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Uses for low RAM VPS?
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Uses for low RAM VPS?

I have a bunch of 128-256 MB RAM VPS currently idling and I have been looking for some uses for them, besides running YABS with failing GeekBench tests of course. My current uses include dashboard (Heimdall seems to install and run OK) and VPN but even most apt installations seem to crash with a failure to fork due to running out of memory. Docker doesn't seem like an option either since it fails to even install properly and apparently requires 512 MB minimum.

I was wondering what kind of services (preferably useful ones) other people are running on these limited platforms?

Thanked by 1Logano

Comments

  • KVM or OVZ?

  • 128 MB is fairly limiting, although I do run some DNSTools nodes on them. The DNSTools server app uses around 30-50MB RAM, and it's the only thing running on the server as I've integrated basic monitoring + metric collection into it.

    These days you really need at least 256MB RAM. Officially, Debian Bullseye requires a minimum of 256MB RAM. https://www.debian.org/releases/bullseye/amd64/ch03s04.en.html

  • @Daniel15 said:
    128 MB is fairly limiting, although I do run some DNSTools nodes on them. The DNSTools server app uses around 30-50MB RAM, and it's the only thing running on the server as I've integrated basic monitoring + metric collection into it.

    These days you really need at least 256MB RAM. Officially, Debian Bullseye requires a minimum of 256MB RAM. https://www.debian.org/releases/bullseye/amd64/ch03s04.en.html

    If KVM, Alpine runs fine with 128MB.

    Thanked by 2k4zz pbx
  • maybe for uptime monitoring, like uptime kuma https://github.com/louislam/uptime-kuma

  • @tetech said:

    @Daniel15 said:
    128 MB is fairly limiting, although I do run some DNSTools nodes on them. The DNSTools server app uses around 30-50MB RAM, and it's the only thing running on the server as I've integrated basic monitoring + metric collection into it.

    These days you really need at least 256MB RAM. Officially, Debian Bullseye requires a minimum of 256MB RAM. https://www.debian.org/releases/bullseye/amd64/ch03s04.en.html

    If KVM, Alpine runs fine with 128MB.

    Debian runs fine, it's just not a supported config so you won't get any support from the Debian maintainers if anything goes wrong.

    @umzak said:
    maybe for uptime monitoring, like uptime kuma https://github.com/louislam/uptime-kuma

    Does that work well with 128MB RAM? Looks like it uses Nodejs which can hog a lot of memory.

    Thanked by 2xetsys kjinxs
  • Your possible usage depends on if your running OVZ or KVM. Some uses you may already know of include WireGuard, LLMP/LEMP stack, proxy, TS3/Mumble and perhaps a Tor relay.

    Thanked by 1kjinxs
  • A webserver, or a proxy server.

    Thanked by 1kjinxs
  • Run yabs on cron. Turn off geekbench and run yabs each hour 24/7. Let those servers suffer.

  • These work great for circumventing censorship. I mainly use low resource machines for v2ray

    Thanked by 1kjinxs
  • @tetech said:
    KVM or OVZ?

    Unfortunately most are OVZ which also limits things some more :(

  • @kjinxs said: Unfortunately most are OVZ

    My understanding (from a long time ago) is that OVZ counts any request to reserve memory as memory usage, not just the actual memory used (as in the KVM case). And by default, the stack size of a process is set to something like 8 MB, so it counts as 8 MB, even if only a few kB are actually used. You might be able to improve the situation a bit by limiting the default stack size (see "ulimit -s"). Of course, things might have changed in the past 15 years or so...

    Thanked by 1kjinxs
  • @cmeerw said:

    @kjinxs said: Unfortunately most are OVZ

    My understanding (from a long time ago) is that OVZ counts any request to reserve memory as memory usage, not just the actual memory used (as in the KVM case). And by default, the stack size of a process is set to something like 8 MB, so it counts as 8 MB, even if only a few kB are actually used. You might be able to improve the situation a bit by limiting the default stack size (see "ulimit -s"). Of course, things might have changed in the past 15 years or so...

    Well that sounds interesting! I think I need to take a look at it. The biggest hurdle so far with the OVZ servers has been the impossibility of adding any swap - or at least the usual methods I found didn't seem to work at all which really limits things.

  • risharderisharde Patron Provider, Veteran

    Not sure about 128mb but with 256mb and being a nodejs programmer, you might be able to build some rather useful apps there.

  • @kjinxs said:
    The biggest hurdle so far with the OVZ servers has been the impossibility of adding any swap

    With OVZ you have a container, not a virtual machine. You are sharing the kernel so adding swap doesn't make much sense. The host can add swap of course, so RAM over provision can be done at the host level, just not at the container level.

