Email TLS-RPT: Get visibility into TLS failures (and fix them)
Deploy TLS-RPT to see why inbound email TLS fails, spot MITM and misconfigurations, and fix delivery issues with actionable reports.
ROPs, TMUs, SMs, and CUs: GPU Anatomy in Plain English
Understand ROPs, TMUs, SMs, and CUs in plain English, plus real commands, bottleneck diagnosis, and failure modes for production GPU systems.
Drivers That Drop Performance: The Post-Update Ritual
A practical post-update ritual for storage, network, and GPU drivers: detect regressions fast, prove the bottleneck, and roll back safely in production.
Ubuntu 24.04: Certbot renews but your app still fails β fix permissions and reload hooks
Certbot renew succeeds on Ubuntu 24.04 but your app still serves old certs or fails TLS. Fix permissions, groups, and reload hooks safely.
Ubuntu 24.04: CIFS mount says βPermission deniedβ β the exact options that fix it
Fix Ubuntu 24.04 CIFS βPermission deniedβ fast: correct vers, sec, credentials, idmap, and kernel logs to make SMB mounts work reliably.
ZFS Recordsize Migration: Changing Strategy Without Rewriting Everything
A production-minded guide to migrating ZFS recordsize strategy safely: what changes, what doesnβt, how to measure, and when to rewrite data (selectively).
PCIe 3/4/5/6: what changes for real users
A practical, ops-focused guide to PCIe 3/4/5/6: throughput, lanes, latency, NVMe and GPUs, real bottlenecks, diagnostics, and upgrade decisions.
Debian 13 Stuck in initramfs: What It Really Means and How to Get Your System Back
If Debian 13 drops you into initramfs, your root filesystem didnβt mount. Diagnose storage, UUIDs, LVM/RAID, and fix boot fast.
Licensing traps: when software costs more than hardware
A practical SRE guide to licensing traps where software costs exceed hardware, with playbooks, commands, and real failure stories to avoid.
Office VPN + VLAN: connect segments safely without flattening the network
Design office VPN plus VLAN routing safely: avoid flat networks, control lateral movement, debug bottlenecks fast, and ship reliable segmented access.
Debian 13: Your server wonβt boot after updates β the clean GRUB rollback that actually works
Practical Debian 13 boot-failure recovery: diagnose fast, roll back GRUB safely, restore kernels/initramfs, and stop repeat breakage in production.
ZFS sync: The Setting That Can Make You Fast⦠and Unsafe
A practical, production-focused guide to ZFS sync: what it really guarantees, when it hurts performance, and how to tune it without lying to your data.
Local DNS for VPN Users: Stop DNS Leaks and Split Routing Failures
Build local DNS for VPN users to prevent DNS leaks, fix split routing, and debug resolvers fast with practical commands, checks, and patterns.
Smoothness Isnβt FPS: Frame Time Explained in 2 Minutes
FPS can lie. Learn frame time, why spikes feel like stutter, how to measure it, and how to diagnose CPU, GPU, storage, and OS bottlenecks fast.
Arc drivers: how a GPU generation gets fixed in public
A production-minded tour of Intel Arc driver maturation: why early GPUs ship rough, how fixes land, and how to diagnose real bottlenecks fast.
ZFS Refreservation: Guaranteeing Space Without Breaking Apps
Learn how ZFS refreservation guarantees dataset space, how it differs from reservation, and how to avoid ENOSPC, snapshots, and quota surprises in production.
Proxmox pvedaemon.service Failed: Why Tasks Donβt Run and How to Fix It
When pvedaemon fails, Proxmox tasks stop and the UI lies. Diagnose logs, systemd, storage locks, permissions, and recover safely with fixes that stick.
DNS load spikes: rate-limit and survive attacks without downtime
Practical DNS hardening for load spikes: detect bottlenecks fast, apply safe rate limits, stop abuse, keep latency low, and avoid self-inflicted outages.
Nokiaβs Collapse: How the King of Phones Missed the Turn
A technical, ops-minded autopsy of Nokiaβs smartphone stumble: platform bets, execution debt, and lessons for leaders running real production systems.
Proxmox Windows VM Canβt See the Disk: Install VirtIO Drivers Correctly
Fix Windows on Proxmox when Setup or Device Manager canβt see your VirtIO disk. A fast playbook, correct driver order, and failure-mode tests.
Pentium: How a Number Turned Into a Brand
Pentium wasnβt just a CPU. It was Intelβs fix for naming, trademarks, and trustβbuilt on engineering gains, marketing muscle, and hard-earned lessons.
The 14nm era: how a process node turned into a business drama
A production-minded deep dive into 14nm: yield, clocks, power, and the corporate dominoes that reshaped roadmaps, margins, and reliability culture.
GPU Security: Could There Be a βSpectre for Graphicsβ Moment?
Modern GPUs share memory, caches, and firmware across tenants. Learn how a βSpectre for graphicsβ could happenβand how to harden your fleet now.
Proxmox ZFS βcannot import poolβ: root causes, checks, and recovery options
A production-minded guide to Proxmox ZFS βcannot import poolβ: likely root causes, fast checks, safe recovery paths, and what not to do.
Docker: DNS inside containers is broken β systemd-resolved fixes that stick
Fix Docker container DNS failures on systemd-resolved hosts. Diagnose resolv.conf traps, make stable configs, and stop intermittent outages for good.
