migoller/nextcloud repository overview

⁠About this custom image for Nextcloud

Here you find custom Docker images for Nextcloud⁠ based on the official Apache Docker image for Nextcloud⁠. Many thanks to the Nextcloud⁠ devs for their great work!

⁠What is Nextcloud?

A safe home for all your data. Access & share your files, calendars, contacts, mail & more from any device, on your terms.

⁠Supported tags

Right now the Apache based tags for the Nextcloud Docker image are supported.

The apache tag contains an essential Nextcloud installation including an apache web server. It is designed to be easy to use and get's you running pretty fast. This is also the default for the latest tag and version tags that are not further specified.

You have to choose between the different flavours:

• apache extends the official Apache Docker image for Nextcloud⁠ by the recommended PHP-settings and the recommended cron-job running Nextcloud's cron.php every 15 minutes.
• imap adds IMAP-authentication capabilities to my apache images.
• smb adds SAMBA-authentication capabilities to my apache images.
• preview adds imagik-based file preview capabilities to my apache images for pictures and videos. Libre Office is not included.
• full extends my apache images with all capabilities from the imap, smb and preview flavours.

⁠How to use this image

This image is designed to run in a micro-service environment.

I encourage you to create volumes or to mount local folders for Nextcloud's data, configuration and apps. Otherwise you will loose your data and configuration when removing the container.

If you are interested in how to run Docker containers using docker-compose or docker run ... and systemd, pleas have a look at https://github.com/MiGoller/dc-systemd-template⁠ .

⁠Simply dock Nextcloud with docker run

The apache image contains a webserver and exposes port 80. To start the container type:

$ docker run -d -p 8080:80 migoller/nextcloud

Now you can access Nextcloud at http://localhost:8080/⁠ from your host system, but you need access to an existing MySQL server.

You may mount volumes and set environment variables on the command line.

$ docker run -it --name <container_name> \
       --link <your_MySql_containter>:db_nextcloud \
       -v <local_path_to_nextcloud_storage_folder>:/var/www/html/data \
       -v <local_path_to_nextcloud_config_folder>/config:/var/www/html/config \
       -v <local_path_to_nextcloud_config_folder>/apps:/var/www/html/custom_apps \
       -e NEXTCLOUD_ADMIN_USER=<your_nextcloud_admin_username> \
       -e NEXTCLOUD_ADMIN_PASSWORD=<your_nextcloud_admin_password> \
       -e MYSQL_DATABASE=<your_MySql_database_name> \
       -e MYSQL_USER=<your_MySql_username> \
       -e MYSQL_PASSWORD=<your_MySql_password> \
       -e MYSQL_HOST=db_nextcloud \
       -p 8080:80 \
       migoller/nextcloud

⁠Compose your own Nextcloud stack

As mentioned before the apache images contain an Apache webserver, but they do not inclunde an DBMS like MySQL or MariaDB. You can easily create, deploy and run your own Nextcloud stack with docker compose.

The docker-compose cli can be used to manage a multi-container application. It also moves many of the options you would enter on the docker run cli into the docker-compose.yml file for easier reuse. See this documentation on docker-compose⁠ for more details.

Declare environment variables in env-files for easier reuse.

Have a look at the docker-compose example⁠ for further details and the example files. Ensure to provide different passwords to your containers!

⁠Create a docker-compose.yml to fit your needs

First you will have to create a docker-compose.yml to match your local requirements. You may start with one of the example files and modify it.

version: '2'
services:
  db:
    image: mysql
    env_file:
      - MySQL.env
    volumes:
      - ./datadir:/var/lib/mysql
  app:
    image: migoller/nextcloud:apache
    env_file:
      - MySQL.env
      - Nextcloud.env
    volumes:
      - ./data:/var/www/html/data
      - ./config:/var/www/html/config
      - ./apps:/var/www/html/custom_apps
    depends_on:
      - db
    ports:
      - "8080:80"

Adjust the volumes' local pathes to fit your local system. Environment variables are defined at the env-files; so we're able to define them once and to use them within both containers at runtime.

⁠Start you Nextcloud stack powered by docker-compose

To start our stack you will just have to issue the following command in the path where the docker-compose.yml exists.

$ docker-compose up -d

⁠Stop your docker-compose powered stack

Well that's as easy as to start the stack.

$ docker-compose down

⁠Adding Features

A lot of people want to use additional functionality inside their Nextcloud installation. If the image does not include the packages you need, you can easily build your own image on top of it. Start your derived image with the FROM statement and add whatever you like.

FROM migoller/nextcloud

RUN ...

The examples folder⁠ gives a few examples on how to add certain functionalities, like including the cron job, smb-support or imap-authentication.

For further details please have a look at Nextcloud full image Dockerfile⁠.

⁠Auto configuration via environment variables

The nextcloud image supports auto configuration via environment variables. You can preconfigure everything that is asked on the install page on first run. To enable auto configuration, set your database connection via the following environment variables. ONLY use one database type!

⁠Official Nextcloud environment variables

For a list of environment variables for the official Nextcloud docker image please have a look at https://github.com/nextcloud/docker#auto-configuration-via-environment-variables⁠.

⁠Nextcloud administrator

• NEXTCLOUD_ADMIN_USER sets the username for your Nextcloud's administrator account.
• NEXTCLOUD_ADMIN_PASSWORD should be set to a really complex password for your Nextcloud's administrator account.

⁠MySQL configuration

• MYSQL_USER sets the MySQL username for runtime access to the database.
• MYSQL_PASSWORD should be set to a complex password for the MYSQL_USER account.
• MYSQL_HOST sets the hostname of the remote MySQL server.
• MYSQL_DATABASE sets Nextcloud's database name.
• MYSQL_ROOT_USER sets the username of your MySQL servers root user account. In most cases this setting will remain "root".
• MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD sets the password for the MySQL.

⁠Additional environment variables

In the future this custom image will support configuration via environment variables for:

• Cron job period
• APCU tuning
• OPCACHE tuning

⁠HTTPS - SSL encryption

There are many different possibilities to introduce encryption depending on your setup.

I recommend using a reverse proxy in front of our Nextcloud installation using the popular nginx-proxy⁠ and docker-letsencrypt-nginx-proxy-companion⁠ containers. Please check the according documentations before using this setup.