https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/posts/index.htmlHugoen-ie2026 Tiernan OTooleFri, 10 Jul 2026 16:50:15 +0100https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2025/08/08/new-video-series-retro-corner.htmlFri, 08 Aug 2025 15:02:08 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2025/08/08/new-video-series-retro-corner.htmlA few days back i started a new series on YouTube, named “Retro Corner”. The plan is to get some old hardware up and running (Starting with the IBM ThinkPad R51e in video 1) and then continue on with some other machines (I have a couple of old Mac Laptops coming in the next video) and Networking (Dial Up, ISDN and, well. more on that soon.). So, If you are interested, please Subscribe and check out the videos. And any videos you want to see on the channel, please leave a comment.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2025/06/11/network-upgrades-2025.htmlWed, 11 Jun 2025 22:16:56 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2025/06/11/network-upgrades-2025.htmlIt’s been just over a year since I last posted my 2024 Network Upgrade post. In that time, my network has undergone several changes. Here are the major updates: In the (hopefully not too distant) future, my cable ISP plans to upgrade from HFC (Hybrid Fiber/Coax) to full FTTH. When this happens, my speed will increase from 1Gb/50Mb to 5Gb/500Mb—and needless to say, I’ll be ordering that as soon as it’s available! This will boost the total download speed to just over 10Gb (about 10.4Gb, since Starlink tops out around 400Mb/s) and upload to 800Mb/s (with Starlink contributing 40-50Mb/s). That’s why I chose the UCG Fiber. It should handle two 5Gb incoming links, one 10Gb LAN connection, plus the Starlink connection (with IDS/IPS off, of course).https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2024/12/12/how-to-use-cloudflare-warp-with-a-udm-pro.htmlThu, 12 Dec 2024 21:25:23 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2024/12/12/how-to-use-cloudflare-warp-with-a-udm-pro.htmlIf you’re considering using Cloudflare Wrap for specific machines on your network, you can easily install the Warp client directly on them. It supports various operating systems, including Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, and Android. However, if you need to use it on devices that aren’t compatible with the client installation, for example, NAS Devices or Smart TVs, this tutorial may be helpful. First, please note that this is not an officially supported option. Cloudflare might modify their configurations at some point, potentially causing this feature to break. You have been informed about this possibility.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2024/12/11/how-to-set-up-mac-os-9-on-qemu.htmlWed, 11 Dec 2024 13:31:28 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2024/12/11/how-to-set-up-mac-os-9-on-qemu.htmlWant to experience the classic Apple operating system on modern hardware? Emulating Mac OS 9 using QEMU is the way to go! This guide will guide you through the process of setting up Mac OS 9 in QEMU, from creating a virtual hard drive to installing the operating system. Let’s get started! Prerequisites Before you begin, make sure you have these things: A computer that can run QEMU (macOS, Linux, or Windows). A Mac OS 9 installation ISO (like Mac OS 9.2.2 Universal Install. Check Archive.org). A version of QEMU with sound support (like qemu-screamer). You should also know a bit about using the terminal. Step 1: Install QEMUhttps://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2024/11/13/vmware-workstation-pro-and-fusion-pro-now-available-for-free-for-everyone.htmlWed, 13 Nov 2024 09:25:25 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2024/11/13/vmware-workstation-pro-and-fusion-pro-now-available-for-free-for-everyone.htmlBack in May, VMware announced that VMware Workstation Pro and Fusion Pro would be free for non-commercial use. This was fantastic news for non-commercial users. However, a few days ago, they made an even better announcement: the free edition is now available to all users, including commercial users. While you can still purchase a license if you require support, the free version functions just as well, albeit without any support. It appears that they are discontinuing Workstation Player and Fusion Player, as the functionality they offered is now included in the free version of Workstation and Fusion. https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2024/11/04/how-to-download-windows-server-2025-arm-edition-work-around.htmlMon, 04 Nov 2024 11:52:01 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2024/11/04/how-to-download-windows-server-2025-arm-edition-work-around.htmlIn my previous post, I mentioned that Windows Server 2025 had gained general availability, but I had no information about the ARM64 version. It appears that 4sysops has found a workaround. You can download an ARM version of Windows 2025 from uupdump.net. Since I have a few M1/M2 Macs lying around, I’ll try downloading it and see if it works on them. I’m curious to know how long it would take someone to get this running on a Raspberry Pi. I believe they would make excellent little AD/DNS/DHCP servers. https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2024/11/03/windows-server-2025-gaed-along-with-system-center-2025.htmlSat, 02 Nov 2024 23:31:14 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2024/11/03/windows-server-2025-gaed-along-with-system-center-2025.htmlMicrosoft has just released Windows Server 2025 and System Center 2025 in General Availability. You can find more information on the Microsoft Release status site. Current status as of November 1, 2024 Windows Server 2025 is now generally available. It delivers security advancements and new hybrid cloud capabilities in a high performing, AI-capable platform. Windows Server 2025 is Microsoft’s latest Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) release for Windows Server. To download a free 180-day evaluation, visit the Microsoft Evaluation Center.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2024/04/30/building-cloud-images-for-proxmox.htmlTue, 30 Apr 2024 20:08:40 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2024/04/30/building-cloud-images-for-proxmox.htmlhttps://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2024/04/29/some-network-upgrades-going-on.htmlMon, 29 Apr 2024 20:40:21 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2024/04/29/some-network-upgrades-going-on.htmlhttps://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/11/05/a-month-with-an-ipad-pro.htmlSun, 05 Nov 2023 00:41:30 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/11/05/a-month-with-an-ipad-pro.htmlAbout a month ago, I bought a 2022 iPad Pro 11 inch (4th gen) used for about 800 EUR (Which, given they are still for sale on Apple’s site for nearly double that (mine is a 256Gb model with Cellular) I think I got a good deal. I also got my hands on the Keyboard Folio, which is both a good thing, especially for writing stuff like this, but also a bit of a pain (the weight of it adds to the iPad and the fact that you need to remove it from the iPad to use it as a tablet is a pain). I also got my hands on a 2nd Gen Pencil, along with a USB C hub.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/07/11/some-random-links-for-prime-day-2023.htmlTue, 11 Jul 2023 15:02:41 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/07/11/some-random-links-for-prime-day-2023.htmlWell, it’s Prime Day 2023, so I have been busy ordering some stuff, and, well, given everyone and their mother is doing posts on Prime Day stuff, I thought I would add my list of interesting things, including some of the things I bought. PS: all links are affiliate links and were found in the UK Store, but links are using GeniusLink to redirect you to the best store for you… Some items in the UK store might not be found in the US or other stores…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/06/08/do-sub-pages-show-up-correctly.htmlThu, 08 Jun 2023 10:02:03 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/06/08/do-sub-pages-show-up-correctly.htmlhttps://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/06/08/testing-wordpress-and-notion.htmlThu, 08 Jun 2023 09:56:27 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/06/08/testing-wordpress-and-notion.htmlhttps://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/04/17/day-61-of-100daysofhomelab-swapping-disks-in-a-hetzner-dedicated-machine.htmlMon, 17 Apr 2023 13:22:47 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/04/17/day-61-of-100daysofhomelab-swapping-disks-in-a-hetzner-dedicated-machine.htmlIt’s been a while… So, for Day 61 of #100daysofhomelab, I thought I should write up how to swap a disk in a Hetzner Dedicated Machine. I have a dedicated server I rent from Hetzner in Germany. It has an Xeon E5-1650 V2 processor (6 cores, 12 threads, 3.5Gz base, 3.9Gz turbo), 128Gb RAM, and a pretty impressive 15 6Tb HDD. All drives are hooked to a Mega RAID controller, but because I am running ProxMox, I left it in JBOD mode and set up the 15 drives in RAIDZ-2. All 15 drives are in a single pool (probably not ideal, but it works for me). Now and again, I get a message from ProxMox telling me about bad blocks… and every time it happens, I have to remember what to do to find the bad drive, report it to Hetzner, wait for them to replace the drive and then add it back to the pool… Today, it happened, so I thought I better document it, to help future me, and hopefully someone else out there…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/31/esxi-8-0c-release.htmlFri, 31 Mar 2023 10:05:03 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/31/esxi-8-0c-release.htmlLooks like there is a new release for ESXi 8.0. Seems to be mostly a DPU patch. Anyone running ESXi with DPUs might need to look into this…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/30/day-60-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlThu, 30 Mar 2023 18:12:26 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/30/day-60-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 60 of #100daysofhomelab and I have been sick for most of the last 2 weeks, so that’s why I haven’t been posting much… Today is going to be links only too…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/23/day-59-of-100daysofhomelab-proxmox-updates-ltt-hacked-new-framework-laptops.htmlThu, 23 Mar 2023 18:29:10 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/23/day-59-of-100daysofhomelab-proxmox-updates-ltt-hacked-new-framework-laptops.htmlDay 59 of #100daysofhomelab and Proxmox released 7.4 of their Virtual Environment. I have not upgraded any of my machines to it, just yet, but that’s the plan for the weekend. Other than that, some links:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/21/day-58-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlTue, 21 Mar 2023 20:50:03 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/21/day-58-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 58 of #100daysofhomelab and today is mostly a retrospective of what I did over the last few days, with some links thrown in for good measure… Given I am going to keep GodBoxV3 running Windows Server 2022 for the foreseeable future, I installed Veeam Availability Suite (through their NFR program) and got it to backup up my Hyper-V VMs, along with my ESXi VMs to both local and Backblaze B2 storage. So far, so good.