Nextcloud NGINX configuration

Sommaire

Nextcloud in the webroot of NGINX

Nextcloud in a subdir of the NGINX webroot

Tips and tricks

Suppressing log messages

JavaScript (.js) or CSS (.css) files not served properly

Upload of files greater than 10 MiB fails

Login loop without any clue in access.log, error.log, nor nextcloud.log

 

Note

This page covers example NGINX configurations to run a Nextcloud server. These configurations examples were originally provided by @josh4trunks and are exclusively community-maintained. (Thank you contributors!)

Nextcloud in the webroot of NGINX

The following configuration should be used when Nextcloud is placed in the webroot of your nginx installation. In this example it is /var/www/nextcloud and it is accessed via http(s)://cloud.example.com/

upstream php-handler {

    server 127.0.0.1:9000;

    #server unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;

}

 

server {

    listen 80;

    listen [::]:80;

    server_name cloud.example.com;

 

    # Enforce HTTPS

    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;

}

 

server {

    listen 443      ssl http2;

    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;

    server_name cloud.example.com;

 

    # Use Mozilla's guidelines for SSL/TLS settings

    # https://mozilla.github.io/server-side-tls/ssl-config-generator/

    ssl_certificate     /etc/ssl/nginx/cloud.example.com.crt;

    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/nginx/cloud.example.com.key;

 

    # HSTS settings

    # WARNING: Only add the preload option once you read about

    # the consequences in https://hstspreload.org/. This option

    # will add the domain to a hardcoded list that is shipped

    # in all major browsers and getting removed from this list

    # could take several months.

    #add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=15768000; includeSubDomains; preload;" always;

 

    # set max upload size and increase upload timeout:

    client_max_body_size 512M;

    client_body_timeout 300s;

    fastcgi_buffers 64 4K;

 

    # Enable gzip but do not remove ETag headers

    gzip on;

    gzip_vary on;

    gzip_comp_level 4;

    gzip_min_length 256;

    gzip_proxied expired no-cache no-store private no_last_modified no_etag auth;

    gzip_types application/atom+xml application/javascript application/json application/ld+json application/manifest+json application/rss+xml application/vnd.geo+json application/vnd.ms-fontobject application/wasm application/x-font-ttf application/x-web-app-manifest+json application/xhtml+xml application/xml font/opentype image/bmp image/svg+xml image/x-icon text/cache-manifest text/css text/plain text/vcard text/vnd.rim.location.xloc text/vtt text/x-component text/x-cross-domain-policy;

 

    # Pagespeed is not supported by Nextcloud, so if your server is built

    # with the `ngx_pagespeed` module, uncomment this line to disable it.

    #pagespeed off;

 

    # HTTP response headers borrowed from Nextcloud `.htaccess`

    add_header Referrer-Policy                      "no-referrer"   always;

    add_header X-Content-Type-Options               "nosniff"       always;

    add_header X-Download-Options                   "noopen"        always;

    add_header X-Frame-Options                      "SAMEORIGIN"    always;

    add_header X-Permitted-Cross-Domain-Policies    "none"          always;

    add_header X-Robots-Tag                         "none"          always;

    add_header X-XSS-Protection                     "1; mode=block" always;

 

    # Remove X-Powered-By, which is an information leak

    fastcgi_hide_header X-Powered-By;

 

    # Path to the root of your installation

    root /var/www/nextcloud;

 

    # Specify how to handle directories -- specifying `/index.php$request_uri`

    # here as the fallback means that Nginx always exhibits the desired behaviour

    # when a client requests a path that corresponds to a directory that exists

    # on the server. In particular, if that directory contains an index.php file,

    # that file is correctly served; if it doesn't, then the request is passed to

    # the front-end controller. This consistent behaviour means that we don't need

    # to specify custom rules for certain paths (e.g. images and other assets,

    # `/updater`, `/ocm-provider`, `/ocs-provider`), and thus

    # `try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$request_uri`

    # always provides the desired behaviour.

    index index.php index.html /index.php$request_uri;

 

