Ludicrous Node Services environments 2021

[NewMedia]

I decided today for an upcoming project for Europe to first try it on Hetzner using the Wappler discount. Maybe a good testing environment before deciding to keep going with Hetzner or try another hosting service.

I am here when I decide to search the forums at Wappler for discussions I had seen before.

I soon find this “discussion” that is obviously relevant to my decision of how far to commit my next few hours:

Hosting with Hetzner considerations

The “discussion” rolls on and on but I quickly see @psweb

How many Wappler users originally develped for PHP/MySQL servers?

Setup to get a working dynamic site live on the web was profoundly SIMPLE compared to the procedures to work with the newer javascript fathered/mothered hosting setups.

I had hosting accounts, some of them on self-managed servers, that had worked out some STANDARDS on Admin Panels for paths, services, dns, etc. The hosting that had not come up with sensible logic and admin tools I avoided.

But the internet forums today are loaded with these kinds of discussions & tutorial videos that make me think that Web & App development 2021 has taken LUDICROUS leaps backwards. The intracacies of getting a new application that meets all the myriad & varying Hosting logic is just astounding.

I’ve been around long enough to remember pre-COVID pandemic hosting environments when mounting a new project and TROUBLESHOOTING did not branch into thousands of possibilities that took hours to slowly weed through.

I’m fully aware of the Benefits of apps these days but what I see is a continuing complication of thousands of libraries that must all work without a hitch both IN the application and in the server hosting itself.

It has gotten retrogressively MORE COMPLEX to program today’s applications while we are touting “low code” IDE tools.

Will it take Artificial Intelligence to just create Cross-hosting platform setups in the future?

What’s the most logical, most “elegant” state-of-the-art hosting for Node services anyone has worked with?

Thank you!

[Max_Saravia]

Hi @NewMedia, I’ve tried Amazon, DigitalOcean and now I’m testing Linode. One very good thing about Linode is that now they are giving you $ 100 to spend in 2 months, which allows you to try practically everything they offer for free. The support is very good and the panel is very understandable and well developed.

[NewMedia]

Thanks Max!

By coincidence I finished some very interesting videos about LINODE yesterday!

And here’s another article I just read:

What is Linode?

I am going to FOLLOW your suggestion!

[sitestreet]

What actual services at Linode are needed to host a nodejs app developed in Wappler?

[NewMedia]

Great question!

[Max_Saravia]

You just need to create an instance or as they call “Linode”. Of course, if for example you need an S3 bucket, that would be another service. But usually one instance is enough.

[NewMedia]

Okay! As expected.
Now how do you add a Database of your choice?

I just started a Linode account, in progress, by logging in with my GitHub account.

But I see no opportunity to get this offer yet:

"One very good thing about Linode is that now they are giving you $ 100 to spend in 2 months, which allows you to try practically everything they offer for free

UPDATE: I tried a coupon for $100 and it assures me that the GitHub login already includes this. But there’s no other confirmation in the Linode creditcard form. Anyway, I’ll give it a shot.

[Max_Saravia]

Well with Wappler it’s very simple:

1. Create your Linode account.

2. In Wappler go to target and select Linode as your external Docker Machine here u have the doc: https://docsdev.wappler.io/guides/creating-a-nodejs-project-with-docker?id=remote-deploy-with-docker

3. U gonna need an access token for Wapppler can Deploy your Linode:

[Max_Saravia]

@NewMedia

UPDATE: I tried a coupon for $100 and it assures me that the GitHub login already includes this. But there’s no other confirmation in the Linode creditcard form. Anyway, I’ll give it a shot.

If you dont see the credit in your billing account, contact the support first, It happened to me that they had not given it to me and when I opened a ticket they gave it to me almost immediately.

[NewMedia]

I have tried twice with Linode to create a new account using my GitHub account.

I’ve had my application turned down twice for unknown reasons.

Maybe using a German address with a German VAT number (used for everything online for the business) is frowned on, but I hate that they have my credit card info – Twice now.

I am disgruntled. Don’t know whether I will try to create a new account without any discounts at Linode.

