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Comment on Setting up a server for a research team. What should be in my checklist?

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.

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possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Why do you want to help lazy people? You are most certainly going to regret getting yourself into this.

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YesButActuallyMaybe@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
What you describe is a workstation under someone’s desk. Usually when you connect to your campus vpn you should be on the network and be able to reach most things.

The problem is who is gonna manage it when you are gone? I’ve had teams come and ask to get their trash can Mac’s rescued because whoever managed them left the team. How are you going to do backups? Are you gonna put a NAS next to it? Or actually use the tape drives that ITS can provide?

Ask your local research computing group what this team needs to do to host or contribute an actual server. A Mac mini is a consumer product, research grants can I include hardware, your computing group has actual racks and people who know how to manage it.

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