Ok. Yes, my use case is a private document and media store. I’m ungoogling.
VPN seems like a good place to start. But I’d like a simple answer, and I expect there are none to be had. As you’ve illustrated here, I’ll find a reason to punch holes in the firewall. And then I’m going to need to secure a web server. Life happens. I’ll keep it simple for now while I sort things. Thanks for your perspective.

Ya. I understand VPN. I do enterprise IT stuff. The things I build assume a secure environment. VPN is step one.
Nailing down a web server on the internet tho … there’s so many ways to attack. There’s so many things to secure. And its a bit complex to manage all that.
The nextcloud site covers hardening the server, but doesn’t even mention vpn.
I’ve been watching threads like this. I’m pretty convinced vpn is the answer.

Well, I might as well put a dog in the fight. I’m considering my final, actually secure deployment of nextcloud.

This discussion has convinced me that a vpn is the only answer.
And almost everyone says wireguard.

K. Thats what I will build.

And this is the start of the longest crypto nerd fight I’ve seen on Lemmy. Well done, people!

Thanks. That’s well laid out, straightforward. I have resources at home that I want access to through my vps. This is a good blueprint.

RTFM. …
… The last thing you try.

Proxmox is Debian, so much of your ideas could translate directly across. That said, I try to mod the PVE server as liitle as possible.

Proxmox makes it so easy to spin up yet another VM or LCX to handle services with its core offerings. Also google “proxmox helper scripts” to find tteck’s additional stash of ready-made LCX.

Boy. You asked about Proxmox. Nobody said anything.

How does Proxmox make it easier? Have you used it? All sorts of ways. Like, its a full virtual infrastructure management system instead of just an OS. Proxmox loves ZFS. It does many of the things you’ve mentioned here.

Proxmox does have its own backup system that can work with an NFS target or with their smart dedupe storage and replication server product. https://www.proxmox.com/en/products/proxmox-backup-server/overview

You’ve got some pretty advanced ideas and perhaps have already moved beyond the Proxmox question. But if you are curious and haven’t used it, spin up a server and give it a whirl.