Installing ownCloud 7 on Debian 7

ownCloud is a Dropbox-like service that runs on your own VPS. It gives you full control over space, users, and various other features.

This guide assumes you have a brand-new Debian 7 VPS from Vultr, and that you’re logged in as root. If you are not logged in as root, type:

su -

… then enter your root password. You will now be logged in as the root user.

There are two ways to install ownCloud. The first way will use their apt package, and it will automatically install itself. The other is using the manual installation, which gives you more flexibility as well as the outside input of a web server like Nginx or Apache. We will be using Apache with the manual instructions.

Method 1: Using Apt Packages

This is the easier solution.

Add the repository to your sources list

Let’s start by adding the repository that includes ownCloud to your sources list. This can be done easily by using this command:

echo 'deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/isv:/ownCloud:/community/Debian_7.0/ /' >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/owncloud.list

Once you have done that, simply do an apt update to make sure that all the packages are available and ready:

apt-get update

Install ownCloud

Install ownCloud through apt with this command:

apt-get install ownCloud

It will warn you regarding verification of the package – just type “y” to continue. This is a precaution done by Debian to ensure that you are fully aware of what you are installing and where it is being installed from (which we are).

And that’s it! You’re done. Continue setting up ownCloud by navigating to https://yourdomain.com/owncloud in your browser, and following the setup steps.

Method 2: Manual Configuration

This is the more difficult solution.

If you have an existing VPS that already has a web server on it, follow this method for a bit more flexibility along the way.

Install dependencies

First off, we have to install the dependencies required by ownCloud to work.

apt-get install apache2 libapache2-mod-php5 php5-gd php5-common php5-sqlite php5-curl php5-intl php5-mcrypt php5-imagick

Download ownCloud

wget https://download.owncloud.org/community/owncloud-7.0.3.tar.bz2

Unzip and move

Unzip the ownCloud archive:

tar -xjf owncloud-7.0.3.tar.bz2

Delete the leftover tar file:

rm owncloud-7.0.3.tar.bz2

Move the extracted folder it to your web directory, by default located at /var/www:

mv owncloud /var/www/

Configure Apache

You will need to give your apache user full access to that directory:

chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/

Make some modifications to our Apache config file:

nano /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default

Change this block:

<Directory /var/www/>
            Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
            AllowOverride none
            Order allow,deny
            allow from all
</Directory>

… to the following:

<Directory /var/www/>
            Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
            AllowOverride All
            Order allow,deny
            allow from all
</Directory>

Save the file by typing CTRL + X, then Y, followed by ENTER.

Our last step is to enable an Apache mod, then restart Apache:

a2enmod rewrite
service apache2 restart

And you’re good to go! Continue setting up ownCloud by navigating to https://yourdomain.com/owncloud in your browser, and following the setup steps.