[GUIDE] Move PeerTube video storage to Hetzner S3

[archos]

Hi everyone,
after a few failed attempts with other S3 providers like iDrive and Backblaze,
I tried Hetzner Object Storage (S3) — where we also host our Cloudron servers.
Here’s my working setup and migration process — maybe it helps someone.
Everything works great: I’ve successfully moved ~240 GB of videos, all without issues.

This guide shows how to move PeerTube video storage to Hetzner Object Storage (S3-compatible) on a Cloudron instance. Tested with PeerTube 7.3.0 and Cloudron v8.3.2 (Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS)

1️⃣ Create your S3 bucket(s)

• Region: fsn1 (Falkenstein)
• Visibility: Public (read)
• Block Public Access: off
  Example buckets:
• peertube-1

2️⃣ Set CORS configuration

Create a file called example-cors.xml:

<CORSConfiguration>
  <CORSRule>
    <AllowedHeader>*</AllowedHeader>
    <AllowedMethod>GET</AllowedMethod>
    <AllowedMethod>HEAD</AllowedMethod>
    <AllowedOrigin>*</AllowedOrigin>
  </CORSRule>
</CORSConfiguration>

Apply it to your bucket(s):

s3cmd --config=/dev/null --no-check-certificate \
  --access_key=YOUR_ACCESS_KEY \
  --secret_key=YOUR_SECRET_KEY \
  --host=fsn1.your-objectstorage.com \
  --host-bucket="%(bucket)s.fsn1.your-objectstorage.com" \
  setcors example-cors.xml s3://peertube-1

Check it:

s3cmd --config=/dev/null --no-check-certificate \
  --access_key=YOUR_ACCESS_KEY \
  --secret_key=YOUR_SECRET_KEY \
  --host=fsn1.your-objectstorage.com \
  --host-bucket="%(bucket)s.fsn1.your-objectstorage.com" \
  info s3://peertube-1 | grep CORS -A1

You should see:

CORS: <CORSConfiguration ...><AllowedOrigin>*</AllowedOrigin>...</CORSConfiguration>

3️⃣ Edit PeerTube configuration

Open /app/data/production.yaml (Cloudron path) and add or modify this block:

object_storage:
  enabled: true
  endpoint: 'https://fsn1.your-objectstorage.com'
  region: 'eu-central'
  credentials:
    access_key_id: 'YOUR_ACCESS_KEY'
    secret_access_key: 'YOUR_SECRET_KEY'
  videos:
    bucket_name: 'peertube-1'
    prefix: 'videos/'
    base_url: 'https://peertube-1.fsn1.your-objectstorage.com'
    upload_acl: 'public-read'
  streaming_playlists:
    bucket_name: 'peertube-1'
    prefix: 'hls/'
    base_url: 'https://peertube-1.fsn1.your-objectstorage.com'
    upload_acl: 'public-read'
  previews:
    bucket_name: 'peertube-1'
    prefix: 'previews/'
    base_url: 'https://peertube-1.fsn1.your-objectstorage.com'
    upload_acl: 'public-read'
  thumbnails:
    bucket_name: 'peertube-1'
    prefix: 'thumbnails/'
    base_url: 'https://peertube-1.fsn1.your-objectstorage.com'
    upload_acl: 'public-read'
  captions:
    bucket_name: 'peertube-1'
    prefix: 'captions/'
    base_url: 'https://peertube-1.fsn1.your-objectstorage.com'
    upload_acl: 'public-read'

Save and restart PeerTube from the Cloudron dashboard.

4️⃣ Move videos to S3

From the Cloudron Web Terminal:

cd /app/code/server

gosu cloudron:cloudron npm run create-move-video-storage-job -- --to-object-storage

This creates jobs that migrate all videos to your S3 bucket. Progress can be monitored in Cloudron → App → Logs.

5️⃣ Verify

Check the directory size before/after:

du -sh /app/data/storage
du -sh /app/data/storage/* | sort -h

When migration finishes, most data (videos, HLS, previews) should move to S3. Local disk usage should drop to a few GB.

Tested setup

• PeerTube 7.3.0
• Cloudron v8.3.2
• Hetzner Object Storage (fsn1)

[joseph]

When you find some time, we can also put this into the community guides - https://docs.cloudron.io/guides/community/

[archos]

@joseph Hi, glad to hear you liked the guide!
Where can I request access or registration for your GitLab, so I can add the contribution there?
Thanks!

[joseph]

@archos you can send a MR here - https://git.cloudron.io/docs/docs . It can go in this directory - https://git.cloudron.io/docs/docs/-/tree/master/knowledgebase/docs/guides/community?ref_type=heads . Do you already have an account on gitlab ? Otherwise , @girish or @nebulon can send you an invite .

[archos]

I don’t have a GitLab account yet.
@girish could you please send me an invite?