Suggested daily/weekly maintenance tasks for Yunohost newbies

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1

I am looking for advice/suggestions regarding daily/weekly maintenance tasks that I should be carrying out on my YunoHost installation.

Currently I do the following at least once a day, through the webadmin interface:

  • Check for system updates.
  • Run the diagnosis.
  • Peek at the logs listed under Tools.

I also check for system-generated emails, to see what might need my attention.

But I feel like I should be doing more.

For example:

  • Shouldn’t I know who has tried to access my server, successfully or not? I don’t know how to find that information.
  • Are there other logs that I should be checking from time to time to make sure that the system is remaining healthy?
  • Should I be relying on the YunoHost webadmin interface, and on the emails the system sends occasionally, as the primary source of feedback?

Perhaps I’m asking for some sort of beginners guide to maintaining a YunoHost server.

Having said that, I know that the “Guided Tour” section of the YunoHost Admin Guide has some information on:

  • Backing up the server/apps
  • Upgrades
  • Security
  • Users, groups and permissions

I should probably start there, but if you have any additional suggestions for a newbie, I’d be happy to hear from you!
M

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2

You can stop doing that and wait for it to call you :slightly_smiling_face:
:arrow_right_hook: Unattended upgrades | Yunohost Documentation
This send you an email if updates are available, and you can even configure it to do the upgrade automatically.

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Thanks for that tip, Lapineige! I will read up on it; sounds like a bit of a time-saver.
M

4

I note that this application is Level 7, working, but not maintained. Is that a concern?

1 Like
5

Last commit has been done 8 days ago, so it’s maintained, just this app has not a specific maintainers.

About your request, firstly, i think, you need to check you have some backup. If you use borg you can receive emails to warn you if you have a problem.

About diagnosis, you don’t need to run it yourself, it runs twice a day and send an email if you have failure. So it’s means you redirect emails onto your own mailbox. Don’t be afraid to use the “ignore” button…

About upgrade, unattended_upgrade do the job, however we have no solutions like this for ynh apps…

About logs, if you use mail to communicate with other email address, check logs to search refused emails could be a good idea. About access on your server, attackers may remove their trace from logs if they have root access…

6

Yes do regular backups!

Use Borg, or Restic.

I made a Restic tutorial for newbies

As you learn more and more, and have problems, you will learn a lot more about maintaining your system.

If your system is running fine, no need to worry too much.

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Hi LJF:
Thanks for your thorough reply. That part about the diagnosis running automatically is good to know.
Are the logs I should be checking inside the admin users folder, or somewhere else?
M

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Thanks, Arkadi. I will read up on the two backup apps you mentioned.
M

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If there is a problem in the Diagnosis it will email you at your user@domain.tld

If you don’t really use that email address, go to your Yunohost SSO, edit profile, and forward your system email to another email address you use.

You can also check the dianosis in the Webadmin.

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Thanks / merci / tusen takk!
M

11

For backups if you don’t want to use Borg or can’t (because no other servers available).
I am doing encrypted backups to Backblaze using rclone and it’s working quite well :slight_smile:
With versioning enabled and lifecycle policies you can easily go back at any point in time (I keep my older versions for 7 days)

I made this script:

You still need to configure rclone endpoints correctly (can point to a lot of different things)

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