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/18/day-57-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlSat, 18 Mar 2023 00:27:11 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/18/day-57-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 57 of #100daysofhomelab and its a link dump for today:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/15/day-56-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlWed, 15 Mar 2023 22:57:54 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/15/day-56-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 56 of #100daysofhomelab and I managed to fix some stuff with my TrueNAS box. There was lots of messing when it came to permissions, but it works now. Some speeds are below. Not quite getting the speeds I was expecting, but there I have not tweaked anything, yet… This is going from my MacBook Pro with a 10Gb adapter. The reads are quite good, but the writes… well, the HDDs are FASTER than the NVMe… No idea why… I did get a new card to add another 4 NVMe drives in… We’ll see what happens when that gets built.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/12/day-55-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlSun, 12 Mar 2023 22:51:54 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/12/day-55-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 55 of #100daysofhomelab and it’s going to mostly link dump today… Still working on my TrueNAS stuff, hopefully, I can get a couple of blog posts about it soon enough… Anyway, on to the links.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/12/day-54-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlSun, 12 Mar 2023 02:27:35 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/12/day-54-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 54 of #100daysofhomelab and it’s going to be a very quick one… My head is wrecked with TrueNAS… Swapped TrueNAS Core (FreeBSD) to TrueNAS Scale (Linux). Trying to get Resilio Sync to work on it, but getting permissions issues… It’s after 2 am here, so giving up for the moment, but hopefully, I can figure it out tomorrow… On a different note, I ordered a load of storage upgrades (Another Hyper M.2 x16 card, some new NVMe drives, and some other stuff) for GodBoxV3… More details soon…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/10/day-53-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlFri, 10 Mar 2023 22:12:39 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/10/day-53-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 53 of #100daysofhomelab and It’s been a busy week… ish… I’ve been battling with Vertigo on and off this week, so haven’t don’t a lot. I did, however, fix some issues with the network, set up a proper failover WAN connection using SmoothWAN and my Quad 2.5Gb Box, and have started making major changes to GodBoxV3.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/07/zfs-over-multiple-dvd-bd-r-images.htmlTue, 07 Mar 2023 09:42:46 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/07/zfs-over-multiple-dvd-bd-r-images.htmlA couple of days back, I started thinking about archiving and backup software. I kind of have backups “sorted”, with my MacBook Pro using BackBlaze to backup to the cloud, Time Machine backing it up to my Synology, my VMs on Proxmox being backed up to Proxmox Backup Server off-site, my Synology and QNAPs being backup to B2 and Hetzner and some other bits and bobs… But for the Archiving stuff, I am not really set up… So, I went looking for archiving software. Couldn’t find anything, so asked on r/DataHoarder. Still no options, at the time of posting, but someone did reply with the idea of using DVDs (or Blu Rays) for ZFS...https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/05/day-52-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlSun, 05 Mar 2023 00:32:51 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/05/day-52-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 52 of #100daysofhomelab and I have been out of the lab most of the day. Still looking through all the docker containers on docker box 1, which has been running for many years now, and trying to figure out how to move everything is going to be fun… looks like I have an iSCSI volume added to the box. It’s shared between a few docker containers… then there are NFS mounts too… This might take longer than expected… So… more digging through YAML…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/04/day-51-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlSat, 04 Mar 2023 01:44:26 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/04/day-51-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 51 of #100daysofhomelab and I am planning my move of some of my Docker instances in the house to new machines… GodBoxV3 is currently running Windows Server 2022 with a couple of HyperV VMs on it. One runs docker containers and the other USIP from Ubiquiti for managing my EdgeSwitches. I am trying to move these VMs off that machine and do a clean-up, and the plan is to either install Proxmox with TrueNAS as a VM with disks passed directly into it, plus some other VMs or TrueNAS direct with VMs on there… Suggestions? Anyway, as part of the clean-up, I put my custom WordPress Container up on GitHub and it builds new builds nightly. The move is going to be fun, so my weekend will be busy… So, other than that, some links.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/02/day-50-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlThu, 02 Mar 2023 21:50:46 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/02/day-50-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 50 of #100daysofhomelab (this was stuck in a draft folder, so this is a couple of weeks old… I decided to recycle this as day 50, but it was originally day 37 or something…). Just about 13 days ago: After running ZFS on my Mac for a few hours, I removed it and installed a trial of the SoftRAID software. I am not sure what was going on, but with ZFS installed, my machine just kept crashing. less than an hour and bang. So, I installed SoftRAID, and the speed ok. Not massive speeds, but not 100% sure I am using the right cables. More testing with cables soon.But in reality, this is software RAID 5 over 5 spinning disks. 270Mb/s read ain’t bad. 115Mb/s write ain’t great, but it’s RAID 5.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/01/day-49-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlWed, 01 Mar 2023 09:36:27 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/03/01/day-49-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 49 of #100daysofhomelab, and I missed this yesterday, but it’s only going to be a link dump… And todays link dump is mostly Mikrotik gear! Some of these are a little cringy (looking at your Solid Rack video) But hilarious nonetheless! Some of these are so new, they don’t even seem to have product pages, just videos announcing them…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/27/day-48-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlMon, 27 Feb 2023 20:51:10 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/27/day-48-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 48 of #100daysofhomelab and I have been out of commission for the last couple of days… Havnt been well… cold and flu-like symptoms, but luckily, not Covid… Haven’t done a major amount, so it’s mostly links for today, but I did try a few projects and installed them. Links for those are below.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/21/day-47-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlTue, 21 Feb 2023 00:54:35 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/21/day-47-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 47 of #100daysofhomelab and i have missed a few days due to, well, a mix of laziness and being busy… I was working from my new home office today… still need to get some cabling and other stuff sorted, but we are getting close… nearly a year since it was installed! More on that at a later stage… for today, some links.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/19/day-46-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlSat, 18 Feb 2023 23:12:15 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/19/day-46-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 46 of #100daysofhomelab and I haven’t had much time to work on the homelab this weekend, but have had some time using it, somewhat indirectly. Plex, Netflix and Disney Plus streaming, etc. Internet is more stable (but not 100%. more messing on that part soon) and the RB5009 is definitely more stable (IPv6 BGP is currently off, and only using 5 of my 14ish BGP sessions I could use. I think 1Gb RAM is struggling, or my filters are wrong. Hopefully, it’s a filter thing, that way I can sort it out without new hardware.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/17/day-45-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlFri, 17 Feb 2023 09:08:58 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/17/day-45-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 45 (little late) of #100daysofhomelab, and still quite busy with $DayJob stuff. Mostly monitoring of the network and the like. Some links are below: How to Set Up a 24/7 Livestream Powered by Starlink – Speedify How To Boost Starlink Internet with Two Additional Connections – Speedify Microsoft to support Windows 11 on Apple M1 and M2 Macs through Parallels partnership – The Verge Announcing pricing updates and more flexible payment options for Google Workspace | Google Workspace Blog – price increases if you pay monthly… Frebniis: New Malware Abuses Microsoft IIS Feature to Establish Backdoor | Symantec Enterprise Blogs (security.com) Reducing Tailscale’s binary size on macOS · Tailscale 4.0.0 — Homebrewhttps://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/15/day-44-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlWed, 15 Feb 2023 22:06:07 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/15/day-44-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 44 of #100daysofhomelab and still quite busy with $DayJob. so some links below. Intel Launches Xeon W-3400 and W-2400 Processors For Workstations: Up to 56 Cores and 112 PCIe 5.0 Lanes (anandtech.com) Tiernan on Twitter: “RT @ZeroTier: ZeroTier 1.10.3 is now available. This release includes low bandwidth mode, a duplicate path bug fix, and OIDC improvements..” / Twitter swarmlet/swarmlet: A self-hosted, open-source Platform as a Service that enables easy swarm deployments, load balancing, automatic SSL, metrics, analytics and more. (github.com Also, I have been fiddling with some JQ and Zerotier-CLI commands. Not finished, but working on trying to get some data out of the CLI. I have a GitHub Gist with some details. I plan on adding to it over time.