simple install a strfry relay on a 4gb 50 gb vps and implement a simple whitelist for writing rights. a few of these vps or vm's you can connect each other through the router funktion of strfry.
Discussion
Thanks. How would this scale, as new relays are requested?
Harmless for a medium-sized community. full public relay can quickly get out of hand, the database can go up to 50 or more. with ram requirements in the size of the database. if ram is smaller than the size of the database then it becomes uncomfortable. scale it with nginx and several vps and the routing function. as mentioned, no problem for a medium-sized community with low costs.
Thanks. When you say low cost… what kind of traffic capacity are we talking about per 4gb VPS? Can I put multiple relays on one VPs? Just containers on the OS? Assuming one IP per VPS? How to route subdomains to each container?
All conceivable combinations {fee/foo.sub.domain} and several IP's are possible. data streams and organisation with [strfry sync up/down router] and [nginx upstream/least con]. first starting point is
https://github.com/hoytech/strfry/tree/master#readme
or
https://github.com/hoytech/strfry/tree/master/docs
The limiting or critical factor is always the ram. each sub domain or ip can of course have its own database. but of course you get to limit faster this way because the read/write accesses on ssd become too high when db-size>ram, good starting point here is vps with 8 gb ram.
PS: Traffic is never a problem, because we are only talking about small json/text objects here. 30/50 GB/month..!?. But as I said, with a well running public relay, it quickly becomes more.
Don't forget the long-term availability. with a limited community, the limit doesn't come so quickly. but people still want to be able to access their posts after, for example, 8 months... An open public relay shows this limit early on, with a smaller community the problem of the size of the database only arises after a longer period of time.
Thank you. Im starting to understand.
So… if I wanna run multiple private community relays (5-50 users each) but imma start with just one private (possibly 10x larger) relay, how many could I run in a single VPS? 8GB limit on DBs seems tiny…would that apply cumulatively to ALL the DBs for the relays in that machine? If I wrap each relay in a container… I’m still foggy on how the DNS pointing works within the VPS. Thanks.
You can start with 8 gb on one machine in different db/dir locations. Most providers allow the vps to upgrade to more ram or disc storage later.
So like -> [foo.domain.com] on nginx{} >localhost:5555 and [fee.domain.com] to strfy2 on [localhost:6666], a strfry router without own database on [localhost:7777] ...on the same dir location and/or another ...and so on and on... use nginx proxy/upstream/load balancing function..all as you like.
As far as the ui is concerned, basic authentication is certainly enough at the beginning (maybe everything also with nginx). A little more sec+ with fail2ban or IP restriction. A nice interface around it can come later, or embed it in an already existing one. Gradually expand more and more, depending on demand. This is the most cost-efficient variant.
See also -->
https://www.server-world.info/en/note?os=Debian_12&p=nginx&f=11
and
https://www.server-world.info/en/note?os=Debian_12&p=nginx&f=5