Server advice?

DirectorGunner

Space Marshal
Officer
Donor
Sep 17, 2016
2,906
12,670
2,900
RSI Handle
DirectorGunner
Hi,
So I've been struggling to find a good CMS solution for a website.
I tried Grav which requires understanding Twig in order to edit.
It seems a JAMstack with Jekyll + NetlifyCMS + bitbucket would be a fantastic option... self host the NetlifyCMS for collaborative articles, render with Jekyll and push to bitbucket... I could then transfer the static files of the rendered site to my current host. The current host is unable to allow me to run Ruby without upgrading and accepting new data and storage caps.

So Looking for a server to own around maybe $150 to host the collaborative CMS.
WIll this work?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-PowerEdge-R610-1x-Xeon-E5645-2-40GHz-12GB-RAM-H200-RAID-Dual-PSU-Server/201682494171

Or does anyone have any other suggestions that are cost effective?

I really don't want to use wordpress.... but it looks like that might be the path of least resistance.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Deroth and Vavrik

Psiborger

Captain
Nov 25, 2018
7
32
200
RSI Handle
PsiBorger
Ahh, I whole heartedly recommend NOT buying any physical server, and using the cloud instead. Remember that a server is only as good as its internet and power. And the minute you buy it, it's becoming obsolete. I use DigitalOceans for this because 1) they are cheaper than Amazon, and 2) they have detailed instructions provided by the community for anything you might want to do. If you use my link you get a free $100 to try it out. I googled your problem and found the following CMS tutorials you could spin up in minutes at Digital Oceans...for as little as $5.00 per month. They offer about 15 possibilities.

Good luck!
 

Vavrik

Space Marshal
Donor
Sep 19, 2017
5,453
21,836
3,025
RSI Handle
Vavrik
Ahh, I whole heartedly recommend NOT buying any physical server, and using the cloud instead. Remember that a server is only as good as its internet and power. And the minute you buy it, it's becoming obsolete. I use DigitalOceans for this because 1) they are cheaper than Amazon, and 2) they have detailed instructions provided by the community for anything you might want to do. If you use my link you get a free $100 to try it out. I googled your problem and found the following CMS tutorials you could spin up in minutes at Digital Oceans...for as little as $5.00 per month. They offer about 15 possibilities.

Good luck!
I got to say, a virtual solution like above is what the doctor ordered. Well framed.
Basically you don't want to host websites yourself, unless you're primary business is hosting websites.
 

BUTUZ

Space Marshal
Donor
Apr 8, 2016
3,432
11,511
2,850
RSI Handle
BUTUZ
As much as I hate the cloud, really for hosting your own few websites setting up your own server and software is a waste of time. Web hosting is so cheap now, and there are so many crazy options at your fingertips with the click of a cloud mouse, website getting big? Just a few clicks and you can rent an amazon web farm with 1000CPU cores.
 

Wolfy

Space Kitty
Donor
Apr 27, 2017
2,186
8,581
2,860
RSI Handle
WolfytheWarlock
I have several home servers dealing with storage and remote access solutions. NONE OF THEM HOST MY RESUME WEBSITE. It's just such an open risk to your network and honestly paying someone else to host it for me is the better solution. Saves time and money.
 

at-2500

Vice Admiral
Donor
Aug 24, 2018
113
291
400
RSI Handle
at2500
Yes, honestly. Any server your buy is going to cost you a shit-ton of electricity and time. If you enjoy swapping hard disks and PSUs, managing network outage and configurations and making sure the BIOS and the hard disk controller firmware stay up to date then go ahead and buy a server. If not, rent a root server for 30 bucks a month (this sounds more expensive, but is not if you include necessary work and electricity and the noise. boy, the noise.).

In Germany, Hetzner has great offers including what they call server stock market where you can bid on a server with the price going down gradually if nobody is interested (https://www.hetzner.de/sb). Maybe there is something similar in your country? there are awesome offers there sometimes.

Edit: IMHO The only valid reason to have a server at home (like I do) is if you want to have some Terabytes of network storage and plex, or something like that. And that's going to be a not so juicy but very energy efficient setup.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bambooza and Deroth

Vavrik

Space Marshal
Donor
Sep 19, 2017
5,453
21,836
3,025
RSI Handle
Vavrik
I don't know why I didn't say this before. It just fell out of my head I guess:
I still recommend renting space on a host somewhere. But if your solution requires you to do local development, there is a solution I've used quite a lot for various tasks like local backup, extra storage capacity, IoT, and yes web development. I have two Raspberry PI. both have a 2 Gb HD attached. I did not pay more than $60 or $70 for either.
You can run a few Linux variants, or there is a Windows version called Windows 10 IoT.

Several people I know do use them as public facing website hosts, but I don't recommend that. Also if this is for images, there are a ton of off the shelf solutions, including free ones you can use that don't require you to do anything other than be the admin.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bambooza

Bambooza

Space Marshal
Donor
Sep 25, 2017
5,688
17,906
2,875
RSI Handle
MrBambooza
Love Raspberry PI as web servers, in fact if they are not doing any storage I just run them off a SD that is locked and have them restart nightly.
 
Forgot your password?