Host Your Own S3-Compatible MinIO Server on a VPS with Caddy and HTTPS

Want to self-host object storage like AWS S3 but on your own VPS? Say hello to MinIO — a blazing-fast, S3-compatible storage solution. In this guide, we’ll show you how to install and secure MinIO using Caddy with automatic HTTPS, and host it under a custom subdomain.

What You’ll Need

• A fresh Linux VPS (Ubuntu 20.04+ recommended)

• Root access or a sudo user

• A domain with DNS control

• A subdomain (e.g., storage.yourdomain.com) pointing to your VPS IP

Step 1: Install MinIO

1. Create a minio user:

sudo useradd -r minio-user -s /sbin/nologin

2. Download and install MinIO:

wget https://dl.min.io/server/minio/release/linux-amd64/minio
chmod +x minio
sudo mv minio /usr/local/bin/

3. Create directories:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/share/minio
sudo mkdir -p /etc/minio
sudo chown -R minio-user:minio-user /usr/local/share/minio /etc/minio

4. Create environment file:

sudo nano /etc/minio/minio.env

Add:

MINIO_ROOT_USER=admin MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD=strongpassword

Step 2: Setup MinIO Systemd Service

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/minio.service

paste:

[Unit]
Description=MinIO
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=minio-user
Group=minio-user
EnvironmentFile=/etc/minio/minio.env
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/minio server /usr/local/share/minio --console-address ":9001"
Restart=always
LimitNOFILE=65536

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then enable and start:

sudo systemctl daemon-reexec
sudo systemctl enable minio
sudo systemctl start minio

Step 3: Point Your Subdomain

Go to your domain DNS provider and create an A record:

storage.yourdomain.com → your VPS IP

Wait a few minutes for it to propagate.

Step 4: Install & Configure Caddy (with HTTPS)

1. Install Caddy:

sudo apt install -y debian-keyring debian-archive-keyring apt-transport-https
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/gpg.key' | sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/caddy-stable.asc
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/debian.deb.txt' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/caddy-stable.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install caddy

2. Edit Caddyfile:

sudo nano /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

Paste:

storage.yourdomain.com {
    handle_path /minio/* {
        reverse_proxy localhost:9000
    }

    handle_path /* {
        reverse_proxy localhost:9001
    }
}

Replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain.

3. Restart Caddy:

sudo systemctl restart caddy

Caddy will automatically fetch SSL certificates and handle HTTP→HTTPS redirects 🎉

Step 5: Test It!

• Visit: [https://storage.yourdomain.com](https://storage.yourdomain.com)

• Login with the credentials you set in /etc/minio/minio.env

You Did It!

You now have your own secure, S3-compatible object storage running on your VPS with:

• MinIO as the storage engine

• Caddy for reverse proxy and HTTPS

• Your custom domain for easy access