Manage Low-Hardware Resources

Use this guide when you work on a machine with limited CPU, RAM, or disk.

Goal Hardware

A practical long-term target is:

  • 64 GB RAM

  • a swapfile about the same size as RAM

  • an external SSD with more than 500 GB if your computer does not have sufficient storage space

  • enough room for Docker images, volumes, build cache, and local repositories

If disk space is tight, you SHOULD move Docker data, caches, and your working directory to the SSD.

On Linux, you MAY move Docker to a different data path:

{
  "data-root": "/mnt/ssd/docker"
}

Then restart Docker:

sudo systemctl restart docker

The mount MUST be available before Docker starts. Otherwise the daemon may fall back to the system drive or fail to start cleanly.

On macOS and Windows, you MUST use Docker Desktop settings instead of daemon.json.

A same-size swapfile helps absorb memory spikes on Linux. On Windows and macOS, you SHOULD keep enough free disk space available for virtual memory and local caches.

Load Only What You Need

For a broad stack like the Community Hub, you SHOULD start only the services you actually need. If you are working on Discourse, you do not need Mastodon, Pixelfed, PeerTube, or Friendica in the same session.

You MAY pass disable=<csv> to make compose-deploy to disable services automatically across all applications without editing any file:

make compose-deploy mode=reinstall apps=web-app-discourse disable=matomo

This sets enabled: false and shared: false for every listed service in the generated inventory. See variables.md for details.

Service

Optional

What it provides

Effect of disabling

Safe to disable when

matomo

🟢

Analytics tracking

No usage statistics collected. Usually no functional impact.

You are not testing analytics integration

oidc

🟠

Single sign-on via Keycloak

App falls back to local login

You are not testing SSO/OIDC flows

ldap

🟠

Central user directory via OpenLDAP

App uses its own local user store

You are not testing LDAP/user sync

css

🟠

Custom theming/branding stylesheet

App uses its default upstream theme

You are not testing visual customization

logout

🟠

Shared logout endpoint across apps

Single sign-out does not propagate

You are not testing cross-app logout

dashboard

🟠

Central navigation hub

App is not reachable via the dashboard

You access the app directly by URL

redis

🔴

In-memory cache and session store

Caching and queuing are disabled

The app does not require sessions or queues (rarely safe)

database

🔴

Shared relational database (MariaDB/Postgres)

App cannot persist data

Never disable. Required by almost every app.

Legend:

  • 🟢 Safe to disable. Usually no functional impact.

  • 🟠 Optional. Can be disabled, but reduces functionality.

  • 🔴 Required. MUST NOT be disabled.

This is a development profile, not a production target.

When running Playwright tests, you SHOULD only disable matomo. All other services (🟠) are REQUIRED for full end-to-end scenario coverage. Disabling them will cause Playwright tests that depend on SSO, LDAP, theming, or logout flows to fail or produce incomplete results.

Test Smarter

On small machines, you SHOULD limit validation to the role you are touching.

For Discourse, start with:

make compose-deploy mode=reinstall apps=web-app-discourse disable=matomo

If the local inventory and stack already exist, you SHOULD reuse them:

make compose-deploy mode=update apps=web-app-discourse disable=matomo

You SHOULD use make compose-deploy (full discovery) only when you need broad coverage and have enough time and resources.

Measure Before You Delete

You SHOULD check what is actually consuming space before cleaning up:

make diagnose-disk-usage

That makes it easier to see whether the real issue is Docker, journald, a package cache, or project state.

Cleanup

Run the full cleanup pass to free disk and memory:

make system-purge

On WSL2 or Windows, you MUST pass the additional flag to also configure and run the Windows Disk Cleanup profile. Windows manages its own system caches independently from Linux and Docker:

make system-purge PURGE_WINDOWS_CLEANMGR_SETUP=true

Further Information

Discussion

Discuss this topic in the related forum article.