Operational runbook for rolling Mimic to RT infrastructure. Scope is the application repo only; the Ansible playbook (D-010) and Caddy reverse proxy (D-007) are referenced as out-of-scope dependencies. Sections: - Host prerequisites (Podman 5, rootless, linger, PostgreSQL 16 reach). - Filesystem layout: blobs + evidence pools at 0750 under the deploy user (D-012), log directory, Quadlet directory. - Environment variables: split into "required in prod" (MIMIC_SECRET_KEY, MIMIC_FERNET_KEY, MIMIC_DATABASE_URL, MIMIC_DATABASE_AUDIT_URL, MIMIC_ENV) and "required with safe defaults" (cookie flags, log format, CORS origins, blob/evidence roots). Explicit note that the two database DSNs must point to two different Postgres roles to preserve the audit append-only contract (NF-AUDIT, code-reviewer N5). - Secrets management: dedicated section addressing PR3 code-reviewer M2. File-based generation under ~/secrets with 0700 perms, systemd EnvironmentFile or future MIMIC_*_FILE indirection, vault back-up, Fernet key rotation requires re-encryption pass. - Container images: pin policy `:X.Y.Z` (cross-references F-D1), exposed ports per layer (backend 5000 as uid 1001, frontend 8080 as uid 101). - PostgreSQL setup: bootstrap of mimic_audit_writer role with the SQL the Ansible playbook runs, plus the fail-loud rationale if the role is missing. Alembic upgrade head invocation. - Quadlet units: backend example with PublishPort 127.0.0.1:5000 (the external surface is Caddy, not the backend), EnvironmentFile, blob+evidence bind-mounts with `:Z` SELinux relabel. - Smoke validation: three curl checks (Caddy-fronted /healthz, direct backend /healthz, audit DSN presence) with explicit "do not announce the release" gate on failure. - Upgrade procedure: 5-step rolling restart anchored on Quadlet image tag edits + alembic upgrade as part of the entrypoint. - Rollback procedure: image-only (additive schema) vs schema-affecting, with alembic downgrade against an explicit revision. - Open items: explicit pointers to FERNET-KEY, F-D1, F-D2, F-D3 trackers in tasks/todo.md so future operators see them. No other file touched; no application code changed.