Recent content in Journal on n3s0 || journal
Scenario 
 There are two pods: “logger” and “logshipper” living in the default namespace. 
 Unfortunately, logshipper has an issue (crashlooping) and is forbidden to see
what logger is trying to say. Could you help fix Logshipper? 
 Because k8s takes a minute or two to change the pod state initially, the check
for the scenario is made to fail in the…
Notes on how mDNS is prioritized on the .local top-level domain.
Notes for reference regarding C13 connectors to NEMA 5-15P inlet on power cords.
Notes on .local as a top level domain and why it’s a bad idea.

 Notes for this lock are not complete. But, by all means read away! 
 Summary 
 
 
 The lock I purchased was the Master Lock Model M530 DF to be more specific. 
 I found the Master Lock Model M530 going to the padlock aisle in a Home Depot 
and I thought I’d pick it up to see what it’s all about. Just by looking at it
and watching videos of it online in…

 Notes on this lock are not complete. But, by all means read away! 
 Summary 
 
 Now to start with the lock that broke me into this hobby of lock picking. I
thought I would pick up a Master Lock No. 1 brand new for the purposes of
adding some of the more common locks to this collection. Mostly because I don’t
have keys to the other Master Lock No. 1 padlock I…
Summary 
 
 This is my write-up for the Quito: Control One Container from Another challenge
provided by SadServers. Where those up to the challenge work though
troubleshooting why a container cannot start an Nginx container. I enjoyed this
challenge because it reinforced some of the nuances related to container
daemons. 
 Scenario 
 
 Scenario:…
I normally don’t like to boast about achievements on this site. Granted, this
isn’t really boasting. But, I was going through some SadServers challenges and I
decided to look at my Dashboard. Come to find out. I’ve been granted the
SadServers Advanced badge. Which is something I’m proud of. 
 Bask in thy glory! But, not for to long. 
 
 Anyway. I…
Summary 
 
 Another SadServers scenario in the books! This one was run because not everyone
within Enterprise environments touch the host firwalls for servers. I configure
the firwall on servers. But, not with iptables . This was a good challenge
thaat could potentially help people see why it’s important to not make mistakes
configuring your host firewall rules. Apart…
Summary 
 
 I may have killed process before I closed the file. Mostly due to not reading.
But, with this challenge I definately learned a better way of handling files
that processes refuse to close. So this was a win for me. 
 This challenge from SadServes expects the solver to close the file without
terminating the process. It even punishes us if we terminate the process…
Summary 
 Although the PlayStation 5 has been out for a while. I’m usually pretty slow to
join the party on the latest and greatest consoles. This note discusses moving
some save data from the PlayStation 4 to the PlayStation 5. 
 Data Transfer 
 There are a few methods to transferring data from PlayStation 4 to PlayStation
5. 
 
 Transfer using a USB device.…
A little disclaimer before I start on this. Just in case someone gets the knee
jerk reaction that I’m doing all of this illegally. When the reality is I’m
doing this to educate myself and others. 
 
 I do not post content related to picking locks or cracking safes that I either
don’t own or have the owner’s permission to do either. 
 With that out of…
Summary 
 
