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What distro do you use for your servers? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I've only ever used desktop Linux and don't have server admin experience (unless you count hosting Minecraft servers on my personal machine lol). Currently using Artix and Void for my desktop computers as I've grown fond of runit.

I'm going to get a VPS for some personal projects and am at the point of deciding what distro I want to use. While I imagine that systemd is generally the best for servers due to the far more widespread support (therefore it's better for the stability needs of a server), I have a somewhat high threat model compared to most people so I was wondering if maybe I should use something like runit instead which is much smaller and less vulnerable. Security needs are also the reason why I'm leaning away from using something like Debian, because how outdated the packages are would likely leave me open to vulnerabilities. Correct me if I'm misunderstanding any of that though.

Other than that I'm not sure what considerations there are to make for my server distro. Maybe a more mainstream distro would be more likely to have the software in its repos that I need to host my various projects. On the other hand, I don't have any experience with, say, Fedora, and it'd probably be a lot easier for me to stick to something I know.

In terms of what I want to do with the VPS, it'll be more general-purpose and hosting a few different projects. Currently thinking of hosting a Matrix instance, a Mastodon instance, a NextCloud instance, an SMTP server, and a light website, but I'm sure I'll want to stick more miscellaneous stuff on there too.

So what distro do you use for your server hosting? What things should I consider when picking a distro?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

If you are already familiar with one package manager, pick a distro that also uses that package manager.

When deciding on the release track, the harder it is to recover the system, the more stable the track should be. Stable does not imply secure.

As you move up through virtualization layers, the less stable the track needs to be, allowing access to more recent features.

Steer clear of distros that pride themselves on using musl. It's historically slow and incomplete. Don't buy into the marketing.

Think about IaC. Remote management is a lot more comfortable if you can consider your server ephemeral. You'll appreciate the work on the day you need to upgrade to a new major release of the distro.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Ubuntu server, though I am thinking of using arch even though it is a rolling distro. It doesn't really matter. As long as docker is supported, I am fine using any.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

I wouldn't personally use Arch on a server. The rolling release could cause a lot of problems, especially since you lack the ability to seamlessly integrate older versions of packages like with gentoo masking.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Do you have a plan on how you’d do version controlling on Arch? It’d be annoying to upgrade, something breaks, and you can’t easily roll back.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Snapper.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I'll just wait a few days or even weeks before doing any big updates, read the news page of archlinux.org and maybe some forum stuff. Nothing broke so far on my personal laptop, but I also don't tinker alot. All of the data of the containers are also stored in a storagebox from Hetzner so the system breaking wouldn't even mean that much, I'll just restore from a snapshot and everything will be fine.

I also might think of switching to NixOS instead. They say it's hard but pays off well and can be very stable.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

@communism
I use alpine, but void is a good option too, for me the host should be minimal and lightweight. At the end I have all on containers

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Debian but mostly Ubuntu LTS with the free Ubuntu Pro that gives 10-year support. If I get hit by a bus, chances are the self-hosted systems I've setup would continue to work for years till my family can get someone to support or migrate the data. 😅

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I use arch on my servers. It is the distro I am most used too, because I use it also as my daily driver.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Used to be CentOS until the stream debacle. Now Debian.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Been running Ubuntu LTS releases on all my server VMs for 8 years and haven't had a single problem. Absolutely solid as a rock. Fantastic support, loads of guides to do anything. Plus you can get 10years of support as a home user with a free Ubuntu Pro subscription.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I always use Rocky Linux or Alma Linux, since I have extensive experience with enterprise Linux and RPM packages. I have Fedora on my main desktop computer. Both Rocky Linux and Alma Linux are rock-solid and are ideal for any kind of workload.

Also, Debian is a good choice if you know how to manage DEB packages and you feel comfortable with APT.

Fedora is a good choice if you want fresh packages and are willing to upgrade your server every 6 months (following the Fedora release cycle).

Rocky Linux and Alma Linux follow a similar slow release cycle of RHEL, wherein you can install your server and not have to worry for years (as long as the packages are updated with dnf update) Debian is also a slow release distribution, which makes it good for servers.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Arch. With testing repos. And somehow, it also just works.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Mint on the Desktop, FreeBSD on the server. Amazingly stable.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Red Hat, because it's free for developers and used by a lot of enterprises.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Rocky and now moving too OpenSuse leap micro to move into immutable OS deployments.

Its all RKE2 (a k8s distro) on top anyways, so its very minor mods underneath, and base updates so I really want to maximize reproducibility and minim8ze attack surface.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I use proxmox and run Debian containers and VMs

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

debian proxmox

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

openSUSE Leap - YaST is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and works great on command line over SSH. Yes, sometimes installing some software is difficult, but generally most stuff you would want is there and a lot of stuff runs on Docker anyway now. Very stable too, have had nearly zero issues.

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