If I were to create a new instance of lemmy do I set up my own server in my house, or am I just creating an instance on one of the lemmy servers?
In your heart ❤️
where do the instances actually reside?
Submitted 1 year ago by andrewta@lemmy.world to [deleted]
Comments
Tronn4@lemmy.world 1 year ago
MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
This is the only thing that makes sense, considering everyone is a bot except me.
Karlos_Cantana@sopuli.xyz 1 year ago
That sounds like something a bit would say.
notasandwich1948@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
normally you’d rent out a server (vps) and run it on there but hosting from your house would also work. the whole idea about Lemmy is that each instance is ran on different servers by different people
Mrmcmisterson@slightlyawesome.ninja 1 year ago
I’d be hesitant to run it at your own house. While you can use a cloudflare tunnel, I’d never expose anything in my home network to the outside.
Digital ocean is cheap, there’s another called hetzner which looks also pretty cheap. So you start will rent 1 core VPS for 5 bucks, it’s enough to run your own instance but not really enough to host any communities.
bdonvr@thelemmy.club 1 year ago
I host a few purely personal services exposed to the net…
But when I wanted to set up a lemmy instance I got a VPS. Too public.
And since I had more resources than I needed I opened it for others to register too :)
At least one user has surpassed me in number of comments (~600) so I helped the fediverse a bit
reversebananimals@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yeah, most likely your ISP will just stop you. Home internet plans in the US today almost all disallow using the service for public hosting.
Asudox@lemmy.world 1 year ago
+1 for Hetzner. Their servers are reliable and reasonably cheap.
meldrik@lemmy.wtf 1 year ago
A Lemmy instance runs on a computer (server) and that server could be anything from a VPS you rent to your own computer in your home.
My instance is hosted on my own hardware, at my home.
MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Usually high up in the clouds.
001100010010@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
Very high, you need grass to get up there.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 year ago
DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de 1 year ago
In most cases, you’d rent a VPS (Virtual Private Server) from one of numerous providers who have data centres all over the world.
It’s possible to host an instance at your home or whatever but residential internet connections are usually noticeably slower for people accessing them remotely.
One of the main benefits of decentralised platforms like lemmy is that everyone has the option to host their stuff on hardware they control. Even if you’re using a VPS in a data centre somewhere, you have some level of control.
Blaze@sopuli.xyz 1 year ago
Did you have a look at this guide? lemm.ee/post/37715
Kurt@lemmy.one 1 year ago
I’m running a Pixelfed instance off of an old PC in my house. Eventually I 'd like to set up a personal Lemmy instance as well.
bezerker03@lemmy.bezzie.world 1 year ago
Mine is on a server I rent but there’s absolutely no reason it can’t be in my house. My other federated servers are.
20gramsWrench@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
“lemmy” itself is just a type of website we call instances, so people and organization host it themselves in the place of their choice
Reva@startrek.website 1 year ago
One thing to add onto what has already been said: many internet providers do not like you setting up public services via your home network because it can drive a LOT of traffic into the neighborhood and may be a security risk. You most likely would like to rent a server from a server farm somewhere.
nottelling@lemmy.world 1 year ago
There are no “the Lemmy servers”, since there is no central “Lemmy” central organization to host and run such servers.
So yeah, you can run it on whatever you can find that has available disk space, CPU cycles, and an Internet connection. Hosted VPS, colocated hardware server, raspberry pi, your gaming rig, AWS containers, whatever.
DrQuint@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Brb, taping some PS3’s together.
ShittyKopper@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 year ago
if only I hadn’t bricked my jailbroken ps3. rust should be able to compile down to ppc64le Linux binaries
Caketaco@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Can’t wait for someone to run an instance on a homebrewed DS and see people asking why “lemmy.ds is down all the time??”
Valmond4@lemmy.mindoki.com 1 year ago
Or a Samsung fridge.
The race is open!
4am@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Or, to put it in a simple one-liner: Instances are servers.
However you would set up any other server, you set up a Lemmy instance. There is no central datacenter as there would be with a corporate-owned site like Reddit.
Think of it like a bunch of little messages board sites and they automatically import posts from other message board sites - because that’s exactly what it is.
While that’s a bit different to navigate than what we are used to, an instance (aka a server) going down or becoming hostile and being defederated only removes that one server from the network.
It’s similar to how IRC networks function; except with those, the server owners decide what servers they link up with. With Lemmy (and other ActivityPub based services), the users decide (by subscribing). Instance admins can block (“defederate”) other instances though.