A very simple way to set up file access is to use SSHFS, mounting the drive via SFTP. It may not be as fast as other protocols but it is simple and requires minimal setup on your server.
https://github.com/winfsp/sshfs-winhttps://github.com/libfuse/sshfs
Do you want to expose port 80/443 and set up a reverse proxy or do you want to use a VPN tunnel? You could just use SSH to port 80 and 443 like so:
ssh -L 80:<local-server-ip>:80 -L 443:<local-server-ip>:443 <username>@<domain>I expose port 80/443 and use Caddy as a reverse proxy together with Authelia to protect anything that I deem needs an extra layer of security. I followed this guide: https://caddy.community/t/securing-web-apps-with-caddy-and-authelia-in-docker-compose-an-opinionated-practical-and-minimal-production-ready-login-portal-guide/20465
Once setup, it is easy to remove or add a backend to Caddy and Authelia. This way does mean that you sometimes need to log in twice, but that is a small price to pay if your backend app does not support SSO (like n8n community edition).