DKIM Key Rotation: How to Rotate Safely With Zero Drama
A production-grade DKIM rotation runbook: dual-signing, DNS TTL strategy, verification commands, rollback paths, and failure modes to avoid deliverability surprises.
Proxmox LVM-thin “out of data space”: free space without destroying VMs
Fix Proxmox LVM-thin “out of data space” safely: diagnose thinpool limits, reclaim blocks, resize LV/VG, and prevent repeats—without nuking VMs.
Intel vs AMD for Real Work: Compiling, Rendering, VMs, and AI
A practical Intel vs AMD guide for compiling, rendering, virtualization, and AI—benchmarks, bottlenecks, commands, and failure modes for real systems.
Convert VMDK to QCOW2 for Proxmox: qemu-img commands, performance tips, and common errors
Production-grade guide to convert VMDK to QCOW2 for Proxmox: exact qemu-img commands, validation steps, speed tips, and fixes for common failures.
Textures and VRAM: why “Ultra” is sometimes just silly
A practical guide to texture settings, VRAM budgets, and stutter: measure what’s happening, pick sane presets, and stop chasing “Ultra” losses.
WordPress “Database Needs Repair”: What It Means and How to Fix It Safely
Learn what WordPress “database needs repair” actually means, how to diagnose the cause, and repair safely without making corruption worse.
Proxmox I/O wait at 100%: find the noisy VM/container and stop host freezes
Practical Proxmox guide to diagnose 100% I/O wait: identify the noisy VM/CT, confirm the storage bottleneck, and stop host freezes fast.
Debian 13: SSHFS vs NFS — pick the one that won’t randomly hang (and configure it right) (case #21)
On Debian 13, avoid random remote filesystem hangs by choosing NFS for production shares and using SSHFS for tooling—configured with sane timeouts.
ZFS sharenfs/sharesmb: Convenience vs Control in Production
Learn when ZFS sharenfs/sharesmb helps or hurts: production failure modes, fast diagnosis, commands, and safer patterns for NFS/SMB exports.
Ubuntu 24.04: “dpkg was interrupted” — the safe repair sequence (no roulette)
Fix Ubuntu 24.04 “dpkg was interrupted” safely: diagnose locks, finish pending config, repair dependencies, and verify apt health with no guesswork.
Proxmox “TASK ERROR: timeout waiting for …”: pinpoint what actually timed out
Decode Proxmox timeout task errors by mapping each “waiting for …” to the real kernel, storage, or cluster lock that stalled—and fix it fast.
WordPress brute force attacks: lock down login without locking yourself out
Stop WordPress brute-force attacks without breaking admin access. Diagnose traffic, harden wp-login, add rate limits, and keep safe recovery paths.
ZFS 80% Rule: Myth, Truth, and the Real ‘Danger Zone’
The ZFS 80% rule isn’t a law: it’s a warning label. Learn what really breaks near full pools, how to measure risk, and what to do in production.
Proxmox Corosync “link down”: why the cluster flaps and how to stabilize it
Diagnose Proxmox Corosync link-down flaps fast: network, MTU, rings, quorum, and time sync. Fix root causes with concrete checks and hardening.
MariaDB vs PostgreSQL Defaults: One Forgives, One Punishes
A production-minded look at MariaDB and PostgreSQL defaults: where each saves you, where it bites, and how to diagnose failures fast.
Proxmox “migration aborted”: common reasons and the repair path
A practical SRE guide to Proxmox “migration aborted”: fast triage, root causes, recovery steps, and hardening for live and offline VM moves.
Heartbleed: the bug that showed the internet runs on duct tape
Heartbleed wasn’t just an OpenSSL bug—it exposed how brittle Internet trust is. Learn what broke, how to detect, patch, rotate, and harden.
Therac-25: When Software Failures Killed Patients
Therac-25 killed because of race conditions, unsafe reuse, weak testing, and poor incident response. A practical playbook for reliable systems.
Docker “bind: address already in use”: find the process and fix cleanly
A production-grade guide to diagnose Docker “bind: address already in use”, identify the owning process, and fix ports cleanly without downtime surprises.
ZFS Space Accounting: Why du and zfs list Disagree
A production-grade guide to ZFS space accounting: why du and zfs list disagree, how snapshots, records, and compression skew numbers, and how to diagnose fast.
WireGuard: the simplest client setup on Windows/macOS/Linux (and the usual pitfalls)
Practical WireGuard client setup for Windows, macOS, and Linux with fast diagnosis steps, common pitfalls, real commands, and hard-earned ops advice.
ZFS Log Analysis: Finding Slowdowns Before They Become Outages
Learn to read ZFS, kernel, and device logs to spot latency, sync write, and pool health issues early—before they become pager-worthy outages.
Docker: Secrets without leaks — stop putting passwords in .env
A production-grade guide to handling Docker secrets safely: avoid .env leaks, use Docker secrets, validate mounts, rotate creds, and audit exposure fast.
MariaDB vs PostgreSQL for Ecommerce Writes: Who Chokes First (and How to Prevent It)
A production-first, write-heavy ecommerce comparison of MariaDB and PostgreSQL: bottlenecks, lock fights, WAL/binlog pain, and how to keep checkout alive.
Debian 13: UEFI entry vanished — restore boot with efibootmgr in minutes
Fix a vanished Debian 13 UEFI boot entry fast: confirm UEFI mode, inspect NVRAM, mount ESP, reinstall shim/grub, and recreate entries with efibootmgr.
