Storage in different location to server

[Jjrage1773]

I'm super impressed by Sharkord already, and have setup an instance on my local NAS to run it. I'm keen on getting a VPS to run it so a power outage or internet failure wouldn't stop my friends from being able to use it, but the biggest cost with a VPS seems to be storage.

I'm no coder so im sure this would be more difficult than I hope it would be, but it would be awesome if I could run Sharkord on a VPS and connect that to my NAS to be the long term storage of things like images, videos and attachments sent in the chat, with the VPS acting as a short term storage when things are initially posted. Nobody would care if they couldn't download stuff from a few days ago if my power went out, but they would care if they couldn't chat to each other during that time.

[sleeplessKomodo]

I figured it out (well, kind of, with the help of Claude AI).

I did it on my home server, running debian 12. So if your NAS isn't running debian, this might not be exact to your setup. My VPS is also running debian (ubuntu lts) so that's also where I'm running sharkord.

It's not just plug and play, you'll have to configure things like your users and VPS IP.

On the home server/NAS:

--> install autossh, create systemd service to maintain persistent SSH tunnel to the VPS

  --> service file: `/etc/systemd/system/reverse-tunnel.service` 
  --> Tunnel forwards VPS port `2222` back to home server port `22`
  --> Service is enabled on boot via `systemctl enable reverse-tunnel`

--> Create a data directory where you wish to keep it

 --> (if the data directory lives within a directory owned by root):
      --> Create a symlink so data physically lives on the pool, `ln -s <source directory> <destination directory>`
      --> set permissions, `chmod -R 777 <local sharkord data directory>`

--> the aforementioned systemd service, ie: reverse-tunnel.service

[Unit]
Description=Reverse SSH tunnel to VPS
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
User=kurt
ExecStart=/usr/bin/autossh -M 0 \
-o "ServerAliveInterval 30" \
-o "ServerAliveCountMax 3" \
-o "ExitOnForwardFailure yes" \
-o "StrictHostKeyChecking no" \
-N -R 2222:localhost:22 \
user@YOUR_VPS_IP
Restart=always
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

VPS

--> add to /etc/ssh/sshd_config

 --> `GatewayPorts yes`
 --> `ClientAliveInterval 30`

--> create the sshfs mount point

 --> `/location/on/VPS/sharkord/data`

--> add sshfs mount to /etc/fstab, so it auto-mounts on boot via the tunnel

 --> `homeserveruser@localhost:location/of/NAS/sharkord/data/directory /location/on/VPS/sharkord/data fuse.sshfs port=2222,allow_other,umask=000,_netdev,reconnect,ServerAliveInterval=30 0 0`

Once all that is setup, start up the docker image for sharkord (assuming you're using docker) and follow the normal guide. I had some issues, and it depends on your individual setup, so just message if anything comes up