Nextcloud on Google Cloud Run

Nextcloud is the leading self-hosted file sync and collaboration platform, trusted by 400 million users across 100,000+ organisations — including governments and healthcare providers seeking a GDPR-compliant alternative to Google Drive and OneDrive. This module deploys Nextcloud on Cloud Run v2 on top of the App_CloudRun foundation, which provisions and manages the shared Google Cloud infrastructure.

This guide focuses on the cloud services Nextcloud uses and how to explore and operate them from the Google Cloud Console and the command line. For the mechanics common to every Cloud Run application — service identity, ingress and load balancing, scaling and concurrency, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC Service Controls, backups, and the deployment lifecycle — refer to the App_CloudRun foundation guide rather than repeating them here.

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1. Overview

Nextcloud runs as a PHP/Apache container on Cloud Run v2. The deployment wires together a focused set of Google Cloud services:

Capability	Google Cloud service	Notes
Compute	Cloud Run v2	PHP/Apache service, 2 vCPU / 4 GiB by default, request-based autoscaling
Database	Cloud SQL for MySQL 8.0	Required — Nextcloud does not support PostgreSQL in this deployment
Shared files	Filestore (NFS)	config/ and data/ directories shared across all instances (gen2 required)
Object storage	Cloud Storage	A nc-data bucket provisioned per deployment
Cache & locking	Redis	Enabled by default; prevents file-locking conflicts across instances
Secrets	Secret Manager	Auto-generated admin password; post-install config secrets
Ingress	Cloud Run URL / Cloud Load Balancing	Default run.app URL, optional external HTTPS load balancer + custom domain

Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:

• MySQL 8.0 is mandatory. Selecting PostgreSQL or NONE breaks startup.
• NFS is enabled by default and requires the gen2 execution environment. All instances must share config.php and the user data directory. Without NFS, every cold start discards files.
• Redis is enabled by default. Without a shared cache and lock backend, concurrent writes across instances cause "File is locked" HTTP 503 errors.
• PHP limits are baked into the container image at build time. Changing php_memory_limit, upload_max_filesize, or post_max_size requires a new Cloud Build run.
• The admin password is generated automatically and stored in Secret Manager; you never set it in plain text.
• First-boot is intentionally slow. Nextcloud runs occ maintenance:install synchronously before Apache starts. The startup probe allows up to 10 minutes for the first installation to complete.
• scale-to-zero is the default (min_instance_count = 0). For production deployments with WebDAV sync clients, set min_instance_count = 1 to avoid cold-start disconnections.

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2. Google Cloud Services & How to Explore Them

All commands assume PROJECT and REGION are set. Service and resource names are reported in the deployment Outputs.

A. Cloud Run — the Nextcloud service

Nextcloud runs as a Cloud Run v2 service that autoscales by request load between the minimum and maximum instance counts. Each deployment creates an immutable revision; traffic can be split across revisions for safe rollouts.

• Console: Cloud Run → select the service for revisions, traffic, logs, and metrics.
• CLI:

  gcloud run services list --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
  gcloud run services describe <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
  gcloud run revisions list --service <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"

See App_CloudRun for scaling, concurrency, execution environment, and traffic splitting.

B. Cloud SQL for MySQL 8.0

Nextcloud stores all application data (files metadata, users, shares, calendar, and contacts) in a managed Cloud SQL for MySQL 8.0 instance. The service connects privately through the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy over a Unix socket (no public IP). On first deploy an initialization Job creates the application database and user with utf8mb4 character set and collation.

• Console: SQL → select the instance for connections, backups, flags, metrics.
• CLI:

  gcloud sql instances list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud sql instances describe <instance-name> --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud sql connect <instance-name> --user=<db-user> --project "$PROJECT"

The instance name, database, user, and password secret are in the Outputs. See App_CloudRun for the connection model, backups, and password rotation.

