Hey, your ~~benevolent dictator~~ server admin here. We've just about reached the limit of the VPS I currently have. So we're upgrading for the very first time!
Old server:
2 virtual cores (shared, Intel)
4GB RAM
New server:
4 cores (2 dedicated, 2 shared AMD EPYC 7402)
16GB RAM
We've mostly outgrown the RAM limitation. In normal operation it hovered at 3.5GB lately. But when backup tasks run or during particularly busy times we'd dip into the swap memory, which significantly slows things down even on NVME storage. We've been alright on CPU but this should futureproof things for a while. We'll also be getting IPv6, so that's cool. Expect max downtime of two hours if all goes well. Follow along at https://status.thelemmy.club
Also note our IP address will change, and the old IP might be stuck in various caches on your devices.
Now about costs (per month):
-
VPS rental: $15
-
Backblaze B2 storage for backups (assuming we don't need to download them): $1.30
-
Cloudflare R2 object storage for media: ~$1 (haven't been using this long enough to be billed yet, but that's my estimate)
-
~~Netdata cloud resource and performance monitoring: $3~~ After review, the free tier is just fine
-
Domain name: $0.84
-
E-Mail service: ~0.50
Total: $18.64/mo or $223.68/year
As you can see, that's not a TON of money. I'm priveleged enough to be able to afford this, and possibly a bit higher fairly comfortably.
That being said if you appreciate my work, I have set up donations at https://opencollective.com/thelemmyclub/
Don't worry, even if nobody ever donates The Lemmy Club isn't going anywhere. However if we do continue growing, I will have to shut off new signups at some point unless there's enough donations to keep up. And they will only ever be donations, there won't be any exclusive access to any sort of site feature or anything gross like that.
Federated social media free from ads and corporate greed is only possible through the goodwill of developers, admins, and users who donate.
Thanks so much for being a user of The Lemmy Club!