Write systemd unit files

I don’t fully understand it’s history, but there was a wave of conflict when Debian choose to standardize service initialization on systemd. I’m not here to argue for or against it; only to suggest that, if you’re running a Linux machine that uses this as its core initialization, you’ll benefit from using the same. Don’t tack on another service manager if you can help it because, as I argue elsewhere, it’s best to use the default tools.

There are a couple excellent resources (besides the manual) for understanding systemd, one from RedHat and another from DigitalOcean.

I’m using systemd unit files to manage my Podman container processes. With systemd I can specify that a Podman container launches after my machine boots and whether it should launch before another container. The Podman CLI will even produce the systemd unit files for you!

When you begin to use elemental Linux tools like systemd, you also lay a foundation of understanding all the tools which have been modeled after them. Read the systemd manual, then look at Kubernetes. Can you recognize the similarities? As I quoted in use the minimum number of machines, Kubernetes is actually “a general-purpose cluster operating system kernel” (ButtonDown). Using systemd is your precursor to running fleets of machines!