C. Filestore (NFS) and Cloud Storage

Nextcloud data is written to a Filestore (NFS) share mounted into every instance. entrypoint.sh symlinks /var/www/html/config → /mnt/nfs/nextcloud-config and sets NEXTCLOUD_DATA_DIR=/mnt/nfs/nextcloud-data so all instances share the same config.php and user files. A Cloud Storage nc-data bucket is also provisioned per deployment.

• Console: Filestore → Instances; Cloud Storage → Buckets.
• CLI:

  gcloud filestore instances list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud storage buckets list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud storage ls gs://<nc-data-bucket>/

See App_CloudRun for the NFS mount, GCS Fuse, and CMEK.

D. Redis cache and file locking

Redis backs Nextcloud's distributed cache (memcache.distributed) and file locking (filelocking.enabled). With more than one instance this is mandatory — without it, concurrent writes produce "File is locked" HTTP 503 errors. When no external Redis host is configured and NFS is enabled, the NFS server IP is used as the default Redis endpoint.

• Console: Memorystore → Redis (if using a managed instance).
• CLI:

  redis-cli -h <redis-host> ping
  redis-cli -h <redis-host> info keyspace

E. Secret Manager

The Nextcloud admin password and four post-installation config secrets (instance ID, password salt, app secret, and optionally the Redis auth password) are stored in Secret Manager and injected into the service at runtime. The three config secrets start as "UNSET" placeholder values; the container's post-install hook writes the real values after occ maintenance:install completes.

• Console: Security → Secret Manager.
• CLI:

  gcloud secrets list --project "$PROJECT" --filter="name~nextcloud"
  gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=<admin-password-secret> --project "$PROJECT"

See App_CloudRun for injection and rotation details.

F. Networking & ingress

The service is reachable at its run.app URL by default. An external HTTPS load balancer with a custom domain, Cloud CDN, and Cloud Armor can be layered on; ingress settings and VPC egress control connectivity. Custom domains are also added to Nextcloud's NEXTCLOUD_TRUSTED_DOMAINS list automatically.

• Console: Cloud Run (service URL); Network services → Load balancing.
• CLI:

  gcloud run services describe <service-name> --region "$REGION" --format='value(status.url)'
  gcloud compute addresses list --project "$PROJECT"

See App_CloudRun.

G. Cloud Logging & Monitoring

Container logs flow to Cloud Logging; Cloud Run and Cloud SQL metrics flow to Cloud Monitoring, with optional uptime checks and alert policies.

• Console: Logging → Logs Explorer; Monitoring → Dashboards / Alerting.
• CLI:

  gcloud run services logs read <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION" --limit 50

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3. Nextcloud Application Behaviour

• First-deploy database setup. An initialization Job creates the Nextcloud database and user with utf8mb4 character set before the service starts. It is idempotent.
• occ maintenance:install on first boot. On the very first start Nextcloud runs its installation routine synchronously before Apache begins serving. This can take several minutes on a cold Cloud SQL instance. The startup probe allows up to 10 minutes (60 s initial delay + 40 failures × 15 s period) for this to complete.
• Post-install config secrets. After occ maintenance:install completes, a hook in the container writes the real instanceid, passwordsalt, and secret values to Secret Manager. Subsequent starts read these back to reconstruct config.php without requiring NFS.
• PHP upgrade on start. NEXTCLOUD_UPDATE=1 is set by default, so Nextcloud runs occ upgrade automatically on every container start. Set NEXTCLOUD_UPDATE=0 in environment_variables and manage upgrades manually when crossing major versions.
• Trusted domains. Nextcloud enforces a trusted-domain whitelist. The module seeds NEXTCLOUD_TRUSTED_DOMAINS from application_domains. The Cloud Run service URL is resolved at startup by entrypoint.sh from CLOUDRUN_SERVICE_URL and also added. Requests from unlisted hostnames receive an "Access through untrusted domain" error.
• OVERWRITEPROTOCOL=https. Nextcloud is told it sits behind an HTTPS proxy so it generates correct absolute share links and WebDAV URLs.
• Health path. Startup and liveness probes target /status.php, which returns an HTTP 200 with a JSON status object regardless of Nextcloud's setup state — making it the canonical health endpoint.
• Admin login. The initial admin username is configurable; the password is retrieved from Secret Manager (see §2.E).

