The sort of program that once set up, just ticks along without fuss or bother forever.
For me, as I’m replacing the vms today which I set up five years ago and haven’t needed to touch since;
- HAProxy
- KeepaliveD
Not easy to learn, but once they’re running, they both go on forever.
Sadly even Linux is a fuss. This is primarily due to full os updates needed every four years plus the changing security landscape. Then there are the hardware issues and replacement every ten years. I guess a partial alternative is a rolling release but then you have the issue of constant change.
OS update fuss level is hugely dependant on distro though.
EL and rebuilds? Full new machine and copy services over (or if paying RHEL, use their migrator which can have mixed results). Agree, huge fuss.
Debian/ubuntu? Dist-upgrade, normally safe and much quicker.
Plus a bunch of rolling release distros that just keep up to date (but will occasionally add breaking changes that you might not be ready for)
Can’t so easily get around hardware issues, so build cattle that can be easily redeployed or scaled. Doesn’t fit all situations though.