Server Migration & Tech Stack Overhaul: demoparty.net

After more than 1 1/2 years of radio silence, it was time to give demoparty.net a proper infrastructure and codebase refresh. The primary goal was moving off legacy web hosting onto a clean, containerized setup with reduced third-party dependencies and improved autonomy.

What Changed in the Setup:

• Infrastructure & Containerization: Migrated from traditional web hosting to a modern, containerized server environment managed via Docker and automated provisioning.
• Routing & Auth: Cleaned up traffic flow through a dedicated reverse proxy and streamlined authentication layers.
• Observability: Replaced external cloud monitoring and error tracking with lightweight, self-hosted services (including a local switch to Bugsink for error reporting).
• Backups & Maintenance: Tied up loose ends with automated backups and tightened security baselines behind the scenes—hoping it all holds up under real-world conditions.

Codebase & Tooling:

• Stack Upgrades: Brought the backend and frontend dependencies up to modern standards (PHP 8.4, Symfony 7, Vite 8).
• CI/CD & Source Control: Fully migrated repositories and pipelines from GitLab to GitHub Actions for automated testing, builds, and smooth deployments.
• Less SaaS: Cut out external commercial APIs and cloud services where feasible in favor of running our own lightweight tools.

Everything is up, running, and deployed. Clean slate for the next batch of projects!

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