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NextCloud LAMP Stack Upgrade Guide

This is a quick guide I put together to help me upgrade LAMP stack installation of the NextCloud server.

Before you hit the Update button …

  1. Check if your current server don’t have any problems ..

    Check if everything is connected and working: sudo -u www-data php occ check

    Verifies dependencies, database connections, file integrity and bunch of other tests.

    Do a quick status check: sudo -E -u www-data php occ status

  2. Take backup or VM snapshot of your server

    Running NextCloud on a bare metal host? checkout: https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/stable/admin_manual/maintenance/backup.html

    Before you do anything, put nextcloud in maintenance mode: sudo -u www-data php occ maintenance:mode --on

  3. Let’s do the upgrade….

    sudo -E -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/updater/updater.phar

    !image.png

  4. After successful upgrade, check if everything’s okay…

    Verify new server version:

    sudo -E -u www-data php occ -V

    Check nextcloud server status: sudo -E -u www-data php occ status

    Check if everything is connected and working: sudo -u www-data php occ check

    Login to NXT and see if you can view, edit, delete and move files. You may want to edit

    Check if NextCloud’s cron jobs are working:

    Admin Settings in dashboard > Basic Settings

    !image.png

    Check if the installed Apps are working. Profile picture > Apps > Active Apps

    If you see disabled or require update, update them.

Upgrading php

You may want to upgrade your php to support the latest NextCloud versions and also patch any vulnerabilities.

You can upgrade php in two ways:

php modules

There are required modules, recommended modules and modules to extend nextcloud capabilites (like adding LDAP login). You can see a table of this list here (version 32): https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/32/admin_manual/installation/php_configuration.html

It’s also a good idea to save a list of all the current php modules to your workstation before beginning any host or php update.

I came across a situation when after upgrading Ubuntu the LDAP php module just disappeared so having a list of modules might save you the headache of trying to figure out missing modules when you can easily do a comparison post-upgrade and re-install the missing modules.

List all loaded php modules: php -m

List all loaded php modules and their versions:

php -r '$all = get_loaded_extensions(); foreach($all as $i) { $ext = new ReflectionExtension($i); $ver = $ext->getVersion(); echo "$i - $ver" . PHP_EOL;}'

https://gist.github.com/medeirosinacio/a0e8bf7edf4390cf6c44491f94a95ef9

Upgrading PHP:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install php8.3

# refer to the version of Nextcloud for the actual list of required php modules!!!
sudo apt install php8.3-imap php8.3-curl \
php8.3-intl php8.3-ldap php8.3-exif \
php8.3-ftp php8.3-phar php8.3-sysvsem \
php8.3-gmp php8.3-ctype php8.3-pcntl \
php8.3-redis php8.3-apcu 

# if using apache2 as web server for nextcloud
# make apache2 switch from using php version 8.1 to 8.3
# IF your apache2 already using mod_php (see section below), then
sudo a2dismod php8.1
sudo a2enmod php8.3
sudo systemctl restart apache2

# IF your apache2 using php-fpm (see section below), then 
sudo a2disconf php8.1-fpm
sudo a2enconf php8.3-fpm
sudo systemctl restart apache2

#After this you are going to have both php versions installed on your system. 
# Set 8.4 as your default php on the cli. Below command will also handle switching to
# using the modules under the version you select.
sudo update-alternatives --config php

# IF USING php-fpm module, restart it for good measure
sudo systemctl restart php8.3-fpm.service

# Give apache a restart so the new configs kick in
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

# verify php vesion
php -v

# Use below to list all loaded/active modules and their versions
# run through the printed list and just make sure eveyrthing required 
# by the NXT version has loaded
php -r '$all = get_loaded_extensions(); foreach($all as $i) { $ext = new ReflectionExtension($i); $ver = $ext->getVersion(); echo "$i - $ver" . PHP_EOL;}'

# thanks random reddit user for listing some of the steps
# https://www.reddit.com/r/NextCloud/comments/13cqdr1/php_upgrade_steps/

Edit php.ini config file

Let’s tweak php.ini file to optimize php for your nextcloud server.

If using php-fpm: /etc/php/8.3/fpm/php.ini

For mod_php: /etc/php/8.3/apache2/php.ini

Required and some commonly edited variables in php.ini especially for nextcloud: memory_limit, upload_max_filesize, post_max_size, max_execution_time, max_input_time, opcache.enable, upload_tmp_dir, open_basedir

mod_php vs php-fpm for Apache (notes)

The Apache2 server interfaces with php in two ways: the legacy mod_php module or php-fpm service (recommended).

mod_php module is embedded within apache server while php-fpm is a separate service that apache connects to.

To find what your apache2 is using:

ls -la /etc/apache2/conf-enabled/ | grep -E "php|fpm"
ls -la /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/ | grep -E "php|fpm"

If you see fpm in the list you are using php-fpm service. If you see file links like phpx.y.load and phpX.Y.conf then it’s the legacy mod_php.

a2enmod command basically creates soft links inside inside /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/ to the modules. a2dismod deletes the link.

MariaDB Notes

Upgrade the MariaDB Database Schema

sudo mariadb-upgrade

Missing indices error after an upgrade? run below:

sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ db:add-missing-indices
sudo -u www-data php /var/www/nextcloud/occ maintenance:repair

Troubleshooting

NextCloud Logs

Logs are in file /var/www/nextcloud/data/nextcloud.log in JSON format.

To parse JSON for viewing: sudo tail -f /var/www/fileshare/data/nextcloud.log | jq

Notes

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