Linux
Extracting a Proxmox VMA Backup Without Proxmox
No Proxmox host left, but a vzdump .vma.zst holds the database you need. How I parsed the VMA format in Python and streamed the disk out of it.
Linux
Linux server guides from real setups: Ubuntu and Debian, systemd, firewalls, backups, mail and the gotchas that bite in production.
Linux
My Server Ran Out and My Backups Were Truncated: What I Learned
A Proxmox host went away for good and the offsite backups turned out to be cut off. What I could recover, what was gone, and the checks I run now.
Minecraft
PaperMC Download API v3: Why Your "latest" One-Liner Returns 404
The old api.papermc.io v2 "latest" URL returns 404. How to download Paper and Velocity from the fill v3 API with curl, jq and a SHA-256 check.
Linux
The Idempotency Bug That Uploaded the Same File 153 Times
A cron job re-ran a side effect every two minutes because its "done" marker was gated on a flaky downstream step. The fix is one line moved up. Here's the pattern.
Linux
Grafana vs Netdata vs Uptime Kuma — I Run All Three, Here's What Each Is Actually For
Honest comparison of Prometheus+Grafana, Netdata and Uptime Kuma — what each one is good at, what it costs you, and why running all three is a reasonable answer.
Gameserver
Discord Alerts From Your Server Logs — A 100-Line Bot That Beats a Monitoring Stack
Tail a game server log, match crash and freeze patterns, ping a Discord webhook. Includes the noise-control rules that stop it becoming a channel nobody reads.
Docker
Docker vs Podman — What's the Difference and Should You Switch?
Docker vs Podman compared — daemon vs daemonless, rootless security, systemd/Quadlet integration, compose support, and when switching is actually worth it.
Gameserver
Monitoring a Game Server Over WireGuard — Prometheus Without Exposing a Single Port
Scrape node_exporter across a WireGuard tunnel so no metrics port is public — plus the pps/bps alert that tells you a DDoS from a player spike.
Linux
Tailscale vs WireGuard — Which VPN Should You Actually Run?
Tailscale vs WireGuard compared — Tailscale is built on WireGuard but adds NAT traversal, MagicDNS, ACLs and zero-config mesh. When to pick raw WireGuard instead.
Linux
One Public IP, Many VMs — Port-Splitting a Proxmox Host with nftables
How to route ports 80/443 to one container and 3389/game ports to another VM behind a single public IP on Proxmox — DNAT rules, hairpin, and making it survive a reboot.
Docker
Coolify vs Dokploy vs CapRover — Self-Hosted PaaS Compared (2026)
Coolify vs Dokploy vs CapRover compared — architecture, proxy, git deploys, multi-server, and which self-hosted Heroku alternative to pick for your stack.
Docker
Coolify — Self-Hosted PaaS, and the Cheats I Wish I'd Known
Run Coolify as your own Heroku — install, deploy apps and docker-compose services, automatic HTTPS, plus the API, sslip testing and path-routing cheats.