How stupid would it be to run your own web server on a RaspberryPI?

[trparky]

OK, so here I was thinking... Can I run a web site on a RaspberryPI? And by that, I mean, the full LAMP-stack being Linux, Apache (or at least something like it), MariaDB (a fork of MySQL), and PHP. It would also be a mail server as well for SMTP and IMAP.

One, is a RaspberryPI even have enough hardware guts to run this kind of configuration and two, can it even be done safely by someone who really doesn't know much about how to really secure this kind of stuff? The second question is, of course, the most important of them all. I wouldn't want my server hacked to hell and back by God knows what hacking group.

Although, I do have to wonder if I'm asking this question, I might be barking up the wrong tree.

 

[cvaldes]

Of course you can run a website off a Raspberry Pi but without knowing what type of site, what amount of traffic, etc., you're not going to get many useful answers.

If you want to run a personal vanity site like some did in the Nineties, the RPi would work great.

If you want to roll your own cloud-based storage like Dropbox, Google Drive, whatever, that's riskier.

If you want to run an OnlyFans competitor on an RPi, you're probably going to run into some issues.

Remember that any device that responses to HTTP requests on port 80 is a target for bad guys in 2024. How good are you as a Linux system administrator? Network system administrator? Security analyst? Page design? Script programming? Database administrator?

But without knowing your usage case, there's precious little to say. The scope of the site determines what sort of technical expertise it requires. You have offered nothing as what you will do with this site.

And since you didn't even bother to provide that basic information, I'd say you are barking up the wrong tree. If you knew what sort of site you were building and you had an inkling about what sort of work needs to happen, you probably wouldn't be asking a pool of random folks on an anonymous Q&A forum for advice if this was doable.

In a way, it's like asking "can I build a house with this hammer?" What kind of house? Doll house? Dog house? 2BD/2BA vacation cottage? 30-unit apartment building? Windsor Castle? I'm sure hammers have been used at Windsor Castle.

 

[natr0n]

I dont think Pi cant handle much load of any kind. Last one I used was a pi 3.

Also, I run pi-hole on a pc since I lost my pi somewhere.

 

[trparky]

But without knowing your usage case, there's precious little to say. The scope of the site determines what sort of technical expertise it requires. You have offered nothing as what you will do with this site.

And since you didn't even bother to provide that basic information, I'd say you are barking up the wrong tree. If you knew what sort of site you were building and you had an inkling about what sort of work needs to happen, you probably wouldn't be asking a pool of random folks on an anonymous Q&A forum for advice if this was doable.

It would be a Wordpress-powered site with Cloudflare in front of it.

 

[cvaldes]

Just remember that once you build it, you can't just wash your hands clean of it and walk away.

You'll have to be diligent about maintaining and upgrading all of the software components including the operating system because vulnerabilities are reported all the time in this sort of stuff. You will probably need to exercise some sort of vigilance toward suspicious behavior.

Cloudflare is not 100% bulletproof armor, that's for sure.

What sort of sweat equity are you willing to contribute to keep this thing going? It's not a set it and forget it one-shot wonder.

Building things is fun. Maintaining them is a whole different story. Did you have fun at your first date? The wedding? Well, a wedding is not a marriage.

While it's not really described this way very often, when you build your own web server, you're basically married to it.

 

[trparky]

Just remember that once you build it, you can't just wash your hands clean of it and walk away.

You'll have to be diligent about maintaining and upgrading all of the software components including the operating system because vulnerabilities are reported all the time in this sort of stuff. You will probably need to exercise some sort of vigilance toward suspicious behavior.

Cloudflare is not 100% bulletproof armor, that's for sure.

What sort of sweat equity are you willing to contribute to keep this thing going? It's not a set it and forget it one-shot wonder.

Building things is fun. Maintaining them is a whole different story. Did you have fun at your first date? The wedding? Well, a wedding is not a marriage.

While it's not really described this way very often, when you build your own web server, you're basically married to it.

Why I was asking is because I want to find a better web host since the one that I have pretty much sucks. Sure, they work but their technical support is basically an adventure into clown world.

 

[cvaldes]

Why I was asking is because I want to find a better web host since the one that I have pretty much sucks. Sure, they work but their technical support is basically an adventure into clown world.

Finally some real background about your true motivations. Wish I didn't have to wait seven posts. Like pulling teeth, sheesh.

