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Alexander

@alexsguardian.net
78 followers 98 following 520 posts

DevOps Engineer by day, network whisperer by night, and occasional code magician. I juggle cloud infrastructure and scripts while wondering if sleep is just a myth. Currently stuck in 🇺🇸 blog.alexsguardian.net

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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 26/09/2026
Bet y'all will never guess where 99% of the emails came from in my spam folder. And no I won't read them. Gonna see how many I get before I delete them all 🤣 Hint: It's mostly desperate pleas for money for something in November based on the subject lines.
Picture of 130 Spam emails sitting unread in my email
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 14/09/2026
Been awhile. Got back from the beach yesterday. Much needed RNR. Also stopped at the Dover AFB Air Mobility Museum. Fam got a personal tour from an ex C-141A pilot which was awesome. Pretty cool place! Kiddos got to see a few C-5's and C-17's doing touch and goes too. Back to work tomorrow 😅
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 17/08/2026
It's so fun when GitHub is having issues. 😤
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 02/08/2026
The rollback detection and proper version tracking is honestly the two biggest deal breakers for me.
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 02/08/2026
docker stack deploy will always exit 0 unless the command itself fails. So if the command runs and starts the update all the other tools see 'exit 0' and think it's fine when in reality it might not be or has rolled back to the previous image version. My workflow can detect that issue.
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 02/08/2026
So my custom setup allows me to properly track image versions in git. It also handles some of the quirks with swarm e.g.:
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 02/08/2026
Between Arcane and my setup? Mainly Arcane handles container updates. Either automatic or I manually tell it to. It does not deploy based on a pr/push to git. It only syncs (via poll) from git for project setup as far as I can tell from the docs. It also can't tell if an image rolled back or not.
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 02/08/2026
Ok still gonna post it. I did a little digging and what it offers doesn't compare to what I've built so. I also looked into Komodo and doco-cd. The simplicity I have works well and adding ANOTHER service doesn't seem worth it. Gotta keep the #homelab easy to maintain.
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 01/08/2026
So I've been working on my #GitOps setup and accompanying blog post. Was finishing it and well... Arcane exists 🤦 Not sure I even want to post my custom workflow + bash setup anymore lol. getarcane.app
getarcane.app
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 20/07/2026
I have two kids. I can't fathom people that default to just beat, or scream at, their kids when they cry/act out, etc. It's extremely easy to just mind your business and let the parents handle the situation or you know offer some reassurance if you are also a parent or were?
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 20/07/2026
Wife and I were at dinner the other week for our anniversary. A family came in with a 5 yr old who was clearly tired. Poor kid was just not having it. The other two nearby tables were muttering about it and after they took the kid outside one was like 'parents are too soft I woulda hit them'.
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 08/07/2026
@stefanmara.com
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 06/07/2026
Meet Tracearr: The Ultimate Monitoring Platform for Media Servers. Part 1: blog.alexsguardian.net/posts/2026/0... Part 2: blog.alexsguardian.net/posts/2026/0...
blog.alexsguardian.net
Meet Tracearr: The Ultimate Monitoring Platform for Media Servers - Part 1 | Alex's Blog
An overview of Tracearr, a modern open-source monitoring platform for Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby servers.
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 06/07/2026
Sneak peek at the coming compose rewrite update for nzb360's radarr integration. Big feature: Sync'd filters between radarr web and nzb! Looking forward to the sonarr one soon as well!
nzb360's new radarr integration view. nzb360's new single media detail page for radarr.
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 06/07/2026
Thankfully it's just my lab (some prod stuff). Only one environment to deal with if a bad commit gets in. That and every service stack is independent and the repo doesn't manage host level config updates. That's still entirely manual.
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 04/07/2026
And yet you still refuse to add Org level environments. smh
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 02/07/2026
So I just got my #GitOps flow working in my homelab. My swarm cluster services can now be automatically updated based on code changes! Renovate makes pr to my forgejo repo > i review and merge > workflow runs via an on host runner and deploys the swarm stack update. 🥰 Adding this to the blog queue
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 25/06/2026
A week full of meetings and my voice decided to take a hike on Monday. It's been great... 😭
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 18/06/2026
Me: *getting backlog work done* Me: *open outlook to respond to an internal email* Customer: ".... URGENT ISSUE PLS FIX" Me: 🫪
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 12/06/2026
AWS be slamming my email with notifications about deprecated lambda runtimes rn. 😭
static.klipy.com
Increasing Mailbox Push Notifications
Alt: Increasing Mailbox Push Notifications
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 11/06/2026
I have entered the cool kids club of meetings, meetings, customer calls, meetings, and more meetings. Hopefully house soon🤞
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 11/06/2026
Been a hot minute since I posted here. The good news is, I'm now Mr Senior #DevOps Engineer at work. Only downside is now I get dragged into more stuff so I get less work done 🤣 Other good? news is I now have a fleet of Claude agents to help me write documents which frees up more of my time.
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 24/05/2026
Down in the basement cleaning today and was trying to figure out why there was a lemon cleaner scent. Turns out the construction bags we got for junking stuff smell like a lemon cleaner. It's so faint it took forever to figure it out. It's been driving my wife and I mad 🤣
