Server migration

Hey there! If you’re a frequent user of this website, you may have noticed: nothing, hopefully!

I’ve recently ensmallened the server I’m using as a host: where previously it was a shared Linode VM (4GB RAM, 80GB storage), I’ve migrated it down to their “Nanode” offering (1GB RAM, 25GB storage).

Let me rewind first, and explain my setup.

I’d been meaning to follow the “3-2-1 Rule” for backing up some of my digital… legacy? Junk drawer? (“For any important data, there should be 3 copies, on 2 different storage media, with 1 copy being off-site”). I’m starting with my photo collection (~50GB total), potentially adding more to the pile down the line.

In part not to pay Amazon, Google, or Micro$oft, specifically, and in part to learn something, I ended up on a solution where I rented an S3 bucket on Linode, as well as a compute server to run Nextcloud—actually reusing the same server that is (was) simultaneously serving this website.

Nextcloud seems pretty neat, though in my case, I was running it purely to exist as a thin client for interacting with that S3 backup: viewing the files online, as well as using the Nextcloud desktop sync client to do the actual backups.

The setup worked, but in the end, I wasn’t using a tenth of Nextcloud’s functionality, and the desktop client was giving me issues (signing me out every time I shut down the computer, which is every day).

I decided to simplify.

Long story short, I previously had the following:

• an S3 bucket @ $5/mo (storage for all my backups)
• the 4GB Linode VM @ $24/mo (serving this website, and a Nextcloud thin client to access my backups)

I’ve trimmed that down to:

• a 1GB Nanode VM @ $5/mo (serving this website)
• a 200GB Proton drive @ $5/mo (for backups)

This is all in the fiat currency of the American republic, but you get the idea. By Grabthar’s Hammer, what a savings!

So, here’s hoping the smaller VM saves me a bit of money, maybe even a bit of energy, and continues to serve this website well.

Postscript

I’d chosen Proton Drive for the backups, since I had to choose something, and it isn’t one of the Big Three. However, separately, since Win10 went EOL, and again refusing to bin my entirely functional home desktop to stay in lock step with M$’s destructive treadmill, I dropped Ubuntu in its place. Not without some growing pains, one of which being… lack of a native Proton Drive sync client. But, I’m working on it. That’s the joy of anti-corporate liberation: you’re always Working On It.