this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023
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Hello selfhosters,

I need recommendation for cheap VPS that I will use to host gramps only. Gramps is selfhosted app for building family tree.

I tested gramps in docker container on my home server and its awesome, check it out. My home server is not open to public (accessing it using wireguard only) and I would like to give access to some family members (3-4) for gramps. I thought its best to pay for cheap VPS and run gramps only to avoid any security issues on my home network.

I believe performance and storage requirements fit in any cheapest model, but not sure which VPS is the easiest to setup. I have my own domain from porkbun, but I have never set SSL certs properly before and I have never used VPS. I see this as a great opportunity to learn, but also to make some family members happy <3

I'm eying servercheap.com and it says in description "1 IPv4", but then it offers "Add'l Ipv4 Addresses" for 9$. I'm bit lost here and I'm not even sure do I need IPv4 address. Maybe I can run duckdns or ddclient to avoid additional cost?

How is your experience with servercheap? Is there anything better for similar price?

Also, any tips for building server like that are appreciated. I was thinking Debian 11 + gramps in docker container since I'm familiar with that setup.

Cheers

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[–] aesir 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Considering the small audience and purpose, I would not have any problem using the always free offerings of either Oracle or Google (the latter especially if located in the US).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

AFAIK you'd still need to leave your card details to use free offers. No thanks, I'd rather pay $5 but in crypto.

[–] aesir 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As you wish, indeed the only free offer without credit cards is the one of azure for students. In any case you are not anonymous.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In this case it's not just about anonymity imo. I just read enough stories to know that leaving a card that can be charged at any time tied to an account is a bad practice.

[–] aesir 2 points 1 year ago

I have heard of several cloud screw-ups as well, leading to charges of several thousands.

On one side this can happen if you experiment something outside of the free machine(s), on the other side you have all the reporting and notification tools to avoid surprises.

Nonetheless, I still see your point, reason why I prefer to use an almost dry revolut prepaid for all the cloud accounts instead of my main credit card.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Oh thx, I didn't think about free options

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have a 5 USD per month VPS on Vultr.com

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Their price plan says there is 10GB version for 3.5$, but the cheapest one I could take is 5$ for 25GB. Still good, I took it and so far so good. Thx

[–] zorflieg 2 points 1 year ago

I've had multiple $5 Vultr VPS's for about 5 years for simple purposes and they've been reliable and performed well.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

The pricing depends on the DC location (and other obvious factor). The one I have is in New Jersey (have to confirm) and 3.5 USD per month.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’m eying servercheap.com and it says in description “1 IPv4”, but then it offers “Add’l Ipv4 Addresses” for 9$. I’m bit lost here and I’m not even sure do I need IPv4 address. Maybe I can run duckdns or ddclient to avoid additional cost?

You should have an IPv4 address unless you're sure everyone who needs to access it has working IPv6 access or you don't mind setting up 6to4/6in4 at the locations that don't (or complain to ISPs until they fix it). The one should be fine.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Thx,Ill stick with ipv4 then.

[–] drudoo 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Isn’t gramps a desktop app? It would make more sense to use Webtrees when using a VPS, which can be accessed over the web with login.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Im quite new into this, but my gramps can be accessed over web using login.

Ill check webtrees thx

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't have VPS recommendations, but may I suggest using a VPS as a proxy to your home server (running gramps) through wireguard? The lower system requirements would allow you to choose a cheaper server, and the fact that the server is only a proxy would simplify the process of moving to a different VPS if you need to.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Thx. That's another way, Ill deffo try that, at least to learn more

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

So, I've done exactly this with gramps. I used a NUC running proxmox at my home.

I created a very simple https server with turnkey nginx running on the NUC proxmox instance. I host the gramps database exports there via a simple HTML page.

Tied it to a domain name and sent the link to my family, with instructions to install gramps and import the database.

EDIT: I used Let's Encrypt for the SSL keys

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thx for input. Do you not recommend running gramps as web service for some reason? Reading comments here it seems like desktop app is main way of using it and I wasn't aware. Docker container is running fine, but looks like its missing some polish

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I actually wasn't aware that it could be run as a web service. I'd say do that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters More Letters
CF CloudFlare
HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the Web
NUC Next Unit of Computing brand of Intel small computers
SSL Secure Sockets Layer, for transparent encryption
VPS Virtual Private Server (opposed to shared hosting)
nginx Popular HTTP server

5 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 7 acronyms.

[Thread #334 for this sub, first seen 4th Dec 2023, 03:35] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

[–] ilickfrogs 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'd recommend racknerd. Their black Friday pricing is available year round and they have super good annual pricing on some of their VPS options https://www.racknerd.com/BlackFriday/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wow thats cheap. I guess its fine to use racknerd even from Europe. I might get 1 year just because its cheap

[–] ilickfrogs 1 points 1 year ago

Oh absolutely! I wouldn't trust them with anything mission critical but for little projects here and there they're absolutely amazing.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I honestly though you were talking about our grandpa

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

A good recomendations is AWS , after verifing your ID with a VCC, you should have 12 months of freetier products .

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can use the Gramps desktop app on your normal computer and then host a frontend using Gramps.js

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What makes it different from running official docker container? This demo login screen looks exactly the same, but doesnt work tho. Screenshot from the link looks the same as well

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't understand what you mean by "official docker container" because Gramps is desktop software and doesn't have a container. The GrampsWeb / Gramps.js is the web interface for browsing it, that can run in a Docker container, but is developed separately.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Grmps is completely new to me, didnt even know about desktop app before I deployed docker. Found it on awesome selfhosted. So i used this one thinking its what everyone is doing 🙃

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No worries. Gramps (desktop) is where I do work on my main tree, and then personally I will do a one-way sync (so that it can't "corrupt" my tree) up to my GrampsWeb docker frontend so that the rest of my family can view the data.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago

I think a small linode is 12 bucks a month, and putting cloud flare in front it is free. Can add some s3 storage for a few more bucks too. They also have a free firewall you can use outside of the VMs.