state-of-the-cloud-2022-09.txt (6657B) [raw]
1 # State of the Cloud 2 3 _Published: September 21, 2022_ 4 5 As promised, this post is a followup to my previous post on 6 the [state of my homelab](/blog/state-of-the-homelab-2022-09.html). 7 8 ## My Approach to the Cloud 9 10 Before listing off hosts, I thought it'd be worth a discussion of 11 how I approach "the cloud". I'll start off by apologizing for 12 using the word "cloud" so much--it does feel buzzwordy 13 but it's significantly shorter than "services hosted by cloud providers". 14 15 In general, I prefer to self host my own services, and have been since 16 [2020](/blog/self-hosted.html). I self host because: 17 18 - It's a great learning opportunity 19 - I prefer controlling my data 20 - I feel it's important to maintain some semblance of an internet 21 where anyone can run their own node (not just big companies). 22 23 There are, however, pragmatic limitations. I don't own the hardware 24 in a rack in the datacenter because I simply have no need for that 25 kind of compute power. Likewise, I don't run the services off of my 26 home network because most internet providers explicitly disallow it 27 in their terms of service. So "self hosting" is more about running 28 software on a VM in "the cloud" and minimizing my reliance on hosted 29 services. 30 31 ## alexkarle.com 32 33 The server hosting this site is a base-tier VM (1GB RAM/1 CPU) from 34 [OpenBSD.Amsterdam](https://openbsd.amsterdam/). It's reasonably 35 priced at 60 euros/yr (Linode has the same host spec for $60/yr), 36 especially when you consider the fact that 10-15 of those are donated 37 to the OpenBSD foundation. 38 39 Ultimately I chose it because: 40 41 1. It's the only service I know running OpenBSD VMs on OpenBSD servers 42 and that's just plain cool. This really has nothing to do with 43 security concerns, I just appreciate the fact that _someone_ is 44 doing it (and that they donate to the OpenBSD foundation!) 45 2. It's so small scale that you end up emailing a real live human to 46 register and for support which has been really pleasant (and said human 47 is also super cool and gives [conference talks about the 48 setup](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TuWCR9X-wY)--thanks 49 Mischa if you're reading this!) 50 3. They [publish their scripts](https://git.high5.nl/) used to provision 51 and deploy VMs, which is also really cool (have I said "cool" 52 enough?) 53 54 I've been using them for a little over a year now and am a happy 55 renewing customer. My only qualm has been that, being in Amsterdam, 56 the latency from Boston is noticeable. 57 58 I can't say how well it would take load, since I've never had any 59 real traffic spikes. If my site got uber-popular I'd re-evaluate the 60 Acme theme first and then maybe make sure the VM is doing OK :) 61 62 As it says on the [homepage](/), this server hosts: 63 64 - This blog / related archives (like jam setlists) 65 - [https://euchre.live] 66 - [My gopherhole](gopher://alexkarle.com) 67 - [Several git projects](https://git.alexkarle.com) 68 - Email -- I use the akarle.com domain for outbound mail from 69 `cron` so I don't have to ssh in to check if my TLS cert renewal 70 failed (without tarninshing my personal alexkarle.com reputation) 71 - The [soju](https://soju.im) IRC bouncer 72 73 This is the second iteration of alexkarle.com, the first being on 74 Linode (running the same software). Migrating was manual, and I wish 75 I blogged about it at the time--I'm sure I learned something in the 76 process. Having been running for 1+ years now, the minutiae of the 77 configs escape me a bit (although I of course [track them privately 78 in git](/blog/use-git.html)). 79 80 ## garbash.com 81 82 Garbash, the [tilde that I started with a friend](/blog/starting-a-tilde.html), 83 runs on Linode on a base $5/mo shared 1CPU/1RAM VM. It's running 84 OpenBSD since booting a new Linux VM on Linode is just too dang 85 easy (I really enjoy their developer experience!) and we needed 86 a challenge. 87 88 Linode has treated me really well over the past few years, and I 89 would use them for any professional work if I could (I've never 90 worked somewhere early-stage enough to dictate the cloud provider). 91 92 I chose them originally because I wanted a hosting provider that wasn't 93 one of the big three (Amazon, Google, Microsoft). Since self hosting 94 is about exercising my freedoms, it feels backwards to do it on the 95 servers of some of the largest tech monopolies. 96 97 The tilde project includes hosting almost all the same services 98 (email, wireguard, web, git, etc) as alexkarle.com. 99 100 ## Looking Forward 101 102 Every once and a while I kick around the idea of reducing my 103 "sysadmin debt" and moving from self-hosted to "foss-hosted". It's 104 still really important to me to stay indie and support small 105 hosting providers, but I feel like a lot of the learning took 106 place in the first year and has left me with only maintenance 107 (and small bills to pay). 108 109 I've been a paying subscriber to [Sourcehut](https://sourcehut.org) 110 for almost 3 years now and in that time they've released 111 several projects that would alleviate some load: 112 113 - [chat.sr.ht](https://chat.sr.ht) would save me from hosting soju 114 (there is the real concern about someone having my personal chat 115 logs, but realistically I mostly lurk on IRC and all the channels 116 I'm in are public anyways--no private dms occurring to be worried 117 about and for those I could always connect directly/avoid the 118 bouncer). 119 - [sourcehut pages](https://srht.site) would easily host my site 120 (it actually [already does](https://akarle.srht.site) in my 121 experimenting with foss-hosted) 122 - Of course their [git hosting](https://git.sr.ht), which I already 123 use (and link to in blog posts since it has whole file blobs at 124 every commit unlike my `stagit(1)` setup; I don't want dead links 125 in posts!) 126 127 More problematic would be finding a home for euchre.live. Since 128 it requires a running Perl backend, finding hosting might be a challenge. 129 That said, the project hasn't seen much love since I started seeing 130 my family for dinner and games in person (after COVID concerns 131 became lesser), so I may sunset it soon. 132 133 Lastly, my gopherhole would have to find a new home. [SDF](https://sdf.org) 134 is a good candidate since it has [free Gopher hosting](https://gopher.club), 135 but I would lose my personal domain and, unless I'm missing something, 136 it's a stretch to call SDF "foss" since most of their code is proprietary 137 (no shade on the tilde--the community is incredible and it's amazing 138 to have lasted 35 years). 139 140 All things considered, the 5-10 minutes I spend per month 141 `syspatch(8)`-ing my servers is worth the freedoms that come 142 with root access and being able to run the software I want under 143 my own domain name, at least for now. If and when I need to migrate 144 hosting providers, I may feel differently about setting it all up 145 again a third time.