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I don't need a VPS anymore

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Re: I don't need a VPS anymore

#151

Post by jprd »

liotier wrote: post #141
Jensson wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some sysadmins could code. Not all sysadmins can code.

Sysadmin long enough and you'll find yourself inadvertently scripting in Bash. A few languages and API later and you'll realize that you may be coding. That is how it went for me...

"DevOps" == *nix admins before IaC

I cut my teeth on ancient VAX, AS/400, Solaris, HP-UX and Irix connected via NFS and Fibre SANs. Runbooks became shell scripts, then a DB backend, etc. Chef/Ansible/Puppet/et al all evolved from this practice.

At the time I moved on to greener pastures, I left behind a global Enterprise Storage environment that was semi-automated by workflow. Directly descended from ksh/bash and then moved to REST once that started to be available. Vendor tooling cost $ and sucked.

"Oh, you need to report on all your disparate proprietary backup environments, success/failure, generate reports and ServiceNow incidents? Cool, we'll just bang that out in python and store in Mongo."

Today, that would be a startup SaaS play (adjusted for technology of course).

It is amazing the stuff you learn and create to prevent burnout/churn while maintaining critical infrastructure as a cost-center org.

Re: I don't need a VPS anymore

#152

Post by stefandesu »

jrapdx3 wrote: post #148
stefandesu wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you using Jitsi via Docker? I was self-hosting a Jitsi instance for a while for my friends, but among all the services I'm hosting, it required the most work and broke all the time. At some point I gave up and we're now using either Signal or, if Signal can't do what we need, some public Jitsi instance that we trust.

I'm self-hosting jitsi in a "regular" VPS (4GB/4cpu). Though Docker is a popular and supported option. In the years I've been using jitsi it's improved immensely. The current stable version is quite usable, works fine when participants have good internet connections. I mostly use it with 2-5 people. Once installed and configured very little attention has been required. I'd agree that for larger meetings the public se…

Thanks a lot. Might try it again at some point.

Re: I don't need a VPS anymore

#153

Post by simonhamp »

I'm not sure I understand why you would have a long-running VPS that you need to manually upgrade.

Just build a new one with all of the system upgrades already in place and switch everything over... surely that's easier and safer?

Re: I don't need a VPS anymore

#154

Post by iso1631 »

trey-jones wrote: post #57

I might need some perspective. Every time I read one of these I'm just shaking my head, and yes the arguments are Less Power, Less Control, but also SysAdmin is me. That is my identity, and the part of the job that I like the most. I solve problems with configuration before code. So I hate to think that I'm becoming obsolete, of course. I also don't think that I am, because I do think that my way has some clear and d…

> I solve problems with configuration before code

I sometimes write code, I sometimes configure things, I sometimes write code to write configuration, sometimes I rearchitect the damn thing. I do whatever it takes to reach the business goal.

If all you know is how to configure something, it's like only having a hammer in your toolbox

If all you know is how to code something, it's like only having a hammer in your toolbox

If all you know is how to run a network, it's like only having a hammer in your toolbox

Not many companies want someone that will move from network problems to code problems to configuration problems to physical problems to supplier problems to security problems over the course of an afternoon, but if you do get a job like that it's nice and varied.

Re: I don't need a VPS anymore

#155

Post by dangero »

simonhamp wrote: post #153

I'm not sure I understand why you would have a long-running VPS that you need to manually upgrade. Just build a new one with all of the system upgrades already in place and switch everything over... surely that's easier and safer?

Is this a joke? And if not can you give a longer description of how this is easily done?

How do you transfer all configuration to the new system and how often are you doing this?

Re: I don't need a VPS anymore

#156

Post by ZetaZero »

ricktdotorg wrote: post #102
phplovesong wrote: post #85

We had some BIG surprises with Netlify billing. Basically we use the functions they provide, and we racked up a HUGE ass bill. They charge PER request, meaning as soon as we deployed a semi "real time" interface for one app, the usage spiked. Really, "serverless" is just a fad, and overloaded term. How about you deploy containers instead, and MAYBE have your database provided by a "Saas" provider (database maintenanc…

maybe serverless is a fad, but it can be a very useful one to reduce costs. our corp IT ops group has a google sheet that tracks staff's g suite/workspace-MDM'd corp mobile phones (is the OS updated? are the MDM policies up to date? when did the phone last check in, etc). the sheet is auto-updated every few minutes by a few lightweight cloud functions in GCP that query a few google APIs, state is stored in Datastore.…

I want to know more, please

Re: I don't need a VPS anymore

#157

Post by trey-jones »

iso1631 wrote: post #154
trey-jones wrote: post #57

I might need some perspective. Every time I read one of these I'm just shaking my head, and yes the arguments are Less Power, Less Control, but also SysAdmin is me. That is my identity, and the part of the job that I like the most. I solve problems with configuration before code. So I hate to think that I'm becoming obsolete, of course. I also don't think that I am, because I do think that my way has some clear and d…

> I solve problems with configuration before code I sometimes write code, I sometimes configure things, I sometimes write code to write configuration, sometimes I rearchitect the damn thing. I do whatever it takes to reach the business goal. If all you know is how to configure something, it's like only having a hammer in your toolbox If all you know is how to code something, it's like only having a hammer in your too…

Well I appreciate the feedback, but I didn't mean that I only configure. But over a decade in the business, mostly as a dev first (an infra-knowledgeable dev seems to be the term being bandied about here), I discovered that infra is my first love. So I don't wish to outsource it.

Re: I don't need a VPS anymore

#160

Post by gruez »

Nextgrid wrote: post #119
mjevans wrote: post #4

There are still reasons to have a VPS. However nearly all of them are driven by one factor for me: American ISPs suck; cash from the wallets and otherwise. For one thing, they often make it against the ToS to host 'a server' (generally). ISPs with even remotely decent uploads, EVEN for their business offerings, in the metro area around Seattle (still crazy rent, can't even afford to try buying a house) are like Cable…

Have these anti-server ToS clauses ever been enforced? To me it seems like a “cover your ass” clause they put in there to be able to disconnect people who put undue stress on a shitty oversubscribed asymmetric network by hosting a very popular and heavy website, or if they notice a large business website being hosted and need an excuse to force the company to upgrade to a business-grade plan. It does not necessarily…

> Have these anti-server ToS clauses ever been enforced?

AFAIK some ISPs block common ports (eg. 80/443). That sounds like "enforced" to me.

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