Re: Debian Academy info for debian.net ticket

On Thu, Sep 8, 2022 at 1:23 AM jathan <jathan@debian.org> wrote:

Hello everybody!

I have started the request for the Debian Academy VPS at debian.net. Can
you help me with the technical specifications and information you
identify at the moment please?

Sorry for the late reply.

I have tried to answer a similar question before: https://lists.debian.org/debian-academy/2022/07/msg00013.html

But of course people always have alternative ideas. The best thing might be to schedule a meeting in order to discuss all the details and to make sure that we agree with each-other. I don't think that getting these resources is urgent, it is more important to do it properly.

Anyway, I am including a summary of my ideas below.

## Please provide the specifications that you require:

* CPU: (eg, whether a single core would be fine, or if you'd really
like as much as possible)
* RAM: (2GB-16GB is usually manageable for a VPS, for more you might
have to go through the DPL process)

I think that we should request a Hetzner server with 64GB RAM, similar to the one managed by DebianSocial:

- https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/DebianSocial/TechnicalDocumentation

Usually they cost about 45 EUR per month (but Hetzner has announced that they will increase the prices of new servers soon, due to the crises -- the ones that are already contracted will keep the same price as before).

- https://www.hetzner.com/dedicated-rootserver

I am not sure whether we need a huge disk space, because we can download the recorded BBB sessions and upload them to peartube.

But we need 2 extra public IPs, if we are going to install our own BBB instance and our TURN server.

Usually I try to consolidate several applications in the same server, in order to use resources more efficiently. I do it with docker containers and/or with LXD/LXC. For example i describe in this blog post how I have installed BBB in an LXC container:

- http://dashohoxha.fs.al/docs/install-bbb-with-lxd.html

I also show how to install a TURN server (which helps WebRTC communications) in a container.

BBB cannot be installed in a Docker container because it uses Docker to install the Greenlight web interface, so I had to use an extra public IP for BBB. Also TURN cannot be installed in a Docker container because it needs to use a wide range of UDP ports, and this cannot be done efficiently with docker. So, I had to use an extra public IP for it too.

Other than BBB and TURN, almost everything else can be installed in a docker container, so we don't need any extra IPs for them. These include:

- Moodle

- Virtual Computer Lab (Guacamole + debian containers with desktop)

- Indico for event management (may be useful)

- etc.

If we get a Hetzner dedicated server, there will still be enough space to experiment with other applications, for example open-edx, Opencast, etc.

Opencast is used by many universities: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhNyokLQgXs

I have tried to experiment with it a few years ago, but then my attention was shifted somewhere else. I may try to experiment with it again.

It is a video management tool: https://opencast.org/ So, it is like an alternative to peartube, but focused more on academic needs.

I think it is worth discussing all these, even with DPL if needed.

Regards,

Dashamir