Selfhosted @lemmy.world rambos @lemm.ee 12 mo. ago

Best VPS for gramps

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

36 comments

Also consider cloudflare tunnels. It’s really easy. You can deploy the tunnel software in a Sidecar container and then website goes brrrrrr.
- I completely agree with this. Seems like a stellar use for either Cloudflare Tunnels or Tailscale’s similar Funnel feature.
  
  Connect it only to the gramos deployment and that will be the only piece of your setup available publicly.
- Do you mean cloudflare tunnels and hosting on my homelab? I have 40+ services running on my home server and feels like its best to isolate as much as possible since I don't trust my security skills yet xD First time I hear about Sidecar, I'm gonna do some research thanks!
  
  The capitalization was an accident. I just mean you deploy CF tunnel software in a separate container inside your application stack (I use docker compose, but you can use whatever) and basically forget about it.
  
  Security-wise the attack surface is relatively small, but only you know your threat model and risk appetite.
  
  Edit: like this
  
  https://pycvala.de/blog/cloudflare/cloudflare-tunnels-deploying-secure-applications-with-docker-compose/
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).
- AFAIK you'd still need to leave your card details to use free offers. No thanks, I'd rather pay $5 but in crypto.
  
  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.
- Oh thx, I didn't think about free options
I have a 5 USD per month VPS on Vultr.com
- 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
  
  I've had multiple $5 Vultr VPS's for about 5 years for simple purposes and they've been reliable and performed well.
  
  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.
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.
- Thx,Ill stick with ipv4 then.
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.
- Im quite new into this, but my gramps can be accessed over web using login.
  
  Ill check webtrees thx
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.
- Thx. That's another way, Ill deffo try that, at least to learn more
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
- 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
  
  I actually wasn't aware that it could be run as a web service. I'd say do that.

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]

I honestly though you were talking about our grandpa
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/
- Wow thats cheap. I guess its fine to use racknerd even from Europe. I might get 1 year just because its cheap
  
  Oh absolutely! I wouldn't trust them with anything mission critical but for little projects here and there they're absolutely amazing.
A good recomendations is AWS , after verifing your ID with a VCC, you should have 12 months of freetier products .
You can use the Gramps desktop app on your normal computer and then host a frontend using Gramps.js
- 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
  
  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.
Check out ServerHunter
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.

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