friendica.eskimo.com
@Friendica Support
@Friendica Admins
@Friendica Developers
Hi there,
in the end I want to try to setup my first own hosted friendica VPS on a small setup:
1gig RAM/1 Core/25gig
The idea is kinda single user instance with a few forum pages.
The hosting provider has the following options:
I'm used to debian/devuan on PC, so am obviously inclined to go for debian but have no idea what version would be the best choice.
In the first place the debian LEMP option looks like the way to go.
Latest experience with a new friendica installation seemed to be in need of PHP8.1 instead of PHP8.2.
Is it difficult to downgrade that?
Also, I'm kinda worried about security in general, even tho the data exposed will only be my own, so there is no responsibility with others.
Are there more security risks than on a shared hosting with let's say a standard phpBB forum page?
The idea would be to point the IP from my existing hosting provider to the VPS.
One of the things I always was wondering about and definitely think would be something positive for people how'd like to start with friendica is some basic standard setup examples and costs to "work with".
Like to say:
To be simply able to grasp an idea about if friendica is suitable for someone in terms of costs and management this kind of information is kinda basic.
Otherwise we will always have lot's of people who start quite enthusiastically but abandon the idea after a few weeks or month.
How to set it up as of now is already a big deterrent for many people. Considering what WP achieved with it's "one click installation" for hosting providers and what it means for the use of that platform I guess you get what I mean.
I know, it means a lot of man power and dedication of people with a particular mindset to achieve some (I don't know) docker, SNAP or ISO image to create some super easy friendica installation for VPS but thats what would be needed to be accessible for more people.
As of now friendica is kinda niche restricted for hackers and/but the internet really needs something like it to become independent again in my humble opinion.
@Matthew Exon @bitPickup mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm @Andy H3 @…ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ jesuisatire bitPickup @Raroun @TupambAdmin Tell me about it, and the older I get the faster it flies.
Time doesn't fly like an arrow, it flies like a laser beam towards obliteration.
Please consider our services:
eskimo.com/services/virtual-pr…
We also operate a shared web server that may be more appropriate for your needs in that it is quite robust with a 10-core 20-thread I9-10900K clocked at 5Ghz, (it is actually variable but Linux is set to performance mode so it spends the majority of that time at 5Ghz and cooling is adequate to support that), 256GB of RAM, and all disk including the root partition, is RAIDed. The root partition and most non-long term storage is SSD. There is both a mariadb and a postgresql server available, and many languages.
We also offer shell accounts on a variety of Linux distributions with the ability to get a full remote desktops with a variety of desktops like mate, gnome, kde, and others.
We operate free fediverse serves, which include friendica.eskimo.com/, hubzilla.eskimo.com/, mastodon.eskimo.com/ (all message sites), and yacy.eskimo.com/ (a federated search engine) and nextcloude.eskimo.com/ (a free cloud service).
eskimo.com/services/
Operating these free services costs money so we much appreciate it when you help support us by using some of our Paid Services.
update on this specific request of mine:
In the end I managed to get my hands on a ubuntu 22.04.02LTS.
I used the refereed tutorial by @Hank G ☑️ to set it up:
nequalsonelifestyle.com/2022/0…
Now it's a ubuntu 22.04.03LTS
I just ran thru the instructions and executed them and apparently everything worked fine and friendica 2023.05 (stable) is awaiting installation.
The difference in my case is that the idea is to move a (new) friendica instance (2023.05) I created in a BETA testing by a hoster that abandoned his intent to offer hosting for friendica to this new hosting.
The difference in the installation process as described by HankG as of now was that I couldn't setup completely the certbot part as the actual domain (tupambae.org) is running right now with that other hosting provider.
letsencrypt wrote:
Hint: The Certificate Authority failed to verify the temporary Apache configuration changes made by Certbot. Ensure that the listed domains point to this Apache server and that it is accessible from the internet.
Some challenges have failed.
I just did the whole installation process being simply connected with the IP over SSH.
I skipped the part:
CREATE DATABASE friendicadb;
CREATE USER 'friendica'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '<password>';
GRANT ALL ON friendicadb.* TO 'friendica'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;The part:sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default-le-ssl.conf
created an empty file as the certbot instalation wasn't completed fully.
I created that file using the example given in the tutorial, adding the domain name that will be used.
What I wonder now:
How do I upload the DB I will have to grab from the old provider and upload to the new setup?
How do I change the password for the DB?
Is there a way to also change the name of the existing DB?
My access is over SSH with puTTy created public/private keys, no password.
Can I create sFTP access with for example filezilla and if so how?
@…ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ jesuisatire bitPickup
You can export your DB - depending on the old provider you do a full export (with mysql tables) or only a "friendica db backup".
If you only have a friendica DB backup you have to create a new mysql user and a new password.
if you have a full backup, you can change the password of your db user - which is your db-password 😀
sFTP should work out of the box with any Application that supports private key authorization - like scp or FileZilla.
I decided to publish a new post just describing and summing up the whole installation process:
friendica VPS setup on ubuntu 22.04 LTS
based on @Hank G ☑️'s tutorial adding my experience/observations and the particular differences I ran into.
I will try to address the DB export/import details and eventually other issues over there so this post over here is more about the general VPS decision and particular size experience as it already became because of the existing comments.