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4. Configuration Variables

Variables are grouped exactly as they appear on the deployment platform. Only settings specific to or notable for Nextcloud are listed; every other input is inherited from App_CloudRun with its standard behaviour.

Group 1 — Project & Identity

Variable	Default	Description
project_id	(required)	Target Google Cloud project.
region	us-central1	Region for the service and regional resources.

Group 2 — Deployment Environment

Variable	Default	Description
tenant_deployment_id	demo	Short suffix that makes resource names unique per environment.
support_users	[]	Emails granted project access and monitoring alerts.
resource_labels	{}	Labels applied to all resources.

Group 3 — Application Identity

Variable	Default	Description
application_name	nextcloud	Base name for resources. Do not change after first deploy.
display_name	Nextcloud	Friendly name shown in the Console.
description	Nextcloud self-hosted collaboration and file sharing platform	Cloud Run service description.
application_version	31	Nextcloud image version tag.

Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling

Variable	Default	Description
deploy_application	true	Set false to provision infrastructure only.
cpu_limit	2000m	CPU per instance; 2 vCPU recommended.
memory_limit	4Gi	Memory per instance; 4 GiB recommended.
min_instance_count	0	Minimum instances; set to 1 to avoid cold starts for WebDAV clients.
max_instance_count	1	Maximum instances. Requires Redis + NFS when > 1.
container_port	80	Nextcloud/Apache listens on port 80.
execution_environment	gen2	Gen2 required for NFS mounts.
enable_cloudsql_volume	true	Cloud SQL Auth Proxy for socket connections.
enable_image_mirroring	true	Mirror the Nextcloud image into Artifact Registry.

Group 5 — Access & Ingress Control

Variable	Default	Description
ingress_settings	all	Which networks may reach the service.
vpc_egress_setting	PRIVATE_RANGES_ONLY	How outbound traffic is routed through the VPC connector.
enable_iap	false	Require Google sign-in via Identity-Aware Proxy.
iap_authorized_users / iap_authorized_groups	[]	Who may access through IAP.

Group 6 — Environment Variables & Secrets

Variable	Default	Description
environment_variables	{}	Extra non-secret settings. Core Nextcloud vars are set automatically.
secret_environment_variables	{}	Map of env var → Secret Manager secret name.
secret_propagation_delay	30	Seconds to wait after secret creation before proceeding.
secret_rotation_period	2592000s	Secret Manager rotation notification frequency.

Group 7 — Backup & Restore

Variable	Default	Description
backup_schedule	0 2 * * *	Automated backup cron (UTC).
backup_retention_days	7	Retention; raise for production/compliance.
enable_backup_import / backup_source / backup_uri / backup_format	restore options	Restore from a backup on deploy.

Group 8 — CI/CD & Binary Authorization

Standard App_CloudRun Cloud Build / Cloud Deploy integration — see App_CloudRun. Key inputs: enable_cicd_trigger, github_repository_url, github_token, enable_cloud_deploy, enable_binary_authorization, binauthz_evaluation_mode.

Group 9 — Custom SQL

enable_custom_sql_scripts, custom_sql_scripts_bucket, custom_sql_scripts_path, custom_sql_scripts_use_root — run SQL from a GCS bucket after provisioning. See App_CloudRun.

Group 10 — Load Balancer, CDN & Image Retention

Variable	Default	Description
enable_cloud_armor	false	Provision Global HTTPS LB + Cloud Armor WAF.
admin_ip_ranges	[]	CIDRs exempted from WAF rules.
application_domains	[]	Custom domain names for the HTTPS LB; also added to NEXTCLOUD_TRUSTED_DOMAINS.
enable_cdn	false	Enable Cloud CDN on the LB backend.
max_images_to_retain / delete_untagged_images / image_retention_days	(set)	Artifact Registry cleanup policy.

