DNS EDNS0 Fragmentation: The Hidden Cause of βWorks on WiβFi, Fails on LTEβ
When DNS replies get big, EDNS0 and fragmentation collide. Learn how βWiβFi works, LTE failsβ happens and how to diagnose and fix it fast.
WordPress wp-admin Won’t Open: The Real Reasons and Fixes
Diagnose why WordPress wp-admin wonβt load: PHP-FPM, Nginx/Apache, plugins, redirects, database, DNS, TLS, and disk I/O. Fix fast, safely.
ZFS offline/online: Using Maintenance Mode Without Breaking Redundancy
How to take ZFS disks offline safely, diagnose failures fast, avoid resilver traps, and keep redundancy intact during real maintenance windows.
Silicon lottery: why identical CPUs perform differently
Why two βidenticalβ CPUs can benchmark differently: binning, boost behavior, power limits, microcode, thermals, and practical ops checks to diagnose it.
ZFS on Proxmox vs VMFS on ESXi: Snapshots, Performance, Recovery, and Real-World Gotchas
A production-minded comparison of ZFS on Proxmox vs VMFS on ESXi: snapshots, latency, recovery, failure modes, and the gotchas that ruin weekends.
Site-to-site VPN routing: why the tunnel is up but nothing works (and how to fix it)
A practical guide to diagnosing βtunnel is up but traffic failsβ in site-to-site VPNs: routing, NAT, MTU, firewall rules, and fast fixes.
Debian 13 βRead-only file systemβ surprise: fastest path to root cause and recovery
When Debian 13 flips to read-only, donβt reboot blindly. Diagnose the trigger, save data, fix storage, and remount safely with a fast playbook.
Dust as a Villain: The Quiet Killer of PCs
Dust slowly cooks PCs, clogs fans, and wrecks reliability. Learn fast diagnosis, real commands, and maintenance routines that prevent failures and outages.
ZFS vdev removal: What You Can Remove (and the Limits You Must Respect)
A production-grade guide to ZFS vdev removal: what can be removed, what cannot, how to plan, monitor, and avoid data loss and downtime.
ZFS acltype: POSIX vs NFSv4 ACLs Without Confusion
A practical guide to ZFS acltype choices: POSIX vs NFSv4 ACLs, how inheritance works, what breaks in SMB/NFS, and how to debug fast in production.
Ubuntu 24.04: MySQL βserver has gone awayβ β fix timeouts and packet limits properly (case #36)
Stop MySQL βserver has gone awayβ on Ubuntu 24.04 by diagnosing timeouts, packet limits, proxies, and restarts with concrete commands and fixes.
ZFS Checksum Errors: What They Mean and What To Do First
Learn what ZFS checksum errors actually indicate, how to triage fast, run the right commands, and decide whether itβs disk, cabling, RAM, or firmware.
Proxmox βQEMU exited with code 1β: read the error, find the real cause
Decode Proxmox βQEMU exited with code 1β by tracing QEMU logs, storage locks, config drift, and kernel limits with fast, actionable commands.
Proxmox Windows VM is slow: 8 settings (disk/cache/IO thread/drivers) that matter
Make Windows VMs fast on Proxmox by fixing disk bus, cache mode, iothreads, VirtIO drivers, CPU flags, timer config, and storage queueing.
ZFS Scrub vs SMART Long Test: Which One Finds What
Learn what ZFS scrubs and SMART long tests actually detect, where they overlap, and how to schedule both to catch failures early in production.
ZFS fundamentals: What You Actually Get in Practice (and When ext4/XFS Wins)
A practical, ops-focused guide to what ZFS really delivers: integrity, snapshots, tuning and pitfallsβplus when ext4 or XFS is the safer bet.
Office-to-office VPN + DHCP: how to avoid IP conflicts and chaos
Stop office-to-office VPN DHCP chaos: design non-overlapping IP plans, route correctly, diagnose fast, and prevent conflicts with practical commands.
Ubuntu 24.04 Hard Lockups: Collect Evidence and Narrow It Down Fast
A practical, ops-grade playbook for Ubuntu 24.04 hard lockups: capture logs and dumps, test CPU/storage/driver paths, and isolate root causes fast.
WordPress Theme Broke Your Site: Switch to a Default Theme Without wp-admin
Recover a broken WordPress site by switching to a default theme without wp-admin using SSH, database edits, WP-CLI, and safe rollback steps.
NVIDIA Control Panel vs GeForce Experience: love, hate, reality
A production-minded guide to NVIDIA Control Panel vs GeForce Experience: what each actually changes, how they break, and how to diagnose fast.
GPU Video Engines: H.264/H.265/AV1 and Why You Should Care
Learn how GPU video engines (NVENC/QSV/AMF) affect latency, cost, and reliability for H.264/H.265/AV1. Diagnose bottlenecks fast, avoid common traps.
Proxmox βVM disk vanishedβ: storage vs config, and how to diagnose it
A practical SRE guide to diagnose βVM disk vanishedβ in Proxmox: separate config from storage, verify volumes, paths, ZFS/LVM/CEPH, and recover safely.
How Marketing Bends βGenerationsβ: The βNewβ CPU Thatβs Basically Old
Learn how CPU βgenerationsβ get stretched by marketing, and how to verify real gains with commands, benchmarks, and production-ready ops checks.
ZFS zpool upgrade: When to Upgrade and When to Wait
A practical, production-minded guide to ZFS zpool upgrade: what changes, what breaks, how to plan, and when waiting is the smartest move.
