bergetfew

joined 1 month ago
[–] bergetfew@sopuli.xyz 1 points 7 hours ago

Thank you for your suggestions. From the thread it is highly apparent that I would need IT's support on this.

As for the hardware, we could still consider a machine with Linux as the server instead. Though the remote access issue would need to be resolved.

[–] bergetfew@sopuli.xyz 2 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

Honestly, after considering the security implications of enabling access to the university's network, I think I would first warn the team about this before setting up anything and let them decide how to proceed afterwards. I'll also inform them to ask the IT department for the in-house VPN solution and identity management.

I don't believe there would be need for the team to access anything in the network apart from the computer itself. Is it possible to arrange a solution that disables connections to intranet devices through the server by default just to be safe?

[–] bergetfew@sopuli.xyz 2 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

I wasn't able to get a clear response but I can say that they are primarily going to use it for writing and storing code like a Github repo, plus installation of 2-3 programs whose names I couldn't recognise.

They could use Github itself, but I know they know this too so but deliberate chose to work this way. I could probably suggest a software like Gitea or Forgejo for this purpose, but I suppose they aren't in need of that.

[–] bergetfew@sopuli.xyz -2 points 21 hours ago (3 children)

Mostly it boils down to laziness. They for sure have the ability to set up the server themselves but they can't be bothered to unless it's for a larger number of machines. They have essentially given a thumbs up to proceed with the setup but haven't offered assistance themselves. I think the team might already have reached out to them, but were let down which is why they tried to contact me.

The server will be stored in the personal office of one of the members of the team. It should be physically secure.

I don't think I would completely lose access to it, rather it's just that I won't be allowed to personally SSH to the server with my own devices. I may still be able to connect to it through one of the members' devices or onsite. The team member earlier mentioned will take care of the system after the setup.

I don't know what'll happen to the server after the project is over, nor am I in a position to assume something.

[–] bergetfew@sopuli.xyz -2 points 21 hours ago (5 children)

They already have gotten the permission for this.

However the IT department wouldn't be helping with enabling public access to the computer via the university's intranet. So it is up to me to figure out an alternative connection strategy like tunneling or VPN.

[–] bergetfew@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I was proposed to set up the server knowing that I have limited knowledge on managing stuff like this. They already have an sysadmin in the campus, but I think their setup is simple enough that they were willing to approach me. Besides I do consider myself to be experienced enough to work my way around CLI and troubleshoot issues even if I haven't had experience with hardware like this.

I don't think negotiating for a different computer would be possible. The main challenge would be to make best of the hardware I'm provided, with additional peripherals if needed.

I do plan on asking them the nature of the work to be done on the server, but I wouldn't expect it to be too niche or computationally intensive since they have separate computers for that. In any case, I will relay the points highlighted in this thread to them and get a clear idea of what is needed to be arranged.

[–] bergetfew@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Part of the reason why they left so many details vague was to give me some freedom on what to setup in the server based on what I think is right, although I do agree there needs to be clarification for some points.

Could you give me a hint on what I should additionally ask regarding their server needs?

[–] bergetfew@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Could you suggest what would be the most appropriate backup solution in this case? I could also ask them to arrange a backup drive or a cloud provider if needed.

[–] bergetfew@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I was told the some team members work in different universities, so we would need to accommodate them as well

[–] bergetfew@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

Sorry if I am unable to provide specific details for the queries. I don't have answers to most of them myself which is why I was hoping what the safest bet for these situations would be to implement.

  1. Highly likely they would be installing new software

  2. I don't know much about its use case, although it won't be too intensive since they probably have a separate machine for heavier work.

  3. Backup storage option wasn't proposed at all. I'm thinking of proposing to implement one.

  4. I expect between 10-20 users.

  5. User permissions requirements wasn't discussed as well, although I wouldn't expect there to be any need to grant everyone admin privileges

  6. Don't know about the criticality of data. I could only speculate to be considerable by default.

[–] bergetfew@sopuli.xyz 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (11 children)

The server should be no problem to the university as long as it's set up to do what I was told it would do.

