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Setup Nextcloud for your agency

Lee Matthew Jackson
Lee Matthew Jackson

In this episode we look at how easy it is to create your own cloud platform to replace Google Workspace or Microsoft365 using completely free and open source software. Manage your own cloud for your web agency, reduce costs, take back control of your data and decentralise your business.

We will utilise Ubuntu 20.04 and “snap” for easy installation.

Over the next few months we will deep dive into:

  • Offline synchronisation
  • Multiple accounts for your team members and clients
  • Online office collaboration tools such as docs, spreadsheets and presentations
  • Centralised task management
  • The email clients
  • And… SO much more!

Configure the OS

First we update the OS. We are logged in as ROOT and are using Ubuntu 20.04

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

Next we add a SUDO user for when we install Nextcloud.

adduser lee

To give SUDO privillages:

usermod -aG sudo lee

Now we to activate the Firewall. We start by allowing SSH connections:

ufw allow OpenSSH

Then we enable the Firewall:

ufw enable

Installing NextCloud

Be sure to “exit” the log into your server as the user you created above. You will now need to use sudo in your commands.

As we will be using Snap to install and keep Nextcloud updated we must install it:

sudo apt-get install snapd

Then we can install Nextcloud:

sudo snap install nextcloud

Once complete set a username and password for your Nextcloud instance. (Replace with your own):

sudo nextcloud.manual-install lee p4ssw0rd

Now we setup the trusted domain we wish to use with Nextcloud. (Replace with your domain):

sudo nextcloud.occ config:system:set trusted_domains 1 --value=example.com

To check this has registered correctly use:

sudo nextcloud.occ config:system:get trusted_domains

Now we setup SSL using Let’s encrypt. To do that we need to open the relevant ports on the Firewall:

sudo ufw allow 80,443/tcp

Then we need to run Let’s Encrypt and carefully follow all the prompts.

sudo nextcloud.enable-https lets-encrypt

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Lee Matthew Jackson

Content creator, speaker & event organiser. #MyLifesAMusical #EventProfs