Deploying Zerobyte

Provision a fresh Ubuntu 24.04 LTS VPS from the RamNode dashboard and SSH into your server.

ssh root@YOUR_VPS_IP

Update System Packages

apt update && apt upgrade -y
apt install -y curl wget git ufw software-properties-common

Create a Non-Root User

Running services as root is a security risk. Create a dedicated user:

adduser zerobyte
usermod -aG sudo zerobyte
su - zerobyte

Configure the Firewall

sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp
sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw status

Zerobyte runs as a Docker container. Install Docker Engine and the Compose plugin using the official repository.

# Add Docker's official GPG key
sudo apt install -y ca-certificates curl gnupg
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg \
  | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

# Add the Docker repository
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) \
  signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] \
  https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo $VERSION_CODENAME) stable" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli \
  containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin \
  docker-compose-plugin

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker
docker --version
docker compose version

Create the Project Directory

mkdir -p ~/zerobyte && cd ~/zerobyte

Generate the Application Secret

Zerobyte requires a unique application secret for authentication and session management:

openssl rand -hex 32

Copy the output — you will use it as the APP_SECRET value below.

Create the Docker Compose File

services:
  zerobyte:
    image: ghcr.io/nicotsx/zerobyte:v0.26
    container_name: zerobyte
    restart: unless-stopped
    cap_add:
      - SYS_ADMIN
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:4096:4096"
    devices:
      - /dev/fuse:/dev/fuse
    environment:
      - TZ=America/Chicago
      - BASE_URL=https://backups.example.com
      - APP_SECRET=YOUR_GENERATED_SECRET_HERE
    volumes:
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
      - /var/lib/zerobyte:/var/lib/zerobyte

Launch Zerobyte

cd ~/zerobyte
docker compose up -d

docker compose logs -f zerobyte

You should see Zerobyte start up on port 4096. Press Ctrl+C to exit the log view.

Caddy provides automatic HTTPS with zero-configuration TLS certificate management, making it ideal for securing Zerobyte.

sudo apt install -y debian-keyring debian-archive-keyring \
  apt-transport-https
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/gpg.key' \
  | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/caddy-stable.gpg
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 -y caddy

Configure the Caddyfile

sudo nano /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

backups.example.com {
    reverse_proxy 127.0.0.1:4096
    encode gzip
}

sudo systemctl restart caddy
sudo systemctl enable caddy
sudo systemctl status caddy

Open your browser and navigate to your configured domain (e.g., https://backups.example.com). You will be presented with the registration screen.

Create Your Admin Account

Enter a username and a strong password to create the first administrator account with full access to all Zerobyte features.

Add a Backup Repository

Repositories are where your encrypted backups are stored. Zerobyte supports:

• Local directories (stored under /var/lib/zerobyte/repositories/ by default)
• S3-compatible storage (Amazon S3, MinIO, Wasabi, DigitalOcean Spaces, Backblaze B2)
• REST server (ideal for offsite backups to another VPS)
• SFTP or rclone remotes (40+ cloud providers)

Add Backup Volumes

Mount host directories into the Zerobyte container by adding volume mappings to docker-compose.yml:

volumes:
  - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
  - /var/lib/zerobyte:/var/lib/zerobyte
  - /home:/mnt/home:ro       # Host home directories
  - /etc:/mnt/etc:ro         # System configurations
  - /var/www:/mnt/www:ro     # Web application data

cd ~/zerobyte
docker compose up -d

Create a Backup Schedule

With a repository and volumes configured, create a backup job:

• Navigate to Backups and click Create Backup
• Select the volume(s) to back up and the target repository
• Configure the schedule (e.g., daily at 2:00 AM)
• Set retention policies (e.g., keep 7 daily, 4 weekly, 12 monthly snapshots)
• Optionally add exclude patterns for files you do not need

If you want to back up to cloud providers (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Backblaze B2, Hetzner Storage Box, etc.), install rclone on the host.

curl https://rclone.org/install.sh | sudo bash
rclone config

Follow the interactive prompts to configure your remote storage, then test the connection:

rclone lsd myremote:

Mount rclone Config in Zerobyte

Add the rclone configuration directory to your docker-compose.yml:

volumes:
  - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
  - /var/lib/zerobyte:/var/lib/zerobyte
  - ~/.config/rclone:/root/.config/rclone:ro

Restart the container, then when creating a repository in Zerobyte, choose rclone as the type and select your configured remote.

Keep Zerobyte Behind a Reverse Proxy

As configured in this guide, Zerobyte listens only on 127.0.0.1:4096. All external access goes through Caddy with automatic HTTPS. Never expose port 4096 directly to the internet.

Use Docker Secrets for Sensitive Values

Zerobyte supports dynamic secret resolution with these prefixes:

• env://VAR_NAME — reads the secret from an environment variable
• file://SECRET_NAME — reads from /run/secrets/SECRET_NAME (Docker Secrets)

Enable Automatic Security Updates

sudo apt install -y unattended-upgrades
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -plow unattended-upgrades

Harden SSH Access

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
# Set: PasswordAuthentication no
# Set: PermitRootLogin no
sudo systemctl restart sshd

Update the Image Tag

Edit docker-compose.yml and update the image tag:

image: ghcr.io/nicotsx/zerobyte:v0.27  # Update version

Pull and Restart

cd ~/zerobyte
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d
docker compose logs -f zerobyte

When you need to recover data, Zerobyte makes restoration straightforward through its web interface:

• Navigate to the Backups section and select the relevant backup job
• Browse available snapshots and select the one to restore from
• Choose to restore the full snapshot or select individual files and directories
• Zerobyte will pull the selected data from Restic and restore it to the original paths