’m pretty sure both lines above should have an equals sign in place of the octothorpe ("#"), for instance.

dmitry:

echo "*/15 * * * * /var/www/owncloud/occ user:sync 'OCA\User_LDAP\User_Proxy' -m disable -vvv >> /var/log/ldap-sync/user-sync.log 2>&1" >> /var/spool/cron/crontabs/www-data
chown www-data.crontab  /var/spool/cron/crontabs/www-data
chmod 0600  /var/spool/cron/crontabs/www-data
mkdir -p /var/log/ldap-sync
touch /var/log/ldap-sync/user-sync.log
chown {webserver-user}. /var/log/ldap-sync/user-sync.log

On the above, “{webserver-user}.” seems to me to need to be replaced. I replaced it with www-data.; not sure if that’s right. But I am getting much closer to having things work now.

Just reporting, with perhaps some emphasis on my own dumbness about this: after hours of trying to figure out why this wasn’t working, I finally just pointed my browser at the raw IP address. And there is the server. But without https. I have no idea why the FQDN with cert under port 443 is not pointing to owncloud. What can I do?

Also, I can’t remember my admin password, but I see I will be able to reset it from occ.

/dr

dmitry · May 10, 2022, 8:24am

Hi,

thank you for your comment. The document had errors. I ported it over from a different format and had to replace all the = with #.

I fixed both issues you pointed out.

Regarding our question:

If you just followed this guide - you don’t have a domain name or certificates, you just have an ownCloud that is available under a ip address in http. What you would need is to get a domain name and then get certificates for it.

dmitry · May 10, 2022, 2:35pm

You need to configure apache, with sites-enabled. Look for the first lines in the default and default ssl conf. where is document root?

spamless · May 10, 2022, 4:01pm

The server is a racknerd VPS of KVM virtualization type. There is one filesystem. I installed apache2 in the default manner with no special options. Document root is /var/www/html. The conf files appear to me to be in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled. In any case, I never deviated from defaults. My server’s hostname and a call to the letsencrypt cert appear in the conf files and don’t look erroneous to me, although I have no deep experience here.

Edited: Wait. You’re right! I just changed the default-le-ssl.conf file. The commented line was in there.

/etc/apache2/sites-enabled$ grep -R DocumentRoot *
000-default.conf:       DocumentRoot /var/www/owncloud
000-default-le-ssl.conf:        #DocumentRoot /var/www/html
000-default-le-ssl.conf:        DocumentRoot /var/www/owncloud

Amazing. You pretty much solved it! Thank you!

Now I am getting this message, though:

spamless · May 10, 2022, 4:48pm

Okay, I solved that last issue myself by following directions. It’s all good! Much obliged, @dmitry.

darkarchon1978 · September 7, 2022, 9:37am

Hi,

After installation, it should be here, right: http://localhost/owncloud
It says " Forbidden

You don’t have permission to access this resource.

Apache/2.4.41 (Ubuntu) Server at 127.0.0.1 Port 80"

Where can I find owncloud?

Thanks,

dmitry · September 8, 2022, 3:20pm

Try just localhost. If you have followed the instructions your server should have rewritten the document root.