Group 11 — Storage & Filesystem

Variable	Default	Description
create_cloud_storage	true	Provision the nc-data bucket.
storage_buckets	[]	Additional GCS buckets to provision.
enable_nfs	true	Shared Filestore volume for Nextcloud config and data. Requires gen2.
nfs_mount_path	/mnt/nfs	Mount path inside the container.
nfs_instance_name / nfs_instance_base_name	(set)	Existing NFS instance / base name for an inline one.
gcs_volumes	[]	GCS buckets to mount via GCS Fuse.
manage_storage_kms_iam / enable_artifact_registry_cmek	false	CMEK options.

Group 12 — Database Backend

Variable	Default	Description
database_type	MYSQL_8_0	Fixed — do not change.
db_name	nextcloud	Database name. Immutable after first deploy.
db_user	nextcloud	Application user. Immutable after first deploy.
database_password_length	32	Generated password length (16–64).
enable_auto_password_rotation / rotation_propagation_delay_sec	off	DB password rotation.
db_host_env_var_name / db_name_env_var_name / db_user_env_var_name / db_port_env_var_name / service_url_env_var_name	""	Additional env var names under which connection details are injected.

Group 13 — Jobs & Scheduled Tasks

Variable	Default	Description
initialization_jobs	[]	Leave empty to use the built-in db-init job.
cron_jobs	[]	Recurring Cloud Run jobs triggered by Cloud Scheduler.

Group 14 — Observability & Health

Variable	Default	Description
startup_probe	{ path="/status.php", initial_delay_seconds=60, failure_threshold=40 }	Allows up to ~10 minutes for first-boot occ maintenance:install.
liveness_probe	{ path="/status.php", initial_delay_seconds=120, failure_threshold=3 }	Restarts the instance after 3 consecutive failures.
uptime_check_config	{ enabled=false, path="/" }	Cloud Monitoring uptime check; disabled by default.
alert_policies	[]	Metric alert policies.

Group 21 — Redis Cache

Variable	Default	Description
enable_redis	true	Use Redis for distributed caching and file locking.
redis_host	""	Leave empty to use the NFS server IP; set explicitly when NFS is disabled.
redis_port	6379	Redis port.
redis_auth	""	Optional Redis auth password (sensitive).

Group 22 — VPC Service Controls & Audit Logging

Variable	Default	Description
enable_vpc_sc	false	Enforce a VPC-SC perimeter (requires organization_id).
vpc_cidr_ranges / vpc_sc_dry_run	(set)	Access level CIDRs / dry-run mode.
enable_audit_logging	false	Detailed Cloud Audit Logs.

Group 23 — Nextcloud Application Settings

Variable	Default	Description
nextcloud_admin_user	admin	Initial administrator username. Change from the default for public-facing deployments.
php_memory_limit	512M	PHP memory limit — baked into the container image at build time.
upload_max_filesize	512M	Maximum upload file size — baked into the image.
post_max_size	512M	PHP POST body limit — must be ≥ upload_max_filesize.

Group 24 — Email / SMTP

Variable	Default	Description
smtp_host	""	SMTP server hostname. Leave empty to disable email.
smtp_secure	""	Encryption: ssl, tls, or empty for none.
smtp_port	""	SMTP port; defaults to mode default when empty.
smtp_authtype	LOGIN	Authentication mechanism: LOGIN, PLAIN, or NONE.
smtp_name	""	SMTP login username.
mail_from_address	""	Local part of the From address (before the @).
mail_domain	""	Domain part of the From address (after the @).

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5. Outputs

Returned on a successful deployment — the quickest way to locate and explore the running resources.

