---
tags: [S3, AWS]
created: Monday, August 11, 2025
---

## What is Garage?

Garage is software that enables you to create an S3-like object storage solution
outside of the AWS infrastructure on servers you maintain yourself.

It incorporates methods and operations from the S3 API and SDK (e.g.
`GetBucket`, `ListBuckets` etc. ) and is compatible with the `awscli` tool.

I set Garage up on my VPS so that I can leverage object storage as and when I
need it. My primary motivation was to be able to access images from a public URL
from within my home-made Zettelkasten software. Configuring unauthenticated
public access is not as straightforward as S3 but it is possible, as I will
demonstrate.

## Installation

First I installed Garage and added the binary to the `$PATH` on my VPS running
Debian.

```sh
wget https://garagehq.deuxfleurs.fr/_releases/v2.0.0/x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/garage
chmod +x garage
sudo mv garage /usr/local/bin
```

## Configuration file

I created the following config file at `/etc/garage.toml`:

```toml
metadata_dir = "/data/sqlite/garage-metadata"
data_dir = "/mnt/storagebox_alpha/garage"
db_engine = "sqlite"

replication_factor = 1

rpc_bind_addr = "[::]:3901"
rpc_public_addr = "127.0.0.1:3901"
rpc_secret = "<uuid>"

[s3_api]
s3_region = "garage"
api_bind_addr = "0.0.0.0:3900"
root_domain = ".s3.garage.localhost"

[s3_web]
bind_addr = "[::]:3902"
root_domain = ".web.garage.localhost"
index = "index.html"
```

The key points:

- `data_dir` is where the bucket data will be stored. This is mapped to my
  network-attached storage device on the VPS (`storagebox_alpha`)
- Garage allows you to replicate and distribute your data over multiple zones
  for security and redundancy. I don't need this so the `replication_factor` is
  `1`
- Garage runs locally on the server on the `3901` port. Later I will expose this
  to the Internet via my reverse proxy.

## Running the Garage server

Having created the config file, I can start the server:

```sh
garage server
```

You'll notice all the standard AWS S3 methods being invoked in the logs:

// ADD PICTURE

I also confirm the instance is running:

```sh
garage status

==== HEALTHY NODES ====
ID                Hostname          Address         Tags  Zone  Capacity          DataAvail  Version
<redacted>        self-host-server  127.0.0.1:3901              NO ROLE ASSIGNED             v2.0.0
```

In order to start the Garage server automatically on boot, I created a `systemd`
service. This way I don't need to restart Garage whenever I restart my VPS.

```
[Unit]
Description=Garage Object Storage
After=network.target
Wants=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=thomas
Group=thomas
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/garage server
WorkingDirectory=/data/sqlite
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
```

I killed the earlier instance of the server and then activated the `systemd`
service:

```sh
sudo systemctl enable garage
sudo systemctl start garage
```

## Creating a layout

## Creating a bucket