I Cannot SSH into My Server Anymore (and That's Fine)

4 months ago

The author decommissioned their expensive VPS (moana) and set up a more cost-effective successor (tinkerbell).
Tinkerbell operates without SSH access, automating updates via container image pushes to a registry.
The setup uses Fedora CoreOS, Ignition, Podman Quadlets, and Terraform for a container-centric, declarative, and low-maintenance approach.
The author explored alternatives like Docker Compose, Ansible, and Kubernetes before settling on CoreOS for its immutable infrastructure benefits.
Podman Quadlets and auto-updates were key in simplifying container orchestration and ensuring automatic updates.
The final setup includes a reverse proxy (Caddy) and a static website container, with communication facilitated via a shared pod network.
The author acknowledges the trade-offs of immutable infrastructure, such as redeploying for changes, but finds it manageable for their use case.
Future plans include improving observability and possibly moving TLS certificates to block storage.

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