Email Greylisting: When It Helps and When It Just Delays Real Mail
Greylisting can crush spam with minimal cost, or it can quietly delay invoices, password resets, and alerts. Hereβs how to run it safely.
Docker βOCI runtime create failedβ: decode it and fix the real cause
Learn what Docker βOCI runtime create failedβ really means, how to pinpoint the failing layer, and fix common root causes fast in production.
MySQL vs OpenSearch for Self-Hosted Search: Worth It or Self-Harm on a VPS?
Decide between MySQL and OpenSearch on a VPS for search. Learn failure modes, diagnostics, commands, and when self-hosting pays off or punishes you.
ZFS Bookmarks: Saving Incrementals When Something Goes Wrong
Learn how ZFS bookmarks preserve incremental send chains after snapshot loss, plus commands, playbooks, and real failure stories from ops.
Ubuntu 24.04 βTemporary failure in name resolutionβ: stop guessing and fix DNS the right way
A production-grade playbook to debug Ubuntu 24.04 DNS failures: systemd-resolved, Netplan, resolv.conf, routing, DHCP, VPN, and reliable fixes.
Office VPN + RDP: Secure Remote Desktop Without Exposing RDP to the Internet
A practical SRE guide to run RDP safely via office VPN: no public 3389, tight firewalling, MFA, logging, fast diagnosis, and hard-won failure modes.
Docker Port Published but Unreachable: The Real Checklist (Not Guesswork)
A production-grade checklist to debug Docker ports that show as published but stay unreachableβcovering iptables, networks, proxies, binds, and traps.
Proxmox Backup Server vs Veeam for VMware: whatβs better for fast restores and simple ops
A practical, ops-first comparison of Proxmox Backup Server and Veeam for VMware: restore speed, reliability, troubleshooting, and daily simplicity.
Printer Hell: The One Industry Everyone Bonds Over Hating
A hard-nosed, ops-first guide to printer failures: queues, drivers, DNS, SMB, IPP, firmware, and the fast checks that stop office-wide chaos.
Ubuntu 24.04 Disk Hangs Under Load: Timeout Settings That Prevent Full Stalls (Case #30)
Stop Ubuntu 24.04 disk hangs under load by tuning Linux block-layer, SCSI/NVMe, multipath, and filesystem timeouts to fail fast, not stall.
MySQL vs Percona Server: safer defaultsβless tuning, fewer outages
A production-focused comparison of MySQL and Percona Server: safer defaults, better observability, less tuning, and fewer failure modes.
Ray tracing in 2026: why it’s still hardβand still inevitable
Ray tracing is the future, but in 2026 itβs still a brutal mix of latency, noise, memory pressure, and tooling gaps. Hereβs how to ship it anyway.
ZFS Kernel Upgrade Survival: What to Check Before Reboot
A practical pre-reboot checklist for ZFS systems: validate modules, pools, initramfs, feature flags, and rollback paths before upgrading kernels.
ZFS autotrim: Keeping SSD Pools Fast Over Time
A production-focused guide to ZFS autotrim on SSD pools: how it works, how to verify it, and how to avoid the common performance traps.
AMD K5/K6: How AMD Learned to Fight Intel on Intelβs Turf
A production-minded look at AMDβs K5/K6 era: x86 compatibility, platform pain, cache math, and what operators can learn about performance and risk.
GeForce 256: why βthe first GPUβ isnβt just marketing
GeForce 256 earned βfirst GPUβ by moving transform and lighting into dedicated siliconβreshaping performance, drivers, and ops-style debugging.
RTX A/Pro Cards: When βProβ Makes Sense (and When Itβs a Trap)
A practical guide to NVIDIA RTX A/Pro GPUs: when pro features save production, when they waste budget, and how to diagnose real bottlenecks fast.
AI in Everything: When Labels Got Sillier Than Features
A practical SRE view of βAIβ branding: how labels distort decisions, where reliability breaks, and what to measure so systems deliver real value.
ZFS IOPS vs Throughput: Stop Reading the Wrong Metric
Learn when ZFS is IOPS-bound vs throughput-bound, how to measure correctly, and which tunables, layouts, and tests actually change outcomes.
Ubuntu 24.04 βgrub rescue>β: Get Back to a Booting System with the Least Damage
Practical recovery guide for Ubuntu 24.04 stuck at grub rescue>: fast diagnosis, safe commands, UEFI/BIOS fixes, LVM/RAID notes, and pitfalls.
ZFS zfs release: How to Actually Remove βUndeletableβ Snapshots
Learn why ZFS snapshots seem undeletable and how to remove them safely using zfs release, holds, clones, replication, and practical commands.
Office VPN + Printers: Stable Cross-Site Printing Without Random Failures
Make cross-site printing reliable over VPN: pick sane protocols, avoid brittle discovery, tune timeouts, and diagnose failures fast with commands and logs.
When cores beat clocks: the real turning point
A practical SRE guide to the shift from faster clocks to more cores: diagnose bottlenecks, avoid false optimizations, and tune systems safely.
Docker Postgres Container Pitfalls: Data Loss Scenarios and How to Avoid Them
Real-world ways PostgreSQL loses data in Docker: volumes, bind mounts, upgrades, fsync, backups, and fast diagnosis steps to keep prod safe.
NVIDIA RIVA to GeForce: How the Empire Started
From RIVA 128 to GeForce, NVIDIA built a GPU empire by shipping ruthlessly, betting on T&L, and learning hard lessons ops teams still feel today.