Once upon a cloud...
Overengineering is usually framed as a “software developer problem”: too many layers, too many abstractions, too many features nobody asked for. DevOps and infrastructure folks do the same thing. We just do it with VPCs, VPNs, Terraform modules, Kubernetes clusters, and security policies instead of classes and interfaces.
Spin up a three-node Garage v2 S3 cluster on UnRAID + Ubuntu, add a slick WebUI, then wire Duplicacy to push encrypted, deduped backups—complete with cron jobs, Telegram alerts, and zone-aware triple replication—for a zero-friction, homelab-ready safety net.
Claude’s MCP lit a spark: in a weekend I taught GenieACS to talk to LLMs. Using Go, GoReleaser and GitOps, I exposed seven tools so an AI can list devices, reboot routers or flash firmware through a single /mcp endpoint.
Five years on-call taught me the pager’s first demand is context, not heroics. From half-built clusters to rogue upgrades, this post shares war stories, triage tactics, and manager tips for keeping incidents—and engineers—under control.
After almost decade in DevOps I spend as much time digging through forgotten repos as shipping code. Updating Sentry led me to GlitchTip, Redis Sentinel and hours of code-sleuthing—proof that documentation gaps turn DevOps into full-time software archaeologists.
Cluster idles at 8 % yet the bill soars? Learn how Prometheus data + KRR, a 50-line Python wrapper, Grafana and ArgoCD reclaimed 500 vCPU and 200 GiB across dozens of Kubernetes clusters—no magic, no incidents, just rightsizing done right.
When df lies and du swears, look for Loki’s orphaned WAL segments. Our prod cluster filled up every week until we purged legacy boltdb-shipper data from S3. Postmortem, fix steps, and preventive checks summarized.
After seven years running clusters I finally built my first Kubernetes Operator—a Redis PoC in Go with Operator-SDK. This post demystifies CRDs, reconcile loops, defaults, secrets, and status conditions, sharing hard-won lessons and next steps for anyone Operator-curious.
Deploying on Kubernetes doesn't equal disaster recovery. My MSc research showed this clearly—comparing AWS EKS and GKE recovery scenarios with Velero backups taught invaluable, practical lessons.
Early in 2023, challenged by rising Kubernetes issues in production environments, I crafted an audit methodology to diagnose clusters, identify misconfigurations, and establish best practices. Delivered by summer, it enabled clients to transform reliability and performance.
Strapping a Raspberry Pi Zero to my wrist, I built the "PiSpot Watch"—a chunky, lovable smartwatch that briefly challenged the Apple Watch, at least in spirit. From learning FreeCAD and 3D-printing cases, to battling hardware quirks and automating deployments with Ansible—this was my IoT odyssey.
Managing updates isn't trivial; it's a complex, rewarding challenge. Upgrade management at scale involves orchestrating updates across Kubernetes clusters and workloads. While automation aids efficiency, the true art lies in understanding client needs and ensuring seamless, invisible upgrades.
From chanting “U-S-B!” over a new PCI card to cracking Hotmail logins, pixel-soaked mischief shaped my childhood: mIRC raids, Habbo scams, bed-breaking Cossacks marathons and fried GPUs. Dive into the reckless curiosity that forged a lifelong love of tech.
Sometimes technical challenges just come out of nowhere—and ruin your day (or months). Let me tell you the epic tale of how a sudden DockerHub limitation threw my team into a mad scramble, some detective work and Bash scripting sessions.
When our CTO declared it "impossible" to know how WiFi users connected across our messy network, I took it as a personal challenge. However, looking back now, I ponder over how much better my decisions could have been with proper mentorship.