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Reclaiming the lost art of Linux server administration

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Re: Reclaiming the lost art of Linux server administration

#271

Post by lrvick »

Osiris wrote: post #269
lrvick wrote: post #61

I have over 20 years of Linux/FreeBSD sysadmin experience ranging from universities to major silicon valley companies in both cloud and on-prem. When it comes to companies I mostly support cloud these days but when it comes to me and my family I accept every downside and host as almost all of our digital lives in a 42u rack in a gutted closet in our house with static IPs and business fiber. I know where our data live…

What do you do for off-site backups?

I threw a NAS in a friends house that is configured to bootup and reverse ssh tunnel to my rack where it then accepts scheduled encrypted duplicity backups.

I do not even need to trust my friend as duplicity encrypts all data against a yubikey held pgp keychain before it leaves.

The backup NAS could phone home from anywhere with internet access.

Re: Reclaiming the lost art of Linux server administration

#272

Post by lrvick »

DizzyDoo wrote: post #80
lrvick wrote: post #61

I have over 20 years of Linux/FreeBSD sysadmin experience ranging from universities to major silicon valley companies in both cloud and on-prem. When it comes to companies I mostly support cloud these days but when it comes to me and my family I accept every downside and host as almost all of our digital lives in a 42u rack in a gutted closet in our house with static IPs and business fiber. I know where our data live…

Woah, 42u, that's quite something! How many of those slots are you using? What kind of cooling do you have to have for that closet, and how is the volume for the rest of the house?

All of them, but to be fair the bottom half of the rack is mostly multimedia gear that serves the whole house and a 6U gaming PC.

I have venting into my ceiling which connects outside but I am mostly using consumer gear like Raspberry pis and Intel NUCs and the rack fully fills the doorway so volume and heat is not a real issue.

Re: Reclaiming the lost art of Linux server administration

#273

Post by lrvick »

bamboozled wrote: post #187
lrvick wrote: post #61

I have over 20 years of Linux/FreeBSD sysadmin experience ranging from universities to major silicon valley companies in both cloud and on-prem. When it comes to companies I mostly support cloud these days but when it comes to me and my family I accept every downside and host as almost all of our digital lives in a 42u rack in a gutted closet in our house with static IPs and business fiber. I know where our data live…

> I know where our data lives and no one can access it without a warrant and my explicit knowledge As far as you know? Your data is exposed to The Internet so someone could be accessing it.

You forget the wonders of TLS when you control both ends.

Re: Reclaiming the lost art of Linux server administration

#274

Post by lrvick »

hnthrowaway0315 wrote: post #71
lrvick wrote: post #61

I have over 20 years of Linux/FreeBSD sysadmin experience ranging from universities to major silicon valley companies in both cloud and on-prem. When it comes to companies I mostly support cloud these days but when it comes to me and my family I accept every downside and host as almost all of our digital lives in a 42u rack in a gutted closet in our house with static IPs and business fiber. I know where our data live…

This sounds very interesting. Do you have a blog describing your experience just curious? Thanks for sharing~~

No but I founded and help run https://hashbang.sh where we give out free shell services and mentor people in security, privacy, and digital sovereignty.

Re: Reclaiming the lost art of Linux server administration

#275

Post by kirubakaran »

christophilus wrote: post #262
rad_gruchalski wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve picked up a second hand Dell R720 last year. Best purchase in years. It cost me €1500 for 48 cores and 192GB RAM.

I want one. What’s it done to your electricity bill, though?

R820s idle at ~200W and consume ~500W at 100% CPU load on all 80 virtual cores.

Re: Reclaiming the lost art of Linux server administration

#276

Post by lrvick »

sjtindell wrote: post #199
lrvick wrote: post #61

I have over 20 years of Linux/FreeBSD sysadmin experience ranging from universities to major silicon valley companies in both cloud and on-prem. When it comes to companies I mostly support cloud these days but when it comes to me and my family I accept every downside and host as almost all of our digital lives in a 42u rack in a gutted closet in our house with static IPs and business fiber. I know where our data live…

Just curious, what data do you worry about a warrant for? Asking to protect my own data.

With a lawful warrant they can look at whatever they wish with my explicit consent and knowledge to make sure they do not exceed the law, because I have heard enough first and second hand horror stories to know how abusive investigators can be, particularly from ex investigator friends. I work with a lot of people in the security industry, particularly those in countries or organizations that might not take kindly to those activities. I have a similar responsibility as a journalist to protect my sources, vulnerabilities still under embargo, etc.

I however mostly detest how almost every third party SaaS sells out our metrics and data for profit, long term consequences be damned. The less I empower profit maximizing machine learning to manipulate me and my family the better.

Re: Reclaiming the lost art of Linux server administration

#277

Post by scubbo »

lrvick wrote: post #61

I have over 20 years of Linux/FreeBSD sysadmin experience ranging from universities to major silicon valley companies in both cloud and on-prem. When it comes to companies I mostly support cloud these days but when it comes to me and my family I accept every downside and host as almost all of our digital lives in a 42u rack in a gutted closet in our house with static IPs and business fiber. I know where our data live…

Reading this as my home Wireguard-host has just gone mysteriously unresponsive for the second time in a month[0], rendering all my home-hosted service inaccessible - you're right about the pros _and_ the cons. I'm not shying away from this self-hosted adventure, but I'm also realistic about the downsides.

[0] https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/135610/conne...

Re: Reclaiming the lost art of Linux server administration

#278

Post by lrvick »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #84
lrvick wrote: post #61

I have over 20 years of Linux/FreeBSD sysadmin experience ranging from universities to major silicon valley companies in both cloud and on-prem. When it comes to companies I mostly support cloud these days but when it comes to me and my family I accept every downside and host as almost all of our digital lives in a 42u rack in a gutted closet in our house with static IPs and business fiber. I know where our data live…

I'm curious how much you're paying for business fiber. Do you have IP transit in your home, or is it just a business connection?

$300/mo for 300/300 with 5 clean static IPs suitable for nameservers, mail servers, etc.

Re: Reclaiming the lost art of Linux server administration

#279

Post by tomrod »

gerdesj wrote: post #266
tomrod wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows 11 with Edge. Nothing else /s But in all reality, laptops are really, really powerful these days.

I use customer cast offs and even employee cast offs. My desktop was cast off by a customer because Win 10 ground to a halt. I slapped an ancient nvidia card in to get a couple of screens and popped in a cheap SSD. According to dmidecode it is a Lenovo from 01/06/2012. My laptop at the moment is a HPE something ... HP 250 G6 Notebook PC according to dmidecode. I used to have a five year old Dell 17" i7 based beast bu…

I think I found a simpatico friend!

Re: Reclaiming the lost art of Linux server administration

#280

Post by ineedasername »

lrvick wrote: post #61

I have over 20 years of Linux/FreeBSD sysadmin experience ranging from universities to major silicon valley companies in both cloud and on-prem. When it comes to companies I mostly support cloud these days but when it comes to me and my family I accept every downside and host as almost all of our digital lives in a 42u rack in a gutted closet in our house with static IPs and business fiber. I know where our data live…

42u? That's quite a family!
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