Update the free matrix server article/guide (#1073)

Author: ptman

gatsby/content/docs/free-small-matrix-server.mdx

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 ---
-title: 'Free Small Matrix Server'
+title: 'Free Matrix Server using Oracle Cloud'
 author: Paul Tötterman <[email protected]>
 layout: post
 section: Server Setup
@@ -20,9 +20,10 @@ Ingredients:
 
 ## Free domain name
 
-Get one from [Freenom] for free or any other place you wish. Freenom only gives
-free domains for a year. A Matrix server cannot be [migrated] from one domain to
-another, so you might want to get a longer-lived one.
+Get one from [Freenom] or [DuckDNS] for free or any other place you wish.
+Freenom can be tricky to renew for free after the first year. A Matrix server
+cannot be [migrated] from one domain to another, so you might want to get a
+longer-lived one.
 
 - https://tld-list.com/ - find cheap domains, look at renewal fees also
 - https://www.namecheap.com/promos/99-cent-domain-names/ - cheap first year
@@ -32,19 +33,20 @@ aren't sufficient). To do this I added the domain on the free [Cloudflare] plan.
 You can also use freenom dns management if you prefer.
 
 [Freenom]: https://www.freenom.com
+[DuckDNS]: https://www.duckdns.org/
 [Cloudflare]: https://www.cloudflare.com
 [migrated]: https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/issues/1209
 
 ## Get a free server
 
-Comparison of free cloud offerings (2019/10):
+Comparison of free cloud offerings (2021/09):
 
 | Vendor   | Time-limit | Count                    | RAM (GB) | Storage (GB) | Transfer (GB) |
-| -------- | ---------- | ------------------------ | -------: | -----------: | ------------: |
-| [AWS]    | 12 months  | 1 t2.micro               | 1        | 30           | 15            |
-| [Azure]  | 12 months  | 1 B1S                    | 1        | 2x 64        | 15            |
-| [GCP]    | no limit   | 1 f1-micro               | 0.6      | 30           | 1             |
-| [Oracle] | no limit   | 2 VM.Standard.E2.1.Micro | 1        | 100          | 10000         |
+| -------- | ---------- | ----------------------- | -------: | -----------: | ------------: |
+| [AWS]    | 12 months  | 1 t2.micro              | 1        | 30           | 15            |
+| [Azure]  | 12 months  | 1 B1S                   | 1        | 2x 64        | 15            |
+| [GCP]    | no limit   | 1 e2-micro              | 1        | 30           | 1             |
+| [Oracle] | no limit   | 1-4 VM.Standard.A1.Flex | 24       | 200          | 10000         |
 
 [AWS]: https://aws.amazon.com/free/
 [Azure]: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/
@@ -54,9 +56,9 @@ Comparison of free cloud offerings (2019/10):
 If you choose to, register on Oracle Cloud (requires credit card for
 verification) and create a free VM:
 
-1. Create a VM instance
+1. Create a VM.Standard.A1.Flex VM instance
 2. Give it a name
-3. OS/image: Canonical Ubuntu 18.04 Minimal
+3. OS/image: Canonical Ubuntu 20.04
 4. Show Shape, Network and Storage Options -> Assign a public IP address
 5. Add SSH key ([generate one][sshkey] using `ssh-keygen` if you don't have one)
 6. Show advanced options. I removed monitoring, since I'll remove the monitoring
@@ -113,18 +115,6 @@ snap remove oracle-cloud-agent
 apt purge snapd open-iscsi lxd lxcfs
 ```
 
-## Tune server (optional)
-
-I suggest enabling swap, since there's only 1 GB of RAM.
-
-```shell
-dd if=/dev/zero of=/swap bs=1M count=1k
-chmod 0600 /swap
-mkswap /swap
-swapon /swap
-echo '/swap none swap sw 0 0' >> /etc/fstab
-```
-
 ## Point domain at server
 
 Assuming you're using a new domain only for this you need the following DNS
@@ -143,14 +133,17 @@ Follow the [guide], with some tweaks:
 
 ### Guide in a nutshell, TL;DR
 
+If you are too busy to read the guide, here are the most important steps:
+
 ```shell
 git clone https://github.com/spantaleev/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy/
 cd matrix-docker-ansible-deploy
 mkdir inventory/host_vars/matrix.$domain
-cp examples/host-vars.yml inventory/host_vars/matrix.$domain/vars.yaml
+cp examples/vars.yml inventory/host_vars/matrix.$domain/vars.yml
 cp examples/hosts inventory/hosts
 $EDITOR inventory/hosts
-$EDITOR inventory/host_vars/matrix.$domain/vars.yaml
+# put most settings here in vars.yml, read following sections for some ideas
+$EDITOR inventory/host_vars/matrix.$domain/vars.yml
 # you'll need to rerun setup-all and start tags again if you edit vars later
 ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=setup-all,start
 ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=self-check
@@ -163,30 +156,12 @@ ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml -e username=$user -e password=$pas
 matrix_nginx_proxy_base_domain_serving_enabled: true
 ```
 
-### Disable all extras because of RAM
-
-```yaml
-matrix_mxisd_enabled: false
-matrix_mailer_enabled: false
-matrix_coturn_enabled: true # disable to save more RAM
-```
-
 ### Configure the public IP address for coturn
 
 ```yaml
 matrix_coturn_turn_external_ip_address: $instance_external_ip_address
 ```
 
-### Limit rooms because of limited RAM
-
-```yaml
-matrix_synapse_configuration_extension_yaml: |
-  limit_remote_rooms:
-    enabled: true
-    complexity: 1.0 # this limits joining complex (~large) rooms, can be
-                    # increased, but larger values can require more RAM
-```
-
 ## Done!
 
 Point your browser to https://element.$domain or use [another
@@ -210,4 +185,5 @@ but really, take a brief look at all the documentation.
 Come join [#synapse:matrix.org](https://matrix.to/#/#synapse:matrix.org) to
 discuss homeservers. Or say hi to
 [@ptman:ptman.name](https://matrix.to/#/@ptman:ptman.name), who wrote this
-guide.
+guide (also <a
+href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>).