How to Deploy a Production-Ready File Server on a VPS for Free

This article walks through deploying a self-hosted file server on a VPS with a clean production setup: build the app, configure environment variables, run it with systemd, place Nginx in front, and secure the server with SSL and a firewall. Running your own file server is not only about saving on storage costs. It is also about control: you decide where files live, how uploads are handled, what gets exposed publicly, and how the server is secured. For this guide, we will use a Spring Boot based file server pattern similar to FiloraFS. The exact app name does not matter much here — the deployment flow is what matters. You can apply these steps to most Java backend file services. What you will build By the end of this tutorial, you will have a file server that: accepts file uploads through a backend API stores files on disk or in a mounted directory runs continuously on a VPS using systemd serves traffic through Nginx uses HTTPS with a free Let’s Encrypt certificate is protected by a bas