Lightweight Config Management for Small Stacks

Self-hosting grows quietly.
One service becomes five, five becomes fifteen.
Before you know it, you’ve got half a dozen machines and no idea which config is current.

You don’t need enterprise config management.
You do need something.

The Drift Problem

Configs rot when:

You tweak settings ad hoc and forget to document
One machine gets patched, others don’t
You rely on memory for flags and file locations

Configuration drift is downtime waiting to happen.

Version Control as the Baseline

Start simple:

Keep copies of your config files in a private git repo
Commit after changes with meaningful messages
Store example .env or secret templates without actual secrets

A diff is worth more than your memory.

Templating Without the Bloat

Instead of Ansible or Chef:

Use basic template files and small scripts to render per-host variables
rsync or scp to deploy
Document what script pushes which file where

Boring beats clever when you’re the only admin.

Central Documentation

Alongside configs, keep:

A README per service with setup notes
Dependencies (which service relies on which)
Restart and recovery steps

Future you won’t remember the incantations.

Test Changes Safely

Never edit live without a backup:

Stage changes locally or on a VM
Commit and push to repo before deployment
Roll back quickly if it breaks

Safety nets matter more than automation fashion.

Monitor Drift Periodically

Once a month:

Pull live configs and diff against your repo
Fix discrepancies intentionally
Keep systems predictable

Consistency is security.
A small, boring config process beats heroic troubleshooting.