How To Install Nextcloud With Docker and Docker Compose

In this tutorial, we'll look at how to install Nextcloud using Docker and Docker Compose.

Specifically, we'll be installing Nexcloud along with an Nginx reverse proxy and Let’s Encrypt SSL in a CentOS, Ubuntu, or Debian dockerized environment.

Why Install Nextcloud With Docker and Docker Compose?

Nextcloud is an open source software suite for storing and synchronizing data, sort of like a free alternative to Dropbox or Google Drive.

Plus, with Nextcloud, you get an open system architecture that gives you additional functionality and full control of your data.

With Nextcloud, you can:

• Store files, contacts, calendars and more on your server, and synchronize them across various devices
• Share your data with others to view and collaborate on
• Expand your Nextcloud installation with apps from the Nextcloud App Store,
• Or build your own apps and integrate them with Nextcloud.

Install Nextcloud with Docker: Prerequisites

• A VPS running Ubuntu 24.04, CentOS or Debian.  If you don't have one, no worries! We offer the best priced, most reliable, and fastest VPS servers in the market 🙂
• A working Docker installation—for information about how to install Docker, check out our getting started with Docker tutorial.

Note

If you want to skip all the technical steps of setting up Nextcloud on your server and have it installed in minutes, then I have some great news for you! Our team of engineers has prepared a ready-to-use 1-Click Nextcloud application for your convenience. Just choose a server, and while prompted to choose the operating system, choose Nextcloud from the dropdown menu. This will set up Nextcloud in minutes, which means you don't even need this tutorial. Save time and save money with our Nextcloud 1-Click solution.

Step 1. Install Docker

Ubuntu 24.04/Debian 12
For both Ubuntu and Debian servers, the latest versions of Docker CE may not be available in the repositories. We need to install the prerequisite packages:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install curl gnupg2 apt-transport-https ca-certificates software-properties-common 

Next, we add the GPG keys, Docker repositories and finally install Docker. Here is where it gets different for both Ubuntu and Debian:

Ubuntu:

sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

# Add the repository to Apt sources:
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update

Then install docker:

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Debian:

sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

# Add the repository to Apt sources:
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/debian \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update

Now install Docker:

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Other Linux Distributions

If you are using another Linux distribution, check out the official Docker documentation.

Step 2. Install Docker Compose

mkdir -p ~/.docker/cli-plugins/

curl -SL https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/v2.26.0/docker-compose-linux-x86_64 -o ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose

chmod +x ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose

docker compose version

Docker Compose version v2.26.0

Step 3. Install Nextcloud using Docker and Docker Compose

We can now install Nextcloud with Docker and Docker Compose.

Before we start defining services in the docker-compose.yml file, we create a network so that containers can communicate. Run the following command in the terminal:

$ docker network create nextcloud_network

Since we want to containerize Nextcloud along with other containers associated with it, we will define and knit all the services together in the docker-compose.yml file incrementally.

For this tutorial, we’ll define the services one by one, starting with the Nginx reverse proxy:

• Nginx reverse proxy
• Let’s Encrypt
• MariaDB
• Nextcloud

Create the docker compose file where we will define all the services.

$ nano docker-compose.yml

Step 4. Configure the Nginx Reverse Proxy Container

In the file you just created, paste the following:

version: '3'  

services:

  proxy:
    image: jwilder/nginx-proxy:alpine
    labels:
      - "com.github.jrcs.letsencrypt_nginx_proxy_companion.nginx_proxy=true"
    container_name: nextcloud-proxy
    networks:
      - nextcloud_network
    ports:
      - 80:80
      - 443:443
    volumes:
      - ./proxy/conf.d:/etc/nginx/conf.d:rw
      - ./proxy/vhost.d:/etc/nginx/vhost.d:rw
      - ./proxy/html:/usr/share/nginx/html:rw
      - ./proxy/certs:/etc/nginx/certs:ro
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/tmp/docker.sock:ro
    restart: unless-stopped

Let’s look at the configuration created in the above docker-compose.yml file in detail. The service for proxy uses the image from jwilder/nginx-proxy. The label "com.github.jrcs.letsencrypt_nginx_proxy_companion.nginx_proxy" is used so that the Let’s Encrypt container knows which nginx proxy container to use for certificate generation.Then, there is network by the name nextcloud_network, which is used by the containers to communicate among themselves. The Volumes section is used by the container to configure the Nginx virtual host and to access certificates generated by Let’s Encrypt companion container. The /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro is used to duplicate the host timezone inside the container.

