Debian for Limited memory

[Jeff Pang]

My tiny vps from vultr has 512m ram only (it’s 2.5usd/m so cheap).

Should I install debian 9 in it for this limited memory?

Thank you

[Michael Kjörling]

Post by Jeff Pang
My tiny vps from vultr has 512m ram only (it’s 2.5usd/m so cheap).
Should I install debian 9 in it for this limited memory?

Definitely not, because Debian 9 is LONG out of support. (It's
Freexian ELTS only since mid-2022, and ships packages that essentially
were current in early 2017, so some seven years old by now.)

Debian 12 will boot in 256 MB RAM (I think that's the minimum
supported configuration on amd64, which your VPS very likely is) and a
minimal system will consume a fair bit less than that after booting;
so depending on what you want that VPS to do, 512 MB RAM should be
plenty. And you can always add swap to it if you don't want to splurge
on an additional RAM allocation.

[Greg Wooledge]

Post by Michael Kjörling

Post by Jeff Pang
My tiny vps from vultr has 512m ram only (it’s 2.5usd/m so cheap).
Should I install debian 9 in it for this limited memory?

Definitely not, because Debian 9 is LONG out of support.

This is definitely a cause for concern. Debian 10 is right near the end
of its supported lifespan as well. But Jeff will need to weigh the
needs of his applications (whatever the reason he's getting this VPS
in the first place) vs. which versions of Debian support those applications
vs. how much memory such a configuration will require vs. how long he
intends to keep it running past end of life vs. how important security
is to his applications.

In short, there is no simple answer, especially in the nearly complete
absence of ANY details from the OP.

Post by Michael Kjörling
Debian 12 will boot in 256 MB RAM (I think that's the minimum
supported configuration on amd64, which your VPS very likely is) and a
minimal system will consume a fair bit less than that after booting;
so depending on what you want that VPS to do, 512 MB RAM should be
plenty.

Maybe. It obviously depends on what the goals are for the VPS. A web
server with PHP applications and a database will probably *not* work
very well.

Post by Michael Kjörling
And you can always add swap to it if you don't want to splurge
on an additional RAM allocation.

That depends on the type of VPS this is. Some kinds do *not* support
adding swap space. You get your allocated RAM, and that's it.

Given the price, I would assume this is one where there's no swap option.

[Jeff Pang]

I plan to use it for MX backup.
So the application ram is quite low (postfix consume few resources)

Thank you all.

Post by Greg Wooledge

Post by Michael Kjörling

Post by Jeff Pang
My tiny vps from vultr has 512m ram only (it’s 2.5usd/m so cheap).
Should I install debian 9 in it for this limited memory?

Definitely not, because Debian 9 is LONG out of support.

This is definitely a cause for concern. Debian 10 is right near the end
of its supported lifespan as well. But Jeff will need to weigh the
needs of his applications (whatever the reason he's getting this VPS
in the first place) vs. which versions of Debian support those
applications
vs. how much memory such a configuration will require vs. how long he
intends to keep it running past end of life vs. how important security
is to his applications.
In short, there is no simple answer, especially in the nearly complete
absence of ANY details from the OP.

Post by Michael Kjörling
Debian 12 will boot in 256 MB RAM (I think that's the minimum
supported configuration on amd64, which your VPS very likely is) and a
minimal system will consume a fair bit less than that after booting;
so depending on what you want that VPS to do, 512 MB RAM should be
plenty.

Maybe. It obviously depends on what the goals are for the VPS. A web
server with PHP applications and a database will probably *not* work
very well.

Post by Michael Kjörling
And you can always add swap to it if you don't want to splurge
on an additional RAM allocation.

That depends on the type of VPS this is. Some kinds do *not* support
adding swap space. You get your allocated RAM, and that's it.
Given the price, I would assume this is one where there's no swap option.

[Greg Wooledge]

Post by Jeff Pang
I plan to use it for MX backup.
So the application ram is quite low (postfix consume few resources)

In that case, I'd go for the most recent version of Debian you can
run on whatever kernel you're using. Hopefully the current stable
release (Debian 12), but you'll need to look into all the details
of your VPS.

[Tim Woodall]

Post by Michael Kjörling
Debian 12 will boot in 256 MB RAM (I think that's the minimum
supported configuration on amd64, which your VPS very likely is) and a

One annoying "feature" I've found if you create the disk image on
another machine is that 'modules=dep' often won't boot and
'modules=most' won't boot on low ram machines.

There are obvious ways around this but it can be confusing, especially
where you're booting blind or near blind and need it to at least get to
a point where you can write a log for investigating on another machine.

debian 12 will boot in 256MB happily although I think a 'modules=most'
initrd needs 512MB on and64 at least.