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/14/day-43-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlTue, 14 Feb 2023 22:34:29 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/14/day-43-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 43 of #100daysofhomelab and I missed yesterday, but instead of skipping numbers, I am just not. I have been up to my eyes with $DayJob so not a major amount of work. But a couple of links for the day: VMware ESXi 8.0 Patch History (v-front.de) – looks like there is a new patch for ESXi 8. This page has an RSS Feed I subscribe to and they even include the CLI params to update. Veeam 12 has been released. The release notes (PDF) have the full details. Downloading the community edition to try it out… Geekbench 6 Launched Big Benchmark Updates We Try It (servethehome.com) LibreNMS – looking at replacing Observium. That is it for today. https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/12/day-42-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlSun, 12 Feb 2023 19:03:20 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/12/day-42-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 42 of #100daysofhomelab and I spent way too many hours last night messing with MAAS. It all started with a Techno Tim Video I posted back on Day 25. I started messing with it last night around 11 pm or so, and then I realized it was 4 AM this morning. So, link drop for today: MAAS | How to install MAAS MAAS | Power management referencehttps://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/11/day-41-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlSat, 11 Feb 2023 22:55:33 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/11/day-41-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlGoing to be a very quick update here. Things are a little more stable at the moment. I figured out why my FTTH connection was acting up. the VM I moved it too had the default free 1Mb/s license for RouterOS. After moving my unlimited CHR license over, things have gotten better. screenshots over on my mastodon instance: So, today, not doing much other than monitoring. I am taking a day of rest and will be back tomorrow…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/11/day-40-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlFri, 10 Feb 2023 23:03:57 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/11/day-40-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 40 of #100daysofhomelab and the internet is a little more stable. Still not 100%, but “stable”. Speed test results have dropped, as you can see in the graph below, but weirdly, ping times are a little better… Download speeds. The swap over happened around the 8th Feb, 9th was pretty much a wash, 10th things got a bit better… Upload Speeds. less spikey upload speeds, but also less upload speed…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/09/day-38-and-39-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlThu, 09 Feb 2023 22:31:52 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/09/day-38-and-39-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlthis post is for day 38 and 39 of #100daysofhomelab. and i have finally moved over to my #RB5009. and, well, it has not gone so well. It has rebooted a few times due to memory issues (too many BGP tables being held, so I shut a few down to start with. some cleanup needed there), then the internet connections are a little unstable, and, well, in the last 48 hours, I have spent more time on LTE than on proper internet. It does seem to be working (ish.) now, but not as fast as it was. I am just using the #Zerotier link, so the #Wireguard links are currently off. Anyway, below are some links. I hope to make things work better tomorrow. And i also hope to have a better write up soon too…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/07/day-36-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlTue, 07 Feb 2023 21:39:16 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/07/day-36-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 36 of #100daysofhomelab and after yesterday’s post about RAID 10 on my external array, I found ZFS on OSX, and well, now I have a ZFS RAIDZ pool setup. It is showing as around 28.8Tb usable space, and so far, so good. Other than that, I have been looking into Ubuntu Landscape to monitor my Ubuntu fleet of machines. If you host it in-house, you get 10 machines for free, so hopefully, that’s enough for me to start with. I am working on getting it running on 22.04, using these beta install steps. RB5009 install is still pending. keep hitting stupid blocks stopping me from doing it, but hopefully this week. https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/07/day-35-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlMon, 06 Feb 2023 23:19:21 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/07/day-35-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 35 of #100daysofhomelab and I have been trying to clean up some stuff for my Mac Book Pro. I have an external enclosure from Yottamaster that has 5 3.5" bays and connects via USB C (USB 3.1). I got 5 8TB Seagate IronWolf drives in there. Currently, I have it set up as RAID 10 with 16Tb usable, which is named Archive, with 1 extra drive non-protected 8Tb drive. The details on setting up RAID 10 on MacOS is in the links section. I was looking at using RAID 5 for the archive pool, but the only option that seems to be available is SoftRAID but it’s USD250 for a license unless you have an OWC enclosure. Given the enclosure cost me that much in the first place, I think I will keep with RAID 10 for the while. RAID 5 would, potentially, give me 32Tb usable on my Archive, but 250 is a bit steep. for now…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/05/day-33-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlSun, 05 Feb 2023 20:03:03 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/05/day-33-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 34 of #100daysofhomelab and I have realized I missed yesterday and also duplicated day 16. (facepalm). So, it’s day 34, I think… Still working on the RB5009 upgrade. I am “technically” on holiday for the long weekend here in Ireland, so I have been out of the homelab more than I have been in. I need to move stuff around before I can swap in the RB5009, including changes to my VoIP setup (or at least wait till e everyone is asleep and won’t notice it being down) and some rewiring tasks. See below. I did also have to order new cables to try and keep some consistency in length. How well that will work is unknown. Hopefully, I will be back in the homelab a bit more on Tuesday. We see what I can break then.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/04/day-31-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlFri, 03 Feb 2023 23:55:03 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/04/day-31-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 31 of #100daysofhomelab and I am going through the config from my CHR to bring over to my RB5009, and, well, I have no idea what I was doing when I built the original config… Now to try and figure out what the config did, since I want to document it here so I know what I was thinking, but to also possibly help someone else… Mind you, at this stage, it won’t be much help… I also need to figure out how to add my Zerotier Bridge into the mix.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/03/day-30-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlThu, 02 Feb 2023 23:11:06 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/03/day-30-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 30 of #100daysofhomelab and I tried to look into getting my RB5009 setup, and well… it has the wrong power supply! EU, not UK/Ireland… More messing is required! [Update] Found the right supply, but fell asleep watching TV… more messing tomorrow…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/01/day-29-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlWed, 01 Feb 2023 19:02:12 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/02/01/day-29-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 29 of #100daysofhomelab and my RB5009 finally arrived! The bad news is I am up to my eyes with some out-of-hours updates for my $DayJob… So, it will probably be tomorrow or Friday before I get to it… It’s been that kind of a day. I am OOF from Friday to next Wednesday, so I should have plenty of time to play with. I also started playing around with Tailscale Funnel. I got my hands on an invite, and it looks like I can invite other people to it… If you are interested, leave a comment. I have not actually done much with it, mostly reading the docs and testing it before i make it public… But should be interesting. Anyway, now for some links.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/31/day-28-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlTue, 31 Jan 2023 19:55:15 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/31/day-28-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 28 of #100daysofhomelab and I got some benchmarks for the WordPress site. First, using ab, going directly to WordPress. It does have W3 Total Cache turned on, using Redis for DB and Object Cache, etc. 10000 requests at 100 a go, 682 requests a second, and meantime of 146ms per request. Total bandwidth is around 50Mbit/s.