IIIT Nagpur // Internal Network // Restricted Access Portal

BECOME
THE GOD
OF THIS MACHINE.

A real server. Real infrastructure. Real control.
No babysitting. No hand-holding.
Just root access — and the freedom to do something worthy of it.

// claim a seat // why this matters
8 SEATS OPEN APPLICATIONS LIVE
scroll
docker self-hosting reverse proxy ssh tunnel 8tb storage nextcloud homelab fuck around and find out root access prometheus grafana coolify portainer linux gods docker self-hosting reverse proxy ssh tunnel 8tb storage nextcloud homelab fuck around and find out root access prometheus grafana coolify portainer linux gods

// what we are looking for

we need someone who is
curious
01 //

why server gods
still rule the world

SKILL_01

AI writes the code.
Someone has to run it.

Every AI model, every LLM, every "vibe coding" side project still runs on servers. On docker containers. On subnets. On configs someone had to write. That someone might as well be you.

SKILL_02

Infrastructure is the most unsexy, highest-leverage skill.

Developers come and go. The engineer who understands the machine — networking, storage, OS, orchestration — is the one who never gets replaced. By humans or models.

SKILL_03

No course teaches you this.
Only suffering does.

You will not learn SSH tunneling from YouTube. You learn it at 2am when you've accidentally locked yourself out of your own container and you have to figure it the hell out.

The cloud is just someone else's computer. Once you understand that — once you've spun up your own Nextcloud, built your own VPN from scratch, misconfigured your own iptables and watched the network die — you see through the abstraction. That clarity is worth more than any cert.

02 //

what actually
lives on this server

crispr@node-01:~$
$ docker ps --format "table {{.Names}}\t{{.Status}}\t{{.Ports}}" ────────────────────────────────────────────────────── nextcloud Up 847 days :443 streaming-srv Up 312 days :8096 // shhh proxy-tunnel Up 201 days :22 // you know what this does postgres-db Up 400 days :5432 academic-archive Up 600 days :80 // 15 years of pyqs ────────────────────────────────────────────────────── $ df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% /dev/sdb1 8.0T 3.1T 4.9T 39% // yours to fill $

// the four filters

CURIOUS

You open ports you didn't open. You wonder what runs on :8096. You type commands just to see what happens. If you've ever stayed up past 2am because you couldn't let a broken config beat you — you're in.

the gauntlet.
pick your weapon.

You get isolated Docker containers on a real server. SSH access over the LAN. No instructions. No babysitting.

Complete challenges across three domains. Satisfy us in 1.5 of 3 — and you're in. Do all three and we'll talk about giving you root on prod.
TC_01
NEXTCLOUD RESURRECTION
Deploy, customize, automate account creation for next 25 batches. Add extensions. Monitor it.
TECH
TC_02
COOLIFY OR DIE
Host Coolify. Use it to deploy something real. This alone might get you server head.
TECH
TC_03
VPN FROM SCRATCH
SSH tunnels. iptables. Raw packet forwarding. No OpenVPN. No Wireguard. Pure pain and learning.
TECH
TC_04
FIND THE GEM
Deploy a self-hosted service that makes us say "holy shit where did you find this". Rare. Useful. Unexpected.
TECH
TC_05
THE MONITORING STACK
Prometheus + Grafana + alerts. Make the server visible. Discord/Telegram bot bonus points.
TECH
CC_01
TOUCH GRASS (ONLINE)
3 quality contributions to r/homelab, r/selfhosted. Show you gave something back to the community that taught you.
CULTURE
CC_02
THE CASE STUDY
Pick one thing you deployed. Make a Gamma.ai deck about it. Nerdy. Honest. Tell us what you broke first.
CULTURE
CC_03
WRITE SOMETHING
Tutorial, deep-dive, war story — anywhere. dev.to, Medium, your own server. If you learned it, teach it.
CULTURE
VC_01
THE 15-YEAR LETTER
Write to a freshman in 2040. What is this server? Why does it matter? Why should they care?
VISION
VC_02
YOUR SUCCESSION PLAN
How will YOU find your replacement? Design the selection ritual for the next batch.
VISION
VC_03
THE ROADMAP
3-month. 6-month. 1 year. Specific, not vibes. What do you actually want to build here?
VISION

THIS IS WHAT
CONTROL FEELS LIKE.

8TB storage at your disposal
847 days continuous uptime
15+ containers waiting to be born
things to break and fix
what root access actually means
# you get containers isolated from prod # you get ssh access over the hostel LAN # you get 2.5 months to prove yourself   $ sudo chmod 777 /your/future ✓ permissions granted   $ echo "who gets the keys to prod?" the one who earns them. $

AI will replace augment engineers.
But it still needs somewhere to live.

// what AI replaces

Writing boilerplate CRUD code nobody wants to write anyway
Copy-pasting Stack Overflow answers without understanding them
Being the person who only googles errors without understanding the system underneath
Following tutorials step by step and stopping when it breaks

// what it can't touch

The engineer who understands why the container is crashing at 3am when the logs are lying
The person who built the deployment pipeline that the AI-generated code actually runs on
The architect who decides how these 12 services talk to each other without killing the server
The one who knows what actually lives in /etc/hosts and why it matters

Every AI agent for coding still needs a runtime. Every vibe-coded SaaS still needs a server. Every startup still needs someone who can look at a dying process, read the logs, trace the failure, and fix it at 2am without Stack Overflow. Self-hosting is not a hobby. It is a superpower. And right now, while your peers are watching tutorials, you could be running real infrastructure for real users — and learning faster than any classroom will let you.

∗ seats are limited ∗ intentions are not ∗

THE SEATS
ARE OPEN.

We are looking for the next batch of server maintainers for CRISPR — the club server that's been running quietly at IIIT Nagpur for years. This is not an internship. This is not a workshop. This is the real thing.

FILLED
FILLED
OPEN
OPEN
OPEN
OPEN
OPEN
OPEN
OPEN
OPEN
You are in 1st or 2nd year. Fresh enough to have 2+ years left. Experienced enough to know what a terminal is.
You are on the hostel LAN. Remote applicants get an asterisk. On-campus means you feel the latency.
You are genuinely curious. Not "I want to put it on my resume." The server knows the difference.
You are comfortable with not knowing. You'll break things. That's the test. What you do after the break is what we're watching.
You are humble enough to ask — and stubborn enough to not ask until you've actually tried.
// apply now

applications close in 2.5 months // timeline: ssh access → challenges → demo day → keys to the kingdom

fuck around and find out the server is always right read the logs no hand holding who needs weed when you have root ctrl+c is not a fix it's not down it's just resting RTFM sudo rm -rf your excuses fuck around and find out the server is always right read the logs no hand holding who needs weed when you have root ctrl+c is not a fix it's not down it's just resting RTFM sudo rm -rf your excuses