Step 5. Configure the Let’s Encrypt Container

Now that you have nginx-proxy container set up, you can add the following to your docker-compose.yml file.

  letsencrypt:
    image: jrcs/letsencrypt-nginx-proxy-companion
    container_name: nextcloud-letsencrypt
    depends_on:
      - proxy
    networks:
      - nextcloud_network
    volumes:
      - ./proxy/certs:/etc/nginx/certs:rw
      - ./proxy/vhost.d:/etc/nginx/vhost.d:rw
      - ./proxy/html:/usr/share/nginx/html:rw
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
    restart: unless-stopped

The Lets’ Encrypt container depends on our first service (proxy) and is a part of the network nextcloud_network. The restart: unless-stopped allows the containers to be stopped gracefully unless you manually run docker stop letsencrypt or docker-compose down letsencrypt.

Step 6. Configure the MariaDB Container

For Nextcloud to work correctly, we need to connect it to a MariaDB database. Fortunately, we can add that to our docker-compose.yml file as well:

  db:
    image: mariadb
    container_name: nextcloud-mariadb
    networks:
      - nextcloud_network
    volumes:
      - db:/var/lib/mysql
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    environment:
      - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=secret
      - MYSQL_PASSWORD=mysql
      - MYSQL_DATABASE=nextcloud
      - MYSQL_USER=nextcloud
    restart: unless-stopped

The service section for MariaDB is pretty self-explanatory. This container is also part of the network nextcloud_network. We have also defined the environment variable for the database name, username, and password that Nextcloud uses to connect to the database.

Step 7. Configure the Nextcloud Docker Container

We’re finally ready to create the Nextcloud Docker container in our docker-compose.yml file. Add the following to the bottom.

  app:
    image: nextcloud:latest
    container_name: nextcloud-app
    networks:
      - nextcloud_network
    depends_on:
      - letsencrypt
      - proxy
      - db
    volumes:
      - nextcloud:/var/www/html
      - ./app/config:/var/www/html/config
      - ./app/custom_apps:/var/www/html/custom_apps
      - ./app/data:/var/www/html/data
      - ./app/themes:/var/www/html/themes
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    environment:
      - VIRTUAL_HOST=nextcloud.YOUR-DOMAIN
      - LETSENCRYPT_HOST=nextcloud.YOUR-DOMAIN
      - LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL=YOUR-EMAIL
    restart: unless-stopped

The nextcloud service depends on the other three containers. To make Nextcloud’s data persistent while upgrading, and get access to backups, we use a named Docker volume nextcloud, similar to the way we used a Docker volume named db for the MariaDB data.
Here, we have defined the virtual host, Let’s Encrypt host, and email in the environment variables VIRTUAL_HOST, LETSENCRYPTHOST, and LETSENCRYPT``EMAIL, respectively. The proxy service creates the subdomain and encrypts it with Let’s Encrypt certificates for the container, given you supply valid domains and emails for those three environment variables.

