Server profiles

A profile is one setting that decides which optional subsystems start. The default, standard, is the install you have always had. minimal keeps a one-server install as light as Dokku. suite turns on everything for power users. Idle CPU and memory were never the problem (see Performance). What a profile changes is how many things run, listen, warn and grow your disk, so there is less to explain on a small box.

What each profile starts

	`minimal`	`standard` (default)	`suite`
Mesh and WireGuard	off	off	on
Plugins and marketplace	off	off	on
Experimental features	off	off	all on
Metrics and log retention	3 days	15 days (7 days on a disk under 20 GiB)	same as standard
Backup scheduler and WAL shipping	start when a backup is scheduled	start at boot	start at boot
Agent listener (port 9443)	loopback only until a remote node exists	all interfaces	all interfaces
Security score	backup and key rotation are recommendations, not score items	scored	scored
Doctor RAM and CPU floors	512 MiB and 1 core	896 MiB and 2 cores	896 MiB and 2 cores
Build SBOMs	off	off	on
Host disk, memory and patch history	with the mesh	with the mesh	on (mesh is on)

A pipeline engine that only polls while a run is active, a retention default that follows disk size, and the corrected doctor floors apply to every profile.

Choose a profile

At install time:

curl -fsSL https://levelrail.com/install.sh | sudo sh -s -- --profile minimal

LEVELRAIL_PROFILE=minimal does the same. The installer writes Environment=APP_SERVER_PROFILE=minimal to the systemd drop-in and keeps it on upgrades. A machine with under 2 GB of RAM is told that minimal fits it, but is never switched silently. Later, from Settings, Beta features, Server profile, or from the CLI:

levelrail-cli settings profile get
levelrail-cli settings profile set suite --restart
levelrail-cli settings profile set minimal --dry-run

Only an administrator can change it. The choice is saved at once and applies at the next restart of the control plane, because most subsystems are wired at startup. --restart (or the Restart now button) asks for one.

Which setting wins

APP_SERVER_PROFILE in the server environment. When set, the dashboard and CLI show it as pinned and refuse to change it.
The profile saved from Settings or the CLI.
standard.

Inside a profile the same order holds for each part: APP_MESH_ENABLED beats the mesh toggle in Network settings, which beats the profile. APP_EXPERIMENTAL beats a switch saved on the Beta features page, which beats the profile. A retention variable (APP_METRICS_RETENTION, APP_LOGS_RETENTION) beats any profile default.

Moving between profiles never deletes data

Moving up only starts things. Moving down stops loops and makes gated routes return 404, and keeps every row. A few moves are checked first:

Move	What happens
Down to `minimal` with remote nodes enrolled	Refused. Minimal binds the agent listener to loopback, so remote agents could not reach it. Remove the nodes or choose standard.
Away from `suite` while the profile is the only reason the mesh runs and nodes use it	Refused. Pin the mesh on in Network settings or remove the nodes.
Down while plugins are enabled	Refused. Disable them first so their containers are not left unsupervised.
Down to a shorter retention	Needs a confirm (`--confirm`), because the next hourly sweep deletes samples and log lines older than the new window.

--dry-run prints the same checks without saving. The profile is stored in the control plane database, so restoring an older snapshot restores the older profile.

Tuning knobs

Variable	Default	Meaning
`APP_SERVER_PROFILE`	unset	Pins the profile to `minimal`, `standard` or `suite`.
`APP_PROFILE_MINIMAL_RETENTION`	`72h`	Retention on the minimal profile.
`APP_SMALL_DISK_BYTES`	20 GiB	Data disks below this get the shorter default retention.
`APP_SMALL_DISK_RETENTION`	`168h`	That shorter retention.
`APP_LOW_RAM_BYTES`	2 GiB	Memory below which the dashboard recommends minimal.
`APP_PROFILE_LAZY_START_INTERVAL`	`5m`	How often minimal checks whether a deferred loop has work.
`APP_PIPELINE_IDLE_INTERVAL`	`1m`	Pipeline engine poll while no run is active.

APP_PROFILE is a different setting: it names the CLI credentials profile.

What it costs

Measured with the real boot harness on one machine (the table is in Performance): minimal runs 116 goroutines and 35 loops, standard 118 and 38, suite 128 and 41. The difference is small by design: the process was already light at about 162 MB. The gain is fewer things running, listening, warning and filling the disk, not a smaller process.

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What each profile starts

Choose a profile

Which setting wins

Moving between profiles never deletes data

Tuning knobs

What it costs

​What each profile starts

​Choose a profile

​Which setting wins

​Moving between profiles never deletes data

​Tuning knobs

​What it costs

What each profile starts

Choose a profile

Which setting wins

Moving between profiles never deletes data

Tuning knobs

What it costs