Proxmox filesystem becomes read-only: why it happens and how to recover
Diagnose and recover when Proxmox mounts root or storage read-only: kernel clues, ext4/XFS/ZFS steps, command playbooks, and prevention that works.
After 2026: More Real-Time, More AI, Less “Pure” Rendering
How real-time pipelines, AI upscaling, and composited rendering reshape production after 2026—plus diagnostics, commands, and failure modes to avoid.
Proxmox “cannot get exclusive lock”: what’s holding the VM and how to release it
Find what holds Proxmox VM locks, map lock types to root causes, and safely release them across PVE, Ceph, ZFS, NFS, and backups.
WooCommerce Slow Admin Orders: Find Heavy Queries and Speed Them Up
Track down WooCommerce admin order slowness by finding heavy MySQL queries, fixing indexes, reducing meta joins, and tuning PHP and cache safely.
Ubuntu 24.04: TLS handshake failures in curl — SNI/CA/time quick fix checklist
Debug curl TLS handshake failures on Ubuntu 24.04 fast: verify time, CA trust, SNI/ALPN, proxies, and OpenSSL errors with runnable commands and decisions.
ZFS zpool iostat -w: Understanding Workload Patterns in Real Time
Learn to read zpool iostat -w like a production SRE: spot bottlenecks, decode latency, separate sync from async, and fix real workloads fast.
Ubuntu 24.04: logrotate isn’t rotating — the one config mistake that keeps biting people
Logrotate not rotating on Ubuntu 24.04? The usual culprit is a single config mistake. Diagnose it fast with commands, failure modes, and fixes.
MySQL vs MariaDB: temp tables on disk—how to stop them for real
Stop MySQL and MariaDB temp tables from spilling to disk: diagnose the real causes, tune memory and queries, and avoid hidden I/O traps.
Debian 13 “Unable to locate package”: repo, architecture, and sources.list traps (and fixes)
Fix Debian 13 “Unable to locate package” fast: verify suites, components, architectures, signed-by keys, mirrors, pinning, and apt caches.
Zen evolution: what changes between generations that you really feel
A practical, ops-first tour of AMD Zen generations: what changes you feel in production—latency, bandwidth, power, stability—and how to verify it.
ZFS destroy safety: The Checks That Prevent ‘Oops, Wrong Dataset’
Learn how ZFS destroy really behaves, which guardrails exist (and which don’t), and a practical checklist to avoid deleting the wrong dataset in prod.
MariaDB vs PostgreSQL: rate limiting by DB—why it’s a trap and what to do instead
Database-side rate limiting in MariaDB or PostgreSQL looks easy, but it burns CPU, locks, and latency. Use edge limits, queues, pools, and budgets instead.
Docker vs iptables/nftables: stop the firewall war and fix networking
Fix Docker networking when iptables and nftables fight: diagnose rule backends, restore NAT/forwarding, and make firewall behavior stable across reboots.
Proxmox “Too Many Open Files”: What Limit to Raise, and for Which Service
Find the real Proxmox “too many open files” bottleneck fast. Learn which service hits limits, what to raise, and how to verify safely.
Friday Night Deployments: The Tradition That Teaches Through Pain
Friday night deployments turn tiny changes into weekend incidents. Learn the failure modes, fast diagnosis, commands, and habits that stop the pain.
Debian 13 “Could not resolve host”: DNS/proxy/IPv6 — the fastest triage path
A production-first playbook to fix Debian 13 “Could not resolve host” errors by isolating DNS, proxy, IPv6, and routing failures fast.
ZFS Latency Spikes: The Checklist That Finds the Cause
A battle-tested checklist to pinpoint ZFS latency spikes fast: ARC, sync writes, SLOG, scrub/resilver, queues, fragmentation, and noisy neighbors.
MariaDB vs PostgreSQL Restore Speed: How to Get RTO Under 15 Minutes
A pragmatic, ops-first guide to restore MariaDB and PostgreSQL fast: backup formats, WAL/binlog strategy, I/O tuning, and playbooks to hit 15-minute RTO.
Vulkan: Loved for Speed, Hated for Complexity
A production-minded guide to Vulkan: why it’s fast, why it’s hard, and how to diagnose GPU bottlenecks with real tools and workflows.
Email “451 temporary local problem” — find the server-side issue fast
A fast, server-side playbook to diagnose 451 temporary local problem mail errors: queues, DNS, disk, policies, rate limits, and fixes that stick.
Anchor Links That Feel Like Docs Sites: Hover Icons, Offsets, and Clickable Headings
Build doc-style anchor links with hover icons, sticky-header offsets, and clickable headings—without breaking SEO, accessibility, or copy/paste UX.
PostgreSQL vs Aurora PostgreSQL: cost surprises during spikes (and how to avoid them)
A pragmatic SRE guide to PostgreSQL vs Aurora PostgreSQL spike costs: how read replicas, I/O, storage, and failovers inflate bills—and controls to prevent it.
Proxmox pveperf Shows Nonsense: How to Benchmark Properly
Stop trusting pveperf blindly. Learn reproducible Proxmox benchmarking that isolates CPU, disk, and network bottlenecks with real commands and decisions.
WordPress Mixed Content: why HTTPS still shows warnings and how to fix properly
Fix WordPress mixed content warnings even on HTTPS: find insecure URLs, repair database and themes, and stop proxies/plugins from reintroducing HTTP.
Docker: Slow writes on overlay2 — when to switch to volumes and why
Diagnose slow Docker overlay2 writes fast, understand copy-on-write costs, and decide when to move databases and logs to volumes for stable throughput.