4 ms·

Show HN: Weekend project - Powerful Webserver on Tiny Hardware

15 points by VierScar 13y ago

arb99 13y ago
run https://www.blitz.io/ https://www.blitz.io/ on it
- VierScar 13y ago
  Cool - I need a tool like this. Is there one which doesn't require me to sign up though? It's annoying registering so many accounts :/
lgeek 13y ago
I was expecting the 'tiny hardware' to be some microcontroller. A dual core Cortex A7 @ 1 GHz with 1 GB of RAM is comparable in performance with lower spec VPSes that many people use to host personal websites/blogs. I guess the author was refering to the physical size. [strike]I'm interested where to get a cubieboard2 for $50 since it is sold for $59 by the manufacturer.[/strike] No source of cheap cubieboards. :(
- VierScar 13y ago
  I have used micro-controllers, but hosting a webserver on one of them would be a mission! I'm not sure, but I would've thought majority of shared hosting providers have much higher CPU, RAM and ethernet speeds? When I said "about $50" I did mean about $50 - I'm from Aus and my friend got it for me (+shipping) for over $70AUD - I don't keep track of money that exactly.
  - adduc 13y ago
    There's a whole community built around making the most out of restricted server resources over at http://www.lowendtalk.com/ http://www.lowendtalk.com/ . People very regularly utilize virtual servers with 64MB of RAM, 10mbit or less network, and very minimal disk space. Nginx will run with just about anything you throw at it.
  - lgeek 13y ago
    > I would've thought majority of shared hosting providers have much higher CPU, RAM and ethernet speeds They do, but when you rent a VPS you're essentially getting to use that hardware in timeslices (and you only get a part of the RAM). Depending on provider, the percentage of time your VM is active (and so it gets to use these resources) is either enforced by the hypervisor, is a result of fair scheduling between clients sharing the hardware, or a combination of both. I don't have Cortex-A7 hardware to benchmark and compare the CPU speed with VPSes, but I think it should be close to lower end offerings. 1 GB of RAM is usually not even the lowest offering, e.g. DigitalOcean[0], prgmr[1]. [0] https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing [1] http://prgmr.com/xen/ http://prgmr.com/xen/
  - Spittie 13y ago
    >but I would've thought majority of shared hosting providers have much higher CPU, RAM and ethernet speeds? Not always - for example I have one VPS with 64mb of ram, on a shared 1gbit line, and one with 128mb of ram on a shared 100mbit line. I use them for TT-RSS (nginx + php-apc + php-fpm + postgresql), a self-hosted image uploader (nginx + php-fpm), ZNC and an Irc Bot. You'd be surprised by how few resources nginx (and similiar, like lighttpd) uses.
- anujanpan 13y ago
  It's $49 at https://cubieboard.myshopify.com/ https://cubieboard.myshopify.com/
  - lgeek 13y ago
    The author is describing a cubieboard2, which is $59: https://cubieboard.myshopify.com/collections/home-slide/products/cubieboard2 https://cubieboard.myshopify.com/collections/home-slide/prod...
    - VierScar 13y ago
      No - Only cubieboard1 with the A20 - I believe the cubieboard2 has gigabit ethernet and wireless.
      - lgeek 13y ago
        No, cubieboard and cubieboard2 are identical apart from the SoC. Both use RTL8201CP as an Ethernet PHY, which only supports 10/100 mbps. Neither has WiFI.
illicium 13y ago
This is nothing out of the ordinary, but the Cubieboard platform caught my eye. I like that it has SATA, making it especially suited for server/NAS type applications.
AYBABTME 13y ago
If you want Go without Perl, compile it from source. It's a 2 min story. You checkout the latest stable branch and : cd src/ ./all.bash # takes maybe 2 min on my laptop, dunno on a small board Then set your $GOPATH and add `bin/` to your path. Then scrap PHP. Then scrap nginx. Then just use Go.
cabirum 13y ago
This is how the body font looks on Windows/Chrome: http://i.imgur.com/98RCkzv.png http://i.imgur.com/98RCkzv.png
- michaelwww 13y ago
  I turned ClearType off and it looks like that too. All text looks better with ClearType on. I don't know why it's not the default setting.
- VierScar 13y ago
  That looks horrible! Sorry - I trusted it because it's from Google's Web Fonts... :/ I'll work on finding a few better fonts that work across platforms better. Thanks for letting me know.
Spittie 13y ago
Where are you hosting it? From your home connection? For anyone interested, there are several[1] provider that provide free or cheap raspberry pi colocation. I'm almost sure that they wouldn't have a problem colocating a cubieboard (or similiar) if you shot them an email. Regarding performance, I'm sure a raspberry (which is less powerful thana cubieboard) is more than enough to serve static pages, and even dynamic pages if your site doesn't get a lot of hits. [1] http://raspberrycolocation.com/ http://raspberrycolocation.com/, http://www.micron21.com/raspberrypi-colocation.php http://www.micron21.com/raspberrypi-colocation.php, http://www.edis.at/en/server/colocation/austria/raspberrypi/ http://www.edis.at/en/server/colocation/austria/raspberrypi/, https://www.google.com/search?q=raspberry+pi+colocating https://www.google.com/search?q=raspberry+pi+colocating
- VierScar 13y ago
  Wow I had no idea about colocation - seems pretty cool! Yeah I'm hosting it from a home connection, and it's hosting dynamic content - even though it could just be made static I wanted to test it - using php and hitting redis - looks like it works pretty well!