There are good web hosts and bad web hosts in 2024 just like 2014, 2004, and 1994. You'd probably spend less time and effort if seeked out a different web host. From the sound of it, any other web host might be better.

But remember you get what you pay for. The tech support guys that know what the fudge they're doing are working for Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, whatever. If you want small time hosting at a small time fee rate, you're going to have to set your expectations realistically.

But for sure, even for small web hosting, there are competent people and incompetent people, just like barbers, lawyers, short-order cooks, plumbers, whatever.

Anyhow, based on this new information you have delivered, I hereby bow out of this discussion.

Best of luck.

 

[DaemonForce]

In my case it would be catastrophic stupid because I run a bunch of SQL .NET web stuff and sadly that's NOT getting ported over to an ARM device for a very long time.

Maybe when I have a dedicated DNS sinkhole on bare metal. Who knows?

 

[Bill_Bright]

How stupid? It depends on your expectations in terms of performance. If you are expecting dozens of simultaneous connections, all streaming videos with zero buffering or other latency issues, that would be stupid. One or two connections at time for file sharing would probably be quite satisfactory, and a wise choice.

 

[b1k3rdude]

OK, so here I was thinking... Can I run a web site on a RaspberryPI? And by that, I mean, the full LAMP-stack being Linux, Apache (or at least something like it), MariaDB (a fork of MySQL), and PHP. It would also be a mail server as well for SMTP and IMAP.

One, is a RaspberryPI even have enough hardware guts to run this kind of configuration and two, can it even be done safely by someone who really doesn't know much about how to really secure this kind of stuff? The second question is, of course, the most important of them all. I wouldn't want my server hacked to hell and back by God knows what hacking group.

I dont think its stupid at all, the privacy of your own server can not be over stated, given the amount of services being hacked atm.

But I would set a Pi4 as the base spec, or a Pi5 if you found one cheap enough. The Pi5 would be better as that has PCIe support via a HAT, so you can run the whole thing of a large & low cost NVME drive.

And as wordpress seems to report security volnerabilty reports on an almost monthly/qaurterly basis, as others have said you will need to remind yourself to regularly check your little PiPress/Email server and make sure its upto date etc.

A good source of into for what possible on a pi is jeff gerling - https://www.jeffgeerling.com/

 

[kilo]

Your ISP may have a clause in TOS/EULA against hosting a website at home. You also have to consider paying for DNS registration and a good hardware firewall and settings to prevent your website from being adjacent to your home network. These days, it's easier and safer (cheaper, no) to rent a cloud server and host your site there.

 

[gurusmi]

OK, so here I was thinking... Can I run a web site on a RaspberryPI? And by that, I mean, the full LAMP-stack being Linux, Apache (or at least something like it), MariaDB (a fork of MySQL), and PHP. It would also be a mail server as well for SMTP and IMAP.

One, is a RaspberryPI even have enough hardware guts to run this kind of configuration and two, can it even be done safely by someone who really doesn't know much about how to really secure this kind of stuff? The second question is, of course, the most important of them all. I wouldn't want my server hacked to hell and back by God knows what hacking group.

Although, I do have to wonder if I'm asking this question, I might be barking up the wrong tree.

There are 3D Printers out who have a RPi to steer their printer. At one end a RPi4B with 2GB on the other side a FDM Printer. I own such one. That runs pretty well. On the same RPi i ran a full internet gateway and network server with a couple of servers running in parallel.. That also ran fine for me.

It depends what you want to do aand how much load you will have. For smaller Sites with limited users it could run real fine. For a hell of parallel users and highly complex pages it could mess around.

If youu want to have that server accessed by the internet first your router has to have port forwarding. An DNS entry can be obtained by some companies for free. Also with dynamic IP's. For playing around to get a feeling about internet servers it's not that bad way.

 

[Endymio]

Finally some real background about your true motivations. Wish I didn't have to wait seven posts. Like pulling teeth, sheesh. ... I hereby bow out of this discussion....

It was his second post -- and his first was rather clear too. He obviously wanted to know the technical limitations on such a site, as to whether it could even run the software stack required. It takes a real "Captain Obvious" to point out that request load would be a factor, as if imparting some great truth. It seems your own "true motivations" were more to snipe and baselessly criticize, than to actually be helpful.

 

[bug]

Short story, you can.
Longer story, depending on the version of RPi, it would be able to support various amounts of traffic. It also depends on what you want to serve. Simple HTML, no problem. Lots of images? A bit more taxing. Video? Even more taxing.