Is a 2GB RAM VPS Enough for Running Bitcoin Core?

So, I picked up a VPS to test Bitcoin Core, and it was the only one with enough disk space. I set the maxmempool and dbcache to the lowest values 5MB and 6MB. Currently running Core, no other apps on it, and have 1.2GiB free. I'm around block 450,000 in the initial sync. Yes, I know it's gonna hit the disk hard, but my NVMe SSD and 1Gbps network are solid. How long do you think the validation will take?

You might wanna worry about your VPS provider sending you warnings. I mean, people have successfully run full nodes on older Raspberry Pis with just 1GB RAM. But hey, check out the guidelines on reducing memory usage by Bitcoin Core.

Last time I tried this, which was like a year ago, it took me around 3 weeks. Not so much about memory, more about patience. Got a fully synced node you trust? You could just transfer it over.

What do you mean by transferring it? Yeah, I don’t have another node available right now.

You should check out the VPS I used for the cheapest hourly rate. I think your setup could work but honestly wouldn’t recommend it. Disk I/O can get you suspended if it’s too high. But seriously, did you choose a VPS with a ton of NVMe and very little RAM? That combo seems off. I can share my Bitcoin Core copy if you need it, but I can only provide a partial version due to my 300GB limit.

Why not just run this locally? Old i5/i7 machines with 1TB SSDs are pretty cheap these days. Some mini PCs are well under $250 too. In the end, renting can cost more.

I actually ordered a regular server last month. It was meant for backups, but I moved my stuff to a seed host. I went for 2GB RAM to keep costs low, but I regretted not getting 4GB. This host offers some crazy specs like 10Gbps Ethernet. Now I’m thinking about moving my node again but not sure where. Pruning won’t cut it for me since I need a node with -txindex.

Sounds like a good deal if you’re paying hourly. That sucks for you, where are you located? My laptop downloads about 10GB daily, and I got no complaints about maxing my connection.

Expect a lot of swapping on the disk unless something changes incrementally. I assume you don’t like judges, huh? It seems you wanna kill some great ideas for kicks. But really, how big’s that file?

Let’s just say I’m in a developing country where internet resources and data center bandwidth are pretty limited compared to more developed places.

Yeah, ownership is just about paying the bills. It’s the same everywhere.

Maybe it’ll be worth it in the long haul. You could download chunks each month, and after a while have a complete node. Once you get it, you can just copy it to a new node when needed. Or, just throwing this out there, someone here could download the blockchain and ship it to you. Trust is key though.

If the internet’s bad, I wouldn’t trust that post either. But hey, OP can always rescan the blockchain to verify it.

As @LoyceV pointed out, I’m referring to the long disk I/O periods. Many VPS providers don’t allow that in their terms of service.

I’ve noticed cloud providers usually throttle your resources, which I’d prefer to outright suspensions.

Quick update: My node hit a disk space limit at block 837,000, and it just stopped. Now restarting Bitcoin Core hangs at "Opening LevelDB at /root/.bitcoin/chainstate." I still got 1.5GB free, so memory isn’t the issue, it’s definitely disk slowdowns. Time to rent a dedicated server for a proper node!

Bummer. You might want to check out the current UTXO/chainstate size if you’re considering running a pruned node in the future. Good luck with that. Also, have you noticed any throttling on your resources?

Nope, no throttling here. These VPSs run on KVM/libvirt, so I don’t think they can throttle disk throughput while running. My system’s been stable since day one.

Throttling is a cloud provider thing. VPS providers mostly can only limit CPU resources.

Why pay for a server when you can just run your own node at home on an old computer? I saw this dude in the UK living off-grid with solar panels, mining Bitcoin. You don’t even need to go off-grid; running a Bitcoin node at home is way easier.