    # Rule borrowed from `.htaccess` to handle Microsoft DAV clients

    location = / {

        if ( $http_user_agent ~ ^DavClnt ) {

            return 302 /remote.php/webdav/$is_args$args;

        }

    }

 

    location = /robots.txt {

        allow all;

        log_not_found off;

        access_log off;

    }

 

    # Make a regex exception for `/.well-known` so that clients can still

    # access it despite the existence of the regex rule

    # `location ~ /(\.|autotest|...)` which would otherwise handle requests

    # for `/.well-known`.

    location ^~ /.well-known {

        # The rules in this block are an adaptation of the rules

        # in `.htaccess` that concern `/.well-known`.

 

        location = /.well-known/carddav { return 301 /remote.php/dav/; }

        location = /.well-known/caldav  { return 301 /remote.php/dav/; }

 

        location /.well-known/acme-challenge    { try_files $uri $uri/ =404; }

        location /.well-known/pki-validation    { try_files $uri $uri/ =404; }

 

        # Let Nextcloud's API for `/.well-known` URIs handle all other

        # requests by passing them to the front-end controller.

        return 301 /index.php$request_uri;

    }

 

    # Rules borrowed from `.htaccess` to hide certain paths from clients

    location ~ ^/(?:build|tests|config|lib|3rdparty|templates|data)(?:$|/)  { return 404; }

    location ~ ^/(?:\.|autotest|occ|issue|indie|db_|console)                { return 404; }

 

    # Ensure this block, which passes PHP files to the PHP process, is above the blocks

    # which handle static assets (as seen below). If this block is not declared first,

    # then Nginx will encounter an infinite rewriting loop when it prepends `/index.php`

    # to the URI, resulting in a HTTP 500 error response.

    location ~ \.php(?:$|/) {

        # Required for legacy support

        rewrite ^/(?!index|remote|public|cron|core\/ajax\/update|status|ocs\/v[12]|updater\/.+|oc[ms]-provider\/.+|.+\/richdocumentscode\/proxy) /index.php$request_uri;

 

        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+?\.php)(/.*)$;

        set $path_info $fastcgi_path_info;

 

        try_files $fastcgi_script_name =404;

 

        include fastcgi_params;

        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;

        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $path_info;

        fastcgi_param HTTPS on;

 

        fastcgi_param modHeadersAvailable true;         # Avoid sending the security headers twice

        fastcgi_param front_controller_active true;     # Enable pretty urls

        fastcgi_pass php-handler;

 

        fastcgi_intercept_errors on;

        fastcgi_request_buffering off;

    }

 

    location ~ \.(?:css|js|svg|gif|png|jpg|ico|wasm|tflite)$ {

        try_files $uri /index.php$request_uri;

        expires 6M;         # Cache-Control policy borrowed from `.htaccess`

        access_log off;     # Optional: Don't log access to assets

 

        location ~ \.wasm$ {

            default_type application/wasm;

        }

    }

 

    location ~ \.woff2?$ {

        try_files $uri /index.php$request_uri;

        expires 7d;         # Cache-Control policy borrowed from `.htaccess`

        access_log off;     # Optional: Don't log access to assets

    }

 

    # Rule borrowed from `.htaccess`

    location /remote {

        return 301 /remote.php$request_uri;

    }

 

    location / {

        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$request_uri;

    }

}

Nextcloud in a subdir of the NGINX webroot

The following config should be used when Nextcloud is placed within a subdir of the webroot of your nginx installation. In this example the Nextcloud files are located at /var/www/nextcloud and the Nextcloud instance is accessed via http(s)://cloud.example.com/nextcloud/. The configuration differs from the “Nextcloud in webroot” configuration above in the following ways:

upstream php-handler {

    server 127.0.0.1:9000;

    #server unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;

}

 

server {

    listen 80;

    listen [::]:80;

    server_name cloud.example.com;

 

    # Enforce HTTPS just for `/nextcloud`

    location /nextcloud {

        return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;

    }

}

 

server {

    listen 443      ssl http2;

    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;

    server_name cloud.example.com;

 

    # Use Mozilla's guidelines for SSL/TLS settings

    # https://mozilla.github.io/server-side-tls/ssl-config-generator/

    ssl_certificate     /etc/ssl/nginx/cloud.example.com.crt;

