Does server run in the Workstation version of the Base environment

Hii, I am a home user of the Workstation install of Rocky Linux and use it just as my main personal computer.
So I am not a Linux systems or server administrator. I imagine the intended audience for Rocky Linux is commercial server / hosting companies. I am not in that intended audience but I hope you dont mind me asking what I think is a dumb question, but because of its importance, I have to ask.
I tried searching for this and cannot seem to find an answer or a good way to find out.

Does the Workstation / Desktop version of the install include a server which runs in the background?

I don’t need this to run and would think it is a serious security issue to be running a server on my desktop personal computer - ie the server could be hacked into and people could access my files…

Thanks ahead of time…

Many things will run in the background, some could be called ā€œserversā€.
The important thing is to look at the roles at installation time, and decide which components you want (or don’t want). You can also look at the roles by listing DNF groups. e.g.

dnf group list

and then

dnf group info "<group name here>"

you can start off with a minimal install, but there are many dependencies. The groups help to ensure you have everything you need for a specific role.

If you do install any servers, you can leave them blocked by the firewall, so only localhost can access them.

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I bet there is at least one ā€œserverā€ that is installed by default because it is in group ā€˜Core’ that is mandatory even for the ā€œMinimal Installā€. The server – or more properly ā€œserviceā€ – is sshd.service. You can connect to the machine from outside with ssh client.

Some OS might not enable sshd by default, and you can disable it, if you don’t need it. There are services that, if disabled, render the system unusable. (Been there, done that.) As said, a service might be there only to serve the localmachine; firewall (set up by another service) can block access from outside.

The ā€œWorkstationā€, ā€œServer with GUIā€, ā€œMinimal Installā€ – dnf Environment Groups – are simply bit different lists of packages to install. Convenience. You can add and remove packages.

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Hi jlehtone,
Thanks very much for taking the time to respond and let me know about services like sshd.service - I will dig into it…

Hi gerry666uk,
Thanks for the info - I will go thru the commands you listed - this is a good starting point for me to learn more about things and set things up safely…

Hello @RL1000

it would be good also to know more about linux there are a good documentation to learn even if you just started to enter the linux world
check this one https://docs.rockylinux.org/
and have a nice day :slight_smile: