Edit: wow, this is a never ending comment section!

    • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      11·
      9 months ago

      I just heard of NixOS for the first time because of this thread. Looked up some videos on it, and my jaw hit the fucking floor.

    • bzLem0n@lemmy.caEnglish
      8·
      9 months ago

      Same here. I came for the integrated ZFS support and stayed for the declarative config.

      • 2xsaiko@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        19·
        9 months ago

        Declarative configuration of services and the rest of the entire system, and everything that brings with it.

        • Want to test some new service, or make changes to an existing one, but don’t know if you want to keep it? Sure, just temporarily switch to the new configuration, you can always switch back to the old one and everything will be back as it was.
        • Have multiple servers and want to share configuration between them? Absolutely, just import the same file from both. I have a git repo storing configurations for 10 machines and a huge part of it is shared configuration.
        • Want to use one service’s endpoint (such as a socket path) in another? Sure, just use the socket path configuration option for the first service in the configuration for the second, such as here. This works since everything is a single tree of options which all the service configuration files are then generated from, so interpolate stuff as you wish.
        • Checks for configuration correctness during build of the system (NixOS options are type checked during evaluation, and then during the actual system build there’s more checks, like nginx config has to succeed nginx -t, otherwise the system build fails and you can’t switch to it)
        • Want to spin up a VM to test changes before putting it on the actual target? There’s a builtin command (nixos-rebuild build-vm) that makes a script that starts a QEMU VM with your configuration running in it. It’s as fast as building the real system, so a couple seconds if you’re making small changes.
        • Setting up services is also often as easy as putting services.foo.enable = true; in your configuration. And, if you remove that line, the service is gone, so you’re never left with “the random package or file you installed once to test something and has been forgotten about”. That’s the biggest thing it has over any kind of imperative solution IMO.

        I feel like even if I want to distro hop again and end up putting something else on my desktop, NixOS is going to stay on my servers indefinitely. It’s pretty much a perfect fit for servers.

      • baduhai@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        6·
        9 months ago

        It isn’t, it’s just different. I use NixOS because of stupid easy rollbacks, which is great for experimenting in production, and its declarative nature, which is great in a server setting.

      • Litanys@lem.cochrun.xyzEnglish
        2·
        9 months ago

        Everything is declared, from packages to configuration, and then I can put it in a git repo locked to versions. If something breaks on updates, you have free rollbacks. Which means you can’t screw up too much. Also it has almost all the software.

  • MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    322·
    9 months ago

    Proxmox (debian) on the hosts, and Debian for all the VMs and Containers.

    Just nice and easy to use, supported by basically everything, and a minimal install uses like 30MB of RAM.

    I also have an OSX VM because that’s literally the only way you can test a website in Safari (fu Apple).

    • Billygoat@catata.fishEnglish
      7·
      9 months ago

      Love proxmox. Been using it for nearly a decade and while it has its pain points it has been rock solid for me for the past 4 years.

    • 2xsaiko@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      6·
      9 months ago

      You don’t need Safari unless it’s for Apple Pay integration or something. WebKit is open source. Use Epiphany or some other browser that uses it.

    • umbrella@lemmy.mlEnglish
      24·
      9 months ago

      when vendors pull this kind of crap ill simply not test on their software.

  • rmuk@feddit.ukEnglish
    21·
    9 months ago

    Three HP ProLiant servers running ProxMox cluster. Each box has a VM for Portaiber, as well as mismatch of VMs running Home Assistant OS, OpenWRT, Ubuntu, Windows and Debian, along with a Windows file server that connectes to four cheap NAS running Ubuntu LTS with a combined 20 mismatched hard drives by iSCSI and borgs them together with Storage Spaces.

    It’s a fucking mess, if I’m honest.

  • HumanPerson@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    191·
    9 months ago

    Debian. It is rock solid. If software doesn’t support Debian, chances are it supports something Debian based. You never have to worry about an update breaking your computer. It is the perfect “it just works” distro for a server.

  • daniskarma@lemmy.worldEnglish
    191·
    9 months ago

    Debian.

    Stable, well documented, easy to install. I do not need anything else right now.

    • PHLAK@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      9 months ago

      I am super impressed with Arch on my home servers. People seem to think “rolling” means “unstable” but the only issues I’ve had were due to some weird hardware incompatibility with my motherboard. Once I replaced the mobo my system has been rock solid AND reasonably up-to-date (I do use LTS kernel).

      • Molecular0079@lemmy.worldEnglish
        9·
        9 months ago

        I felt the exact same way. So many comments online told me that running Arch as a home NAS was insane, but after the Jupiter Broadcasting guys did it without much issue, I decided to give it a go and was pleasantly surprised. I think if most of your stuff is running in Docker and you have BTRFS snapshots for your root filesystem, the system’s pretty much bullet proof. The rolling updates also mean you’ll never have huge upgrade cycles that are a pain in the ass to migrate to. You’re always just dealing with small manageable fires instead of large complicated ones and that’s a plus.