Tutorials
Migrate Windows Server to Cloud VM with Veeam Bare Metal Restore
Move a physical or virtual Windows Server to a KVM-based cloud VM using Veeam Agent bare-metal recovery. Covers VirtIO driver injection into recovery media, disk mapping, and post-restore validation.
Self-Host Langfuse on a VPS for LLM Observability
Deploy Langfuse v3 with Docker Compose on your own VPS. Trace LLM calls, track costs, run automated evaluations with DeepEval, and wire quality gates into your CI/CD pipeline.
Self-Host Uptime Kuma and Beszel on a VPS with Docker Compose
Deploy Uptime Kuma for external uptime monitoring and Beszel for lightweight server metrics on a single VPS. Docker Compose setup with notifications, alerts, status pages, and security hardening.
Self-Host Plausible Analytics on a VPS with Docker Compose
Deploy Plausible Community Edition on your VPS with Docker Compose. Full lifecycle guide covering setup, tracking integration, custom events, backups, and updates.
BGP Failover and Multi-Homing from Two VPS Locations
Announce the same prefix from two locations using BGP for automatic failover. Covers LOCAL_PREF, MED, AS-path prepending, BFD, and graceful shutdown with full BIRD2 and FRR configurations.
Self-Host SigNoz or OpenObserve on a VPS: Datadog Alternatives Compared
Install both SigNoz and OpenObserve on a single VPS using Docker Compose. Compare real resource usage, features, and production hardening to pick the right Datadog alternative.
Centralized Log Management with Grafana Loki on a VPS
Deploy Grafana Loki, Promtail, and Grafana via Docker Compose on a single VPS. Collect systemd, Docker, and Nginx logs, query them with LogQL, and configure retention for production use.
Anycast DNS with BIRD2 and BGP: Multi-Location Setup
Deploy anycast DNS across multiple VPS locations using BIRD2 and BIND9. Covers BGP route announcement, zone synchronization with TSIG, health-check failover, and nftables hardening.
AI Log Analysis with Ollama on a VPS: Detect Anomalies with a Local LLM
Build a production-ready AI log analysis pipeline on your VPS. Query Loki for logs, classify anomalies with a local LLM via Ollama, and route alerts to Discord or Slack using a Python script and systemd timer.
Docker Compose Resource Limits, Healthchecks, and Restart Policies
Your Compose file works in dev but is not production-ready. Learn how to add memory/CPU limits, healthchecks, restart policies, and startup ordering to protect your VPS from OOM kills and cascading failures.
VyOS BGP Configuration on a VPS: Dual-Stack Tutorial
Configure BGP on a VyOS instance running on a VPS to announce your own IPv4 and IPv6 prefixes. Covers prefix-lists, route-maps, session security, and external verification.
Build a Self-Healing VPS with Prometheus and Ollama
Wire Prometheus alerts to a local LLM that diagnoses failures and executes safe remediation actions on your VPS. Full working code with allowlists, dry-run mode, and human approval controls.
Secure n8n with Nginx Reverse Proxy, TLS, and Security Headers
Put your self-hosted n8n behind Nginx with Let's Encrypt TLS, security headers, rate limiting, firewall rules, and webhook protection. Every step includes a verification command.
Docker Security Hardening: Rootless Mode, Seccomp, AppArmor on a VPS
Seven hardening layers for Docker on a VPS. Each section explains the threat, shows the fix with CLI and Compose syntax, and verifies it works.
Self-Host Immich on a VPS with Docker Compose
Deploy Immich on a VPS as a self-hosted Google Photos replacement. Covers Docker Compose setup, mobile app backup, storage planning with real numbers, machine learning on CPU, database backup and restore, and a safe update workflow.
Self-Host Vaultwarden on a VPS with Docker Compose
Deploy a hardened Vaultwarden password manager on your VPS. Covers Docker Compose with read-only containers, fail2ban, SMTP for 2FA, backup and restore, and emergency access.
Nginx Rate Limiting and DDoS Protection
Configure Nginx rate limiting with limit_req, limit_conn, and fail2ban to protect your server from brute-force attacks and application-layer DDoS without relying on third-party services.
AI Code Review in GitHub Actions with Claude and Gemini
Set up Claude Code Action and Gemini for automated pull request review. Multi-model workflows with role separation, quality gates that block merges on critical findings, and security hardening against prompt injection.
Docker Update Strategy: Zero-Downtime Container Updates on a VPS
Four escalating methods to update Docker containers on a VPS, from simple pull-and-replace to zero-downtime blue-green deployments with Traefik. Covers image pinning, rollback procedures, Diun notifications, and docker-rollout.
Backup and Update n8n in Production (Docker Compose + PostgreSQL)
A day-two operations guide for self-hosted n8n: automated PostgreSQL backups, encryption key protection, off-server copies with rclone, disaster recovery from a fresh VPS, safe Docker Compose updates, rollback, and the 1.x to 2.x migration path.
Monitor BGP Announcements with BGPalerter on Linux
Deploy BGPalerter v2 on a Linux VPS to monitor your prefixes for hijacks, route leaks, and RPKI invalid states. Configure Slack and email alerts, run as a systemd service.
Nginx Performance Tuning on a VPS
Tune Nginx for production traffic on a Linux VPS. Covers worker processes, compression, caching, HTTP/2, TLS optimization, kernel sysctl, and benchmarking with wrk.
Self-Host Gitea on a VPS with Docker Compose
Deploy a production-ready Gitea instance with PostgreSQL, SSH passthrough on port 22, Gitea Actions CI/CD, Git LFS, GitHub mirroring, and automated backups. All on a single VPS with Docker Compose.
