How to Install Nextcloud 15 on Debian 9?

Updated: 28 September 2026 · Applies to: Nextcloud 35 on Ubuntu 24.04 (PHP 8.3)

Debian 9 and Nextcloud 15 are end of life. Debian 12 ships PHP 8.2, which current Nextcloud versions no longer support, so on Debian 12 use Nextcloud All-in-One (Docker), or install on Ubuntu 24.04 as shown below.

The current version is Nextcloud 35. It needs PHP 8.3 or newer and MariaDB 10.11+, MySQL 8.4 or PostgreSQL 14+. The simplest option is Nextcloud All-in-One with Docker (see "How to install Nextcloud on your server with Docker?"); the manual installation on Ubuntu 24.04 is below.

Before you start

• A VPS or dedicated server with a fresh Ubuntu 24.04 / Debian 12 or AlmaLinux 9 / Rocky Linux 9 installation, and root or sudo access.
• A domain or subdomain pointing to the server (an A record), if you want HTTPS.
• The system updated: apt update && apt upgrade or dnf upgrade.

Install Apache, MariaDB and PHP

Ubuntu 24.04 / Debian 12:

apt install apache2 mariadb-server php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql php-xml php-mbstring php-curl php-zip php-gd php-intl
systemctl enable --now apache2 mariadb

AlmaLinux 9 / Rocky Linux 9 (choose a current PHP stream first):

dnf module reset php && dnf module enable php:8.3
dnf install httpd mariadb-server php php-fpm php-mysqlnd php-xml php-mbstring php-gd php-intl php-opcache php-pecl-zip
systemctl enable --now httpd mariadb php-fpm

Secure MariaDB (set a root password or keep socket login, remove test data): mariadb-secure-installation.

Also install: apt install php-gd php-curl php-zip php-xml php-mbstring php-intl php-bcmath php-gmp php-imagick php-apcu php-redis redis-server unzip (Ubuntu/Debian) and restart Apache.

Create a database

mariadb -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE nextcloud CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'ncuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'Strong-Password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON nextcloud.* TO 'ncuser'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Download Nextcloud

cd /var/www
wget https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/latest.zip
unzip latest.zip            # creates /var/www/nextcloud
mkdir -p /var/nc-data
chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/nextcloud /var/nc-data

Create the Apache site

Create /etc/apache2/sites-available/cloud.example.com.conf (Ubuntu/Debian) or /etc/httpd/conf.d/cloud.example.com.conf (AlmaLinux/Rocky):

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName cloud.example.com
    ServerAlias www.cloud.example.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/nextcloud
    <Directory /var/www/nextcloud>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Ubuntu/Debian: a2ensite cloud.example.com && a2enmod rewrite && systemctl reload apache2. AlmaLinux/Rocky: apachectl configtest && systemctl reload httpd.

Enable the Apache modules Nextcloud uses: a2enmod rewrite headers env dir mime && systemctl reload apache2.

Add a free SSL certificate

apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache                     # Ubuntu / Debian
dnf install epel-release && dnf install certbot python3-certbot-apache   # AlmaLinux / Rocky
certbot --apache -d example.com -d www.example.com

Certbot installs a timer that renews the certificate automatically; test it with certbot renew --dry-run.

Run the installer

Open https://cloud.example.com, create the admin account, set the data folder to /var/nc-data (outside the web folder), and enter the database details.

After installation

• Set PHP memory_limit to at least 512M and enable OPcache.
• Use cron for background jobs: in Administration settings › Basic settings choose Cron and add */5 * * * * php -f /var/www/nextcloud/cron.php to the www-data crontab.
• Add memory caching (APCu and Redis) in config/config.php, and fix the warnings shown under Administration settings › Overview.