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/30/day-27-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlMon, 30 Jan 2023 22:56:23 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/30/day-27-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 27 of #100daysofhomelab and it does look like WordPress is running correctly and quite fast… Yesterday’s messing with configs got Varnish, Memcached and Redis all running along with upgrading from PHP8.0 to 8.2. The problem now seems to be related to caching rules… So, some messing with that is required… My RB5009 is now stuck in France and has been there since Friday… It is scheduled for delivery on Wednesday, so that will be a fun day breaking stuff… Its been on quite the trip. Most of that was in 3 days, but it got stuck in France and hasnt moved over the weekend… Fingers crossed it arrives on Wednesday!https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/29/day-26-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlSun, 29 Jan 2023 21:25:25 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/29/day-26-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 26 of #100daysofhomelab and I have been trying to figure out why my internet has been unstable today… it up and down a few times… well, parts of it are… Zerotier seems to be sorting out my main network, it’s smaller parts that are going wonky… I am half thinking of leaving it till next weekend since my RB5009 arrives next week… This should help me sort out my network…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/28/day-25-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlSat, 28 Jan 2023 21:40:09 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/28/day-25-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 25 of #100daysofhomelab, and not done much in the way of home lab work today, but has tested the bejesus out of the internet connection! I bought a Backblaze License for my Mac Book Pro, which initially has around 2.3Tb to backup. There are my YouTube Videos along with code and other bits… It looks like it has uploaded 290 Gb in the last 24 hours…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/28/day-24-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlSat, 28 Jan 2023 00:46:51 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/28/day-24-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 24 of #100daysofhomelab and most of it was spent migrating my ADS-B stuff from a VM to a Raspberry Pi (see Day 23 for links). So far, I am “feeding” FlightRadar24, ADSB Exchange, FlightAware and RadarBox. I also love some of the graphs I am getting out of it below. Currently, the antenna I am using is a little small and hanging out of a window, so I am missing some flights. The next plan is to get a better one and move the Pi to the CloudShed where I can mount the antenna better.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/26/day-23-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlThu, 26 Jan 2023 22:33:17 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/26/day-23-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 23 of #100daysofhomelab and i am trying to do some migration today. I built my ADB-S monitor for both FlightRadar24 and ADBSExchange on my ESXi host, and now i want to move it to my Raspberry Pi… So, trying to get my Pi 4 working (not sure if the SD is wonkey, or something else is wrong) but thats my challange… I am using the following guide which allows you to run this as a docker instance on the Pi, which means, in theory, adding extra servers (which, in the case of the premium ones, like FlightRadar24) give you free service while you supply data.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/26/day-22-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlWed, 25 Jan 2023 23:02:59 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/26/day-22-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 22 of #100daysofhomelab and I have been planning out my network update for when my RB5009 arrives… Not ready to share, yet, but it should be here on the 2nd Feb, so I will have a plan (maybe) by the weekend… Other than that, it’s a link dump for today: Ok, I kind of got the following diagram, but it only makes sense in my head, and I’m not even sure it makes sense there… I’ll leave this here without further explanation, till maybe the weekend…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/25/day-21-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlWed, 25 Jan 2023 08:03:31 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/25/day-21-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 21 (slightly late, forgot to post this last night) of #100daysofhomelab and its a links day. on a more different note, my Mikrotik RB5009UG+S+IN is finally on its way! Hopefully will have it next week! Happy days!https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/23/day-20-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlMon, 23 Jan 2023 22:52:54 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/23/day-20-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 20 of #100daysofhomelab and not much going on today. I posted a new video unboxing the ChargeASAP Omega 100W and 200W chargers (embedded below). I also tweaked my daily carry bag, pictured below. More details on that later, it’s been a pain in the ass of a day, but hope to get some updates tomorrow.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/22/day-19-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlSun, 22 Jan 2023 22:11:34 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/22/day-19-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 19 of #100daysofhomelab and not done a lot today, so its mostly links…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/22/day-18-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlSun, 22 Jan 2023 01:15:38 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/22/day-18-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 18 of #100daysofhomelab and today I moved my Unifi Protect cameras from my UDM Pro to my Cloud Key Gen 2. Why? The UDM Pro is still stuck on Unifi OS 2.4 (hopefully it will get 3 at some stage…). The Cloud Key Gen 2, however, does run 3.0. Some of the new Protect features are limited to Unifi OS 3.0, and I wanted to try them out. Also, my UCK has a 5Tb HDD in it, but my UDM only has 3, so I get more recording space from the UCK. So far, seems to be running well. Everything else is still on the UDM Pro. Only Protect has moved. More tomorrow.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/20/day-17-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlFri, 20 Jan 2023 22:40:08 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/20/day-17-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlday 17 of #100daysofhomelab, and I haven’t done much, so its a link roundup today:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/19/day-16-of-100daysofhomelab-2.htmlThu, 19 Jan 2023 14:31:47 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/19/day-16-of-100daysofhomelab-2.htmlday 16 of #100daysofhomelab, and my test from yesterday paid off! droped from 10 to less than 4gb of RAM used on one of my proxmox boxes by moving the storage from local ZFS to NFS… Mind you, only seems to have made a difference on this box…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/18/day-16-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlWed, 18 Jan 2023 22:11:29 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/18/day-16-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 16 of #100daysofhomelab and not much going on. Busy with work. I am running a test though. I seen the following tweet a few days back: Given some of my smaller boxes are running 90%+ memory usage, i have decided to move the VMs from my NUC to my QNAP storage box. Its going to take a while to move them over, but we see what RAM usage is like after.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/17/day-15-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlTue, 17 Jan 2023 18:14:14 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/17/day-15-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 15 of #100daysofhomelab and i have been playing with Portainer a bit, including the Pi-Hosted templates. So far, i have installed Rust Desk and Your Spotify.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/16/day-14-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlMon, 16 Jan 2023 20:29:38 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/16/day-14-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 14 of #100daysofhomelab and I have been thinking about future upgrades if I had the money… So, I have my CloudShed in the back garden. Currently, I only have an HP Micro Server and a (not currently in production) Dell R720, along with a Ubiquiti Edge Switch 48 Lite. Between the Shed and the house is a fibre link purchased through FS.com, with 6 pairs. Currently, only 1 pair is in use, giving me a 10Gb/s between the house and shed, and with the easy option to upgrade to 20Gb. But I have been thinking bigger.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/16/day-13-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlMon, 16 Jan 2023 00:19:19 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/16/day-13-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 13 of #100daysofhomelab and it’s mostly a rest and update day. I got my Plex Server back online, so ended up watching a load of stuff on that. Also, I upgraded my OpnSense box to OPNsense 23.1.beta. There are not many machines behind it, but I will keep my eye on it and see how things go. Hope to be back to some normality tomorrow.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/15/day-12-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlSun, 15 Jan 2023 01:38:59 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/15/day-12-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 12 of #100daysofhomelab and I am still battling with my ZFS pool on my Plex Server… So, that has taken all my time today… ugh…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/14/day-11-5-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlFri, 13 Jan 2023 23:07:21 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/14/day-11-5-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlupdate to day 11 of #100daysofhomelab, and I thought this needed its own dedicated post. I managed to fix my ZFS pool and got it imported into Ubuntu, so all is good, but I found these links and this is cool! So…. running MacOS and Android inside Docker is pretty cool! Could be handy for building, well, build servers for developers that need MacOS. and the Android stuff is handy for dev/testing too. Very cool.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/13/day-11-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlFri, 13 Jan 2023 22:03:40 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/13/day-11-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 11 of #100daysofhomelab and i am trying to fix my Plex Server… Seems when i moved from Fedora to Ubuntu, my ZFS pool did not import. I did not notice this, since mostly what is on it was temp files and logs… Well, the main drive is running out of space, so I checked the ZFS and it was failing because the version of OpenZFS I was running on Fedora (from master in their GitHub repo) is not compatible with the one on Ubuntu… (facepalm) So, have to rebuild and install OpenZFS from code… hopefully this works… [Edit… it did not work… ugh] [Edit 2: This did work though: Installing ZFS on Ubuntu (uptrace.dev) especially the part of building from code].https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/12/day-10-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlThu, 12 Jan 2023 21:27:54 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/12/day-10-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 10 of #100daysofhomelab and its mostly updates and monitoring. I think my next plan for the Kubernetes cluster is to rebuild the VMs and start from scratch. Currently, they ranged from 2-4 cores and 4-8Gb RAM. They also had a single disk on them and used an Ubuntu 22.04 cloud image. I think the plan going forward is to make sure each has similar RAM and Cores, none are going on the smaller VM Hosts I have, and I will be adding a new disk just for storage. Looks like Minio might work for me… More testing and reading are required though.