this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2025

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can you boot a server if someone tries to connect (lemm.ee)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by enemenemu@lemm.ee to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

34 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I've got a mini pc which is running always and another one which consumes a lot more power for e.g. jellyfin.

Can I configure it such that the jellyfin server only boots if I connect to it? E.g. I try to connect to jellyfin.y.com and then the server boots because the mini pc tries to connect to it.

I already figured out how to let it sleep automatically as soon as nobody is watching.

Edit: can I add the magic package to the reverse proxy?

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[–] Dragonish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 36 points 3 months ago (2 children)

If you have a reverse proxy running on the mini pc and handling jellyfin.y.com then there is this plugin which will send the WoL packet to the jellyfin server when a request is sent.

https://github.com/dulli/caddy-wol

[–] enemenemu@lemm.ee 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Thanks!

I use nginxproxymanager, I'll try to find something similar (I couldn't find something directly)

[+] Xanza@lemm.ee -6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I use nginxproxymanager

[–] themachine@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Whats wrong with NPM?

[–] Xanza@lemm.ee -1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I mean, use what you want. But caddy is significantly easier to configure. It additionally handles SSL and protects your proxy targets with zero configuration (by default) and supports live configuration reload via the admin interface. It's tits.

Here's my config: http://i.xno.dev/u/fc8N0n.png

Caddy is running a wildcard SSL cert, so once I've connected my box to cloudflare, I can setup a subdomain by simply adding it to my caddy config. No additional setup is required. It also works directly with docker, so if you install the lemmy (name of the container) docker container, you can reverse_proxy by simply (assuming they're on the same docker network):

lemmy.domain.com {
    reverse_proxy lemmy:80
}

[–] themachine@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

That sounds more or less to be exactly what I'm doing with NPM currently. I don't see how it's easier to configure as all I did was fire up the NPM container, log in, and add my host targets.

NPM also handles SSL both standard http verification as well as DNS auth for wildcards.

[–] keyez@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Caddy can do the same and there is a steep learning curve but I switched about a year ago and only need to touch the config file when I add a host. Can even bring that config to a new server and it will stand up once it starts and picks up the config.

[–] enemenemu@lemm.ee 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'd be happy to switch if I had a good tutorial for caddy. Unfortunately I couldn't find one.

[–] Xanza@lemm.ee -2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

How complex is your nginx reverse proxy? Caddy is relatively straight forward: https://i.xno.dev/u/fc8N0n.png

[–] enemenemu@lemm.ee 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It doesn't work. I can't manage to debug it.

Fedora server. Podman. Selinux. Port 8443. Ipv4.

[–] Xanza@lemm.ee 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

it doesn't work

...what exactly doesn't work. You're not really giving me enough to help you with.

[–] enemenemu@lemm.ee 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Thx for offering your help.

If I would know, I could debug it, but I don't know where the problem is. I assume the problem is somewhere with podman or selinux

[–] Xanza@lemm.ee 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

But you gotta understand, there's no subject to your statement. You just said "it doesn't work" and I have no idea what you're doing. Are you installing podman? Are you installing caddy? Are you setting up caddy as a reverse proxy? Are you trying to bring your dog back from the dead? I have no frame of reference.

[–] enemenemu@lemm.ee 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Sorry for not having expressed what I did. I wrote a podman compose file, pulled the caddy image, wrote a caddyfile, started it and tried to connect to a service via subdomain.domain.tld .

The caddyfile contains my http and tls ports and the domain and ip for the reverse proxy routing according to the docs.

The result is no log entry in caddy and no result in the browser or curl.

[–] lucid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You'll probably get better help if you post your config and any logs. Caddy may not log an entry to a file but you can watch the console logs to see everything (podman logs caddy or similar.)

[–] enemenemu@lemm.ee 2 points 3 months ago

Thanks. For now, I spend too much time with it. I'll try some other time again.

[–] Xanza@lemm.ee 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Did you setup DNS to point to your caddy sever?

[–] enemenemu@lemm.ee 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yes, it works with nginxproxymanager. There's probably something going on with selinux - I may disable it the next time to test the assumption.

[–] Xanza@lemm.ee 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Is your caddy container network set to host? Or at least set to a network which is on the same network as your proxied services?

Ensure that nginx is stopped, and if the domain doesn't work, attempt to direct connect using your servers IP address and the correct port. If you still can't connect, check your firewall rules.

[–] enemenemu@lemm.ee 1 points 3 months ago

Thx, thats not it

[–] enemenemu@lemm.ee 1 points 3 months ago

Thanks again! I managed to set up caddy and it works well so far. Now I am stuck at installing (or using xcaddy. I installed go and the package xcaddy but to me the doc lacks one or two steps. Do you know any tutorial covering that? Thanks!

[–] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 19 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I believe so—see Wake-on-LAN.

[–] enemenemu@lemm.ee 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Thanks! I use wake on lan with rtcwake to boot at a certain time. I also found an app via which I can boot the server via wake on lan. But it would be nice if it could wake up just by requesting the service

[–] sxan@midwest.social 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That's how it works. Wake-on-LAN wakes the computer if the computer receives a network request. Which is the same thing you're asking for, right?

[–] lemming741@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

But it has to be a magic packet, not just any ole request.

[–] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I think you'll want to look into Wake On LAN to do this. I can't give you instructions (tried once unsuccessfully on a Windows installation) but that should be enough to get you started.

[–] enemenemu@lemm.ee 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

[–] 30p87@feddit.org 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Also an option, systemd based, could be to use systemd socket files, which (as far as I understand) opens a dummy socket and starts the matching service as soon as it's requested.

[–] enemenemu@lemm.ee 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I love systemd.

Is this what you suggest? https://cybso.de/blog/2017-02/how-wake-lan-remote-host-demand-using-systemds-sockets/

This sounds like a proxy that sends a magic packet if it can't reach the service. That sounds great

[–] 30p87@feddit.org 3 points 3 months ago

Basically yeah, though other solutions may be easier or more integrated. Using systemd sockets is especially useful if you want to start a service on the local server that is always on, with a service that uses a lot of resources in the background without other user interaction

[–] Mubelotix@jlai.lu 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I made a tool that can hibernate systemd services when no request get through their associated nginx service. Using it on jellyfin, works great

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I assume this works like the reverse of socket activation? If so, that's pretty rad!

That said, that doesn't really solve OP's problem, and I'm not exactly sure what it's solving for you. Jellyfin doesn't really use any resources when idle, so it's not going to save on power or anything like that.

That said, you could probably create an interesting service like this. Basically, if the last interesting service shuts down, you shut the whole machine down, and then use WoL to start it back up when someone wants it. Tune it a bit to reduce how often it reboots (i.e. extend life of your disks) and reduce boot times (i.e. don't mount the RAID until it's needed), and it could be really cool!

[–] Mubelotix@jlai.lu 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Exactly. It's like socket activation but plugged into nginx. It might or might not fit OP's use case, as when you have many small services like jellyfin, ram usage starts adding up. Adding automatic shutdown is a great idea

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago

I can see that, especially if running on limited hardware. My server has way more RAM than it needs though (16GB), so saving 50MB here and there isn't very important.