 I have a Vaultek LifePod 1.0 (VLP10-BK) safe I bought a few years ago to store
valuables or keep firearms away from children. Not to mention keep away from
those who may attempt to steal the firearm or use it for other reasons. I like
to be careful with things that could be potentially dangerous towards life and
limb. 
 Well, one day I decided to roll the…
Summary 
 Decided to provide notes on some other aspects of system administration that not
everyone knows how to do. But, everyone definately can do on their Windows
workstations. I move back and forth between Linux and Windows machines
frequently with flash drives and don’t always eject the drive safely. I either
use these flash drives for one off cases or as…
Summary 
 A big part of maintaining applications like Netbox is upgrading them as new
features, bug fixes, and security patches come out. I will be walking through
how to upgrade the application using the Git method provided in the
documentation . 
 Of course before you perform an upgrade to any application. I recommend reading
the release notes or even the issues…
Summary 
 In this article I will be working through migrating Netbox from Ubuntu Server
22.04 LTS to Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS. Given that the world is all containers and
microservices. I like to install some applications manually to make sure I fully
understand how it should/could be setup outside of a containerized environment. 
 Not to be one of those “back in my…
Summary 
 One aspect of user administration on Linux servers is logging out user sessions
if needed. Either stale user processes or people that no longer need to be
logged in. Knowing how to do this is not always imperitive. But, it’s useful for
a few one off scenerios. 
 Logoff User 
 I’ll get into logging off a user in a minute. But, for now I should…
Summary 
 This is a brief note on how to change a user password on Linux systems. This is
one of those basic administrator tasks done on most systems. 
 Change User Password 
 To change a users password the passwd(1) command using the username of the
user being updated. This will require elevated privileges to do successfully. 
 Below is the command used to change the user…
Summary 
 This is a living document of different methods for reviewing user activity on
Linux systems. There are many methods to review things like this. So, as I learn
more. This document will be updated if it proves useful. Hopefully it will be
useful to others as well. 
 last(1) 
 One command to review user activity is the last(1) command. The last(1) 
command shows…
Summary 
 Wanted to make a note on a gem within the Linux space that some Linux
administrators may not know about. The acct package; psacct package on RHEL,
provides tools for monitoring user activity and process resource usage on Linux
systems. Just enable the accounting service and use the commands within the
toolset to check on account activity. 
 This is useful for…
Summary 
 In this note I’m going to discuss adding a user to a Linux system using the
 adduser(1) command. This provides a friendly front end for creating a new
user. Where with the useradd(1) command. I would need to type out a longer
command. The adduser(1) command creates a user with everything you would
expect to be created for a new user in a shorter command. This is…
Summary 
 Using usermod(1) 
 One command I use the most is the usermod(1) command. I generally just append
group membership; using the -a flag, to give the user another group as opposed
to making it their primary group. 
 usermod -aG <group> <username>
 Verify Group Membership 
 It’s good to verify group membership after adding a user to a group. This can…
Summary 
 This note discusses using the addgroup(1) command to add groups to Linux
systems. Which is coupled with the adduser(1) command as a friendly front end
for adding users and groups to Linux systems. Groups are useful when you have
multi-user systems and don’t want to have to worry about adding users to things
like OpenSSH configuration manually. You can just…
Summary 
 In this note I will be going through a few ways to lock and unlock Linux user
accounts. This is useful for the sake of making sure accounts can be put in time
out of they misbehave. 
 passwd(1) 
 One method is to use the passwd(1) command. Using the -l option will lock
the password of the named account. It disables the password by changing it to a
password…
Notes on installing the Go programming language on multiple operating systems.
Summary 
 This may be one of those nuanced scenarios. But, I have serviced a location that
requires I utilize the shared copper/fiber WAN ports. Basically after upgrading
it to FortiOS v7.4.8 a bug with the shared WAN ports not checking to see if the
optic port is being used. Which is a pretty big boo boo on my part for not
finding that bug sooner. 
 In brief. The solution…
Summary 
 I’m jotting down this note after experiencing an issue after upgrading to
FortiOS v7.4.8. The shared ports wouldn’t detect the active port; which in this
case was the fiber medium. After troublshooting it. It seems as though it’s a
bug where the active link isn’t properly detected. 
 There are features provided within the FortiGate 80F & 90G…
Design a simple home network with a fiber provider.
What Have You Been Up To? 
 Yes. I’m alive. I’ve just been focusing on some things in my personal life.
Not too many problems come up that I feel I may see again. So, I haven’t been
writting How-tos. Mostly just reading and being present with my family. 
 I tend to go through spurts of energy where I can focus on writing. But, there
is also writters block.…
Reading updates for 02-2026.
Overview 
 Applying configuration to kubernetes pods/deployments is a pretty big part of
administering these environments. Whether you are making minor/major changes to
the configuration of your deployments. It’s usually good to know how to update
the configuration and rollout those changes. 
 In some cases. A Helm chart fixes this by rolling all of the necessary…
Overview 
 One thing to note is if you manage multiple name spaces. You’ll want to use the
 -n or --namespace with the namespace name to see those resources. Otherwise
you will look in the default namespace for these resources. Which understanding
what’s in your default namespace is important. 
 Get Pods 
 kubectl -n lab get pods
 kubectl get pods
 Get…
Overview 
 When you make changes to a kubernetes pod or deployment. You need to rollout
these changes by hand. Which includes restarting that particular resource. 
 