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/11/day-9-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlWed, 11 Jan 2023 18:22:22 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/11/day-9-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlWell, day 9 of #100daysofhomelab is about Disaster Recovery… Well, at least the disaster part… Recovery not so much… My Kubernetes cluster, how do I put this… shat the bed… It’s been up and down all day and then the Longhorn storage failed and took my WordPress install with it… I lost yesterday’s post (which isn’t the end of the world) but it’s a pain in the ass… I ended up using the old docker copy of WordPress, so at least that’s online.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/09/day-7-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlMon, 09 Jan 2023 22:29:47 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/09/day-7-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 7 of #100daysofhomelab and just a quick update for today: this site is now running on my Kubernetes Cluster! I am using Cloudflare tunnels for the ingress controller (more on that later) and so far, so good… Most of this was done yesterday, and it was a swap over of the DNS stuff today… been sick most of the day, so that’s all I got in me for day 7…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/09/testing-wordpress-on-kubernetes.htmlMon, 09 Jan 2023 17:44:32 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/09/testing-wordpress-on-kubernetes.htmlI now think this WordPress instance is hosted on Kubernetes and is also being shared over CloudflareD running inside Kubernetes! If this shows on my main site, it works! If not, I have broken something… [UPDATE] Yup! It’s working! 🙂https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/08/day-6-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlSun, 08 Jan 2023 22:36:59 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/08/day-6-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 6 of #100daysofhomelab and I have some progress on my Kubernetes cluster! Then after a few min, it comes back online… Also, I got WordPress installed in Kubernetes! Now to migrate this blog over… Hopefully before my next update tomorrow…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/08/day-5-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlSun, 08 Jan 2023 00:39:40 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/08/day-5-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 5 of #100daysofhomelab and its mostly reading… the daddy was in the hospital for the last 2 weeks, including over Christmas day, so tomorrow is Christmas day for us… Turkey, ham and all the usual stuff… So, been busy with that. But have been reading a couple of docs, so some links for today: That’s about it for today… I’ll be back tomorrow… hopefully…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/06/day-4-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlFri, 06 Jan 2023 21:41:17 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/06/day-4-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 4 of #100daysofhomelab and I am still reading the docs I posted yesterday on Kubernetes. I hope to get something sorted this weekend… On a different note, I posted a new YouTube video on the iODD ST400, linked below. This is a follow-up to my iODD Mini review I did a couple of years back. Hopefully, I will have a second video with some speed tests and a better walk in the next few days… hopefully.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/05/day-3-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlThu, 05 Jan 2023 19:03:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/05/day-3-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 3 of #100daysofhomelab and more Kubernetes messing today. Haven’t got it working, but messing with it is a start. Some links and notes are below: I am planning on moving my WordPress install over from my Docker host to Kubernetes in the next few days, so running through the docks from Bharathiraja above, but I keep getting errors related to MySQL… More digging is required. I use Cloudflare Tunnels to secure my WordPress install, so the docs on how to use Cloudflare Tunnels with Kubernetes are important…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/04/day-2-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlWed, 04 Jan 2023 22:06:47 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/04/day-2-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlDay 2 of #100daysofhomelab and more messing with Kubernetes… So far, I have built, torn down, rebuilt and torn down a second time… and now building for a third time! Techno Tims Ansible scripts for the Win! A couple of notes for today: More work on the cluster is required. This blog is hosted in-house on one of the docker instances… Hopefully, at some stage, it will be moved to the K3s cluster! That would be the first major move!https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/03/day-1-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlTue, 03 Jan 2023 20:58:44 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2023/01/03/day-1-of-100daysofhomelab.htmlI have decided to start my #100daysofhomelab journey again, so today is day 1. I have been working on a K3s cluster in the house, and so far, I have to start again… going to rebuild it again tomorrow at some stage… Lots of Links some notes for myself:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2022/08/30/bulk-updating-tasmota-devices-over-mqtt-100daysofhomelab.htmlTue, 30 Aug 2022 17:50:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2022/08/30/bulk-updating-tasmota-devices-over-mqtt-100daysofhomelab.htmlI have a load of these Smart Plugs from GoSund around the house (currently around 11, but more are still in boxes). The handy part of these is they can be re-programmed using Tuya Convert and using the following config you can get power usage and an on/off switch. I have mine hooked up to an MQTT server, and with the MQTT plug-in to Home Assistant, I get all the details about power usage and can control each device I need to (hence the 11 of them!).https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2022/06/18/dnscontrol-and-github-actions.htmlSat, 18 Jun 2022 18:32:24 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2022/06/18/dnscontrol-and-github-actions.htmlI am participating in the #100daysofhomelab challenge and have been posting a lot on Twitter as @tiernano, but some posts and tasks I am doing will require longer-form write-ups. So, some updates will include either Videos (which will be published on my Youtube Channel) or blog posts, which will go here. This is the first of the blob posts.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2022/04/25/unifi-network-update-7-1-61.htmlMon, 25 Apr 2022 21:58:58 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2022/04/25/unifi-network-update-7-1-61.htmlA few weeks back, Ubiquiti released a pre-release update for the Unifi Network Controller, version 7.1.61. It got installed on my UDM and I noticed a few interesting bits that you might find handy… First, you will need to be signed up for Unifi Early Access before you can download or even read the release notes, but this is just a quick update based on my findings so far.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2022/03/16/raspberry-pi-in-a-car-part-2.htmlWed, 16 Mar 2022 19:37:36 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2022/03/16/raspberry-pi-in-a-car-part-2.htmlFor the last few weeks, I have been running a Raspberry Pi in my car, along with a small UPS and a Wifi Access point, allowing me to download videos from my dash cam and back them up to my NAS in the house. But I have had some teething issues, and I am currently thinking my way through some fixes… While trying to figure out how to fix part 1, I came up with an idea: I have an older Mikrotik RB951G that can be powered via a 12v adapter for the car. I am going to use that, along with a Huawei 4G dongle to act as an internet connection. The onboard Wifi will be in client mode, so when it’s near the house, it will connect to the main network and send traffic through that to the internet (or internal NAS) and when away, use the LTE modem. Then, using the Wifi dongle on the Raspberry Pi, use that as a Wifi AP.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2022/02/25/running-a-raspberry-pi-in-a-car-and-backing-up-dashcam-footage.htmlThu, 24 Feb 2022 23:45:39 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2022/02/25/running-a-raspberry-pi-in-a-car-and-backing-up-dashcam-footage.htmlA few months back (well, November 2020) I wrote about connecting to my car with Zerotier. In this post, I mentioned using a TP-Link router running OpenWRT and a Huawei LTE dongle to connect to the internet, which allowed me to then connect to my Blackvue Dashcam and watch remotely. But it had some issues I wanted to fix:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2021/11/07/ubiquiti-udm-pro-fail-over-to-speedify.htmlSun, 07 Nov 2021 21:46:59 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2021/11/07/ubiquiti-udm-pro-fail-over-to-speedify.htmlSo, this has been a blog post in the making for a while now but never got around to fully writing it up, so here goes nothing… I run a UDM Pro in the house. It has 2 WAN Links: 1 1Gb link and 1 10Gb Link. I also run AS204994, my own ASN with its own Transit and Peering connections, mostly in Europe. There is a VM in the house which acts as a connection to AS204994, which gives me a full connection to the Internet through my own ASN. More details on my AS204994 blog are here.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2020/11/09/connecting-to-my-car-over-zerotier.htmlMon, 09 Nov 2020 19:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2020/11/09/connecting-to-my-car-over-zerotier.htmlI use ZeroTier on my network for a good few things, including internal network peering between BGP VMs, management of machines, and now, connecting to my car over LTE. This is one of those posts that sounds silly, but is very handy! First, the parts list: Car. 3G/4G/5G modem of some sort. I am using a Huawei Wingle. Can be used without the Router below, but I wanted Zerotier, so I have it in modem only mode. A router that supports Zerotier. I am using a modified TP-Link TL-WR703N upgraded to 16MB ROM and 64MB RAM. This is required for newer OpenWRT builds a dashcam that connects over Wifi. I am using a BlackVue DR750S-2CH Latest ROOter software from Of Modems and Men Patients. After installing the the latest copy of ROOter on the TPLink (or router of your choice) and getting the modem configured correctly (this took a while) you need to install the Zerotier software though the dashboard. Once installed, I joined my Zerotier network using the CLI (SSH into the router) and the approved it though the my.zerotier.com dashboard. Once its approved and connected, you can now go to the Zerotier IP and get to the router directly. From here, you can either setup a route in Zerotier to point at the internal network behind the router, or, in my case, setup a SSH tunnel to the dashcam. I found the IP given to the dashcam and used SSH forwarding to get to it. Finally, i used the URLs from Digital-Nebula’s hackview repo to get to the different URLs. I use this to download stuff like GPS logs, emergency videos, etc. I have to clean up some scripts at some stage for this, and plan to upload them at some stage.