Setting Up High-Performance Nextcloud on Hetzner with Split Storage: A Detailed Guide

1. Log in to the Hetzner Cloud Console (console.hetzner.cloud).
2. Select your desired Project.
3. Click the red Add Server button.
4. Select a Location. (We chose Nuremberg, Germany).
5. Select Ubuntu 24.04 for the Image.
6. Select a Server Type. (We chose the CX22. It has 2 vCPUs and 4 GB RAM. This is sufficient for Nextcloud when optimized).
7. Add your SSH Key. (This is critical for secure access).
8. Give your server a Name (e.g., nextcloud-prod).
9. Click Create & Buy now.

We will use a Storage Box for the actual user files. This is much cheaper than buying large SSD drives on the VPS.

1. In the main Hetzner Console menu, click on Storage Box.
2. Click the green Add Storage Box button.
3. Select a Size plan. (For this project, we used the BX21. It provides 5 TB of storage).
4. Select a Location (preferably the same as your server for lower latency).
5. Click Create & Buy now.

Once the Storage Box is created, click on it in the dashboard. You need to gather information from the Setup tab:

1. Copy the Hostname (e.g., uXXXXXX.your-storagebox.de).
2. Copy the Username (e.g., uXXXXXX).
3. Click Reset Password to get a password. Copy this password.
4. Make sure the Samba/CIFS checkbox is Enabled.

Open your terminal. Connect to your new server using the IP address Hetzner provided.

# Connect to your server (replace with your server IP)
ssh root@<YOUR_SERVER_IP>

Once logged in, update the server.

apt update && apt upgrade -y

Install Docker and Docker Compose. This is what we will use to run Nextcloud.

apt install docker.io docker-compose-v2 -y

We must make the Storage Box look like a normal folder on the server.

1. Create the folder on your SSD where we will mount the remote storage.

mkdir -p /mnt/storagebox

2. Create a credentials file to securely store your Storage Box password.

nano /root/.smbcredentials

Paste your Storage Box username and password into this file:

username=uXXXXXX
password=YOUR_LONG_STORAGEBOX_PASSWORD

(Press Ctrl+O, Enter, then Ctrl+X to save and exit).

3. Set secure permissions on the credentials file.

chmod 600 /root/.smbcredentials

4. Edit the system's mount file.

nano /etc/fstab

5. Add this exact line to the very bottom of the file. Replace uXXXXXX and the hostname with your specific details.

//uXXXXXX.your-storagebox.de/backup /mnt/storagebox cifs credentials=/root/.smbcredentials,uid=33,gid=33,iocharset=utf8,nofail 0 0

(This line tells the server to mount the box automatically on boot. Crucially, it sets the owner to UID 33. This is the www-data user that Nextcloud requires).

6. Tell the server to read the new file and mount the box right now.

mount -a

7. Verify the mount was successful.

df -h | grep storagebox

You should see a line showing /mnt/storagebox with 5 TB available.

8. Finally, create the actual data directory inside the mounted storage and set proper ownership.

mkdir -p /mnt/storagebox/nextcloud_data
chown -R www-data:www-data /mnt/storagebox/nextcloud_data

1. Create the main Nextcloud folder.

mkdir -p /opt/nextcloud
cd /opt/nextcloud
nano Dockerfile

2. Paste these lines. This instructs Docker to download Nextcloud but immediately install ffmpeg into the application.

FROM nextcloud:latest
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y ffmpeg

1. Create the compose.yaml file in the same /opt/nextcloud folder.

nano compose.yaml

2. Paste this complete configuration. We use PostgreSQL as the database (it is faster than MySQL for large file collections) and Redis for high-speed memory caching.

version: '3.8'

services:
  nextcloud-aio-database:
    image: postgres:17-alpine
    container_name: nextcloud-aio-database
    restart: always
    volumes:
      - ./db_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    environment:
      # Change this secure password!
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=YOUR_STRONG_DB_PASSWORD
      - POSTGRES_DB=nextcloud_database
      - POSTGRES_USER=nextcloud

  redis:
    image: redis:alpine
    container_name: nextcloud-redis
    restart: always

  app:
    # This builds from the Dockerfile we just created
    build: . 
    container_name: nextcloud-app
    restart: always
    expose:
      - 80 # We only expose port 80 internally
    depends_on:
      - nextcloud-aio-database
      - redis
    volumes:
      # Core application code (runs fast on SSD)
      - /opt/nextcloud/html_data:/var/www/html
      # Heavy user files (maps directly to 5 TB Storage Box)
      - /mnt/storagebox/nextcloud_data:/var/www/html/data
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_HOST=nextcloud-aio-database
      - POSTGRES_DB=nextcloud_database
      - POSTGRES_USER=nextcloud
      # Must match the password set in the db service above
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=YOUR_STRONG_DB_PASSWORD
      - REDIS_HOST=redis

Tell Docker to build the custom image (installing ffmpeg) and spin up all three containers.

docker compose up -d --build

(This will take a few minutes as it downloads and installs software).

• Domain Names: cloud.example.com (Type your exact domain and press Enter).
• Scheme: http
• Forward Hostname / IP: <YOUR_SERVER_IP> (Use your VPS IP).
• Forward Port: 80 (This is the internal port Nextcloud is listening on).
• Check Block Common Exploits.
• Check Websockets Support.

1. Click the SSL tab.
2. Change SSL Certificate from 'None' to Request a new SSL Certificate.
3. Check Force SSL.
4. Type your email address.
5. Check I agree to the Let's Encrypt Terms of Service.
6. Click the orange Save button.

Nginx Proxy Manager will now automatically generate a free, valid SSL certificate for you.

1. Open your domain in your browser: https://cloud.example.com.
2. You will see the Nextcloud setup wizard.
3. Create an Admin Account (Choose a strong username and password).
4. Verify the database details match what we wrote in the compose.yaml (Database Host will be nextcloud-aio-database).
5. Click Install.

Nextcloud will currently show an error because it is accessed via a domain but expects an IP. We must edit the server's configuration file.

1. Go back to your terminal on the Hetzner server.

nano /opt/nextcloud/html_data/config/config.php

2. Look for the trusted_domains section. Add your domain to the list so it looks like this:

  'trusted_domains' => 
  array (
    0 => '<YOUR_SERVER_IP>', # Your IP
    1 => 'cloud.example.com', # Your new Domain
  ),

(Press Ctrl+O, Enter, then Ctrl+X to save and exit).

Nextcloud runs maintenance tasks in the background. By default, it uses a slow method called "AJAX". We need to switch this to the server's system clock for a much faster experience.

1. In your Nextcloud web dashboard, click your profile picture (top right) -> Administration settings.
2. Click Basic settings in the left menu.
3. Under Background jobs, select Cron.
4. Go back to your Hetzner terminal. We will add a job to the server's scheduler.

crontab -e

5. Add this exact line to the very bottom of the file. This tells the server to trigger Nextcloud maintenance every 5 minutes invisibly in the background.

*/5 * * * * docker exec -u www-data nextcloud-app php -f /var/www/html/cron.php

Save and exit the file.

Finally, because we have massive media folders, we want to pre-generate thumbnails at night, so students do not have to wait for them to load.

1. In your Nextcloud web dashboard, go to the Apps section.
2. Search for Preview Generator. Click Download and enable.
3. Go back to your Hetzner terminal and edit your crontab again.

crontab -e

4. Add this second line below the first one we added:

*/10 * * * * docker exec -u www-data nextcloud-app php occ preview:pre-generate

(Now, every 10 minutes, the server will quietly generate new video and image thumbnails without slowing down the web interface).