Ask HN: Escaping the nightmare of server administration?

[slowdown]

Hi HN, I would like some insights on how you actually escape the woes of server administration while actually focusing all your attention towards building the actual product?

I understand that services like Heroku, Engineyard, Google AppEngine, etc. exist. But I'm looking for a solution that will automate server administration on my own VPS/cloud servers while actually allowing me to focus on building my product rather than spend a significant time on reading server logs to see if someone one broke into my server, or if my code/database has been compromised, etc.

Ideally I would want a solution that I can install on top of say, a digital ocean VPS (droplet) and forget about it. But I am open to other options as well. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[forkrulassail]

You could learn puppet or something similar for configuration management on multiple nodes.

[slowdown]

Thank you!