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2020/11/04/backups-backups-backups.htmlWed, 04 Nov 2020 10:38:58 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2020/11/04/backups-backups-backups.htmlI have posted about backups a few times on this site in recent years, and its still something I make tweaks to every now and again. The latest setup is probably over the top, but I will give you a walk though on it and some of it could be useful to some of you. I have a couple of different machines and storage devices running that need backups. Some need daily backups, some could get away with weekly. The list is as follows:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2020/10/15/domain-joining-a-machine-over-vpn-and-password-resets-changes-with-azure-ad.htmlThu, 15 Oct 2020 13:44:35 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2020/10/15/domain-joining-a-machine-over-vpn-and-password-resets-changes-with-azure-ad.htmlWith the whole Work From Home thing probably becoming more and more normal in the years to come (I can count on 2 hands how many times I have physically been in my main office in the last 7 months) there are a couple of certainties in that people will come up against. One is passwords expiring and needing to be changed, one is password resets being required and finally laptops or desktops needing to be domain joined or connected to the domain before they can be fully provisioned. As the (currently only) IT guy in our office, I have had to deal with these first hand, and decide to write this post, helping both my fellow employees, and possibly other IT Admins stuck in this challenge.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2020/10/13/apple-event-october-2020.htmlTue, 13 Oct 2020 17:14:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2020/10/13/apple-event-october-2020.html[NOTE] This post was done entirely on iPhone XS Max and a iPad Pro. Photos taken on the iPhone. Some edited on iPhone, some on the iPad. I have edited some text on the iPad with the keyboard, but if i missed anything, all was written mostly live, so apologies… Will add extra links to places like Engadget, etc, below. Homepod mini. $99 available 16 November. The feature of intercom sounds good… When they mentioned the list of extra service, Spotify was very missing… [NOTE] I missed some stuff on this cause I was in a late meeting… This does look cool though.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2020/10/11/esxi-on-arm-and-raspberry-pi.htmlSun, 11 Oct 2020 17:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2020/10/11/esxi-on-arm-and-raspberry-pi.htmlA few days back (October 6th 2020) VMWare announced a new “Fling”: ESXi Arm Edition. Not completely sure what a Fling is, but anyway, I started reading, liked the idea and managed to download a copy for testing. I have 2 Pi 4s in the house, both 4Gb Models, and I wanted to play around with the new tech.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2020/10/11/nexdock-touch-videos.htmlSat, 10 Oct 2020 23:01:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2020/10/11/nexdock-touch-videos.htmlA few months back, I pre ordered a Nexdock Touch. The Nexdock Touch is a laptop without the laptop components… its essentially a screen (1920×1080 touch) with a keyboard, battery, touch pad, a 3 USB C ports (one for charging, one for phones only and one for connecting other devices) a Full USB A port (for plugging in other stuff, more on that in a sec), a Micro SD Card and a full HDMI port. Interestingly, the HDMI port is not for output, like you would think it is, but for input.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2020/10/10/back-running-wordpress.htmlSat, 10 Oct 2020 00:56:59 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2020/10/10/back-running-wordpress.htmlI have moved my blog back over to WordPress. It is running in house, on one of my workstations, using Cloudflare’s Argo tunnel to protect it on the internet. You might be asking “why?!” Well, its a couple of things. That last one is the reason I haven’t blogged in a while. Seems there was a major change in the versioning of Hugo, somewhere between the release I was on (0.55.6) and the latest one I tried (0.73.0 or something… 0.76.3 is out now) and my index.html pages just would not create, and I got many warnings when building… I spent a few hours trying to figure it out, but in the end, I gave up.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2019/07/04/fixing-cid-caller-id-on-incoming-calls-with-3cx.htmlThu, 04 Jul 2019 16:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2019/07/04/fixing-cid-caller-id-on-incoming-calls-with-3cx.htmlIn a previous post i talked about going all in on VoIP in the house. Its been nearly a year now, and other than some minor issues related to the VoIP Server being turned off accidentally, or a screw up on my end, all is going well. But, one thing i did notice was related to incoming calls and caller Id, specifically on my SIP2SIM card. Essentially, the country code was wrong: for example: Incoming calls from the Virgin Media trunk just show as local numbers (for Dublin, for example, it would so 01xxxxxxx). Using the CID reformatting feature in 3CX, I managed to change this.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2019/04/18/network-update-info-april-2019.htmlThu, 18 Apr 2019 17:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2019/04/18/network-update-info-april-2019.htmlSo, this post has been a long time coming! A load of different things to talk about, so lets get started! GodBox V3 So, for a long time, I have been thinking about GodBoxV3, the replacement to GodBoxV2. And when planning this, i had some ideas of what it should be: Minimum of 2×16 cores (double godboxv2) About the same RAM, if not more FAST STORAGE! Is able to run my twin 30" 4K monitors Would like 10Gb/s NICs Well, It finally happened! I got the machine, built it and, well, its impressive! How did i do with specs? Well…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2018/09/06/adding-a-netgear-lb2120-to-the-homelab.htmlThu, 06 Sep 2018 15:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2018/09/06/adding-a-netgear-lb2120-to-the-homelab.htmlA few months back, Three Ireland came out with an LTE broadband offer: Unlimited* LTE broadband for EUR30 per month. It did come with a 18 month contract, but I pulled the trigger and got it as a backup link. I picked this up in the local Three store, and they had a couple of options for modems: a couple of Huawei mobile Wifi hotspots (E5573 or E5577) or a Huawei B525 Modem, which is designed for home use. Alternatively, there was a Sim only option, but given the modem was free with the contact, i went with the B525.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2018/07/24/finally-going-all-in-on-voip.htmlTue, 24 Jul 2018 16:25:19 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2018/07/24/finally-going-all-in-on-voip.htmlAfter many years, I am finally trying to move to a proper VoIP system for the house. This post will explain what I am using, how I am setting it up, and some other details you might (or might not) find useful. First, backstory. I have been interested in VoIP for many years. The first post I wrote about Ito this site was here back in 2012, but I had posted about it on my other site back in 2008. It got my attention years ago as a way of saving money on calls, but in recent times, that has changed a little, mainly because most providers gives you calls for free (my mobile and land lines both come with unlimited calls and with my mobile, I can make them anywhere in Europe). The new reason I am interesting in VoIP is consolidation: I currently have 3 mobile phone numbers, at least 1 landline dedicated to me in the house, plus a work landline. I want to be able to pick up any phone and make a call, and it show as coming from my main number. Or a call comes in and i can pick it up from any of my phones. And that is what i am trying to do here. I (will) have some of it working, but some parts are still missing.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2018/07/05/auto-deploying-to-multiple-servers-with-github-and-webhooks.htmlThu, 05 Jul 2018 16:40:23 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2018/07/05/auto-deploying-to-multiple-servers-with-github-and-webhooks.htmlIn yesterdays post, i mentioned that i wanted to try get an auto deploy working for this site. It already builds auto-magically using Forestry and puts the static HTML into a Github repo, but i needed to manually update the servers hosting the site. Well, not any more! using the magic of Github’s Web hooks, the Webhook project and a small piece of bash shell script, i have managed to get this auto deploying.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2018/07/04/moving-the-site-to-hugo.htmlWed, 04 Jul 2018 17:10:16 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2018/07/04/moving-the-site-to-hugo.htmlAfter a LOT of messing with Jekyll, i have finally moved to Hugo! There are a few things that don’t fully work yet, and there will be updates to the site soon enough, but for the moment, I am happy. Its also a LOT faster to build than Jekyll, and less dependencies. Happy days! [update] I though i should probably update this post with a bit more information around hows its built, why i moved to Hugo, and some more links, etc.