Just recently I got my hands on a Lenovo ThinkCentre M92p Tiny miniPC which I were able to grab for virtually free on our local classifieds site. I figured that it would be and ideal solution for running some VMs and docker containers in our office. These decade old PCs provide great value for this purpose, especially when Raspberry Pi’s are becoming very expensive providing all the hats and cases you need to buy in order for it to become a reliable server machine....

In my one of my previous posts I covered a process of setting up Wireguard server on Docker. While Wireguard is a great choice for VPN protocol, as it’s known for its reliability, speed and good encryption, they way it handles handshakes is easily detectable and can be blocked by ISP firewalls. Same applies to other well known VPN protocols, such as: OpenVPN, IPsec and L2TP. A number of countries have introduced measures to block VPN protocols which can cause major problems for users who use them to connect office LAN or for whatever other purposes....

The unattended upgrades feature on Debian-based distros is very handy way to ensure that you are running up-to-date security patches and latest versions of software running. At some point when you reach a certain limit of running instances, like VMs and containers, it starts to be hard and time consuming to keep them all updated. I have servers running locally in my homelab, as well as numerous instances in the cloud....

After using Proxmox for a while now, I have nearly reached a point of running out of storage. So I decided to upgrade my NVMe from 256GB to 1TB. However, this task turned out to be not so trivial one. I have cloned my drive and expanded the partition with empty space numerous times on Linux before, but there are some specifics of LVM that you need to consider. I have also spent a lot of time reading through documentation and forums before I finally found this forum post....

In the ever-evolving digital landscape, cyber threats have become increasingly sophisticated, posing a significant risk to our online security. Recently, I’ve observed a surge in phishing attempts targeting my email addresses, particularly the corporate ones. While it was relatively simple to identify these deceptive tactics, the phishing landscape in 2023 is very different. The level of sophistication of these attempts, the way how e-mail messages are crafted, suggests a potentially higher success rate, making it more crucial than ever to stay informed and alarmed....

In this post I will describe a very practical use case of running a Wireguard VPN server on Docker. This time I will be creating a docker container using docker-compose method. Why use a VPN? VPN services offer several benefits to users. Firstly, they provide enhanced online security by encrypting internet traffic, making it difficult for hackers or third parties to intercept sensitive information. Secondly, VPNs allow users to browse the internet anonymously, protecting their privacy and preventing websites from tracking their online activities....

In recent years, the technology industry has witnessed a remarkable surge in the adoption of containers, with an increasing number of applications and services being ‘containerized.’ Containers, and Docker in particular, have been lauded for their ability to provide unparalleled isolation and security to applications. However, while containers offer substantial benefits, they are not a silver bullet solution to all security challenges. Security considerations It is crucial to understand that the security of a container hinges heavily on its configuration....

I was playing with ChatGPT recently and asked it to write a poem about Linux. Check it out :) Linux poem In the land of tech, there reigns a king so bold, A system so powerful, it never grows old. It’s sleek, it’s smart, it’s Linux you see, An open-source wonder, that’s always free. With its command line skills, it can do so much more, Than other systems that you’d normally adore....

Following my previous post on nginx installation process, I will now describe the process of deploying a Django WSGI application on nginx. Tero Karvinen has a great guide on his website on deploying Django using Apache 2 webserver and mod_wsgi, which I have adapted to use for nginx. Install virtual environment The first step is to create a new virtual environment inside your directory. In this example, I will store my Django projects in the /home/evgeni/publicwsgi directory, and activate the virtual environment using the following commands:...

For nearly my entire career, I’ve been using the Apache2 web server as my main solution for web hosting. For many years, Apache2 was the number 1 web server and the obvious choice. However, the competitor nginx has been on the rise and a few years ago, took the #1 spot away from Apache. I am now working on a new web project and decided to give nginx a try. I run my setup on a newly installed Debian 11 virtual machine that I acquired from Digital Ocean....