 kubectl rollout restart 
 
 There are other options available in the documentation for the command. But, I
generally run into what we’re going to see here. If I run into more. I’ll
probably…
Overview 
 I’ve been navigating through Kubernetes infrastructure so I figured I would post
some content related to accessing interactive shells within Kubernetes pods.
This is useful for troubleshooting. Whether that’d be for the networking for the
container or the application. 
 Getting Pods 
 The following command will list all pods in the lab namespace.…
Overview 
 I will provide the configuration necessary to configure a static IP address on a
FortiGate interface. Part of this entails the discussion of interface roles and
what you can use them for. 
 Discussion On Interface Roles 
 Fortinet uses interface roles to categorize the usecase for an interface and
determines how it handles security policy and traffic based on…
Writeup from what I’ve completed for SANs Holiday Hack Challenge 2024: Snow-maggedon.
Lacey, Washington, is a city in Thurston County, located near Olympia, with a population of approximately 57,000. Known for its extensive parks and outdoor activities, Lacey offers a blend of urban amenities and natural beauty, making it a popular place for residents and visitors alike.
Seattle, Washington, is a vibrant city known for its stunning waterfront, iconic Space Needle, and rich cultural scene. It is a major tech hub, home to companies like Amazon and Microsoft, and offers a diverse range of outdoor activities, coffee culture, and music festivals.
Bremerton, a beautiful city just a short ferry ride from downtown Seattle, offers a vibrant downtown Harborside area with the Kitsap Conference Center, two hotels, dining, cafes, and the Port of Bremerton Marina. Explore the Bremerton Creative District, Quincy Square, Puget Sound Navy Museum, Boardwalk and Harborside Fountain Park. Stroll across the Manette Bridge for more cafes and shops. A few…
Notes for setting DNS configuration in the systemd resolved.conf file.
Notes on obtaining a list of connected devices using CDP neighbors on a Cisco Switch.
Notes on obtaining a list of connected devices using LLDP on a Cisco Switch.
Summary 
 Recently I experienced a bizzare issue where a FortiSwitch wasn’t supplying POE
power to anything you plugged into it. Whether that be a wireless access point
or other PoE devices were plugged in the switch would not supply power.
Essentially the access points at this particular site went offline randomly with
a log stating they left. Just grew some legs and…
Overview 
 This is one of those things I have to do every day that I wanted to add to this
site. There is the quick and easy way; through the GUI, and cli way. Both of
which are pretty easy. 
 In this post I’m going to focus on configuring VLANs on a FortiSwitch port from
a FortiGate firewall. With the Fortinet networking stack you can FortiCombine
firewalls,…
SSL VPN Connectivity Test (Bash) 
 Summary 
 I enjoy testing and reporting when I complete my work. It’s a fundamental stage
before you provide the end result. There are tests for connecting to and testing
SSL VPN connectivity beforehand. 
 This script targets SSL Client VPNs for test it’s test cases. Weather you’re
renewing the TLS certificate or just…
What is fortigate_exporter? 
 The Prometheus FortiGate Exporter is a repository I forked from the prometheus
community. Due to lack of TLC from the maintainer or provided documentation from
Fortinet. It’s been abandoned/archived. I’m working on reviving it on my
repository as best I can considering I have access to that documentation. (for
now) 
 It collects…
What is subnetcalc? 
 Command line application for calculating subnets and referencing useful
data related to networking. I usually have one of these references on
my wall just in case I forget. So, I thought I’d bring it with me
wherever on my computer. 
 The subnet calculator feature in this application does the following: 
 
 Provides the network address 
…
What is Randfile? 
 Randfile is a Go commandline application that ingests a directory path and picks
a random file. This is a small project. But, it has its place in my setup. 
 For my purposes this is for learning and randomly picking a wallpaper PNG or
JPEG and outputting its full path for Sway or i3wm. 
 Build from Source 
 Clone the randfile repository. 
 git clone…
Showcasing some of the updates to this website.
Library 
 Current reading list of books that I’m currently reading for have read. I’m not
making recommendations or providing my reviews on this page. 
 This list is divided into two sections. Currently Reading or Read. Links are
provided for each books individual card go to Hardcover 
slugs/pages for them. 
 I will explain how I compile this list in a later…