How do you set up a server? Do you do any automation or do you just open up an SSH session and YOLO? Any containers? Is docker-compose enough for you or are you one of those unicorns who had no issues whatsoever with rootless Podman? Do you use any premade scripts or do you hand craft it all? What distro are you building on top of?

I’m currently in process of “building” my own server and I’m kinda wondering how “far” most people are going, where do y’all take any shortcuts, and what do you spend effort getting just right.

  • @sudneo
    1•1 year ago

    I have a bunch of different stuff, a dedicated server with Debian, 4 raspberry Pis + 1 micro computer that acts as a LB/Router/DHCP/DNS for the Pis.

    In general I would say that my logic is as follows:

    • Every OS change is done through Ansible. This sometimes is a pain, you want to just apt install X and instead you might need to create a new playbook for it, but in the long term, it paid off multiple times. I do have some default playbook that does basic config (user, SSH key provisioning, some default packages) and hardening (SSH config, iptables).
    • I then try to keep the OS logic to a minimum, and do everything else as code. On my older dedicated server I run mostly docker-compose with Systemd + templated docker-compose files dropped by Ansible. The Pis instead run Kubernetes, with flux and all my applications are either directly managed via Flux or they have Helm in between. This means I can destroy a cluster, create another way, point it to my flux repository and I am pretty much back where I started.
    • @laculacu
      1•1 year ago

      Sounds cool. ansible could never convince me, though, because playbook writing is so annoying.

      • @sudneo
        1•1 year ago

        Oh, I am there with you on that. I got used in my previous job, where everything was done with Ansible, but I still find myself copy pasting and changing most of the times. I actually like way more a declarative approach a-la-terraform.

        Overall though there is a lot of community material, and once the playbooks are written it’s quite good!

        • @laculacu
          2•1 year ago

          I guess if I would automate my base setups with ansible so that I have a good foundation and have learned the tool properly, I would stick to it, but it was one of the cases were I was pushed away right from the start.