Devices in different places

When all your devices are on one local network, there is nothing to set up. When some are outside, for example artists submitting from home or render machines rented in the cloud, you need two things: a store everyone can reach, which means S3, and an https:// address for the host.

What you need

• S3-compatible object storage, such as AWS S3, Cloudflare R2 or MinIO, with a bucket and access keys created.
• A domain, such as danio.example.com.
• The ability to install Caddy or cloudflared on the machine running the host. The host can also be a rented server.

Switch the store to S3

When you create a workspace, choose S3 right away and fill in Endpoint, Bucket, Access Key and Secret Key. We recommend Cloudflare R2 (zero egress fees, see Configuring R2); set its Region to auto. Self-hosted services such as MinIO usually need Path-style turned on.

For spinning up cloud nodes, see Rendering on GPU Rental Platforms.

For a workspace already using a shared folder, click Move to… under Workspace details → Store and choose S3. You can keep submitting and rendering during the move, with no need to stop (Store).

Set up HTTPS for the host

The host itself speaks only HTTP. HTTPS is handled by a reverse proxy in front of it. Devices on the internet can only reach the host over https://. http:// works only on the local network.

Caddy, on the same machine as danio, in the Caddyfile:

danio.example.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:7420
}

Caddy requests and renews the certificate itself.

cloudflared, when you don't want to open a port to the internet. Create a tunnel in Cloudflare and write config.yml:

tunnel: <tunnel ID>
credentials-file: /etc/cloudflared/<tunnel ID>.json
ingress:
  - hostname: danio.example.com
    service: http://localhost:7420
  - service: http_status:404

An nginx reverse proxy works too. danio tells it not to buffer the live progress on the page, so you don't need to change its configuration for that.

Tell the host its address

On the host, open Workspace details → Connection, enter https://danio.example.com under Addresses and save.

• If you only enter the URL, the host still listens on all network interfaces, and devices on the local network connect as before.
• Devices that have already joined switch to this URL automatically.
• From then on, when you Add device, this URL is listed under Host address. Choose it for devices outside.

The https:// URL provided by a cloud platform's custom service or reverse proxy can be entered the same way.

What success looks like: on a computer outside, you can join under Join a workspace → Token by entering https://danio.example.com and the token, and it shows as Online on the host's Devices page.

Use the domain on the local network too (optional)

To have office computers use https://danio.example.com as well, resolve the domain to the host in your router or internal DNS, and have Caddy request the certificate with DNS validation. You don't need to open a port to the internet.

If the host later moves to another machine, a workspace that uses a domain only needs the domain pointed at the new host. No device needs changing (Changing hosts).

If devices can't connect

• You entered http:// with a public IP: devices refuse it, saying that public addresses must use https://. Set up the reverse proxy and switch to the https:// URL.
• The reverse proxy can't reach the host: first check that Workspace details → Connection says it is listening on 7420, then see the FAQ.