Curious to know what the experiences are for those who are sticking to bare metal. Would like to better understand what keeps such admins from migrating to containers, Docker, Podman, Virtual Machines, etc. What keeps you on bare metal in 2025?
Every time I have tried it just introduces a layer of complexity I can’t tolerate. I have struggled to learn everything required to run a simple Debian server. I don’t care what anyone says, docker is not simpler or easier. Maybe it is when everything runs perfectly but they never do so you have to consider the eventual difficulty of troubleshooting. And that would be made all the more cumbersome if I do not yet understand the fundamentals of Linux system.
However I do keep a list of packages I want to use that are docker-only. So if one day I feel up to it I’ll be ready to go.
Containers run on “bare metal” in exactly the same way other processes on your system do. You can even see them in your process list FFS. They’re just running in different cgroup’s that limit access to resources.
Yes, I’ll die on this hill.
All my services run on bare metal because its easy. And the backups work. It heavily simplifies the work and I don’t have to worry about things like a virtual router, using more cpu just to keep the container…contained and running. Plus a VERY tiny system can run:
- Peertube
- GoToSocial + client
- RSS
- search engine
- A number of custom sites
- backups
- Matrix server/client
- and a whole lot more
Without a single docker container. Its using around 10-20% of the RAM and doing a dd once in a while keeps everything as is. Its been 4 years-ish and has been working great. I used to over-complicate everything with docker + docker compose but I would have to keep up with the underlining changes ALL THE TIME. It sucked, and its not something I care about on my weekends.
I use docker, kub, etc…etc… all at work. And its great when you have the resources + coworkers that keep things up to date. But I just want to relax when I get home. And its not the end of the world if any of them go down.
Oh so the other 80% of your RAM can sit there and do nothing? My RAM is always around 80% or so as its caching stuff like it’s supposed to.
Hahaha that’s funny. I hope your not serous.
Unused RAM is wasted RAM
Welp OP did ask how we set it up. And for a family instance its good enough. The ram was extra that came with the comp. I have other things to do than optimize my family home server. There’s no latency at all already.
It spikes when peertube videos are uploaded and transcoded + matrix sometimes. Have a good night!
