I have an already configured VPS server in Hetzner. I’m pretty happy with it. I have it configured with yunohost (a Debian “layer” that allows you to easily install services). Now I’m planning to run a NextCloud service, but my current server is not capable to handle it with it’s current capabilities. For the same price I could scale my current server or spin up a new server with the same capabilities and dedicate it to next cloud.

The disadvantages of spining up a new server, is that I have to configure another server and secure it, but the advantage is exactly on the same side: I will have a second server in case something fails or I want to “scale down” to save costs it will be easier.

Even if I just scale up the current server, I will have to add an extra disk and configure the server to use it, so I’m not sure about the advantages of each one.

4 points

I’m unsure how Hetzner does it, but confirm that you factor the cost of backups in. VPS providers might have you pay a flat rate for backups on an instance ignorant of size, but you’ll have to pay for backups of each instance

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2 points

That’s interesting. Although I usually handle backups myself (to backblaze) and I never tested provider backup mechanism

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3 points
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I always look for excuses to get more servers, so if you ask me, I’d say yes, get that new server. There’s no such thing as having too much servers since there are so many things I want to self-host.

I also regularly tear down my servers and see how fast I can set it up again. Keep my deployment scripts up to date.

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1 point

Yes, that’s true. But if I start having many servers I will also start feeling the urge to cluster them, and that will be an absolute black hole of my time 😅

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1 point

I also regularly tear down my servers and see how fast I can set it up again. Keep my deployment scripts up to date.

That’s what I should do to and I keep telling myself that I’ll do it next month 🙈

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3 points

One additional consideration that’s specific to Hetzner (which you may already be aware of): You can only scale down a server after scaling it up if you elected not to increase the (local) disk size. In other words, if you scale up a server with 40 GB storage to one that comes with 80, you can’t actually resize your storage from 40 to 80 if you ever want to scale the server back down later. Kind of obnoxious.

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2 points

Sounds like esxi storage provisioning. You can grow, but shrinking is a whole different story

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4 points

Tbf, while it’s possible to shrink disks, it’s always a hassle and much more complex than growing one.

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1 point

Yeah, exactly.

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0 points

Yes. In any case I will attach an external volume,which is easier to manage and relatively cheap. Thanks for pointing it out

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1 point

That sounds like a good work-around!

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2 points

It feels like you answered your own question—a second server comes with advantages and sounds like it isn’t a significant increase in price.

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