15 points by VierScar 13y ago

arb99 13y ago

run https://www.blitz.io/ https://www.blitz.io/ on it

VierScar 13y ago
Cool - I need a tool like this. Is there one which doesn't require me to sign up though? It's annoying registering so many accounts :/

lgeek 13y ago

I was expecting the 'tiny hardware' to be some microcontroller. A dual core Cortex A7 @ 1 GHz with 1 GB of RAM is comparable in performance with lower spec VPSes that many people use to host personal websites/blogs. I guess the author was refering to the physical size. [strike]I'm interested where to get a cubieboard2 for $50 since it is sold for $59 by the manufacturer.[/strike] No source of cheap cubieboards. :(

VierScar 13y ago
I have used micro-controllers, but hosting a webserver on one of them would be a mission! I'm not sure, but I would've thought majority of shared hosting providers have much higher CPU, RAM and ethernet speeds? When I said "about $50" I did mean about $50 - I'm from Aus and my friend got it for me (+shipping) for over $70AUD - I don't keep track of money that exactly.
- adduc 13y ago
  There's a whole community built around making the most out of restricted server resources over at http://www.lowendtalk.com/ http://www.lowendtalk.com/ . People very regularly utilize virtual servers with 64MB of RAM, 10mbit or less network, and very minimal disk space. Nginx will run with just about anything you throw at it.
- lgeek 13y ago
  > I would've thought majority of shared hosting providers have much higher CPU, RAM and ethernet speeds They do, but when you rent a VPS you're essentially getting to use that hardware in timeslices (and you only get a part of the RAM). Depending on provider, the percentage of time your VM is active (and so it gets to use these resources) is either enforced by the hypervisor, is a result of fair scheduling between clients sharing the hardware, or a combination of both. I don't have Cortex-A7 hardware to benchmark and compare the CPU speed with VPSes, but I think it should be close to lower end offerings. 1 GB of RAM is usually not even the lowest offering, e.g. DigitalOcean[0], prgmr[1]. [0] https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing [1] http://prgmr.com/xen/ http://prgmr.com/xen/
- Spittie 13y ago
  >but I would've thought majority of shared hosting providers have much higher CPU, RAM and ethernet speeds? Not always - for example I have one VPS with 64mb of ram, on a shared 1gbit line, and one with 128mb of ram on a shared 100mbit line. I use them for TT-RSS (nginx + php-apc + php-fpm + postgresql), a self-hosted image uploader (nginx + php-fpm), ZNC and an Irc Bot. You'd be surprised by how few resources nginx (and similiar, like lighttpd) uses.
anujanpan 13y ago
It's $49 at https://cubieboard.myshopify.com/ https://cubieboard.myshopify.com/
- lgeek 13y ago
  The author is describing a cubieboard2, which is $59: https://cubieboard.myshopify.com/collections/home-slide/products/cubieboard2 https://cubieboard.myshopify.com/collections/home-slide/prod...
  - VierScar 13y ago
    No - Only cubieboard1 with the A20 - I believe the cubieboard2 has gigabit ethernet and wireless.
    - lgeek 13y ago
      No, cubieboard and cubieboard2 are identical apart from the SoC. Both use RTL8201CP as an Ethernet PHY, which only supports 10/100 mbps. Neither has WiFI.

illicium 13y ago

This is nothing out of the ordinary, but the Cubieboard platform caught my eye. I like that it has SATA, making it especially suited for server/NAS type applications.

AYBABTME 13y ago

If you want Go without Perl, compile it from source. It's a 2 min story. You checkout the latest stable branch and : cd src/ ./all.bash # takes maybe 2 min on my laptop, dunno on a small board Then set your $GOPATH and add `bin/` to your path. Then scrap PHP. Then scrap nginx. Then just use Go.

cabirum 13y ago

This is how the body font looks on Windows/Chrome: http://i.imgur.com/98RCkzv.png http://i.imgur.com/98RCkzv.png

michaelwww 13y ago
I turned ClearType off and it looks like that too. All text looks better with ClearType on. I don't know why it's not the default setting.
VierScar 13y ago
That looks horrible! Sorry - I trusted it because it's from Google's Web Fonts... :/ I'll work on finding a few better fonts that work across platforms better. Thanks for letting me know.

Spittie 13y ago

Where are you hosting it? From your home connection? For anyone interested, there are several[1] provider that provide free or cheap raspberry pi colocation. I'm almost sure that they wouldn't have a problem colocating a cubieboard (or similiar) if you shot them an email. Regarding performance, I'm sure a raspberry (which is less powerful thana cubieboard) is more than enough to serve static pages, and even dynamic pages if your site doesn't get a lot of hits. [1] http://raspberrycolocation.com/ http://raspberrycolocation.com/, http://www.micron21.com/raspberrypi-colocation.php http://www.micron21.com/raspberrypi-colocation.php, http://www.edis.at/en/server/colocation/austria/raspberrypi/ http://www.edis.at/en/server/colocation/austria/raspberrypi/, https://www.google.com/search?q=raspberry+pi+colocating https://www.google.com/search?q=raspberry+pi+colocating

VierScar 13y ago
Wow I had no idea about colocation - seems pretty cool! Yeah I'm hosting it from a home connection, and it's hosting dynamic content - even though it could just be made static I wanted to test it - using php and hitting redis - looks like it works pretty well!