If you host the instance just for your own account to be under your control there’s hardly any overhead. I’m running it in docker in a debian 12 VM with 1 GB ram, 1 virtual CPU and 50GB virtual disk. Haven’t had any issues.
I removed the Nginx server from the docker-compose.yml though. I already had an Nginx server running on the same server, so I just added the config to the existing server instead.
I also installed my private server and setting everything up was quite easy :)
I left nginx as is and just put everything behind my Caddy as reverse proxy
I’ve been meaning to try Caddy and Traefik. I’ve been using Nginx for so long and don’t really have a reason to switch though.
For Lemmy, I didn’t see a major advantage of running a reverse proxy behind another reverse proxy which is why I’m not running Lemmy’s Nginx container.
I went with docker but back then their documentation for it was trash and hardly worked. Had to trial and error it until it was functional. Hopefully they fixed that by now.
If you do end up going for it, Lemmy Easy Deploy is the tool I used and it’s awesome. I had no success with any other guide.
It was pretty easy with that tool. The overhead isn’t too bad but I recommend not going below 2GB of memory. I rode along on 1GB for a little while to see how things went, and it topped out quite a bit. I pay a little extra for automatic backups too which is worth the peace of mind. It’s about ~$18/month with Digital Ocean.
Thanks for this link! I’m on Vultr, which is good, but it’s around $7 a month with only 25GB of storage. Think I’ll pick up one of the Ethernet Servers deals.
There’s a whole community around finding affordable hosting for a variety of use cases. https://lowendtalk.com/
I found my current provider there and on Black Friday they were offering an exclusive lowendtalk deal (called the 6666) where I pay $66 every 2 years and get 6gb ram 6vcpus and 66GB disk and 6tb transfer on a 10gbps line.
these smaller hosts won’t have all the same features digital ocean and vultr have like 1-click templates.
Well, I couldn’t figure out Docker because I’m a newb, so I decided to give the app in Yunohost a try. I was reluctant at first, because when I last checked the available version of Lemmy was kind of old and image uploads were broken. However, when I checked today, the version was 0.18.2 and the disclaimer about the broken feature was gone. So, I gave it a try and it just worked. I do still have to test image uploads.
We’ll see about overhead. I’ve got it running on a VM to which I’ve allocated 500GB. The VM is on an older i5 desktop with 16GB of RAM. I’ve already been running a Pixelfed instance for a couple of weeks and so far so good.
That should be plenty of power and storage. I’m running on a Digital Ocean droplet that has 2GB of memory, 25GB disk space, and an Intel vCPU (the “premium” option). Hums right along.
Great to know, I’m on yunohost and considered creating my own instance. I guess I’ll get to that when I take the step from rented VPS to home-run server.
Nice work dad. How difficult was it? I’ve been thinking about going down that road but concerned about the overhead.
If you host the instance just for your own account to be under your control there’s hardly any overhead. I’m running it in docker in a debian 12 VM with 1 GB ram, 1 virtual CPU and 50GB virtual disk. Haven’t had any issues.
This is valuable info. Is there a Docker image that’s preconfigured for it or did you install on a LAMP image or other third way?
There’s a few Docker images, since it needs a database and some other services, and the best practice with Docker is one container per service. The documentation is here: https://join-lemmy.org/docs/administration/install_docker.html
I removed the Nginx server from the docker-compose.yml though. I already had an Nginx server running on the same server, so I just added the config to the existing server instead.
I also installed my private server and setting everything up was quite easy :) I left nginx as is and just put everything behind my Caddy as reverse proxy
I’ve been meaning to try Caddy and Traefik. I’ve been using Nginx for so long and don’t really have a reason to switch though.
For Lemmy, I didn’t see a major advantage of running a reverse proxy behind another reverse proxy which is why I’m not running Lemmy’s Nginx container.
I went with docker but back then their documentation for it was trash and hardly worked. Had to trial and error it until it was functional. Hopefully they fixed that by now.
If you do end up going for it, Lemmy Easy Deploy is the tool I used and it’s awesome. I had no success with any other guide.
It was pretty easy with that tool. The overhead isn’t too bad but I recommend not going below 2GB of memory. I rode along on 1GB for a little while to see how things went, and it topped out quite a bit. I pay a little extra for automatic backups too which is worth the peace of mind. It’s about ~$18/month with Digital Ocean.
Damn. I paid racknerds $25/yr for 2cpu and 2.5gb of RAM. Runs great, and rather lean to be honest.
Wow, killer price! I need to check that out. I’ve had my Digital Ocean account for so long I’m on autopilot lmao.
I found out about it here. There was a thread a few weeks back. Search for racknerds in this community.
I think they’re still running their 4th of July special.
Link to low cost VPS hosting offers: https://quex.cc/post/29783
@orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts
Thanks for this link! I’m on Vultr, which is good, but it’s around $7 a month with only 25GB of storage. Think I’ll pick up one of the Ethernet Servers deals.
There’s a whole community around finding affordable hosting for a variety of use cases. https://lowendtalk.com/ I found my current provider there and on Black Friday they were offering an exclusive lowendtalk deal (called the 6666) where I pay $66 every 2 years and get 6gb ram 6vcpus and 66GB disk and 6tb transfer on a 10gbps line. these smaller hosts won’t have all the same features digital ocean and vultr have like 1-click templates.
I honestly don’t really need any of the 1-click stuff. I pretty much live in the command line, so the main thing is bringing down cost for the future.
That’s a really good deal! Thanks for the heads up. I’m gonna start looking around.
I found this website to be pretty helpful in terms of walking you through a docker- based install:
https://www.bentasker.co.uk/posts/blog/general/running-a-lemmy-social-networking-instance-using-docker-compose.html
The official docs are a little sparse at times.
Well, I couldn’t figure out Docker because I’m a newb, so I decided to give the app in Yunohost a try. I was reluctant at first, because when I last checked the available version of Lemmy was kind of old and image uploads were broken. However, when I checked today, the version was 0.18.2 and the disclaimer about the broken feature was gone. So, I gave it a try and it just worked. I do still have to test image uploads.
We’ll see about overhead. I’ve got it running on a VM to which I’ve allocated 500GB. The VM is on an older i5 desktop with 16GB of RAM. I’ve already been running a Pixelfed instance for a couple of weeks and so far so good.
That should be plenty of power and storage. I’m running on a Digital Ocean droplet that has 2GB of memory, 25GB disk space, and an Intel vCPU (the “premium” option). Hums right along.
Excellent instance name
Thank you! I’m happy with it lol. It’s kinda funny knowing that I paid for the domain enjoying.yachts. I’m glad it was at least cheap!
Oh good! That is reassuring.
Great to know, I’m on yunohost and considered creating my own instance. I guess I’ll get to that when I take the step from rented VPS to home-run server.