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 14/05/2026
Tore apart an old IDE HDD and decided to finally use the Bambu Lab clock kit that came with my A1. Going to laser cut a wood frame for the clock face and probably 3d print a center insert/washer to replace the metal one.
HDD platter clock
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 06/05/2026
#Ubiquiti added support for automatic certificate management to Unifi Drive via Let's Encrypt. BE GONE AUTOMATION SCRIPTS... HELLO NATIVE SUPPORT!
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 03/05/2026
Helped my FIL out re-tracking his skid loader today. One of the old tracks ripped and came off. Had to replace that one on a hill (which was sketchy af). The second one was much easier on flat ground and only took 40 min compared to 3.5hr. 😅
Kubota SVL 75 skid loader with a newly installed track.Replacing the broken track on a hill
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 03/05/2026
Yeah I guess this one isn't really marketed for "enterprise" (even though it has the performance lol) since if done right you would have two different power circuits in the rack. The psu's would be on separate circuits then. Maybe I'm just nitpicking and just don't like the RPS concept haha.
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 30/04/2026
The sentiment seems to be for $1500 why did they go with an RPS port rather than dual removable PSUs like the EFG? The performance basically obsoletes the EFG as well.
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 26/04/2026
Also I realized how gross the outside of his tank was after I took the pic. It got a good wipe down lol.
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 26/04/2026
Beefed up the filtration capacity for our yellow belly. The old 407 couldn't keep up anymore. Hopefully a 925gal/hr filter keeps up 🤣 He also didn't seem to mind being picked up today. Had his head out and wasn't trying to bite me 🥰
Left: Fluval 407 Canister Filter (old). 383gal/hr
Right: Fluval FX6 canister filter (new) 925gal/hrJack the yellow belly slider
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 19/04/2026
After I take a week to chill...
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 19/04/2026
This last week I was putting in 18hr days to get a production system deployed. First one using #Terraform instead of our bash deployment scripts. It's extremely satisfying seeing a stack deployed via Terraform. Proper tags, prefixing, etc. Now to plan the migration of our other deployments. 😅
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 10/04/2026
media.tenor.com
a man in a suit and tie is sitting at a desk with a snl logo behind him
Alt: Colin Jost laughing
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 10/04/2026
@aceofspadescard.bsky.social gonna need you to step up your game sir.
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 08/04/2026
A company actually updating pricing tiers and not screwing over customers? Y'all just made my team at work extremely happy. @tailscale.com ♥️
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 07/04/2026
Currently in the process of updating our deployments at work to use #Terraform We are deploying to a new region this week, and I'm trying super hard to get as much into TF as possible before I deploy. It's going about as well as you'd expect 😅
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 03/04/2026
Organization 👏 Level 👏 Environments 👏 pls I beg 😭 github.com/orgs/communi...
github.com
Organization-wide Environments and Environment Secrets · community · Discussion #15379
If you have a lot of repositories with microservices deploying to the same environments (e.g. the same Kubernetes clusters, say), it can be useful to have a set of secrets available to all reposito...
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 02/04/2026
Godspeed #ArtemisII! 🚀
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 27/03/2026
One more day then it's off to #Ottawa 🇨🇦 for the week. Get to hang with my boy @stefanmara.com 🎉 I have an in progress post on #Tracearr that I'll hopefully get some time to finish while at the hotel. And hopefully I'll also get a chance to start my other one on cluster v3 + Dozzle/Beszel. 🤞
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 26/03/2026
Would be nice if Unifi supported importing/exporting csv's for stuff like this.
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 25/03/2026
I want one so bad haha.
media.tenor.com
a little boy in a plaid shirt is standing in front of a sign that says congrats
Alt: a little boy in a plaid shirt is standing in front of a sign that says congrats, nice, happy for you. Indicating jealousy
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 25/03/2026
Some days it feels like open source slowly is dying. Hopefully it doesn't 🫤
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 23/03/2026
Can we go back in time where 64GB of DDR4 ECC costs $60-80. Please?
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 22/03/2026
So when I dropped my other ingress node today to replace it my cluster went dark (2/3 of the hosts are ingress allowed. 3rd is a worker basically). I had updated the link for the VIP attachment but I forgot to update the actual nic config section with the new nic name. 🤦🤦🤦🤦
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 22/03/2026
So I've been 1:1 upgrading nodes in my new cluster to newer optiplex micros. I designed this cluster to handle node drops for maintenance (1 at a time). However I discovered today that I forgot to update the keepalived config file with the new nic name on a prior node upgrade.
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 17/03/2026
So something I did not foresee when I deployed my new cluster with CephFS.. Host times not being in sync. May have to do a @jeffgeerling.com and deploy an rpi with a time hat for local NTP 😅 So far moving to chrony and using two Maryland NIST sources seems to have stopped the skew errors for now.
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 13/03/2026
When people show me their Traefik configs and I compare them to my 2-4 line Caddy config per service. 😂 Clean config + clean stack files 💪
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 11/03/2026
It's a slippery slope lol. Get cameras then ya want Access 😂
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 10/03/2026
Nice! Welcome to the Unifi club. With your bandwidth have you looked at the campus switches?
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Alexander @alexsguardian.net · 10/03/2026
Jealous! I've been looking into getting an EFG lol.
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