Output	Description
service_name	Cloud Run service name.
service_url	Default run.app URL of the service.
service_location	Region the service runs in.
stage_services	Stage-specific service URLs (Cloud Deploy).
load_balancer_ip / load_balancer_url	External HTTPS load balancer IP / URL (when enabled).
database_instance_name	Cloud SQL instance name.
database_name / database_user	Application database name / user.
database_password_secret	Secret Manager secret holding the DB password.
database_host / database_port	DB endpoint / port.
storage_buckets	Created Cloud Storage buckets.
network_name / network_exists / regions	VPC network, presence, regions.
container_image / container_registry	Deployed image and Artifact Registry repo.
monitoring_enabled / monitoring_notification_channels / uptime_check_names	Monitoring status, channels, uptime checks.
initialization_jobs	Names of the setup jobs.
deployment_id / tenant_id / resource_prefix	Naming identifiers.
project_id / project_number	Project identifiers.
cicd_enabled / github_repository_url / github_repository_owner / github_repository_name / cicd_configuration	CI/CD status and details.
artifact_registry_repository / cloudbuild_trigger_name / cloudbuild_trigger_id	Registry and build trigger.
vpc_sc_enabled / vpc_sc_perimeter_name / vpc_sc_dry_run_mode	VPC-SC status.
audit_logging_enabled / artifact_registry_cmek_enabled	Audit logging and CMEK status.

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6. Configuration Pitfalls & Sensible Defaults

Risk: Critical (data loss / outage / security) — High (service degraded) — Medium (cost or partial degradation) — Low (minor).

Setting	Sensible value	Risk	Consequence if wrong
database_type	MYSQL_8_0	Critical	Nextcloud requires MySQL; other engines break the init job and startup.
enable_nfs	true	Critical	Without shared storage all user files and config.php are lost on each cold start.
enable_cloudsql_volume	true	Critical	Nextcloud connects via Unix socket; removing the sidecar breaks all DB connections.
db_name / db_user	set once	Critical	Immutable after first deploy; renaming recreates the DB/user and destroys data.
application_domains	include all access hostnames	Critical	Nextcloud blocks requests from unlisted domains with "Access through untrusted domain".
enable_backup_import	false unless restoring	Critical	Enabling without a valid backup_uri fails the import job.
execution_environment	gen2	Critical	NFS mounts require gen2; gen1 cannot mount NFS and the service fails to start.
enable_redis	true	High	With > 1 instance, file locks become stale and concurrent writes return HTTP 503.
redis_host	"" or explicit IP	High	No valid Redis endpoint when NFS is off and no host is set.
upload_max_filesize / post_max_size	increase for large files	High	Baked into image; files above the limit silently fail. post_max_size must be ≥ upload_max_filesize.
memory_limit	4Gi	High	Too little memory causes PHP OOM during large uploads or thumbnail generation.
NEXTCLOUD_UPDATE	1 (default) or 0	High	Leaving 1 on a major-version upgrade can corrupt the database. Set to 0 and run occ upgrade manually.
min_instance_count	1 for WebDAV use	Medium	Scale-to-zero causes cold-start disconnections for desktop sync clients.
max_instance_count > 1	requires Redis + NFS	High	Multiple instances without Redis cause file-locking errors and possible data corruption.
php_memory_limit	512M (raise for heavy use)	Medium	Baked into image; requires rebuild to change.
nextcloud_admin_user	change from admin	Medium	Default admin is a common brute-force target on public deployments.
enable_iap / enable_cloud_armor	enable for admin-facing	Medium	Without these the Nextcloud admin panel is publicly reachable.
backup_retention_days	7 (raise for prod)	Medium	Too short for compliance retention.

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For the foundation behaviour referenced throughout — service identity, scaling and concurrency, ingress and load balancing, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC-SC, backups, and image mirroring — see App_CloudRun. Nextcloud-specific application configuration shared with the GKE variant is described in Nextcloud_Common.