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Tiny RAM boxes as dedicated DNS resolvers: overkill or underkill?

VPS Hosting by quinnbizz 4 replies 295 views
quinnbizz

Member OP

6 #1

Been eyeing the cheapest HostHatch and RackNerd specials—128 MB plans, KVM. Idea is to run nothing but a DNS resolver, DoH/DoT relay for my home network. No other services, not even SSH after setup.

IMO this is either genius minimalism or I'm wasting $15/year on something a Pi Zero could do. YMMV, I know.

Take it with a grain of salt, but my thinking: dedicated IP, no NAT headaches, upstream handles DDoS. Main question is whether Knot Resolver or Unbound wins on RAM at idle. I've seen claims both ways. Has anyone actually measured on a box this small?

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minhdock

Member

#2

1. This sounds very nice idea
2. I like Knot Resolver, uses less RAM than Unbound in my test
3. My 128MB box at Hetzner idle at 23MB with Knot
4. Docker daemon alone takes 40MB+ with zero container
5. So DNS server is not overkill, Docker is overkill very much

Maybe you dont need Docker for this, run direct on host

larryjeong

Member

2 #3

Docker is the real killer here. Unbound on alpine uses 12mb rss. Knot similar. The daemon is what eats you...

$3/year. 128MB RAM. Pure happiness.
JE

Member

#4
minhdock said:
Docker daemon alone takes 40MB+ with zero container 5.

Server does not need container for one service. I run Unbound on Time4VPS 64MB plan. Idle memory 18MB. No problem. No Docker.

Knot Resorver vs Unbound same same for small box. Pick one, dont look back

Buenos

Member

#5

23 MB idle still seems high for just DNS.

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