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2018/07/02/playing-with-amds-epyc.htmlMon, 02 Jul 2018 21:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2018/07/02/playing-with-amds-epyc.htmlSo, a few days back I got an email from Packet.net about a promotion they and AMD where running. Essentially, they gave me some credit for their service (I am an existing customer) to play with one of their c2.medium machines. A c2.medium comes with an AMD EPYC 7401P which consists of 24 physical cores clocked at 2Gz with an all core boost at 2.8Gz and a max clock of 3Gz, 48 threads, 64GB ECC Memory, 2x120GB SSDs for boot and 2x480GB SSDs for main storage. It also has a 20Gb network link (2x10gb bonded) and can run pretty much any OS you can think of (Windows is not on the list officially, but you can boot off your own ISO, so you could probably get it on there. might not be supported, but it might be possible). All this for $1 per hour! And did i mention they are bare metal machines?https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2018/04/01/as204994-own-ip-space-and-anycast.htmlSun, 01 Apr 2018 22:55:06 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2018/04/01/as204994-own-ip-space-and-anycast.htmlSo, if you are reading this page, it is being delivered with the magic of Anycast. Well, technically, it was before, since i used Cloudflare, and it still is because of Cloudflare, but also because of my own ASN (As204994), some servers in different locations, and some magic, which i will explain a bit of in this post. This all started late last year when i got my hands on an ASN and a /48 block of IPv6 addresses. I had been reading stuff about BGP, routing, etc, and decided to go all in. it was quite cheap with the help of HostUS. All in, it was about $50 for the year. As part of the process, i needed 2 upstream providers to say they would accept my announcement. They were Hurricane Electric though their Tunnel Broker service, and Vultr using a few of their VPSs.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2018/03/06/blogging-on-an-ipad-pro.htmlTue, 06 Mar 2018 08:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2018/03/06/blogging-on-an-ipad-pro.htmlSo, a few months back I bought myself an iPad Pro. I got a 10.5" with 64GB Storage and the Smart Keyboard. Since then, i have been mostly using it for playing around: watching YouTube, Netflix, surfing on the couch, etc. but i started to wonder how “Pro” this was…so i went and did some testing, and in the end nearly all of this post is being written on it… first, the good stuff:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2017/09/25/new-backup-plans.htmlMon, 25 Sep 2017 07:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2017/09/25/new-backup-plans.htmlSo, a few weeks back, CrashPlan, one of my chosen backup services, decided to kill their consumer backup plans. Which made me have to rethink my backup plan for the house… Note: This is how I am backing up files, and may or may not work for you. Some of this is already in “production” as of today, but others are planned… Any questions, comments, etc, leave them in the comments. So, first, as mentioned above, CrashPlan’s consumer backup options are now dead. They are giving you the option of either upgrading to their Small Business Plan for free till the end of your current contract + 2 months, or moving to Carbonite. For me, i just moved to their Small Business option, since its free, and meant that most of my backups just migrated over… i did not, how ever, look too much into Carbonite.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2017/08/16/testing-forestry.htmlWed, 16 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2017/08/16/testing-forestry.htmlSo, as you probably know, this site is built with Jekyll. Jekyll is a Static Site Generator, basically taking an input of a load of text files (see the source repo for this site on Github here) and generating a load more HTML (the static HTML is hosted on Github here, which auto publishes to Azure App Service). In previous posts, i have talked about using the likes of Visual Studio Code and Mark Down Monster to build the site. Well, a few days back, i found Forestry.io. Its a web application which, in my case, is linked with my GitHub repo (the Jekyll source one) and allows me to make changes to the code easily. Because the way i build my site is a little different, i manually build the site and push to the destination GitHub project, but they have features allowing you to push directly to SFTP or FTP servers, GitHub, or some other options.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2017/05/06/vscode-and-markdown-monster-with-powershell.htmlSat, 06 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2017/05/06/vscode-and-markdown-monster-with-powershell.htmlA few years back, i created a post showing you how to add an Alias to PowerShell to easily start Sublime Text from a PowerShell command line . This worked well, but this is 2017 (that post is from 2012!) and my daily text editor has changed. I have moved to Visual Studio Code for most of my daily work. It works well 95% of the time. I still use Visual Studio Pro for C# Development, but for quick fixes and work on, say Go or smaller edits, Code is great. For blogging, on the other hand, I am trying out MarkDown Monster but code still has some nice features. We will see how tests go.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2017/05/05/zerotier-and-minio-followup.htmlFri, 05 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2017/05/05/zerotier-and-minio-followup.htmlin a previous post, I talked about setting up a distributed S3 like data storage system using Minio and ZeroTier. Well, this week, the ZeroTier guys tweeted about this. A few people then started asking questions, and looking for a follow up, so here it is. First, a quick recap. I had 4 machines, all running Linux. Three of them were in 1 time zone (GMT+1) and one was in another (GMT). Looking at the Distributed Minio Quickstart Guide again, there is a mention of times being in sync. which is probably why this did not work as planned. and by “not work as planed”, I mean that Minio would crash, or not be responsive, or not write data in the place it should have. which was a pain. But looking at the documentation again, they do mention that Windows support is “experimental” which means, hopefully, some day it will be not so experimental, and might work. Given that most of my machines in house are Windows boxes, this would be a nice feature.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2017/03/09/business-class-broadband-finally-here.htmlThu, 09 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2017/03/09/business-class-broadband-finally-here.htmlSo, after many (MANY) years messing with dual cable modems, struggling to get them working together, to get websites to even allow me in, having to use hacks and kluges to get it to work at all… I have given up. It has been a struggle getting two modems working properly. Load blanching kind of works… but it’s messy at best. Some sites kick you out every now and again because your IP changes. Some sites wont let you login at all… Mind you, some sites work grand and don’t ask questions…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2017/01/19/distributed-s3-data-storage-using-minio-and-zerotier.htmlThu, 19 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2017/01/19/distributed-s3-data-storage-using-minio-and-zerotier.htmlSo, something i have been looking into in recient times has been Distributed Storage, and, more specifically, how to use the storage in my many, many machines to protect data, and also increese my usable space… There are a few projects on the market that do this (Ceph, NooBaa and Gluster all spring to mind) but some are more painful to setup than others… which brings me nicely to Minio. Minio is a 20ish MB executable you download from their site, mark it as executable (on Linux or Mac Boxes) and run… and you have yourself a S3 compatable storage server… Simples!https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/11/15/docker-jekyll-and-mr-ngrok.htmlTue, 15 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/11/15/docker-jekyll-and-mr-ngrok.htmlSee what i did with the title?! Anyway, in my last post, i explained how i was building this site with Docker running on Windows 10 with the Anniversary update. Today, i am going to show you how to host it using Nginx and ngrok. So, first, you should know what Nginx is at this stage… If not, check out their site. Next ngrok is basically a way of tunneling your localhost to the web. So, how do we build the whole lot together and serve your site to the internet? Well, this is what i have so far:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/11/02/building-jekyll-sites-with-docker-on-windows.htmlWed, 02 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/11/02/building-jekyll-sites-with-docker-on-windows.htmlAs some of you probably know (or based on the footer of the site) this site is built with Jekyll. Jekyll is a static web site builder, written in Ruby, and is a bit of a pain to build on Windows. Earlier on this year, I wrote up a post explaining how to use Jekyll on Windows using Bash on Ubuntu on Windows… It was a bit complicated, and, well, worked a few times, but was not too successfull… So, were do we go next? Well, Docker to the rescue!https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/09/14/cloud-desktop-becoming-a-reality.htmlWed, 14 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/09/14/cloud-desktop-becoming-a-reality.htmlI have talked about the theory of the “Cloud desktop” twice on my older blog (Rackspace’s Hosted Virtual Desktop and More on the desktop in the cloud) way back since 2011. Since then, a few things have changed: Amazon have released AWS Workspaces, which is a cloud based desktop using Teradici’s PCoIP technology Both EC2 and Azure now have GPU enabled VMs to spin up and use NVidia have released NVidia Grid cards, specifically for the “cloud” or “remote” desktop services. Windows Continuum now allows you to use your Windows Phone with a keyboard, monitor and mouse, allowing you to replace your desktop. basically, plug your continuum enabled phone into a docking station, and use it as a Windows Desktop. Email, Browsing, Office Apps, etc. anything that supports UWP. and now VMWare has just released a Windows UWP app that works with Continuum With all the increased bandwidth for mobile devices (4 and 5G, expanding wifi, etc) the idea of having your desktop live in the cloud is getting nearer… interesting times, my friend… interesting times…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/07/20/double-speed-internet-part-9-going-back.htmlWed, 20 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/07/20/double-speed-internet-part-9-going-back.html[NOTE] This part 9 in a series of posts. The rest can be found here Well, the double internet experiment is about ready to be finished. After 9 posts, 4 months, lots of sweating, many painful nights trying to figure out why something stopped using, shouting when Netflix did not work, wondering why my internet connection was so slow, and many, many other problems, i have decided to wind down the project. in the last 9 posts, i have learned a lot, and i hope i have helped someone figure out some stuff on their end. Even though this is a wind up of the project, there are still new things i have to share.