👍
friendica VPS setup on ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Hi,
I'm working on my first #friendica #VPS installation, here you'll find my initial post about general thoughts like what distro to use, size and costs.
I'm using the tutorial "creating a friendica server - ubuntu" by @Hank G ☑️.As of now I'm doing well in the process and want to start this post to document differences and questions while installing the server.
This server is going to host an already existing friendica node I have to move from another hosting provider. That means that for example the DB doesn't have to be created from scratch but moved and other smaller details.
I will try to address the different steps of installation in answers to this post and appreciate help, ideas and observations.
I'm doing this from a #linux desktop environment from the console but there shouldn't be differences if you want to do this from a #windows machine.
#fediVerse #tutorial #fediHelp #activityPub
@…ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ jesuisatire bitPickup
This a a pretty good tutorial from @Hank G ☑️ for ubuntu:
nequalsonelifestyle.com/2022/0…
It also covers some security - which is great.
You can try Friendica on a 1C,1G,25GB setup but you will run in some shortages pretty fast.
@Raroun @…ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ jesuisatire bitPickup @Hank G ☑️ @bitPickup mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm @TupambAdmin agree, probably 4 core, 8GB Ram and 100 GB Storage are better, you will run into problema after 2-3 years I guess.
You need to keep in mind that you need much storage for all the content from other Fediverse servers, so database will grow because of the content and also because of all the contacts that your server will discover over time.
Also you need to have free space, so much that the biggest table of the database can be created as a copy during updates and also during maintenace/optimization that MariaDB/Mysql needs.
So better get a bit bigger and always keep enough free space.
You can however start out with the small VPS and upgrade sooner.
@utzer [Friendica]
It's a matter of monetary resources.
I live of like 200 bucks a month, I guess that the limite for "poor" people on this planet as of now, so I really want and need the minimum limit.
General idea is to set post expiriation except own post's and starred posts by others to 30 days, and in any case "outsource" DB storage for pictures, videos and or other files.
@bitPickup mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm @Hank G ☑️ @Raroun @TupambAdmin
th! @Hank G ☑️
👍
learning question:
In general terms, to adapt this to a debian installation there would basically be the issue of apt-get install tools that don't come preinstalled with debian like they do in in ubuntu like:
snap and ufw
What other differences would there be in using debian directly?
@Raroun
@bitPickup mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm @TupambAdmin
@utzer [Friendica]
smallest VPS:
VPS #1
1GB RAM
1 CPU
25GB DISK
1TB TRANSFER(tx+rx)
your recomandation:
VPS #4
8GB RAM
4 CPU
160GB DISK
5TB TRANSFER(tx+rx)
btw, this is what they state about the debian options:
OpenVPN
For freedom fighters
The only VPN to be trusted is the one you have full control over.
The server and client certificates are automatically generated and the client file sent via email to the customer after. Runs on port 443, which is almost always accessible. All logging is sent to /dev/null and DNS queries are made on the same server.
Wireguard
Also for freedom fighters
40-50% faster than OpenVPN.
Route all your traffic through an encrypted tunnel, perfect for bypassing internet controlled by a fascist government.
LEMP
Ready to use webserver
LEMP stands for Linux, nginx (pronounced Engine x), MySQL, and PHP. It comes preconfigured with an optimized PHP setup which can run, depending on the size of the server, load heavy sites. It is also good as a content delivery server for example advertisement banners, videos, or even a fileserver for files to download.
Nextcloud Server
Ready to use Nextcloud
Run your own cloud service.
Nextcloud, the next generation open source Enterprise File Sync and Share software, the server is optimized for high usage with Let's Encrypt https certificate.
@bitPickup mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm @Hank G ☑️ @Raroun @TupambAdmin
@…ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ jesuisatire bitPickup @bitPickup mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm @Hank G ☑️ @Raroun @TupambAdmin I meant the price, but nevermind.
Check if Uberspace is something for you, be sure about the latency because it is in Germany.
Website:
uberspace.de/en/
Manual for Friendica.
lab.uberspace.de/guide_friendi…
Uberspace gives you full access on CLI as a user, no root required and your advantage is, that you need much less knowledge as the system is already all setup and safe, you do not have access to the basic setup and need not sorry about safety, updates and such. Backups also included and no need to worry about.
If you take the VPS stated by you, I guess the LEMP one is what you want.
Nginx works for Friendica, but you need to pay attention because it differs from Apache in some configuration.
Also make sure to take backups when it runs, so when you mess up you can restore. 😉
@utzer [Friendica]
> I meant the price, but nevermind.
Upss, sry I forgot to add the price, it didn't fit in the cpoy/paste: Option 1 -> 1Gig RAm 5 usd, option 4 -> 8GB ram 40 usd (per month)
@bitPickup mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm @Hank G ☑️ @Raroun @TupambAdmin
@utzer [Friendica]
btw
Just looked into uberspace, don't have the means to pay their service from where I am. Even tho I don't like the energy waste of btc, I can use the few satoshis I have left from like a decade ago to pay the VPS I'm looking for.
@bitPickup mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm @Hank G ☑️ @Raroun @TupambAdmin
You probably don´t need the ufw stuff if you set up public key authorization.
I also don´t use snap 😀