Infrastructure

Hello! Maurice Moss here again. Today I’m going to tell you about a project that perfectly encapsulates the engineering mindset: spending an absolutely unreasonable amount of time automating something that takes five minutes to do manually. You know that XKCD comic about whether automation is worth it? The one where you calculate if the time saved exceeds the time invested? Well, I looked at that chart, laughed, and said “challenge accepted” in the wrong direction. ...

Hello there! Maurice Moss speaking. Today we’re going to discuss something that nearly drove me to call 0118 999 881 999 119 725… 3 - enterprise SSDs that refuse to power on. You know that feeling when you’ve just installed a beautiful, high-capacity enterprise SSD - perhaps a Micron 5100, an Intel DC series, or similar datacenter drive - and you’re ready to experience storage nirvana? Your HBA detects all your old drives perfectly. But these expensive new SSDs? Nothing. No detection, no activity lights, completely dead. It’s like trying to get Roy to answer a support call before his first coffee. ...

Hello there, fellow IT enthusiasts! Today I’m going to walk you through a peculiar little quirk in MAAS (Metal as a Service) that’s about as intuitive as explaining to Jen what RAM actually does. The Problem with Multiple Networks (Or: “Why Is My Traffic Going That Way?”) You see, when you have two networks in MAAS, it’s like having two doors to leave a building - perfectly reasonable until you realize MAAS can’t decide which one should be the main exit. The GUI, much like Roy’s dating strategy, completely fails to provide an option for selecting your default gateway. ...

Hello there! Maurice Moss speaking. Today I’m quite excited to share something rather brilliant that I’ve been working on in between fixing printers and helping Roy turn things off and on again. It’s about making Prometheus and Netbox work together, which is almost as exciting as that time I mastered the entire Wood Sitting Down genre! What You’ll Need (Rather Important, Really) Netbox version 3.5.0 or newer (don’t try it with older versions, trust me - it’s like trying to run Windows Vista on a ZX Spectrum) Prometheus version 2.28.0+ (the plus is important, like remembering to wear your emergency socks) Node exporter or similar running on your target machines (I’ll explain why in a moment, like I had to explain to Jen why computers need fans) Why Would You Want This? (A Very Good Question!) Now, let me explain why this integration is absolutely brilliant. You see, normally with Prometheus, you’d have to manually declare all your targets in the configuration - writing them down like Roy writes down his lunch orders. But with this Netbox integration, it becomes dynamic! ...

Hello there! Today I’m excited to share a guide on using cloud images in Proxmox. If you’ve ever found yourself repeatedly creating VMs and going through the same configuration steps, this post is for you! We’ll explore how to leverage cloud images with cloud-init for automated VM deployments - it’s like having a personal VM chef that prepares your instances exactly how you like them. What We’re Working With Before we dive in, here’s what we’ll be using in this guide: ...