Hello everyone. I am in the process of starting a staking pool. I am in the process of building my team and looking for a server. I have done some research and have narrowed it down to AWS, google cloud, and digital ocean. I want something cost effective since it will be a while before I can attract a ton of delegators. What is everyone’s opinion on cloud server and which server does everyone prefer. Thanks in advance. I am learning as I go.
There are quite a few options here I have found it slightly overwhelming at first but to combat that I have just shopped around and am trying three different providers simultaneously. You want to balance provider/node reliability with performance and cost. I am currently using Contabo Medium VPS, AWS r6gd.large, and Linode (16 GB RAM 6CPU 320 GB SSD)
Contabo is known as one of the cheapest by a good margin but I have personally experienced some reliability issues with their VPS.
So far the Linode instance has been the best experience and is cheaper than my AWS instances while also being higher spec.
I am also very cognisant of the overall running cost because if you are not to mint a block for months on end the cost can become a burden and impact the sustainability of the endeavor.
Happy to answer any questions about my experience so far.
I agree it is overwhelming. I am balancing the learning about the cardano node setup and choosing a server. I want to find something that will be future proof as well so I am not sure how to go. I guess a few questions I have for you if you don’t mind answering.
For each node you need a separate server correct? So any pricing chart I look at I should at least double the cost since i will need at least 2 nodes to get started?
Is the price difference worth choosing linode over aws? I know aws can easily be scaled up if the network ever changes.
Generally, yes, you want to spin up different server instances so you have separate public IP addresses. I’m currently running 5 servers for cardano - 1 for the website for your delegates information & marketing and to host your pools metadata file(not strictly necessary if you use github but I’m not familiar with this type of setup), 1 unregistered relay hosted in germany(contabo), 1 Unregistered relay hosted in the U.S, my blockproducer and registered relay (in my pool registration certificate) are both in Australia on AWS. I plan to do away with 1 relay after I have rated these providers - so far it looks like Contabo is probably going to be cut.
Linode offers similar features DDOS protection, firewall management, and instance changing/scaling. I think there’s also some preference for the interface/feature set that influence your decision making.
You also may want to consider registering a domain or subdomain for one of your relays which will have some associated cost. That way you can move your relay to another IP/provider without having to resubmit your pool registration certificate. You may also want to consider having relays geographically distributed. I’m fairly new to this whole environment as well so I am far from an authority but hopefully this gives you some ideas/concepts to explore further.
I am also running a VPN server on AWS which I can use to manage network traffic and things like masquerade rules/static routes/firewalls/whitelisting IP addresses.
This is my cost for server node 2 core 16G Ram, 64GB Disk. Maybe you can try azure, I think it so good
There is an option to rent a Quantazone server. It backups Databases, Provides lots of different protections such as DDoS, Leech, InnoDB SFTP, Hotlink…
And they provide you with a free migration from any other host without breaking your live server on the old host. So there is no need to do it manually…
Also they have multiple server locations, get the one you prefer.
Here is the link:
I doubt you can run a cardano pool on a webhosting service.