SadServers
Dev tools
linux troubleshooting practice
SHOW HN2022
597points
128comments
#34of 2,570 in 2022
Top 2%of 2022 by points
How HN took it
DebatedReal support and real criticism
15 positive, 21 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 18 critical, out of 55 comments about the project. Thread score +0.00.
Idea: 10 for, 6 againstExecution: 0 for, 7 againstPerformance: 0 for, 5 againstDesign: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Realistic, fun way to practise troubleshooting
From 3 comments
Completed the first challenge and it was a lot of fun - spoiler I've never had to use the 'lsof' command before.
mewse-hn on HNCommenting to give this a try later, I've routinely been the person to get these kinds of gremlins escalated I've long wanted for some sort of mock, "things are broken - I want…
bravetraveler on HNVery cool! This reminds me of the ops challenge @ Slack. I'm not sure if they still do this, but the SRE/platform infra interview used to involve a VM running a malfunctioning…
grepLeigh on HN
Good idea for interview prep
From 2 comments
I love this idea, I'll definitely try it out when provisioning for scenario machines is up again. Nice work.
computershit on HNThis is badass, just what I need!
imwillofficial on HN
Objections
Servers fail to load due to AWS VM limits and HN traffic
From 4 comments
Seems like it's out of capacity: ``` An error occurred (VcpuLimitExceeded) when calling the RunInstances operation: You have requested more vCPU capacity than your current vCPU…
vermon on HNThis looks interesting! But it keeps loading forever saying "Your server is being created" (hit VM limit again?)
fzyzcjy on HNWell this sucks I wanted to try it lol. It's timing out for me or throws an error.
N3Xxus_6 on HNThe idea is really cool, but all I see is "Waiting for server..." and nothing happens.
Timja on HN
Per-user VMs are costly and hit AWS limits; containers or WASM suggested
From 3 comments
Based on your architecture diagram it looks like you're spinning up an instance per-user? As you're probably finding now, you will hit AWS limits quickly. You might instead want…
apawloski on HNWhy not spin up containers instead of VMs? Seems to me containers would fit much better than VMs.
BossingAround on HNI'm assuming you're spinning up an EC2 instance for each lab. What do you think about using pre-built docker images for each challenge instead? that way they can spin up in just…
bm-rf on HN
Concern it could automate job interviews and replace human interviewers
From 2 comments
> It's also my not-so-secret hope that a sophisticated enough version of SadServers could be used by tech companies (or for companies that carry on job interviews on their…
deeblering4 on HNPeople in higher up positions like yourself will rarely be subjected to testing with tools like this. You are basically trying to remove the human from equation and industrialize…
mathverse on HN
Requests
Offer the VM content offline as Docker or Vagrant images
From 2 comments
I'd love to get the actual VM content offline, packaged as Vagrantfiles or Containerfiles. Love the idea though! Go to Pluralsight and pitch it to them :)
BossingAround on HNCan I download the images so I could run it on my own machine ? I'd really appreciate, I've got an interview very soon :)
yapril on HN
Use WASM or browser-based VMs to scale
From 2 comments
I'd suggest integrating https://bellard.org/jslinux/ and running the VM in the browser if you can - then you can scale without running out of resources.
dugmartin on HNThat's kinda nice use case for the WASM machine/linux emulators, then you just need to provide image and user can run it in the browser > You might instead want to have a smaller…
ilyt on HN
Questions
Does the project use per-user EC2 instances, and how is it scaled?
From 2 comments
Based on your architecture diagram it looks like you're spinning up an instance per-user? As you're probably finding now, you will hit AWS limits quickly. You might instead want…
apawloski on HNI'm assuming you're spinning up an EC2 instance for each lab. What do you think about using pre-built docker images for each challenge instead? that way they can spin up in just…
bm-rf on HN
Alternatives named
Trueability
From 1 comment
Are you familiar with Trueability? https://www.trueability.com/ It seems like this is a similar SaaS.
hotpotamus on HN
Hack The Box
From 1 comment
Hack The Box -> Fix The Box
PanosJee on HN
Stripe CTF
From 1 comment
Oh that reminds me, I loved the original Stripe CTF, it's been 10 years already! https://twitter.com/fduran/status/240321390698442753
fduran on HN