Hardware / Cloud considerations for a relay

Staking & Delegation Operate a Stake Pool
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Hello My Cardano-naut brothers and sisters. I’m late to the game setting up a node so hopefully this isn’t too noob.

Setting up a machine at home as a block producer and wondering what to do for a relay? Any suggestions in terms of running a second machine at home versus an AWS type of system for a relay. If running a machine at home what kind of specs on a relay recommended and same on the AWS side.

Thank you for your help,

The Chihuahua, woof.

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hi,

so, there are pros and cons in both setups, but i can share my experience as i have been managing linux systems for more than 15 years now.

for testing i’m usually using local servers, as i don’t worry much about internet speed (and reliability / backup links), hardware failures, electricity failures… but when i’m setting up a production server, i would go with a VPS (either on DigitalOcean, AWS or GCP) as these platforms give me:

  • Scalability (i can downgrade / upgrade in no-time, add more servers, add more space, add more memory)
  • out of the box backup solutions
  • Fast and reliable internet connection (usually > 1Gbit)
  • No unexpected expenses (hardware failure, extra space, hardware upgrades)
  • Regional presence (i can always start a server which is closer to my customers, or to have a global presence, i can start servers in different regions)
  • extra features (load balancing, firewall, monitoring tools, shared spaces, console login from anywhere, etc)

so, i wold go with a VPS with minimum 2vCPU 4GB. 4vCPU 8GB should be enough for current needs.

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FYI:

  • Google Cloud Platform gives 300 USD (1 year) credit to try their Google Cloud services, which should be enough for you to test the solution.
  • Digital Ocean gives 100USD (60day) credit for new users
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Thank you Lauris! I appreciate the feedback immensely.

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