It is absolutely mind bending how many options ffmpeg has. I've been trying to convince it to use the old Radeon 2600 Pro graphics hardware acceleration. No luck finding the magic command yet! :)
Upgrade complete.
In case you're wondering, after just over 1 year on my selfhost, the postgresql database for mastodon is 740MB. That's mostly me with a couple other users on this instance thrown in.
And #footiMac continues to chug away. It has been solid. #selfhost#Mastodon
GULP I did it! Just bought my first dedicated server hosting space! (Debian 12 - 32GB RAM - 4x1TB SATA RAID 10) with the intention of moving my @alberniweather website and other small sites currently hosted on shared space and dying regularly. $CAD60/mo.
Having some internal network DNS issues with #footiMac
Anyone have any good recommendations for replacing a Telus Fibre (Telus Wifi Hub https://www.telus.com/en/support/article/telus-wi-fi-hub-installation)router with a 3rd party that supports advanced stuff like DNS loopback? In addition to the home router I have a Mesh WIFI provided by Deco (TP-Link) M9 stations, and a TP-Link 28 port switch. #help#homeNetwork
I've decided that just to be consistent with the current recommendations at joinmastodon.org, I'm going to bring the total threads on #footiMac back up to 25. 10 each for the two processes handling default/ingress/push/pull queues, and 5 for the process handling mailer/scheduler. I've been watching the sidekiq live-poll screen and want to see if bringing them back up to 10 helps clear the queue a little faster as when I post, both queues used 5/5. #selfhost#mastoAdmin#selfhosted
I suspect #footiMac is getting a little overtaxed. But I am wondering if other #selfhosted#mastoAdmin have a thought about these messages in Sidekiq for dead processes? Too many files open, on my end or the remote end?
Is there maybe a FAQ available for small admins like me to look to that might show the most common indicators of problems on a Mastodon host?
I remain concerned that Java/Elastisearch is putting more load on my server than is really warranted. Thoughts? #help#MastoHelp#Mastodon#SelfHost
I took the example from the resource linked before. This was my procedure:
I increased the sidekiq process to allow 75 instead of the default 25 workers. This helped, but it was still full and only going down slowly.
Then I split out the processes (by duplicating the systemctl file and make one each for the ingress, push+pull, default, scheduler, and mailers. All had 75 workers. It turned out only the pushpull service was pinned to that 75 and database connections went to over 200.
So I split the push and pull into separate processes and realized it was all on the pull process. All other processes were very low.
Finally, I reduced the number of workers back down to 25 for all processes except the pull process. RAM usage has quadrupled from 400MB to 1700 but I had space there to grow into.
My server is now back to a good place, database connections are below 50, nothing in the queue, and toots/notifications are going out instantly again.
And most importantly, I can once again handle all the news GottaLaff puts out! :D
Tuned it once again, with advice from @esther as #footiMac has just 2 cores, I've combined the processes again, but into 2 rather than 6 to still take advantage of the two cores and to ensure the pull process isn't blocked. Workers are at 12 and 13 for the same total of 25 spread between the two processes. This brings the RAM usage/waste way down and back to around 700MB max when before it was 400MB and after the first tweak it was 1800MB.
OK, final tweak thanks to advice. I've created two processes to spread the load of default, ingress, push and pull and make sure they are not blocking each other and created one more process dedicated to mailer and scheduler as it is important that they have their own space and aren't blocked at all. I now have less total threads available at 15 as opposed to 25, only 34 database connections currently, but it makes sense that this makes better use of #footiMac 2 CPU cores while also ensuring it's not eating RAM and is dealing with how Mastodon splits up tasks efficiently.
This stuff is fun! #selfhost#mastoAdmin
can confirm. The new fulltext search works great, and is awesome! I just searched for "footiMac" which I know only I use and it returned results very very quickly. I can go way back. Including to it's very first mention back in January!
This ability is so very important for the usability and attractiveness of Mastodon!
For a whole host of reasons that don't really have anything to do with pictures, I've never been interested in Instagram. Pixelfed, however, that's interesting, for a whole host of reasons, including pictures. And so now that #footiMac is a veritable beast.
Time to investigate #selfhosted#pixelfed If anyone has suggestions on how best to manage having a Mastodon and PixelFed instance on the same machine, please let me know. https://docs.pixelfed.org/running-pixelfed/installation/
Yay! Everything looks to be working. Most importantly the database. I made the mistake of using cp rather than rsync to copy the files over so that process didn't complete fully but it appears to be just fine doing that at the same time as it is serving up new stuff! Other than that, and the fact there are a ton of files and the old Hard Drive is very slow. Things are good! Did a full reinstall and then moved over the essentials via USB. #footiMac is faster, stronger! #selfhosted#mastoadmin
This 2009 iMac #footiMac has a new lease on life. It's working hard to copy over the huge number of caches from the backup but it's not skipping a beat thanks to the SSD and look at that RAM/MEM usage. 🥹
This machine is gonna be a super star. #selfhost#mastoadmin#selfhosted
Ooohh! #footiMac just got a present in the mail! Anyone wanna upgrade? Also. If folks have best strategies for full backup and restore of a Mastodon instance beyond what is on the docs, please do let me know! Also moving from 500GB HDD to 2TB SSD. The iMac is running Debian natively. #selfhost#MastoAdmin#Debian
Definitely sensing my little 2009 #footiMac under the stairs is starting to strain with 3 users on the instance. Getting lots of 500 errors. It is close to using up its 4GB RAM and the spinning HDD is slow. I want to keep #selfhosting with a physical machine at minimum expense.
Options:
upgrade the iMac to a 2TB SSD and 8GB RAM ($CAD220)
Could someone explain #Docker to me? How self contained is it? I would like to run my own #Pixelfed instance alongside my #Mastodon instance (on the same machine preferably). Possible? Bad idea? Would Docker make this easier? Thanks. #selfhost#mastoAdmin#selfhosted#footiMac