Linux Server Setup – Part 3: How to Automate Linux Server Maintenance

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Read the full article: Linux Server Setup – Part 3: How to Automate Linux Server Maintenance

Managing a Linux server requires more than just manual oversight. Updates, security hardening, log management and backups can get overwhelming if not automated. By using built-in Linux tools and automation frameworks, system administrators can keep their servers secure, up to date and optimized without repetitive manual intervention. Automating server maintenance means more uptime, better security… continue reading.
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Very useful as alwasy @hydn !

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Thanks @toadie I think it’s important to reduce monotonous maintenance tasks as much as possible. Even more solutions:

Configuration Management & Automation

  1. Ansible – Agentless automation tool that uses SSH to configure and manage servers.
  2. Puppet – Declarative configuration management for provisioning and maintaining servers.
  3. Chef – Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool that automates server configurations.

Orchestration & Infrastructure Management

  1. Terraform – Infrastructure as Code tool to provision and manage servers, networks, and cloud resources.
  2. Kubernetes (K8s) – Container orchestration system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.

Remote Access & Server Management

  1. Cockpit – Web-based GUI for managing Linux servers.
  2. Webmin – Web-based system administration tool for managing servers.

Security & Compliance Automation

  1. OSSEC – Host-based Intrusion Detection System (HIDS) for monitoring logs and file integrity.
  2. Lynis – Security auditing and compliance tool for Linux systems.
  3. Fail2Ban – Intrusion prevention system that blocks IPs with repeated failed login attempts.

Container & Virtual Machine Management

  1. Podman – Docker alternative that runs rootless containers.
  2. Portainer – Web UI for managing Docker and Kubernetes containers.
  3. Proxmox VE – Open-source virtualization platform for managing VMs and containers.

Multi-Server Command Execution

  1. pdsh (Parallel Distributed Shell) – Runs commands on multiple servers simultaneously.
  2. ClusterSSH – Control multiple SSH sessions in parallel via a single interface.
  3. RunDeck – Workflow automation and job scheduling for managing multiple servers.
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Yeah absolutly.
What do you preferr? Puppet oder Ansible?

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@toadie A bit more used to Ansible. Also see Remote management for multiple Linux servers?