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Big-Files upload

To enable big files management, there are several components need to be fine-tuned.

Good practise is to backup configuration file by copying and renaming it by adding timestamp prefix. Also, duplicate the line to be modified and add timestamped and signed comment.

Prepare location for temporary storage

Ensure, disk used has enough storage to allocate for temporary file (if limit of the big file is 16GB, it must be 16GB (per one upload process, if two users upload two files, it should be double).

export dir=":"
mkdir -p ${dir}
df -h ${dir}

First, let's see current settings, which will be modifed, note them, adjust values and extract them again. By doing so, we ensure that new values are applied. This facilitate troubleshooting.

PHP (php-fpm)

Initally, it is important to understand that 'php' and 'php-fpm' are to different packages AND configuration files are different for them as well.

First way to show PHP version is to enable show php button in the admin page. I not recommend this method, as it will expose technical info to limited admin users. Better to avoid it. Admin, who has CLI access will be able to access it anyway. The only reason to use it that exactly like that PHP modules and versions are seen from application perspective. System might have packages installed, but for some reason are not seen by application. But..

root@gcp1ncp1app1:/var/www/nextcloud# sudo -u www-data ./occ config:app:set --value=yes serverinfo phpinfo
Config value 'phpinfo' for app 'serverinfo' is now set to 'yes', stored as mixed in fast cache

The PHP info will be displayed on admin page, navigate to:

https://(nextcloud)/settings/admin/serverinfo

Click on "Show phpinfo()". Search for (CTRL+F or CMD+F in Firefox) "configuration file", which will indicate which file to modify. In my case, it is

Configuration File (php.ini) Path  /etc/php/8.3/fpm
Loaded Configuration File          /etc/php/8.3/fpm/php.ini

Assuming only one PHP version is installed on the system. Second way to observe phpphp-fpm's phpinfo info is to directly execute from CLI:

echo "<?php phpinfo(); ?>" | php
echo "<?php phpinfo(INFO_GENERAL);?>" | php | grep -i "configuration file"

Output of the seconf command more interesting, as it reflects which config loaded (as in the first method).

Configuration File (php.ini) Path => /etc/php/8.3/cli
Loaded Configuration File => /etc/php/8.3/cli/php.ini

By knowing it, it is obvious which config to modify.

We are interested in values defining max filesize and timeouts (in seconds)

echo "<?php phpinfo(); ?>" | php | grep -E "upload_max_filesize|post_max_size|max_input_time|max_execution_time"

Output before change

max_execution_time => 0 => 0
max_input_time => -1 => -1
post_max_size => 8M => 8M
upload_max_filesize => 2M => 2M

Let's modify these values. Backup first, then load editor

file="/etc/php/8.3/cli/fpm/php.ini"
cp ${file} ${file}.$(date +"%Y-%m-%d.%H%M")
ls -latr ${file}*

vi ${file}

Duplicate, modify, comment and save file. Final result and documenting style should be as below

# max_execution_time = 30
# 2025-03-23  * for big files /A
max_execution_time = 3600

# max_input_time = 60
# 2025-03-23  * for big files /A
max_input_time = 60

# memory_limit = 128M
# 2025-03-23  * for big files /A
memory_limit = 1G

# post_max_size = 8M
# 2025-03-23  * for big files /A
post_max_size = 16G

# a;upload_tmp_dir =
# 2025-03-23  * for big files /A
upload_tmp_dir = /tmp/nextcloud_uploads/

# upload_max_filesize = 2M
# 2025-03-23  * for big files /A
upload_max_filesize = 16G

Restart php-fpm

systemctl restart php8.3-fpm

Webserver (nginx):

root@(host):/home/anton# vi /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/(host).conf

    # 2025-03-23  * for big files /A
    # client_max_body_size 512M;
    client_max_body_size 16G;
    # client_body_timeout 300s;
    client_body_timeout 3600s;

    # 2025-03-23  * for big files /A
    client_body_temp_path="/tmp/nextcloud_uploads";

Application

Adjusting chunk size (use smaller chunks for higher bandwidth). In this example it will be set to 20 MB, default is 100 MB. --value 0 for no chunking.

cd /var/www/nextcloud/
sudo -u www-data php occ config:system:get files.chunked_upload.max_size
sudo -u www-data php occ config:system:set --type int --value 20971520 files.chunked_upload.max_size

System config value files.chunked_upload.max_size set to integer 20971520

sudo -u www-data php occ config:system:get files.chunked_upload.max_size

20971520

ref.

https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/admin_manual/configuration_files/big_file_upload_configuration.html
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