Member OP
Got this 512MB NAT VPS as a fun little project back in 2022. Expected it to die in three months. Kept backups ready. It actually works. Two years. $2/mo. I run a
wireguard + pihole
Member
Member
Omg same. I had the worst expectations and now im not even mad. My €2/mo box from Hetzner still chugging and I run the weirdest stuff on it. Three year alraedy and I keep waiting for the email that says sorry we r closing. Never comes!
What stack are you running on 512MB?
Member OP
WireGuard, Pi-hole, and a tiny Python webhook listener. The NAT setup means no public IPv4 so I tunnel everything. Memory sits around 380MB used, rest is cache. Swapped to zram once when I accidentally ran apt upgrade during peak DNS load, but it lived.
That is tight. I run AdGuard Home on a 1GB and thought I was being frugal.
Member
Zram is cheat code for cheap VPS. I have it on my Hetzner too. 1GB feels like 1.5GB if you squint.
Two years without testing your restore process is not a success story, it is a disaster waiting for a Tuesday.
Member
I test mine quarterly. Last test was June, all three rsync targets verified. The "unused since 2022" in my list means the emergency scripts, not the normal backup flow.
I have free tier Oracle instances older than most paid hosts discussed here. The trick is never logging into the console so you do not see the impending doom warnings.