Intel’s never-ending 14nm era: when process delays became a soap opera
Intelβs prolonged 14nm era reshaped roadmaps, reliability, and costs. Learn what broke, how to diagnose bottlenecks fast, and what to do next.
OpenVPN βTLS Error: TLS key negotiation failedβ: Common Causes and Fixes
Practical playbook to fix OpenVPN βTLS key negotiation failedβ: verify reachability, time, certs, cipher settings, MTU, firewall/NAT, and server logs fast.
Future Laptop GPUs: The Rise of the Thin Monster
Modern laptop GPUs are turning thin notebooks into performance monsters. Learn what limits them, how to diagnose bottlenecks, and what to buy and tune.
Proxmox βConnection refusedβ on 8006 after updates: what to check first
A practical SRE-grade checklist to restore Proxmox web UI on port 8006 after updates: verify services, certs, firewall, DNS, cluster state, and storage.
Ubuntu 24.04: LVM thin pool 100% β save your VMs before itβs too late
When an Ubuntu 24.04 LVM thin pool hits 100%, writes stall and VMs crash. Diagnose fast, free space safely, and prevent repeat outages.
Copy to Clipboard Buttons That Donβt Lie: States, Tooltips, and Feedback
Design reliable copy-to-clipboard UI: clear idle/copying/copied states, honest tooltips, accessible feedback, and fast diagnosis of real production failures.
Scalper bots: the year queues stopped meaning anything
A production-grade look at scalper bots: how queues get gamed, where systems fail, and practical SRE checks to regain fairness and stability.
ZFS vs Storage Spaces: Why βEasyβ Can Become βOpaqueβ
A hard-nosed comparison of ZFS and Windows Storage Spaces: where βeasyβ hides risk, how failures look, and how to diagnose and operate safely.
Process Nodes Explained: What β7nm / 5nm / 3nmβ Really Means
A practical, ops-minded guide to what chip βnm nodesβ actually mean, how foundries market them, and how to diagnose real performance bottlenecks.
Knight Capital: the trading glitch that burned hundreds of millions in minutes
A production-grade autopsy of Knight Capitalβs 2012 trading glitch: how a bad deploy and weak controls erased $440M, and how to prevent it.
ZFS Upgrading OpenZFS: The Checklist That Prevents Breakage
A production-grade OpenZFS upgrade checklist: verify feature flags, bootloader, replication, and rollback paths, with commands, outputs, and fixes.
HBM explained: why memory went vertical
HBM stacks DRAM to feed GPUs with bandwidth while saving power. Learn why it went vertical, how it fails, and how to diagnose bottlenecks fast.
Ubuntu 24.04 Apache vs Nginx confusion: fix port binding and proxy loops cleanly (case #94)
Untangle Apache and Nginx on Ubuntu 24.04: stop port conflicts, fix reverse-proxy loops, and ship a clean, debuggable web stack fast.
12VHPWR power drama: how one connector became a legend
The 12VHPWR GPU power connector sparked failures, melted plugs, and hard lessons. Learn the real causes, fast diagnosis, and fixes that work.
Debian 13: NFS timeouts β the mount options that improve stability (and when they donβt)
Practical Debian 13 NFS timeout triage: which mount options truly stabilize clients, which just hide issues, and how to prove root cause fast.
ZFS Compression with zstd: Picking Levels Without Burning CPU
A pragmatic guide to choosing ZFS zstd compression levels: measure, avoid CPU traps, and tune per workload with commands and real ops playbooks.
Ubuntu 24.04: Fail2ban isnβt banning anything β the quick verification workflow
A production-grade workflow to prove why Fail2ban on Ubuntu 24.04 isnβt banning: verify logs, jails, backends, nftables/iptables, and actions.
Fix WordPress βThere has been a critical errorβ: enable WP_DEBUG and recover the site
Learn to safely enable WP_DEBUG, capture fatal errors, disable bad plugins/themes, and restore WordPress fast using logs, WP-CLI, and backups.
How x86 Was Born: Why the 8086 Became an βAccidentalβ Standard for Decades
Why Intelβs 8086 turned into x86 dominance: business constraints, backward compatibility, and the operational reality that running old code beats perfect designs.
3dfx: The Rise and Fall of a Gaming Legend
A production-minded postmortem of 3dfx: how Voodoo changed PC gaming, why the company collapsed, and what engineers can learn about bets and ops.
MariaDB vs MongoDB: Write BurstsβWho Survives Spikes Without a Meltdown
A production-grade, ops-first comparison of MariaDB and MongoDB under write bursts: bottlenecks, configs, diagnostics, and failure modes that matter.
Office VPN Logging: Track Connections and Detect Unauthorized Clients
Practical VPN logging for offices: capture connection facts, detect rogue clients, correlate identity, and build fast incident playbooks without drowning in noise.
Buy now or wait: how to think about releases like a grown-up
A practical framework for deciding when to adopt new releases: measure risk, read signals, test safely, and avoid costly upgrade regrets in production.
Undervolting and Power Limits: Quieter PCs Without Regret
A practical guide to undervolting CPUs/GPUs and setting power limits for quieter PCs, with diagnostics, commands, failure modes, and safe rollbacks.
Ubuntu 24.04 βClock skew detectedβ β fix time sync and stop build/deploy failures (case #46)
Fix Ubuntu 24.04 βClock skew detectedβ errors by diagnosing NTP, chrony, virtualization, and drift to stop CI builds and deploys failing.
ZFS Raw Send: Replicating Encrypted Data Without Sharing Keys
Learn how ZFS raw send replicates encrypted datasets safely without sharing keys, plus commands, pitfalls, diagnostics, and real ops stories.