Nostr Relay on an Anubiz Romania VPS
Nostr relays are simple but operationally distinctive: they are WebSocket-heavy, write-heavy, and the workload scales primarily with active subscriber count rather than published note volume. A relay running strfry or nostr-rs-relay on a Romania VPS with NVMe handles tens of thousands of concurrent WebSocket connections cleanly. Romania law treats relays as standard intermediaries, which means the operator is responsible for moderation of clearly illegal content but is not pre-emptively monitored. This page is for relay operators standing up paid relays, community relays, or relays serving specific Nostr clients.
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Sizing a Nostr Relay
The dominant resource is open file descriptors for concurrent WebSocket connections. Linux defaults limit you to 1024 per process; raise to 200k via systemd LimitNOFILE. Memory per active WS connection in strfry is around 30-40 KB; 10k concurrent connections fits in 600 MB resident, 50k fits in 3 GB. The Romania VPS Mini-V tier ($49.99/mo, 4 GB RAM) handles a hobbyist relay; the V tier ($99.99/mo, 16 GB RAM) handles a serious one.
Write volume scales with publish rate. A relay receiving 100 events per second writes around 50 KB/s sustained, which any NVMe handles trivially. LMDB on strfry has been stable at hundreds of millions of events.
TLS and WebSocket Termination
Most Nostr clients require WSS (TLS). Terminate TLS at nginx with Let's Encrypt, then proxy to strfry on localhost. Configure nginx with proxy_read_timeout 3600s and proxy_send_timeout 3600s so persistent WebSocket connections stay open. Use the stream module for non-HTTP WebSocket multiplexing if you run multiple relays.
Some operators publish a Tor onion alongside the clearnet WSS. Nostr clients with Tor support reach the onion directly. This is one of the cleaner deployment patterns we see.
Moderation and the NIP-29 Reality
Public Nostr relays receive spam, illegal content, and abuse just like any open WebSocket service. Operators are responsible for moderation. Strfry has plugin support for write policies; nostr-rs-relay has similar gates. Common approaches: allowlist by pubkey, require proof-of-work on publish, paid relay model with whitelist managed through your billing layer.
You are still the moderator. We do not see relay content unless a court order forces us to. CSAM is removed at the infrastructure level on credible notice.
Network Posture
Romania VPS V provides 1 Gbit symmetric, 32 TB monthly egress. A relay serving 10k subscribers across diverse clients pushes maybe 5-15 Mbit sustained outbound; volumes are dominated by event broadcast.
Internal Links and Order
Order: Romania VPS. Related: VPS lineup, anonymous hosting, dedicated for large public relays.
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