Friendica install/configuration question
@Friendica Admins
Hello,
A couple years ago, I had a running friendica node. After an upgrade, it stopped working.
I am back to try again:)
I have 2 questions for the moment to get things going:
1 - Can I use the same domain and user name as my old friendica server as I did back then? I recall someone saying that their might be issues because the new server would not have the same "signature" or some identifying thing(a node number maybe). Is this true?
2 - I also recall that by default, that some kind of data is stored by a publicly visible location, and you need to point the data storage location to a folder outside the visible folder. I did that before. Is if still this way by default?
3 - Because the data was regularly changing(because it was inflowing message form the social media feeds), it tended to take up a lot of space. My old back ups of my system were 15GBs. I wan to move the data off my friendica server, and put it on my NAS. The idea was to redirect the folder location to a folder on my NAS. It is just a cable/switch/cable away, so it is a local server being used for it) Will this cause any issues for friendica? Will the delay between the friendica server and the NAS cause issues of their own?
Thanks for any and all assistance. I want to do this a better than last time:)
Joseph
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utzer [Friendica]
in reply to Joseph Hogan • • •@Joseph Hogan
But I am sure others will have different opinion.
Maybe use database for storage at first, you can change that later.
If your server has plenty of memory and storage start easy and keep all local and use database for storage. It can all be changed later.
Look into borg backup or something like that. Do backups daily at least and always before you fiddle around in the system.
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Joseph Hogan
in reply to utzer [Friendica] • •@utzer [Friendica]
What do you mean by SSD?
When setting up the system, where does it talk about using a DB vs folders for storage? There is a guide/manual?
@Michael Vogel @Andy H3 Anyone else have an opinion about using the DB vs folders for storage?
Thanks
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Michael Vogel
in reply to Joseph Hogan • • •Joseph Hogan likes this.
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utzer [Friendica]
in reply to Joseph Hogan • • •@Joseph Hogan @Michael Vogel @Andy H3 SSD or HDD in the meaning of what actually holds the files/data.
The storage backend is just a setting in /admin/storage, also the existing items can be moved from Database to Filesystem.
There is some add-on that allows other storage backend I think.
Does that help?
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Joseph Hogan
in reply to utzer [Friendica] • •@utzer [Friendica] @Michael Vogel
OK, HDD and SSD(physical or memory chip based hard drive)
The setting for where the data is stored, makes sense.
If the setting i changed, does friendica move the data for you if you change the setting? You just need it to process the files, and it will take awhile?
By default, how is it set up? Seems to me that the DB storage has its advantages.
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utzer [Friendica]
in reply to Joseph Hogan • • •Joseph Hogan likes this.
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Joseph Hogan
in reply to utzer [Friendica] • •utzer [Friendica] likes this.
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Michael Vogel
in reply to Joseph Hogan • • •like this
Fly Boy, Joseph Hogan and xy.. like this.
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Joseph Hogan
in reply to Michael Vogel • •@Michael Vogel
I justnoticed that I can not use the same handle either?
my old address was: smokinjo@social.mmaj.ca
My new domain might be:
smokinjo@local.mmaj.ca
I can use the same handle, but on a new domain, right?
Thanks
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Andy H3
in reply to Joseph Hogan • •Friendica Admins reshared this.
Andy H3
in reply to Joseph Hogan • •Welcome back @Joseph Hogan ! 🙂
Start your server by using the DB table as a storage backend for photos. Once it is up and running, you can look into storing photos in a directory on your file system such as
/var/storage/
.I'm not sure if pointing the storage backend to a NAS drive will work. I think, there are (experimental) backend options like AWS.
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Joseph Hogan
in reply to Andy H3 • •@Andy H3
You mention using the DB for photos.
What other data needs to be stored, and where is it stored? Can the location of this other data be changed when needed as well?
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Joseph Hogan
in reply to Joseph Hogan • •@Michael Vogel @utzer [Friendica]
@Andy H3@friendica.hubup.pro
I get the message. I will change the domain name. This is an easy decision. Thanks.
Let me explain the idea behind the externalizing the storage.
I am using a VM for the friendica server. I thought that minimizing the server, which remain stale in size, with the exception of media and social media streams. Having a NAS in the same network, I wanted to use it.
With the media and social media posts storage being a large space, it grows larger and larger. I want to avoid running out of space on my server. I've had this happen, and freeing up the space, and resizing the HD is an inconvenience and down time the server
Can I limit the amount storage, so the server do not fill up? Or, does this more mean Illimit the number of days of stored data?
I see that @utzer [Friendica] and@Andy H3 suggest using the DB for photos. It can be moved later. This is noted. I'll come back later for guidance on this.
@Michael Vogel asked about can my NAS run a DB, and th e answer is we are not sure. I am using TruNAS, and we are seeing if mysql or maria db is available as an application for trunas. Anyone with experience?
I think, to simplify things, that I can start by keeping everything local, then later, if/when needed/desired, it can be moved.
If one was to have a dedicated VM for friendica, as in my case, what would be a spec for it?
2CPU and 2 cores?
8GB Ram?
50GB HD?
I know that there is the following to consider:
1 - ubuntu will take upa minimum or space - 3-4 GBs form what I have seen.
2 - ubuntu allocated space that is unusable by the system, so this space is lost
3 - the amount of RAM affects the HD space (from what I was told)
4 - My last system back up files were 4GBs for the DB and 11GBs for the friendica folder. Is this normal? This needs to be factored into the overall HD need.
I also want to make sure that the VM does not become super large and is managable.
Thanks for any comments and ideas.
Joseph
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Michael Vogel
in reply to Joseph Hogan • • •You can disable the avatar cache. This will reduce the needed space very much. But this will lead to longer page loading times.
Concerning the size of the VM I delegate this question to people with small installations.
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Joseph Hogan
in reply to Michael Vogel • •Thanks @Michael Vogel
Can you point to the install manual where ti shows how to set this up?
This way, I can know how to turn it on and if the need arises.
Thanks
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Andy H3
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Michael Vogel
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Andy H3
in reply to Joseph Hogan • •@Joseph Hogan I think that's sufficient for a small installation.
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Joseph Hogan
in reply to Joseph Hogan • •Thanks @Andy H3
I'll start with this. I'll adapt as I go/grow where needed. When it is time to get bigger, I can look at ways of making my server larger, or using external storage for part of my data.
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