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

submitted 3 months ago by communism@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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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 Security needs are also the reason why I'm leaning away from using something like Debian, because how outdated the packages are would likely leave me open to vulnerabilities.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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[–] Nomecks@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

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

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[–] Procapra@hexbear.net 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Devuan. If you need stable, and you like runit, thats the easiest option.

Debian isn't unsecure because security updates for packages are still received.

[–] prenatal_confusion@lemmy.one 1 points 3 months ago

Seonding the security point. It's probably riskier to use bleeding edge distros because the "old" Debian packages are well cured and don't have a lot of new issues. And as you said also old packages get security updates. Even in debian.

Been running Debian on my server for 10+ years.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I won't say which one, but I'll give you a hint as to why:

rpm -Vp https://...

It's what got me off Slackware, and it's true today. If the distro can't support that kind of check, it's dead to me.

[–] fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works 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.

[–] meldrik@lemmy.wtf 1 points 3 months ago

Mostly Ubuntu, but sometimes Debian.

[–] TGS@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

I use proxmox and run Debian containers and VMs

[–] pnutzh4x0r@lemmy.ndlug.org 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

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:

https://www.debian.org/security/

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

https://www.debian.org/lts/

Good luck!

[–] chrand@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 months ago (1 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.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

l comfortable with APT.

Apt4RPM was a beautiful thing. I wish we still had that as a common tool, as yum and its incapable 'up'grade dnf are just worse and less capable each time. I shudder at the crayon-eating that'll go into whatever 'succeeds' dnf.

[–] chrand@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 months ago

I have been using dnf for years, both on desktop and servers, and never had a problem with it. I have the opposite idea, it's getting better with dnf5, I think it's a great tool and upgrades not only the regular packages, but the entire distribution during new releases without any problem. I upgraded my notebook from Fedora 38 to 39 and finally to 40 through dnf, no complains.

[–] Findmysec@infosec.pub 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I guess you could use something like those new immutable distros to move away from state and related vulnerabilities. TBH there are plenty of hardening guides for Debian.

Or you could use any hardened version of Fedora which gets security fixes quicker, and then harden it some more yourself. The good part about Debian is that you are free to use SysVInit, I do not know if you could do that on Fedora. I do not think Systemd is a massive risk (if they have reached Systemd you have many other, bigger problems to think of).

I think I should study some more about Fedora. I run k3s on top and will go through their CISA hardening guide at some point to round things out.

[–] heythatsprettygood@feddit.uk 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.

[–] minnix@lemux.minnix.dev 1 points 3 months ago

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

[–] harsh3466@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Ubuntu LTS. Currently on 22.04.

[–] Grangle1@lemm.ee 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Servers are the one thing I've generally heard people agree that snaps are good for, so given its history it's a bit of a strange thing to hear of Ubuntu being a better server distro than desktop distro nowadays.

[–] pupbiru@aussie.zone 1 points 3 months ago

snaps are like poor man’s containers when it comes to servers… maybe better than having single-use VMs but if you’re wanting to build out real systems in a modern way, i literally haven’t worked with anyone using ubuntu in the last ~10 years

[–] Deckweiss@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I have one server running arch and 3 running debian.

So far they are equally stable after running for about half a year.

Autoupdates are turned on on all of them. Which I am aware is against the arch wiki recommendations, but the server is not critical, easy to migrate and has nightly offsite backups anyway.

[–] Hupf@feddit.org 0 points 3 months ago

Gentoo because I know my way around it and I'm able to only install stuff that I explicitly want and configured.

[–] GustavoM@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] hagarashi8@allthingstech.social 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

@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.

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