I wanted to lay out exactly what's been going on regarding our IRC network.
August 6th: We begin discussing options for IRC and collectively have the same idea.
[13:04] <bluesoul> on a tangentially-related note to the discord discussion, i think i'm gonna put a thread up asking about running our own IRC network
[13:04] <bluesoul> the pros are that we are our own ircops and can handle shit without waiting on synirc staff, and i could theoretically add logging of all channels that would be accessible on the web
[13:05] <bluesoul> the cons are it would cost about $5/server/mo and we want some georedundancy, at least 3 servers, and we're our own tech support if shit breaks
[13:05] <@ChaoSera> I don't think that's a beneficial cost-benefit arrangement for us
[13:05] <bluesoul> i've done a proof-of-concept network for us in the past
[13:09] <@Tuomey> it's not that it couldn't work
[13:10] <@Tuomey> it's that it's not really necessary right now - we have a good relationship with synirc staff as it stands
[13:10] <@Tuomey> that said
[13:10] <@Tuomey> in the future I might be very interested in this
[13:10] <@Tuomey> particularly wrt logging 19 and 17 publicly
[13:11] <@Lily> yeah there aren't any problems with Syn and I don't wanna risk throwing away what we have now
[13:11] <@Tuomey> right now this is a very cool idea but it doesn't solve problems
[13:12] <@Tuomey> which I realise is probably kidn of a frustrating thing to be told
[13:12] <@Lily> yeah
[13:12] <@Lily> also i'm really against relying financially on anyone on staff
[13:13] <@Tuomey> I do appreciate people looking into cool stuff like this, even if it doesn't yield results a lot of the time
[13:13] <@Tuomey> the few times it does are worth it
[13:14] <@Lily> Also there's a lot of scp related channels on syn and I'm against uprooting all of that
[13:19] <@Lily> Anyway we've been here 10 years with no problems so there's no reason to miss it
[13:19] <bluesoul> Lily, we've had problems in the past
[13:19] <bluesoul> you may not have been around for it, but to say "no problems" is an exaggeration
[13:20] <bluesoul> now, here's a thought
[13:20] <@Lily> bluesoul: well, nothing large enough that's caused anuly trouble
[13:21] <@ProcyonLotor> Currently we have so good a relationship with network staff that I'm not sure it's necessary, bluesoul
[13:21] <@ProcyonLotor> I speak to sats pretty much daily
[13:21] <@ChaoSera> Yeah I don't think we have much to gain and in return have to do all the maintenance by ourselves
[13:21] <@Tuomey> bluesoul: oh, I agree there's been problems in the past
[13:21] <@Tuomey> but things have improved greatly
[13:21] <trets> I'm actually lowkey kinda surprised none of our long-term opstaff haven't pursued a position as an IRCop for syn
[13:22] <bluesoul> i could link a server and become an ir— yeah
[13:22] <bluesoul> sorry, got busy there
[13:22] <bluesoul> yeah i can talk to them
[13:22] <@ProcyonLotor> I would support bluesoul insofar as it's absolutely an option to have plans for in case synirc bites it hard and fast
[13:22] <bluesoul> ProcyonLotor that's kind of a concern of mine as well
[13:22] <@Tuomey> yea
[13:22] <bluesoul> now, what i can do
[13:22] <bluesoul> is have shit ready to go
[13:22] <@Tuomey> that would be literally amazing bluesoul
[13:23] <bluesoul> so what we're left with is i'm an ircop on syn and we've got an entire backup network prepared
August 7th: An ircop responded to my inquiry in #help and indicated that a server in Ireland would be good to have. I set up an Amazon EC2 instance in Dublin, filled out the application and waited.
August 24th: I get word that my server and another in NY are in consideration.
August 26th: I get word that the server has been accepted and I can begin setup.
August 27th: Completed configuration and got linked up to the rest of the network as euclid.ie.eu.synirc.net.
September 10th: After two weeks with 0 unplanned downtime, Euclid was put into the rotation for all clients to connect to.
Connections have been steadily increasing over the last few days, and even with 180 clients directly connected, the stats look great.
You're reading that right, 0.5% CPU usage on a single core server with 512MB of RAM. You could pretty well run these services off an old Nokia brick phone with a 3G connection.
In the short term, this means that we did get what we want out of this, which is the ability to handle our own instances of ban evasion and harassment without having to wait on #help which can take hours. It's already proven to be incredibly helpful.
This also means that for the long term, we've got a viable blueprint for making our own network. I have configuration files that can be repurposed with very little effort to run our own network should that be either desired or necessary down the road.
In the event of an emergency, where synIRC goes down and synirc.net doesn't work as a domain name, you can connect to Euclid at:
euclid.bluesoul.net
irc.j0lt.com
If we are in such an emergency state, we may not have the usual services (NickServ, ChanServ, etc.) available immediately, as those services are provided by a separate piece of software that I do not run on my server, it's only run on a couple in the whole network. I have set it up in the past though, and it is a pretty painless, fast setup even to do things like cloaking and vhosts.
If we were architecting our own network, which only needs to hold maybe 200 people tops, our needs are not too intense, either 2 or 3 512MB Lightsail or EC2 instances which can be as little as $2.44/mo per server when you purchase 3 years up front. I'd wager that setup could support probably 6,000 users, evenly distributed, before we would have any concerns at all about any bottlenecks. I'd probably leave my one in Ireland, set up one in the Eastern US and maybe a 3rd in the Western US if we really thought it was needed. Total outlay would be about $7.50 a month. I'm fine with defraying that entire cost myself if we need it, but the Bus Factor dictates that someone else also spends money on the deal should the time come. All code and everything needed for this plan will go on the GitHub when I have a "production-ready" copy prepared.