Is it okay to use macOS too? I thought Linux was more prevalent among servers. Although if there is no significant change in operating one compared to Linux, then I'll just stick to macOS after all.

 

I've been asked to set up a server for a research team at my university. I've already had the practice of setting a server at home, so I have a rough idea of how things should be done. Still, I wish to follow best practices when setting up a server for this use case. Plus I would prefer to avoid too much tinkering for the setup since I'm planning to keep the installation as simple as possible.

Following are some rough constraints and considerations for the setup:

  • Server computer is a Mac Mini (latest model I think?). I've been told they would replace macOS with Linux, still I believe I should ready if they don't (I don't have experience with macOS at all)
  • Server will be situated in university and provided a static IP address
  • Team needs remote access to the server, presumably comfortable with using CLI
  • I am unlikely to be permitted access to server myself after setup, so it should be ready to be managed by the team
  • Extra hardware and/or paid software could be arranged but to a limited extent and within reason

I don't think they have really any requirement other than having remote access to the server. I think SSH should suffice, however I was wondering if I could also arrange for backups, GUI server panel etc.

 

Ever since I've seen the Veritasium video on cosmic particles, I was wondering how much of a threat it would pose to our current computer systems were it to be used as a weapon.

Suppose the power allows to you to shoot streams of cosmic ray from your fingers.

  • It can be as intense as you want as long as it's reasonably harmless to humans.
  • You can only direct the rays towards objects within your field of view or whose position you can confidently approximate, so you could target a nearby server behind walls or a plane in the sky, but not a computer on the other side of the world.
  • You can use this power for as long as you like with no cooldowns or energy consumption.
  • No one can observe the rays, not even yourself
[–] bergetfew@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 week ago
 

Just a quick question on whether it is alright to have Dockge manage the Backrest/Restic container as one of its stack.

Currently my main directory is as follows:

  • ~/docker
    • dockge
    • stacks

I only have Dockge running as an independent container whose data is inside its respective folder. Every other container is managed via the stacks and all volumes are stored in their respective stack folders.

For context, I just want to back up the ~/docker directory and I am only planning to store the data in the same local machine for the time being but I wish to be able to import it to a different drive in the future. I just want a simple backup solution that is reliable and easy to manage.

Since it's my first time setting up a backup solution like this, if you have useful advice on the steps for properly backing up data for my config, I would really appreciate it.

 

I've recently gotten into self hosting. I have a VPS and a domain name and decided to set up Pangolin as a reverse proxy to my local homelab.

During the options in the installation, I was asked to provide an email address for "generating Let's Encrypt certificates". I don't have a clue what what role my email address plays into this nor what email I should provide for the setup, so I just gave one of my personal email address. Everything worked fine and the service was completely set up in the VPS.

However, logging into the dashboard, I was informed by my browser that the certificate of the website is self signed and visiting the page may be dangerous. Although I was later able to access the panel with https enabled, I felt this setup is not okay and decided I would need to fix it.

Unfortunately I have no idea how certificate issuing works. I tried to search for a solution online and read the docs for Pangolin and Traefik as well as rewatch the tutorial through which I set up Pangolin, but either they tend to skip explaining the email thing or go too much into detail without even explaining where to start. I also checked my inbox to see if the CA pinged me or something but to no avail.

I feel like I'm missing something in my setup which was apparent to everybody else. I would really appreciate if someone could help me ELI5 what the root cause of this 'email' problem is and how to fix it. I am willing to set up the service all over again or edit the config files if needed but I just need to know what to do.

 

After seeing the latest Apple WWDC with the introduction of the new design system, it was surprising to see how their redesigned 'Liquid Glass' interface shown in the live stream was exactly consistent with their developer build. It wasn't just a screen recorder thing either; the presentation demonstrated individual components and multiple screens with morphing and other custom animations that couldn't reasonably be simulated in an app. On the other hand, animating the interface with normal video editing software would be equally impractical when replicating the behaviour of the actual software for displaying example cases of apps.

Is it just a thing of ensuring impeccable QA in producing renders like this or do they have some specialised software for these purposes?

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