4 ms·

Oh hi, author here, AMA :-) I'm happy that a lot of people use and find SadServers beneficial while not costing me a lot of money. Still a lot of features to i

by fduran 4y ago

Oh hi, author here, AMA :-) I'm happy that a lot of people use and find SadServers beneficial while not costing me a lot of money. Still a lot of features to implement on the website and a shrinking backlog of scenario ideas to materialize (if somebody has ideas for Linux/Docker/Kubernetes etc troubleshooting scenarios, please let me know).

jeroenhd 4y ago
I've just tried several of your challenges and they're all painfully accurate for real-world scenarios. I will definitely point people at these next time I'll get asked how I learned to fix <random Linux configuration problem>! As for suggestions, here are some random things I needed to do recently: - resize the boot partition of an OS (don't know how doable this is with your vserver setup, maybe use one of those WASM Linux emulators?) - set up a systemd service/timer/socket that starts at the right time and responds correctly to reloads/restarts - set up IPv6 correctly - troubleshoot why a device wasn't connecting to the WiFi (DHCP service problem!) - set up a VPN (wireguard/openvpn/etc). Expert mode: make the remote endpoint have an A/AAAA record that the server isn't listening on - troubleshoot why some of my devices couldn't ssh into a server despite the pubkeys being in the authorized_keys folder (old sshd version didn't understand the most recent key algorithm!). Bonus problem: ~/.ssh had the wrong permissions so the authorized keys weren't loading. - renew an ACME/letsencrypt certificate in nginx in proxy mode (location / was proxied but location /.well-known/... shouldn't have been!) - check your preferred smtp daemon to see if it's set as an open relay - upgrade postgres from an old version to a new version without data loss (hard mode: the partition postgres uses by default doesn't have the free space to make a copy and migrate the data) - figure out why the firewall isn't blocking port 1234 despite UFW being enabled and a block-all rule being present (it was because of Docker iptables rules overriding UFW rules) - update a package that has some kind of dependency issue (i.e. an external repository that is no longer needed) - make Ubuntu shut up about Ubuntu Pro and stop it from fetching ads on ssh login - alter a systemd service file so that it no longer runs as root (hard mode: set up dynamic users and other hardening features)
- lazyant 4y ago
  thanks! (some of these ideas are not possible to implement in the current setup but I can explore some of the other ones)

by fduran 4y ago

jeroenhd 4y ago

I've just tried several of your challenges and they're all painfully accurate for real-world scenarios. I will definitely point people at these next time I'll get asked how I learned to fix <random Linux configuration problem>! As for suggestions, here are some random things I needed to do recently: - resize the boot partition of an OS (don't know how doable this is with your vserver setup, maybe use one of those WASM Linux emulators?) - set up a systemd service/timer/socket that starts at the right time and responds correctly to reloads/restarts - set up IPv6 correctly - troubleshoot why a device wasn't connecting to the WiFi (DHCP service problem!) - set up a VPN (wireguard/openvpn/etc). Expert mode: make the remote endpoint have an A/AAAA record that the server isn't listening on - troubleshoot why some of my devices couldn't ssh into a server despite the pubkeys being in the authorized_keys folder (old sshd version didn't understand the most recent key algorithm!). Bonus problem: ~/.ssh had the wrong permissions so the authorized keys weren't loading. - renew an ACME/letsencrypt certificate in nginx in proxy mode (location / was proxied but location /.well-known/... shouldn't have been!) - check your preferred smtp daemon to see if it's set as an open relay - upgrade postgres from an old version to a new version without data loss (hard mode: the partition postgres uses by default doesn't have the free space to make a copy and migrate the data) - figure out why the firewall isn't blocking port 1234 despite UFW being enabled and a block-all rule being present (it was because of Docker iptables rules overriding UFW rules) - update a package that has some kind of dependency issue (i.e. an external repository that is no longer needed) - make Ubuntu shut up about Ubuntu Pro and stop it from fetching ads on ssh login - alter a systemd service file so that it no longer runs as root (hard mode: set up dynamic users and other hardening features)

lazyant 4y ago
thanks! (some of these ideas are not possible to implement in the current setup but I can explore some of the other ones)