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What distro do you use for your servers?

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 Security needs are also the reason why I’m leaning away from using something like Debian, because how outdated the packages are would likely leave me open to vulnerabilities.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?

LeFantome ,

I mostly use Proxmox these days which runs on Debian be default.

pnutzh4x0r , (edited )
@pnutzh4x0r@lemmy.ndlug.org avatar

I currently use Ubuntu for all my machines (desktops, laptops, and servers), but I used to use Void Linux on my machines for about 6 years, including on a couple of VPSes. Since you are familiar with Void Linux, you could stick with that and just use Docker/Podman for the individual services such as Matrix, Mastodon, etc.

In regards to Debian, while the packages are somewhat frozen, they do get security updates and backports by the Debian security team:

www.debian.org/security/

There is even a LTS version of Debian that will continue backporting security updates:

www.debian.org/lts/

Good luck!

gencha ,

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.

user68k ,

Debian with Docker containers works well for my needs.

GustavoM ,
@GustavoM@lemmy.world avatar

Dietpi.. For no particular/proper reason other than its (extreme) focus on minimalism.

hagarashi8 ,
@hagarashi8@allthingstech.social avatar

@GustavoM @communism I think Alpine is better for a lightweight distro. It's also very minimalist, but without going too bespoke so it's still easy to google a solution.

Sunny ,

Love me some dietpi! Was pleasantly surprised of how smart and easy it was to use 🙌

harsh3466 ,

Ubuntu LTS. Currently on 22.04.

Codilingus ,

Unraid is amazing for getting into servers. It’s just the right amount of WebUI and minimalism. Very safe and comfortable defaults, and the ability to start tweaking and adding more.

Sunny ,

Had to scroll far to find this hehe, but count me in - Unraid for the win! Great OS and fantastic community 🧡

visone ,
@visone@fosstodon.org avatar

@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

DarkMetatron ,

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

bl_r ,

I have tons of experience with enterprise linux, so I tend to use Rocky linux. It’s similar to my Fedora daily driver, which is nice, and very close to the RHEL and Centos systems I used to own.

You are slightly mistaken with your assumption that debian is insecure because of the old packages. Old packages are fine, and not inherently insecure because of its age. I only become concerned about the security implications of a package if it is dual use/LOLBin, known to be vulnerable, or has been out of support for some time. The older packages Debian uses, at least things related to infrastructure and hosting, are the patched LTS release of a project.

My big concerns for picking a distro for hosting services would be reliability, level of support, and familiarity.

A more reliable distro is less likely to crash or break itself. Enterprise linux and Debian come to mind with this regard.

A distro that is well supported will mean quick access to security patches, updates, and more stable updates. It will have good, accurate documentation, and hopefully some good guides. Enterprise linux, Debian and Ubuntu have excellent support. Enterprise linux distros have incredible documentation, and often are similar enough that documentation for a different branch will work fine. Heck, I usually use rhel docs when troubleshooting my fedora install since it is close enough to get me to a point where the application docs will guide me through.

Familiarity is self explanatory. But it is important because you are more likely to accidentally compromise security in an unfamiliar environment, and it’s the driving force behind me sticking with enterprise linux over Nixos or a hardened OpenBSD.

As a fair word of warning, enterprise linux will be pretty different compared to any desktop distro, even fedora. It takes quite a bit of learning, to get comfortable (especially with SELinux), but once you do, things will go smoothly. you can also use a pirated rhel certification guide to learn enterprise linux

If anything, you can simply mess around in a local VM and try installing the tools and services needed before taking it to the cloud.

avidamoeba ,
@avidamoeba@lemmy.ca avatar

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. 😅

robinj1995 ,

CentOS Stream 8. Which I regret. Because they ended support without upgrade path.

MoogleMaestro ,

I’m currently using debian with Docker.

If I were to do it again, though, I’d probably just use either fedora or the server equivalent to silverblue (I can’t remember the name). I am so heavy on docker use at this point that I wouldn’t mind going full immutable.

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