Born2beroot: My First Dive into Linux Server Administration

Hi! Born2beroot is the odd one out among the early 42 projects: you do not write a single line of application code. Instead, you set up a hardened Linux server inside a virtual machine and defend every choice you made during the evaluation.

What I set up

• A Debian server with LVM-encrypted partitions and no graphical interface,
• sudo with strict rules (logging every command, limited retries, custom messages),
• A tight password policy (expiration, complexity, history) via PAM,
• UFW firewall with only the needed ports open and SSH on a custom port with root login disabled,
• A cron-driven monitoring script broadcasting CPU, memory, disk and connection stats to every terminal.

What it taught me

The evaluation is an interview: why AppArmor and not SELinux? What is the difference between apt and aptitude? What happens if you lose the LUKS passphrase? You cannot pass by copying commands — you have to understand the system. Years later, when I deployed my own servers and Docker stacks, the mental model came straight from this project.