Asklemmy - what specs for a self-hosted Lemmy instance?

ParanoidPizzas@aussie.zone to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 14 points –

Hi all, a shout-out for assistance. I'm considering hosting a Lemmy instance (assuming I can pass the wife test on costs) and I'm looking for some guidance on specs.

Can anyone who's currently hosting an instance (or who knows the inner workings of one) please reply with:

  • specs on the hardware / VPS that's hosting your instance
  • how many users / posts that's supporting
  • what the system load looks like with the above
  • if locally hosting, the type of bandwidth requirements you're seeing

Thank you!!

7

please use /c/lemmy_support@lemmy.ml for general support questions (or for this one you could also ask in one of the selfhosted communities.)

i'm deleting this per asklemmy rule 3.

This is like asking how long a rope is.

It all depends on how many users you have making requests daily.

If the instance is only for you then you could host it at home on a $50 Raspberry Pi.

Not exactly, it's a valid question because it's not really obvious what actions cause an increase in resource usage. How much data is generated by federating with an instance? Does Lemmy mirror any community a user subscribes to? For how long is data from other instances kept? Does the instance commenting or the instance hosting the post store comments under that post? I don't know how Lemmy works in that regard, it might be that a million users can use a raspi if they're only subscribed to the same few communities.

I am hoping to host an instance with one community to which anyone can subscribe but on which I will be the only user (as admin). Would my Raspberry Pi 4 suffice?

how many users, for yourself and some friends a small droplet or base level VPS will likely do the job.