    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/nginx/cloud.example.com.key;

 

    # HSTS settings

    # WARNING: Only add the preload option once you read about

    # the consequences in https://hstspreload.org/. This option

    # will add the domain to a hardcoded list that is shipped

    # in all major browsers and getting removed from this list

    # could take several months.

    #add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=15768000; includeSubDomains; preload;" always;

 

    # Path to the root of the domain

    root /var/www;

 

    location = /robots.txt {

        allow all;

        log_not_found off;

        access_log off;

    }

 

    location ^~ /.well-known {

        # The rules in this block are an adaptation of the rules

        # in the Nextcloud `.htaccess` that concern `/.well-known`.

 

        location = /.well-known/carddav { return 301 /nextcloud/remote.php/dav/; }

        location = /.well-known/caldav  { return 301 /nextcloud/remote.php/dav/; }

 

        location /.well-known/acme-challenge    { try_files $uri $uri/ =404; }

        location /.well-known/pki-validation    { try_files $uri $uri/ =404; }

 

        # Let Nextcloud's API for `/.well-known` URIs handle all other

        # requests by passing them to the front-end controller.

        return 301 /nextcloud/index.php$request_uri;

    }

 

    location ^~ /nextcloud {

        # set max upload size and increase upload timeout:

        client_max_body_size 512M;

        client_body_timeout 300s;

        fastcgi_buffers 64 4K;

 

        # Enable gzip but do not remove ETag headers

        gzip on;

        gzip_vary on;

        gzip_comp_level 4;

        gzip_min_length 256;

        gzip_proxied expired no-cache no-store private no_last_modified no_etag auth;

        gzip_types application/atom+xml application/javascript application/json application/ld+json application/manifest+json application/rss+xml application/vnd.geo+json application/vnd.ms-fontobject application/wasm application/x-font-ttf application/x-web-app-manifest+json application/xhtml+xml application/xml font/opentype image/bmp image/svg+xml image/x-icon text/cache-manifest text/css text/plain text/vcard text/vnd.rim.location.xloc text/vtt text/x-component text/x-cross-domain-policy;

 

        # Pagespeed is not supported by Nextcloud, so if your server is built

        # with the `ngx_pagespeed` module, uncomment this line to disable it.

        #pagespeed off;

 

        # HTTP response headers borrowed from Nextcloud `.htaccess`

        add_header Referrer-Policy                      "no-referrer"   always;

        add_header X-Content-Type-Options               "nosniff"       always;

        add_header X-Download-Options                   "noopen"        always;

        add_header X-Frame-Options                      "SAMEORIGIN"    always;

        add_header X-Permitted-Cross-Domain-Policies    "none"          always;

        add_header X-Robots-Tag                         "none"          always;

        add_header X-XSS-Protection                     "1; mode=block" always;

 

        # Remove X-Powered-By, which is an information leak

        fastcgi_hide_header X-Powered-By;

 

        # Specify how to handle directories -- specifying `/nextcloud/index.php$request_uri`

        # here as the fallback means that Nginx always exhibits the desired behaviour

        # when a client requests a path that corresponds to a directory that exists

        # on the server. In particular, if that directory contains an index.php file,

        # that file is correctly served; if it doesn't, then the request is passed to

        # the front-end controller. This consistent behaviour means that we don't need

        # to specify custom rules for certain paths (e.g. images and other assets,

        # `/updater`, `/ocm-provider`, `/ocs-provider`), and thus

        # `try_files $uri $uri/ /nextcloud/index.php$request_uri`

        # always provides the desired behaviour.

        index index.php index.html /nextcloud/index.php$request_uri;

 

        # Rule borrowed from `.htaccess` to handle Microsoft DAV clients

        location = /nextcloud {

            if ( $http_user_agent ~ ^DavClnt ) {

                return 302 /nextcloud/remote.php/webdav/$is_args$args;

            }

        }

 