[psweb]

@NewMedia, lol, I did not want to put anyone off Hetzner as such, but I just personally do not like it, most other servers i use, use the conventional cPanel and because I am so used to it, it is just easy to me.
Since I have however moved to Node.js I will admit I tend to really enjoy Digital Oceans services, again just my own personal opinion.

I can get up and running with a new node.js project on Digital Ocean hosting with Database, SSL, Domain, etc. in under 5 minutes these days, and it all just works.

[NewMedia]

withdrawn message

Now have Linode account as they have responded to my protest & claim to have 34 Million Instagram followers who will never touch Linode if i but Insty thumbs down pic.

[NewMedia]

Max, now that I have a Linode account, do you have suggestions on Best Practices and what services in Linode make the best overall instance for node projects with database needs?

[Max_Saravia]

Well, with Linode or any other cloud service, and as with Node or any other language, how to use them depends a lot on each project so I can’t give you specific advice, but in general in production try to always look at the analytics of your instance / s as well as the other services you use. Be careful how you use some services in particular so that your costs do not skyrocket. The most important thing is that you read the documentation of each service, in Linode it is very well explained and they have many guides. Linode Cloud Community
Keep your keys safe and never expose them in client-side code.
I think the best thing you can do is use Docker so if at some point you stop liking the service or you see that you have better features elsewhere, you can move everything quickly and safely.

If you use Node + Docoker + Linode (or other cloud service) it is really easy to do each deployment with Wappler, which is good because you can focus more on developing your application and less on how to configure a server and maintain it.

[Mozzi]

Hi Paul… just a stupid question… when do you decide if your database is OK… using this setup with the droplet… vs a managed database? does it work via size… or amount of records… how do you know when to chose a managed database or not… i know you have large site and im sure its database driven… hence im asking…

[Apple]

@Mozzi

how do you know when to chose a managed database or not

You know you want a managed database when you don’t have a backup & restore strategy

@Apple

if the VPS crashes due to a hardware fault and you have to recover a broken database - Docker-Machine by itself will not save you as it does not know how to recover a broken database, it only knows how to run it.

When using shared hosting, recovering a broken database is someone else’s job - even if it just means recovering from a backup of the previous day.

Wrote some fairly lengthy opinions here:

Docker Machines good for Non-SysAdmins?

True, it seems to be the “Wappler” way of deploying stuff. That being said, it’s worth mentioning Docker-Machine is deprecated, so it’ll be up to Wappler to fix stuff if it breaks. Right, you get root access with VPS servers, which includes DigitalOcean and Hetzner. Right, as a system administrator you’re responsible for applying security updates and such. You could also configure the server to regularly apply updates by itself (unattended updates). Prefer not to comment on this portion o…

[psweb]

Hi Mozzie, I would only really go for a managed database dependent on traffic, if an average dB query takes less than a second, and an hour has 3600 seconds, then if your traffic at peek exceeds that, then go managed

[Mozzi]

wow!!! that is a comprehensive reply… thats taken some time to compile… thanks for that… so in short… if you want to be safe!!! On digital ocean… you should take the backup option… and also the managed database if you want peace of mind

[Mozzi]

Thanks @psweb . That is great… at least the database is fast enough still… so I guess now it comes down to the worry above… how do you manage your “rescue / recovery” plan when things go south…

I know your site is massive… and you use Spaces for your images… but what about your database… how do you back that up… do you make a “dump” yourself every week from your Navicat… or do you have sleepless nights … or no sleepless nights about a database… because if i read the above what @Apple said about a droplet … then it freaks me out…

++++Update++++
Im still on the “evaluation” period on DO… so i added a Database Cluster…
It makes sense to do this… if you have many sites… using databases … if you one have one site… then its pricy… but if you have more than 5 sites on DO that is going to use a DB… then i think this is the way to go…

So you can add as many databases to your cluster within the 10GB… and if the 1GB memory will be ok

But can be scaled…

This will at least give me less sleepless nights…

[datguru]

Something that you maybe able to do with Hetzner as well is utilise their https://www.hetzner.com/webhosting just for the DB. Would need to check with their support that you could access the DBs from their Cloud VPS’s but that could be a great compromise as they would be taking care of the DB administration as part of the shared hosting. And then you use their Cloud VPS for the application hosting. This maybe a more cost effective soltuon.