FediMeteo, HAProxy, and the art of not wasting snac threads

How FediMeteo uses HAProxy caching, static pages, and small FreeBSD jails to keep snac quiet and serve ActivityPub traffic efficiently.

https://it-notes.dragas.net/2026/05/18/fedimeteo-haproxy-and-the-art-of-not-wasting-snac-threads/

#FediMeteo #snac #snac2 #haproxy #freebsd #it #sysadmin #ITNotes

The Austrian list contains all provincial capitals which is fine, but the rest looks rather random. So maybe I could request some more randomness that happens to be closer to where I am situated 😉

#fedimeteo #weather #fediverse #snac

#FediMeteoUpdates #FediMeteoAnnouncements

#snac #FediMeteoUpdates #FediMeteoAnnouncements #FediMeteo

#snac2 #FediMeteo #FediMeteoUpdates

#FediMeteoUpdates #FediMeteoAnnouncements

#FediMeteo #FediMeteoAnnouncements #FediMeteoUpdates #snac #snac2

#FediMeteoAnnouncements #FediMeteoUpdates

Exactly one year ago, on 30th December 2024, I laid the foundation of FediMeteo.

I took a VM, installed FreeBSD, and set up the first jail to support Italy. The goal was to create a tool for my own use, support a few countries, and announce it.

Unexpectedly, the enthusiasm was incredible. That pushed me to keep going, support more countries and cities, and turn it into what it is today.

FediMeteo now supports 38 countries and 2,937 cities, with more than 7,700 followers in the Fediverse alone, not counting the many people who follow via RSS feeds or visit the web pages.

If you are curious to read the story and some technical details, you can find it here:
https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/02/26/fedimeteo-how-a-tiny-freebsd-vps-became-a-global-weather-service-for-thousands/

Today is also Tuesday, a #ThankYouTuesday, so I want to say thanks to:

* OpenMeteo - @openmeteo - for providing accurate, high quality data, without which FediMeteo would be far less useful

* @grunfink - creator of snac, who made all of this possible using very few resources, on a 4 euro per month VM

* FreeBSD, which thanks to the efficiency of the OS and its jail implementation made it possible to run this service in a stable and efficient way with minimal effort

* FediFollows - @FediFollows - that periodically spreads the word about cities, countries, and the enthusiasm around the project

*All of you*, who suggested, encouraged, corrected, and celebrated this project

And forward toward supporting more countries and other interesting features already in the works.

Happy birthday, FediMeteo! 🎉

#FediMeteo #HappyBirthday #Meteo #Weather #FreeBSD #snac #snac2 #OpenMeteo #Fediverse

I took a VM, installed FreeBSD, and set up the first jail to support Italy. The goal was to create a tool for my own use, support a few countries, and announce it.

Unexpectedly, the enthusiasm was incredible. That pushed me to keep going, support more countries and cities, and turn it into what it is today.

FediMeteo now supports 38 countries and 2,937 cities, with more than 7,700 followers in the Fediverse alone, not counting the many people who follow via RSS feeds or visit the web pages.

If you are curious to read the story and some technical details, you can find it here:
https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/02/26/fedimeteo-how-a-tiny-freebsd-vps-became-a-global-weather-service-for-thousands/

Today is also Tuesday, a #ThankYouTuesday, so I want to say thanks to:

• OpenMeteo - @openmeteo@fosstodon.org - for providing accurate, high quality data, without which FediMeteo would be far less useful

• @grunfink@comam.es - creator of snac, who made all of this possible using very few resources, on a 4 euro per month VM

• FreeBSD, which thanks to the efficiency of the OS and its jail implementation made it possible to run this service in a stable and efficient way with minimal effort

• FediFollows - @FediFollows@social.growyourown.services - that periodically spreads the word about cities, countries, and the enthusiasm around the project

And forward toward supporting more countries and other interesting features already in the works.

Happy birthday, FediMeteo! 🎉

#FediMeteo #HappyBirthday #Meteo #Weather #FreeBSD #snac #snac2 #OpenMeteo #Fediverse

#FediMeteoAnnouncements #FediMeteo #FediMeteoUpdates #snac #snac2

#FediMeteoUpdates #FediMeteoAdmin #snac2

fedimeteo.com

Das Projekt fedimeteo.com bietet #Wetterinformationen für rund dreitausend Städte in rund vierzig Ländern. Als Basis für die #Wetterdaten dient #OpenMeteo. Die Wetterinformationen werden in lokaler Sprache verschickt.

https://fedimeteo.com/

Kurzanleitung

Wähle Deine Stadt, indem Du mit dem passenden Land beginnst.

Städte in #Deutschland finden sich hier:
https://de.fedimeteo.com/

Wähle Deine Stadt und folge dem passenden fediversalen Account.

Für #Hamburg ist dies: https://de.fedimeteo.com/hamburg
bzw. @hamburg@de.fedimeteo.com (Hamburg - FediMeteo)

Übrigens, die Anbindung an das #Fediverse via #ActivityPub erledigt im Fall von #FediMeteo die Software #Snac.

Für allgemeine Projektupdates kann man @admin@fedimeteo.com folgen.

Für #Wetter zu ausgewählten Orten in #Norddeutschland, siehe auch:
https://mastodonien.de/@nordwetter
bzw. @nordwetter@mastodonien.de

#snac2 #FediMeteo #FediMeteoAdmin #FediMeteoUpdates

Hello Fedi friends!

My child and I arrived in Italy yesterday to spend all of July at my parents' 🇮🇹

What's the first thing I did this morning? Following @milano to have weather forecasts here in my feed.

Special thanks to @stefano for creating this incredible project.

For those of you not familiar with #FediMeteo, it covers 2893 cities in 38 countries. All powered by a 4€/month VPS with #snac and #freeBSD:

https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/02/26/fedimeteo-how-a-tiny-freebsd-vps-became-a-global-weather-service-for-thousands/

Grazie Stefano! 🙏✨🏆

#FediMeteo #snac #FediMeteoUpdates

#FediMeteoUpdates

#FediMeteoUpdates

#FediMeteoUpdates #FediMeteoAnnouncements

#FediMeteo #FediMeteoUpdates #snac #snac2 #Fediverse

#FediMeteo #FediMeteoUpdates

https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/02/26/fedimeteo-how-a-tiny-freebsd-vps-became-a-global-weather-service-for-thousands/

#FediMeteo #Fediverse #FreeBSD #RunBSD #Hosting #ITNotes #Networking #NoteHUB #Server #Snac #Snac2 #Social #Web

#FediMeteo #FediMeteoUpdates #snac #snac2

#FediMeteo #snac #snac2

#FediMeteo #FediMeteoUpdates #snac #snac2

#FediMeteo #FediMeteoStatus #FediMeteoAnnouncements #snac #snac2

Some technical details for those interested:
The entire FediMeteo setup runs on a FreeBSD VM costing around 4 euros per month. It supports almost all major EU countries (plus the UK), with just a few left to complete. Currently, there are 25 separate jails, each running its own instance of snac, totaling 25 instances. The VM load typically stays around 10%, which increases to 30% when updates are published for countries with larger numbers of cities (currently Germany and Italy). The only time the load spikes is when new countries are announced; during that time, all remote instances connect to all cities to download their details.
As for RAM usage, excluding the ZFS cache, it's currently a total of 213 MB. Yes, MB.

#FreeBSD #FediMeteo #snac #Fediverse #Efficiency #RunBSD

https://codeberg.org/grunfink/snac2

#snac #ThankYou