        # Rules borrowed from `.htaccess` to hide certain paths from clients

        location ~ ^/nextcloud/(?:build|tests|config|lib|3rdparty|templates|data)(?:$|/)    { return 404; }

        location ~ ^/nextcloud/(?:\.|autotest|occ|issue|indie|db_|console)                  { return 404; }

 

        # Ensure this block, which passes PHP files to the PHP process, is above the blocks

        # which handle static assets (as seen below). If this block is not declared first,

        # then Nginx will encounter an infinite rewriting loop when it prepends

        # `/nextcloud/index.php` to the URI, resulting in a HTTP 500 error response.

        location ~ \.php(?:$|/) {

            # Required for legacy support

            rewrite ^/nextcloud/(?!index|remote|public|cron|core\/ajax\/update|status|ocs\/v[12]|updater\/.+|oc[ms]-provider\/.+|.+\/richdocumentscode\/proxy) /nextcloud/index.php$request_uri;

 

            fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+?\.php)(/.*)$;

            set $path_info $fastcgi_path_info;

 

            try_files $fastcgi_script_name =404;

 

            include fastcgi_params;

            fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;

            fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $path_info;

            fastcgi_param HTTPS on;

 

            fastcgi_param modHeadersAvailable true;         # Avoid sending the security headers twice

            fastcgi_param front_controller_active true;     # Enable pretty urls

            fastcgi_pass php-handler;

 

            fastcgi_intercept_errors on;

            fastcgi_request_buffering off;

        }

 

        location ~ \.(?:css|js|svg|gif|png|jpg|ico|wasm|tflite)$ {

            try_files $uri /nextcloud/index.php$request_uri;

            expires 6M;         # Cache-Control policy borrowed from `.htaccess`

            access_log off;     # Optional: Don't log access to assets

 

            location ~ \.wasm$ {

                default_type application/wasm;

            }

        }

 

        location ~ \.woff2?$ {

            try_files $uri /nextcloud/index.php$request_uri;

            expires 7d;         # Cache-Control policy borrowed from `.htaccess`

            access_log off;     # Optional: Don't log access to assets

        }

 

        # Rule borrowed from `.htaccess`

        location /nextcloud/remote {

            return 301 /nextcloud/remote.php$request_uri;

        }

 

        location /nextcloud {

            try_files $uri $uri/ /nextcloud/index.php$request_uri;

        }

    }

}

Tips and tricks

Suppressing log messages

If you’re seeing meaningless messages in your logfile, for example client denied by server configuration: /var/www/data/htaccesstest.txt, add this section to your nginx configuration to suppress them:

location = /data/htaccesstest.txt {

  allow all;

  log_not_found off;

  access_log off;

}

JavaScript (.js) or CSS (.css) files not served properly

A common issue with custom nginx configs is that JavaScript (.js) or CSS (.css) files are not served properly leading to a 404 (File not found) error on those files and a broken webinterface.

This could be caused by the:

location ~* \.(?:css|js)$ {

block shown above not located below the:

location ~ \.php(?:$|\/) {

block. Other custom configurations like caching JavaScript (.js) or CSS (.css) files via gzip could also cause such issues.

Another cause of this issue could be not properly including mimetypes in the http block, as shown here.

Upload of files greater than 10 MiB fails

If you configure nginx (globally) to block all requests to (hidden) dot files, it may be not possible to upload files greater than 10 MiB using the webpage due to Nextclouds requirement to upload the file to an url ending with /.file.

You may require to change:

location ~ /\. {

to the following to re-allow file uploads:

location ~ /\.(?!file).* {

See issue #8802 on nextcloud/server <https://github.com/nextcloud/server/issues/8802> for more information.

Login loop without any clue in access.log, error.log, nor nextcloud.log

If you after fresh installation (Centos 7 with nginx) have problem with first login, you should as first check these files:

tail /var/www/nextcloud/data/nextcloud.log

tail /var/log/nginx/access.log

tail /var/log/nginx/error.log

If you just see some correct requests in access log, but no login happens, you check access rights for php session and wsdlcache directory. Try to check permissions and execute change if needed:

chown nginx:nginx /var/lib/php/session/

chown root:nginx /var/lib/php/wsdlcache/

chown root:nginx /var/lib/php/opcache/