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.

  • jevans ⁂@lemmy.mlEnglish
    4·
    4 months ago

    Will they need to install new software after you set it up, or just have user storage and maybe do system updates?

    What will they be doing with it?

    Do you have a backup storage location available?

    How many users?

    What kind of permissions do they want various users to have?

    How critical is the data that will be housed on the server?

    • bergetfew@sopuli.xyzOPEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      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.

      • jevans ⁂@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        4 months ago

        Highly likely they would be installing new software

        This basically means that the system will rot over time and will need to have someone who knows what they’re doing to maintain it. If they don’t know enough to do the initial setup, then I would worry about how quickly it would go awry after you no longer have access. given the number of users and the assumed criticality of the data, I would have a long conversation about what can happen and what their plans are