SumGuy's Ramblings
The art of wasting time.
Docker, self-hosting, AI/LLM, Linux, and DevOps — explained by someone who learned the hard way. No fluff, no enterprise jargon, just practical stuff that actually works on real hardware.
Recent Posts
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step-ca: Let's Encrypt for Your LAN
Run step-ca as a private ACME server so Caddy and Traefik auto-issue and renew TLS certs for grafana.home.arpa, with no internet exposure and no CT log leaks.
13 min read -
Garrul: 24 More Releases, Mostly Cheaper
Garrul v2.23 to v2.40 recap: one-request mounts, static assets, fewer D1 rows read, a usage panel, plus moderation, locale and upgrade changes for self-hosters.
13 min read -
Container Restart Storms at 2 AM
A triage runbook for a Docker or Kubernetes container stuck in a restart loop: read the signals, stop the loop, get a shell, and find the real cause fast.
13 min read -
Rootless Podman Quadlets vs Docker
Rootless Podman Quadlets or rootless Docker for a home lab host? Networking, cgroups, auto-updates, bind mounts and boot behavior compared, with a clear pick.
12 min read -
NVMe SMART: Reading Wear Before It Dies
How NVMe wear leveling works and which SMART health log fields show it: Percentage Used, Available Spare, media errors, TBW math, smartctl vs nvme-cli.
13 min read -
Immich Backups That Outlive Immich
Family photos outlast any app and any admin's enthusiasm. Set up Immich so the originals, albums, and a README survive without it, plus an offsite restic copy.
14 min read -
Claude Skills vs MCP: What Each One Is For
Agent Skills package know-how, MCP servers package access. Here is how each one loads into context, what each one costs, and when your home lab needs which.
13 min read -
Read-Only Docker Containers: What Breaks
Turn on read_only: true and watch nginx, Postgres, Redis, Python and Node fail in specific ways. Real errors, plus the minimum tmpfs and volume set for each.
12 min read -
UniFi in a Home Lab: Worth the Tax?
UniFi costs more than an OPNsense router with cheap switches and APs. Here is what the premium buys, what it takes away, and the middle path most labs want.
15 min read -
Near-Zero-Downtime Postgres Major Upgrades
pg_upgrade in link mode takes seconds. Logical replication takes planning. Here is when each wins, plus a tested Postgres 17 to 18 cutover with a rollback path.
14 min read -
LittleLink vs LinkStack: Ditch Linktree
Replace Linktree with a page you host. LittleLink, LittleLink-Server and LinkStack compared with real image sizes and idle RAM, plus working Docker Compose files.
12 min read -
PHP2Shell: Is Your Homelab Running PHP?
PHP2Shell is two unauthenticated PHP RCE flaws. Find every PHP container in your homelab, patch to the fixed release, and keep Cloudflare's WAF as a seatbelt.
14 min read
