Putting idling lifetime VPS to good use

Ympker · July 2023

Currently my two ZAP Hosting lifetime VPS are mostly idling (except for acting as personal vpn wg/ovpn), which is true to the LE nature, but also not that satisfying. So I thought I'd ask what you would be hosting on such specs, or whether resources can be donated while idling (e.g. to help research against cancer/other diseases)?

I have the following two VPS available:

1. Finland LXC VPS:

Basic System Information:

Uptime : 0 days, 0 hours, 14 minutes
Processor : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2680 v2 @ 2.80GHz
CPU cores : 2 @ 3131.169 MHz
AES-NI : ✔ Enabled
VM-x/AMD-V : ✔ Enabled
RAM : 8.0 GiB
Swap : 0.0 KiB
Disk : 24.5 GiB
Distro : Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Kernel : 5.4.65-1-pve
VM Type : LXC
Net Online : IPv4

2. Germany Rootserver KVM:

There's some things I have thought of but discarded: Own Uptime Robot (Hetrixtools is just better and I love it), hosting a random csgo gameserver for ppl to play on (I am in no clan anymore so it would be just one server out of many some random people may enjoy/or not), host mirrors for debian/ubuntu (there are enough already?!).

What I had in mind for these servers was to be a fun environment for me to try out various apps from awesome-selfhosted, learn docker etc, but I haven't had much time lately.

Anyway, any ideas are welcome
If you recommend a use-case for a specific vps of the two, please say so and why.
Otherwhise I will assume that your suggestion would run just fine on both vps.

Chievo · July 2023

Go for learning docker , better than games. Games are wasted time

Ympker · July 2023

@Chievo said:
Go for learning docker , better than games. Games are wasted time

Oh, I wasn't even going to play on the csgo server myself. It was more of a thought of just hosting one "for the csgo community". Since that's very vague as I no longer am part of any clan or the like I discarded that idea anyway

Abdullah · July 2023

Globalping probe https://github.com/jsdelivr/globalping-probe

It uses docker so you can have other services running side-by-side easily.

Ympker · July 2023

@Abdullah said:
Globalping probe https://github.com/jsdelivr/globalping-probe

It uses docker so you can have other services running side-by-side easily.

Also a good idea, thanks

MallocVoidstar · July 2023

I run ArchiveTeam Warrior on some of my servers using Docker. It helps archive websites; the data ends up in the Internet Archive eventually. https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/Main_Page#Warrior-based_projects

Bandwidth/disk usage depends on what you're archiving. Stuff like reddit is mostly comments/images, so it's not much, whereas single YouTube videos can be >8GB. It can hit rate-limits depending on the site, so if you're going to use the server as a VPN to e.g. browse reddit, you probably don't want to also be trying to archive reddit, since their rate limits are much stricter for datacenter IPs than residential.

root · July 2023

I recommend Folding@home for donating computing power + Tor Relay for donating bandwidth + GlobalPing Probe for helping out with some location ping signals.

Ympker · July 2023

@root said:
I recommend Folding@home for donating computing power + Tor Relay for donating bandwidth + GlobalPing Probe for helping out with some location ping signals.

Thanks for the suggestions! I probably wouldn't feel comfortable with anything Tor related after what happened to @William , but I'll have a look at the other two

rm_ · July 2023

Likely a bad idea to do Folding@home stuff on a VPS, you could get terminated for CPU abuse. And it's not a huge amount of CPU anyway, and not comparable to what GPUs can do which excel at those projects.

I suggest a relay to let people bypass censorship:
https://forum.torproject.org/t/tor-relays-help-turkmens-to-bypass-internet-censorship-run-an-obfs4-bridge/7002
A bridge relay specifically, will not use a ton of CPU or bandwidth.

Ympker · July 2023

@rm_ said:
Likely a bad idea to do Folding@home stuff on a VPS, you could get terminated for CPU abuse. And it's not a huge amount of CPU anyway, and not comparable to what GPUs can do which excel at those projects.

I suggest a relay to let people bypass censorship:
https://forum.torproject.org/t/tor-relays-help-turkmens-to-bypass-internet-censorship-run-an-obfs4-bridge/7002
A bridge relay specifically, will not use a ton of CPU or bandwidth.

Fair point. Wouldn't want to give ZAP reason to terminate my lifetime vps for "abuse" of resources.
As I mentioned above, not feeling like doing anything TOR related to be honest.

root · July 2023

@Ympker said:

@root said:
I recommend Folding@home for donating computing power + Tor Relay for donating bandwidth + GlobalPing Probe for helping out with some location ping signals.