At last, we need defined volumes for both Nextcloud and MariaDB for data persistence followed by networks.

volumes:
  nextcloud:
  db:

networks:
  nextcloud_network:

After combining all the service definitions, your final docker-compose.yml should look like following:

version: '3' 

services:

  proxy:
    image: jwilder/nginx-proxy:alpine
    labels:
      - "com.github.jrcs.letsencrypt_nginx_proxy_companion.nginx_proxy=true"
    container_name: nextcloud-proxy
    networks:
      - nextcloud_network
    ports:
      - 80:80
      - 443:443
    volumes:
      - ./proxy/conf.d:/etc/nginx/conf.d:rw
      - ./proxy/vhost.d:/etc/nginx/vhost.d:rw
      - ./proxy/html:/usr/share/nginx/html:rw
      - ./proxy/certs:/etc/nginx/certs:ro
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/tmp/docker.sock:ro
    restart: unless-stopped

  letsencrypt:
    image: jrcs/letsencrypt-nginx-proxy-companion
    container_name: nextcloud-letsencrypt
    depends_on:
      - proxy
    networks:
      - nextcloud_network
    volumes:
      - ./proxy/certs:/etc/nginx/certs:rw
      - ./proxy/vhost.d:/etc/nginx/vhost.d:rw
      - ./proxy/html:/usr/share/nginx/html:rw
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
    restart: unless-stopped

  db:
    image: mariadb
    container_name: nextcloud-mariadb
    networks:
      - nextcloud_network
    volumes:
      - db:/var/lib/mysql
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    environment:
      - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=toor
      - MYSQL_PASSWORD=mysql
      - MYSQL_DATABASE=nextcloud
      - MYSQL_USER=nextcloud
    restart: unless-stopped

  app:
    image: nextcloud:latest
    container_name: nextcloud-app
    networks:
      - nextcloud_network
    depends_on:
      - letsencrypt
      - proxy
      - db
    volumes:
      - nextcloud:/var/www/html
      - ./app/config:/var/www/html/config
      - ./app/custom_apps:/var/www/html/custom_apps
      - ./app/data:/var/www/html/data
      - ./app/themes:/var/www/html/themes
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    environment:
      - VIRTUAL_HOST=nextcloud.YOUR-DOMAIN
      - LETSENCRYPT_HOST=nextcloud.YOUR-DOMAIN
      - LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL=YOUR-EMAIL
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  nextcloud:
  db:

networks:
  nextcloud_network:

Step 8. Get Everything Running!

Now run the docker compose from the terminal to create the containers:

$ docker compose up -d
Creating nextcloud-mariadb ... done
Creating nextcloud-proxy   ... done
Creating nextcloud-letsencrypt ... done
Creating nextcloud-app         ... done

To confirm all the containers are running, issue the following command:

$ docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                                    COMMAND                  CREATED             STATUS              PORTS                                      NAMES
92222232c4be        nextcloud:latest                         "/entrypoint.sh apac…"   9 minutes ago       Up 9 minutes        80/tcp                                     nextcloud-app
89e96fe10ee6        jrcs/letsencrypt-nginx-proxy-companion   "/bin/bash /app/entr…"   9 minutes ago       Up 9 minutes                                                   nextcloud-letsencrypt
d059517f519c        jwilder/nginx-proxy:alpine               "/app/docker-entrypo…"   9 minutes ago       Up 9 minutes        0.0.0.0:80->80/tcp, 0.0.0.0:443->443/tcp   nextcloud-proxy
7e0945eb6608        mariadb                                  "docker-entrypoint.s…"   9 minutes ago       Up 9 minutes        3306/tcp                                   nextcloud-mariadb

Wait a minute for the SSL certificate generation process to finish, and then load up the domain name you chose in your browser. Enter your chosen admin username and password. Choose MySQL as the database in the configure database section. Type in the username, password, and database name you configured via the MYSQL_USER, MYSQL_PASSWORD, and MYSQL_DATABASE environment variable from earlier. Change the hostname value from localhost to db and click Finish Setup. The system then redirects you to the Nextcloud dashboard.

The containerization of Nextcloud with Docker is complete! You have now learned how to install Nextcloud using Docker and Docker Compose.

Now you can upload files and photos to your drive hosted on your VPS and share them with others.

To extend the functionality of your Nextcloud server, you can now consider installing any number of the available apps, such as Bookmarks, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Notes, and more available on the Nextcloud App Store.