Having just dealt with this… can you share that automation?
sudo -u abc php /data/www/nextcloud/updater/updater.phar --no-interaction
Although, it looks like I need to add this also: occ db:add-missing-indices
And, I thought I had it in my crontab, but now I don't see the job there. I haven't touched it in months, and I'm on the latest version of nextcloud, so presumably it's still working. But I honestly can't remember how I set it up.