    Thanked by 1kjinxs
  • @risharde said:
    Not sure about 128mb but with 256mb and being a nodejs programmer, you might be able to build some rather useful apps there.

    Yeah my own applications have definitely been one of the few uses!

    @MeAtExampleDotCom said:

    @kjinxs said:
    The biggest hurdle so far with the OVZ servers has been the impossibility of adding any swap

    With OVZ you have a container, not a virtual machine. You are sharing the kernel so adding swap doesn't make much sense. The host can add swap of course, so RAM over provision can be done at the host level, just not at the container level.

    Ah, of course! That makes sense.

  • I have a free 256M IPv6 NAT ovz7 VPS. It runs docker ghost.

  • @suut said:
    I have a free 256M IPv6 NAT ovz7 VPS. It runs docker ghost.

    Which OS do you have installed? I haven't been able to install Docker on Debian 10 Minimal - the installation always fails to fork and crashes.

  • @kjinxs said:

    @suut said:
    I have a free 256M IPv6 NAT ovz7 VPS. It runs docker ghost.

    Which OS do you have installed? I haven't been able to install Docker on Debian 10 Minimal - the installation always fails to fork and crashes.

    alpine

    Thanked by 1kjinxs
  • @umzak said:
    maybe for uptime monitoring, like uptime kuma https://github.com/louislam/uptime-kuma

    I also use uptime-kuma, although I had trouble installing it on really small vpses.

  • @Daniel15 said:
    Does that work well with 128MB RAM? Looks like it uses Nodejs which can hog a lot of memory.

    It worked alright with 128MB RAM, but I actually had trouble installing it on a small VPS because of CPU limitations (the install script kept on getting killed).

    Thanked by 1kjinxs
  • I was looking at Uptime Kuma before but decided to save it for a more powerful server. Sounds like I need to check again! It would be great to get it running on a 128 MB one.

    Definitely need to find out if I can get Alpine on my VPS somehow to help with the installation issues.

  • @kjinxs said:

    @suut said:
    I have a free 256M IPv6 NAT ovz7 VPS. It runs docker ghost.

    Which OS do you have installed? I haven't been able to install Docker on Debian 10 Minimal - the installation always fails to fork and crashes.

    Minimal means no desktop?

  • @bettyc said:

    @kjinxs said:

    @suut said:
    I have a free 256M IPv6 NAT ovz7 VPS. It runs docker ghost.

    Which OS do you have installed? I haven't been able to install Docker on Debian 10 Minimal - the installation always fails to fork and crashes.

    Minimal means no desktop?

    It only comes with the minimum amount of installed packages needed to boot and do really basic stuff (like install more packages). So yeah, no desktop environment either.

    Thanked by 1bettyc
  • @kjinxs said:
    I was looking at Uptime Kuma before but decided to save it for a more powerful server. Sounds like I need to check again! It would be great to get it running on a 128 MB one.

    Definitely need to find out if I can get Alpine on my VPS somehow to help with the installation issues.

    Do tell me how it goes! Also, I used an Ubuntu 20.04 server template from Gullo's hosting, so most server distros should probably be fine.

  • ezethezeth Member, Patron Provider

    Use it for IPMI, ssh whitelisted IP

  • yoursunnyyoursunny Member, IPv6 Advocate

    For LXC container VPS, technically you can extract whatever in a minimal Docker image and overwrite onto the whole VPS.
    Go programs are statically linked and do not depend on libc, so that you can do it with minimal storage.
    However, as soon as you overwrite the VPS, you lose the ability to further manage the VPS, unless you have such ability built-in.

    For OpenVZ, the container itself must be able to bring up the network.
    If it's only a Go program, the program will need to parse /etc/network/interfaces, or the IP address could be hard coded.

    For KVM, let's ask @skorupion about his 64MB server.
    https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/172748/looking-for-2-very-small-boxes-in-eu/p1

  • skorupionskorupion Member, Host Rep

    @yoursunny said:
    For LXC container VPS, technically you can extract whatever in a minimal Docker image and overwrite onto the whole VPS.
    Go programs are statically linked and do not depend on libc, so that you can do it with minimal storage.
    However, as soon as you overwrite the VPS, you lose the ability to further manage the VPS, unless you have such ability built-in.

    For OpenVZ, the container itself must be able to bring up the network.
    If it's only a Go program, the program will need to parse /etc/network/interfaces, or the IP address could be hard coded.

    For KVM, let's ask @skorupion about his 64MB server.
    https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/172748/looking-for-2-very-small-boxes-in-eu/p1

    Well there is this:
    https://lowendbox.com/blog/yes-you-can-run-18-static-sites-on-a-64mb-link-1-vps/

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