Thanks for the suggestions! I probably wouldn't feel comfortable with anything Tor related after what happened to @William , but I'll have a look at the other two

That was a Tor Exit node - of @William. Meanwhile please note I held a Tor Exit at Terrahost for a couple of years. I declared it to Terrahost as Tor Exit and configured it as advised by their rules. It worked flawlessly - no issues and no complaints whatsoever.

Tor Relay is not Tor Exit, so you should not have any issues, whatever the provider.

root · July 2023

@rm_ said:
Likely a bad idea to do Folding@home stuff on a VPS, you could get terminated for CPU abuse. And it's not a huge amount of CPU anyway, and not comparable to what GPUs can do which excel at those projects.

@Ympker - Maybe not related with Folding@home per se, but one could use something like:

"cpulimit" to limit the CPU usage of a specified software;
"cgroup-tools" to limit the CPU usage of a whole user.

yokowasis · July 2023

Free API for :

ip query, something like ifconfig.me
date time query
visitor counter

it shouldn't took much resources unless it goes viral, and get hit 1 million / s

loay · July 2023

Try yunohost, it is very easy to install and maintain and has many packaged apps

https://yunohost.org/

hornet · July 2023

How much did each cost you?

Also, you might donate them (their use) to a local code club...

Ympker · July 2023

@hornet said:
How much did each cost you?

Also, you might donate them (their use) to a local code club...

Lifetime VPS LXC Finland 80€ iirc, Rootserver KVM Germany 150€ iirc.
Not bad for a one time fee. And I can always come back when I have use for it instead of ordering new vps

Abdullah · July 2023

@Ympker said:

Thanks for the suggestions! I probably wouldn't feel comfortable with anything Tor related after what happened to @William , but I'll have a look at the other two

I feel the same

Flying_Chinaman · July 2023

@loay said: https://yunohost.org/

I host myself, Yo!

Yo I like that yo-yo style

Encoders · July 2023

If you're interested being naughty, seek whatever book you interest in libgen / annas-archive, then pin their ipfs hash in your vps (yes you'll be seeding it).

participating into decentralized web is good in general, if you're into that kind of thing

sgheghele · July 2023

@Ympker said: Fair point. Wouldn't want to give ZAP reason to terminate my lifetime vps for "abuse" of resources.

As I mentioned above, not feeling like doing anything TOR related to be honest.

They allow it! Even an exit node. But I would not host one myself. I do host a relay, though.

Ympker · July 2023

@sgheghele said:

@Ympker said: Fair point. Wouldn't want to give ZAP reason to terminate my lifetime vps for "abuse" of resources.

As I mentioned above, not feeling like doing anything TOR related to be honest.

They allow it! Even an exit node. But I would not host one myself. I do host a relay, though.

Good to know, still not my cup of tea

@Encoders said:
If you're interested being naughty, seek whatever book you interest in libgen / annas-archive, then pin their ipfs hash in your vps (yes you'll be seeding it).

participating into decentralized web is good in general, if you're into that kind of thing

Too grey area, unfortunately. I do know libgen, but being from Germany I don't feel comfortable in participating in any such activity.

I guess I will just play around with docker or find a use-case for myself, as the more I am thinking about where to donate resources to, the more the question "what will they actually be doing with my vps/what about liability" is impending.
So I guess, I'll look for an option I know 100% what is going on
Time to read some of the "100 projects for your vps" blogs again.

Otus9051 · July 2023

ripe atlas probe to get unlimited ripe atlas credits with which you can do absolutely fucking nothing (or maybe ping random people)

driib · July 2023

So, some ideas:

ArchiveTeam Warrior mentioned earlier. You can leave the default project or pick the one you like.
ArchiveBox
UptimeKuma
TheLounge

I recommend to run everything above using Docker Compose.

I would also suggest to check out one of these:

n8n
task-spooler
huginn

In general, I'd suggest to run something for yourself on those servers and then you may get ideas of how to help the community.

somik · July 2023

@Chievo said:
Go for learning docker , better than games. Games are wasted time

Spoken like someone who has seen the current prices of games and gaming accessories and decided to start learning docker.

ariq01 · July 2023

Have you try to deploy this?

https://github.com/immich-app/immich

Putting idling lifetime VPS to good use

Basic System Information:

Comments

I host myself, Yo!