Self-Host Paperless-ngx on a VPS with Docker Compose
Deploy Paperless-ngx on a VPS with Docker Compose, PostgreSQL, and Redis. Configure OCR languages and modes, set up automatic tagging rules, email consumption, and a production backup strategy with offsite sync.
Offsite Backup and Replication with Plakar
Replicate plakar snapshots to a remote server over HTTPS or to S3-compatible object storage. Automate backups and offsite sync with plakar built-in scheduler running as a systemd service on Debian 12 or Ubuntu 24.04.
Back Up Your Linux VPS with Plakar
Install plakar on Debian 12 or Ubuntu 24.04, create an encrypted deduplicated backup store, back up filesystem paths and databases via stdin piping, schedule automated backups, and restore files or full database dumps.
Docker Volume Backup and Restore on a VPS
Three backup strategies for Docker volumes on a VPS: tar snapshots, database-native dumps, and automated encrypted backups with offen/docker-volume-backup. Includes cron scheduling, off-site S3 copies with rclone, and a full restore test on a fresh server.
Build AI Workflows in n8n with Ollama and Claude on a VPS
Connect n8n to AI models through two paths: Ollama for free local inference and the Claude API for cloud intelligence. Build a content classification workflow with both, running on a self-hosted VPS.
Docker Log Rotation: Stop Logs from Filling Your VPS Disk
Docker's default log driver stores unlimited data. A single busy container can fill a 50GB VPS disk in days. This tutorial configures global log rotation, per-service Compose overrides, automated cleanup, and disk usage monitoring.
Secure Your AI Agent Server: Sandboxing, Firewalls, and Monitoring
AI agents execute arbitrary actions, consume unpredictable resources, and process untrusted input by design. This guide maps each threat to a concrete Linux control.
How to Use Vim on a Linux VPS
A practical Vim tutorial built around real server administration tasks. Learn modes, navigation, editing, search and replace, splits, .vimrc configuration, and workflows for editing Nginx, SSH, and Docker Compose files over SSH.
Self-Host Hermes Agent on a VPS
Deploy Nous Research's Hermes Agent on your own VPS. Create a locked-down user, install with one command, pick your LLM provider, wire up Telegram, and run it as a service.
RPKI ROA Setup for BGP: Create ROAs, Validate Routes in BIRD2 and FRR
Create IPv4 and IPv6 ROAs in the RIPE NCC portal, install Routinator as an RTR cache, configure RPKI route origin validation in BIRD2 and FRRouting, and verify prefix status with bgp.tools and RIPE Stat.
Build and Self-Host a Custom MCP Server on a VPS
Build a TypeScript MCP server from scratch, deploy it on a VPS with systemd, and run it behind Nginx with TLS. Connect Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and Cursor to your self-hosted server.
Run Claude Code on a VPS: Install, Secure, and Persist Sessions
Set up Claude Code on a remote Linux server with headless authentication, tmux session persistence, and proper security hardening. Complete setup guide.
Set Up Let's Encrypt SSL/TLS for Nginx on Debian 12 and Ubuntu 24.04
Obtain and auto-renew free TLS certificates with Certbot for Nginx on Debian 12 or Ubuntu 24.04. Covers DNS setup, Certbot installation, HTTP-to-HTTPS redirect, TLS hardening, HTTP/2, HSTS, and the OCSP discontinuation.
Nginx Server Blocks: Host Multiple Domains on One VPS
Configure Nginx server blocks to serve multiple websites from a single VPS. Two full domains, secure defaults, per-site logging, and complete verification included.
Install n8n with Docker Compose on a VPS
Set up n8n 2.x with Docker Compose and PostgreSQL on a VPS. Production-ready from the start with pinned versions, encryption key backup, health checks, and resource limits.
How to Use GNU Screen on a Linux VPS
Learn GNU Screen from installation to daily use. Manage sessions, split regions, configure .screenrc, and keep processes running after SSH disconnects on Debian 12 and Ubuntu 24.04.
Fix Docker Bypassing UFW: 4 Tested Solutions for Your VPS
Docker manipulates iptables directly and ignores UFW rules. Your container ports are exposed to the internet even with ufw deny active. Here are four solutions with tradeoffs, each verified by scanning from an external host.
Build Your First n8n Workflow: Webhooks, API Calls, and Notifications
Build two real n8n workflows from scratch on your self-hosted instance. A webhook that fetches weather data and sends it to Discord, and an RSS monitor that posts new articles to a channel.
Install Nginx on Debian 12 and Ubuntu 24.04 from the Official Repository
Install Nginx from the official nginx.org repository on Debian 12 or Ubuntu 24.04. Covers signing key setup, apt pinning, firewall rules for both UFW and nftables, systemd management, and verification after every step.
SSH Hardening on a Linux VPS: Complete sshd_config Security Guide
Lock down SSH on your Debian 12 or Ubuntu 24.04 VPS. Ed25519 key generation, sshd_config hardening, ProxyJump bastion setup, cipher hardening, and ssh-audit verification. Tested on Debian 12 and Ubuntu 24.04.
How to Configure Nginx as a Reverse Proxy
Configure Nginx as a reverse proxy for Node.js, Ollama, and other backends. Covers proxy_pass, header forwarding, WebSocket support, upstream load balancing, and production timeout tuning.
Docker Compose for Multi-Service VPS Deployments
Learn how to use Docker Compose to orchestrate multiple services on a single VPS.