Building Your Own Cloud Storage: Deploying Nextcloud on an Azure VM

Prerequisites:

• A Microsoft Azure account with an active subscription

• Basic understanding of cloud computing concepts
  

Steps:

1. Create a Resource Group:

A resource group in Azure helps organize your cloud resources. In the Azure portal, create a new resource group with a name that reflects your project (e.g., "NextcloudVM").

2. Virtual Network and Subnet:

Next, define a virtual network to manage your VM's network settings. Create a virtual network with an appropriate address space and define a subnet within it to isolate your VM.

3. Network Security Group (NSG):

An NSG acts as a firewall, controlling inbound and outbound traffic for your resources. Create an NSG and configure rules to allow SSH access to the VM and HTTP/HTTPS traffic for Nextcloud.

4. Bastion Host:

A bastion host provides a secure entry point to your VM. Deploy a bastion host VM within your virtual network and configure it to allow SSH access from your local machine.

5. Create Ubuntu Server VM:

Now, create your main VM where Nextcloud will reside. Choose Ubuntu Server as the operating system and ensure it's deployed within the subnet you created earlier.

6. Install Nextcloud:

Connect to your Ubuntu Server VM via SSH through the bastion host. Use the following commands to install Nextcloud using snap:

sudo snap install nextcloud

sudo nextcloud.manual-install admin <username>

sudo nextcloud.enable-https self-signed

Replace `<username>` with your desired administrator username for Nextcloud.

7. Publish an IP and Configure DNS:

Assign a public IP address to your Nextcloud VM for external access. To access Nextcloud via a user-friendly domain name, configure a DNS record pointing to your VM's public IP address.

Finally, within the Nextcloud VM, use the following command to add your DNS domain to the trusted domains list:

sudo nextcloud.occ config:system:set trusted_domains 1 --value=<your_dns_domain>

Additional Considerations:

• This guide provides a basic setup. Consider implementing a persistent storage solution (e.g., Azure Managed Disks) for data persistence beyond VM restarts.

• For production use, a self-signed certificate is not recommended. Explore integrating a service like Let's Encrypt for a trusted SSL certificate.

By following these steps, you'll have a functional Nextcloud server deployed on an Azure VM, offering you a secure and private cloud storage solution. Remember to adapt the configuration and security measures to your specific needs.