diff --git a/init/README.md b/init/README.md
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/init/README.md
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+# How to run this as a systemd deamon
+
+The files in this directory assume that you install the Golang version of ClusterCockpit to `/var/clustercockpit`. If you do not like that, you can choose any other location, but make sure to replace all paths that begin with `/var/clustercockpit` in the `clustercockpit.service` file!
+
+If you have not installed [yarn](https://yarnpkg.com/getting-started/install) and [go](https://go.dev/doc/install) already, do that (Golang is available in most package managers).
+
+The `config.json` can have the optional fields *user* and *group*. If provided, the application will call [setuid](https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/setuid.2.html) and [setgid](https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/setgid.2.html) after having read the config file and having bound to a TCP port (so that it can take a privileged port), but before it starts accepting any connections. This is good for security, but means that the directories `frontend/public`, `var/` and `templates/` must be readable by that user and `var/` writable as well (All paths relative to the repos root). The `.env` and `config.json` files might contain secrets and should not be readable by that user. If those files are changed, the server has to be restarted.
+
+```sh
+# 1.: Clone this repository to /var/clustercockpit
+git clone git@github.com:ClusterCockpit/cc-backend.git /var/clustercockpit
+
+# 2.: Install all dependencies and build everything
+cd /var/clustercockpit
+go get && go build && (cd ./frontend && yarn install && yarn build)
+
+# 3.: Modify the `./config.json` file from the directory which contains this README.md to your liking and put it in the repo root
+cp ./utils/systemd/config.json ./config.json
+vim ./config.json # do your thing...
+
+# 4.: Add the systemd service unit file
+sudo ln -s /var/clustercockpit/utils/systemd/clustercockpit.service /etc/systemd/system/clustercockpit.service
+
+# 5.: Enable and start the server
+sudo systemctl enable clustercockpit.service # optional (if done, (re-)starts automatically)
+sudo systemctl start clustercockpit.service
+
+# Check whats going on:
+sudo journalctl -u clustercockpit.service
+```
diff --git a/init/clustercockpit.service b/init/clustercockpit.service
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+++ b/init/clustercockpit.service
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+[Unit]
+Description=ClusterCockpit Web Server (Go edition)
+Documentation=https://github.com/ClusterCockpit/cc-backend
+Wants=network-online.target
+After=network-online.target
+After=mariadb.service mysql.service
+
+[Service]
+WorkingDirectory=/opt/monitoring/cc-backend
+Type=notify
+NotifyAccess=all
+Restart=on-failure
+RestartSec=30
+TimeoutStopSec=100
+ExecStart=/opt/monitoring/cc-backend/cc-backend --config ./config.json
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=multi-user.target