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/06/20/meraki-and-ubiquiti-networks-gear-update.htmlMon, 20 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/06/20/meraki-and-ubiquiti-networks-gear-update.htmlIn part 6 of my Double Internet Series I mentioned i was running a Meraki MX64 in the network, and said i would write up about it. I am taking this opportunity to also write up about the Ubiquiti networks gear in the house also. First on the list is my older Ubiquiti Edgerouter POE. It currently in the process of being decommissioned, or used for something else. It was the main edge router for the network: it had both internet connections connected, and did routing, firewalls, etc, but with the Proliant taking over as a router, it is not required as much any more. Its still on, mainly because its still a DHCP server, but not much else. There are 2 Meraki MS220-8 switches next. GodBox1 and Godbox2 both connect in here, and are bonded, as is everything else on the network. The MS220-8 has 8 GigE ports, but also has 2 SFP ports. I bought 4 SFP Ethernet adapters and have a short calbe running between the switches. That uplink is also bonded. All going well so far! All Meraki hardware can be managed though the Meraki dashboard. check out their site for more details and examples of how to use it. I bought one of the MS220’s from eBay a few months back, and loved it. Then i realized that you can get your hands on free gear, the MX64, an MS220 and a Wi-Fi Access point if you attend their webinars. Terms and conditions apply, but check them out! I have 2 Ubiquiti UniFi APs, one in the front of the house, one in the back. They are connected to one of the MS220’s, but dont work with its POE (maybe the EdgeRouter could do that, since its POE.) so there are injectors for them. Anyway, the network ports on there are VLANed to the MX64 (more on that later) and the default traffic is going to a management VLAN. The MX64 has a static internal IP on my DMZ network, and uses the Proliant as an upstream connection. Upstream on the Hetzner server, all traffic coming from the MX64 ip uses one of my /29 ip block. all traffic to that ip is also forwarded directly to the MX64. I has 2 small, unmanaged switches (a cheap 8 port Linksys and a 8 port TP Link) which are used for separate things: the Linksys has 4 Raspberry Pi’s, which run a GlusterFS cluster, plugged into it and the TP Link connects to my printers. I also have a Mikrotik CRS226-24G-2S+IN which has 2 10Gbit SFP+ Ports, and plan on using this for higher speed networking soon, aswell as a Cisco 48 port 3560 which also has 4 SFP ports (GigE) and may come in handy for something soon. So, thats the network currently. any questions, please leave a comment.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/06/08/double-speed-internet-part-8-routing-around.htmlWed, 08 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/06/08/double-speed-internet-part-8-routing-around.html[NOTE] This part 8 in a series of posts. The rest can be found here. At the end of my last post I asked the question about routing traffic to different servers based on thier distances, etc… Well, after a bit of messing, i can say it kind of works! here is a quick over view: server in the house has now got multiple OpenVPN connections (2 to Hetzner, 1 to OVH (with a plan to double), 1 to Digital Ocean (again, to be doubled) and i am planning 2 to Azure as well). Quagga/Zebra has static routes (currently static, planing on dynamic soon… more eventually) to different servers depending on where they are. for example, all traffic to the hetzner network (including their Storage Boxes) go though the hetzner link. Hubic traffic goes though OVH, Azure (currently) and AWS traffic, aswell as some CDNs go direct over either WAN1 or WAN2 in the house, and some other stuff (CrashPlan currently) goes though Digital Ocean. Everything that has no static route goes though Hetzner… Ideally, the static side of things should be removed, and a more dynamic setup done. How that works, i have no idea… Spotify have 2 posts about their SDN Internet Router (part 1 and part 2) which is an interesting idea… More digging and research is required. So, there you have it. Everything currently seems to be working, mostly, and tweaks can be made easily… I have a couple posts i have in my head, including something to do with automating bringing up new machines (probably with Ansible or something like it), more monitoring, and some other stuff too… Any questions, leave a comment, and i will get back.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/05/31/double-speed-internet-part-7-ecmp-kind-of.htmlTue, 31 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/05/31/double-speed-internet-part-7-ecmp-kind-of.html[NOTE] This part 7 in a series of posts. The rest can be found here. In the last post I mentioned I am now using Hetzner for hosting a dedicated box. Thats still live, and going well. I have a /29 IP range (6 usable) and also 2 other IPs. So far, so good… But because i was using a Socks Server, I was not fully able to use the /29 ips… I use something like as follows:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/05/17/double-speed-internet-part-6-hetzner-edition.htmlTue, 17 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/05/17/double-speed-internet-part-6-hetzner-edition.html[NOTE] This part 6 in a series of posts. The rest can be found here. Its been a while, since I posted, and there are some, well, pretty major changes since the last time… Lets start are the beginning. Last time I was using Digital Ocean for my hosting provider. I was using their $20 a month server (2 cores, 2GB RAM, 40GB SSD, 3TB transfer), and it was all good… But I noticed that every now and again I would need to reboot the box. I also noticed that when transferring large files or using higher bandwidth (400mb/s+) the 100% of both cores were being used. So, I wanted to move to something with more power…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/04/23/useful-web-and-desktop-apps-2016-edition.htmlSat, 23 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/04/23/useful-web-and-desktop-apps-2016-edition.htmlI have decided to do a post on some of my favourite tools to use for development, administration, etc. It’s kind of like Hanselman’s Ultimate Tools list, but not as popular and about 2 years newer… Anyway, the list is available here, and will be updated over time, much like my Daily Carry and Computers pages. If you are interested, you add links though GitHub by editing the toolslist.yml data file.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/04/21/mad-max-speed-the-road-warrior-internet-connection-double-speed-internet-part-5.htmlThu, 21 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/04/21/mad-max-speed-the-road-warrior-internet-connection-double-speed-internet-part-5.html[NOTE] This part 5 in a series of posts. The rest can be found here. This post is going to be an update and theoretical post. probably very little “new” stuff going on here, mostly updates, and what I am planning on doing later on. This week, I have been OOF sick, so I have not done much work, but I have been surfing the web, watching videos, downloading stuff, etc., so I have an idea of how things are going. First, as mentioned in the previous post I have MPTCP, Squid, Socks Servers, OpenVPN and IPTables doing their magic. 2 OpenVPN tunnels between the house and Digital Ocean. All TCP Traffic (bar port 80) is sent over socks to the box in the cloud using RedSocks. All UDP traffic is sent direct over OpenVPN. Since MPTCP is in the mix, all socks traffic is actually split over the 2 connections. All port 80 traffic, and 443 (if the client is using local Squid as their proxy) is sent round-robin between the 2 upstream IPs to Squid (2 OpenVPN end points).https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/04/14/2-cable-modems-double-speed-part-4.htmlThu, 14 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/04/14/2-cable-modems-double-speed-part-4.html[NOTE] This part 4 in a series of posts. The rest can be found here. So, this week I went in a completely different direction that I have been thinking recently. So, the basic theory is as follows: I am still using MPTCP kernels on both upstream and local machine now have 2 P2P UDP OpenVPN tunnels between house and cloud. Example config is here all TCP traffic (bar port 80) that hits the router in house is redirected to RedSocks RedSocks uses a socks server, Dante, as an upstream server on the cloud box since the socks traffic is over TCP (inside the UDP OpenVPN tunnel) it uses MPTCP having socks running, gives me quite the download speed, turning it off does not, hence the following tweet I am also noticing that I am starting to hit the limits of my upstream VM. If downloading or uploading at speed, the processor cores (2 in the case of the box I am currently running) are pegged at pretty much 100% full. Well, 80ish, but that because the other 20% is being used by Dante. I am noticing I can hit a full 72Mbit/s up, but the max currently downloading is about 400, maybe 450. Need a faster box now. I mentioned port 80 not being set over socks. That’s because its redirected to Squid. Squid (in house) then uses Squid (in cloud) as a parent. There are 2 round-robin parents for squid, one on each OpenVPN connection IP address. all other traffic (UDP, ICMP, etc.) are sent over the OpenVPN connection. currently only one is picked, but I have a cunning plan. The cunning plan? Well, if I am reading the internet correctly, and I would like to think I am, I think ECMP, or Equal Cost Multi-Path Routing, could help. Again, it’s a fledgling idea currently, and I am still reading the documentation, but if it works. Well. I not sure. let’s see.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/04/11/installing-jekyll-on-bash-on-ubuntu-on-windows.htmlMon, 11 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/04/11/installing-jekyll-on-bash-on-ubuntu-on-windows.htmlAt the 2016 Build conference, Microsoft announced that Bash on Ubuntu on Windows was coming. Well, it came out last week, and I installed it as soon as I could! My next challenge was to get Jekyll to run and install on it, so I can build and preview this site on my Surface Book. So, first, I needed to install version 2.0 of Ruby. There is a bit of messing involved for this, but firsthttps://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/04/02/2-cable-modems-double-speed-part-3.htmlSat, 02 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/04/02/2-cable-modems-double-speed-part-3.html[NOTE] This part 3 in a series of posts. The rest can be found here. In Part 1 of this series I explained the why and what I wanted to do for this “project”. In Part 2 I did some basic testing of both MPTCP and MLVPN. I also mentioned trying MMPPP using vtund but it has been a while since I did that testing, and it had not been on bare metal. So, this post is a follow up, where I am using bare metal.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/03/31/bash-on-ubuntu-on-windows.htmlThu, 31 Mar 2016 07:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/03/31/bash-on-ubuntu-on-windows.htmlMicrosoft Build 2016 is on this week, and there were a lot of interesting developments yesterday, but the one that interested me the most is Bash on Ubuntu on Windows. Dustin from Ubuntu has a more details, and Scott Hanselman has posted a technical video about this. This is very interesting, and I CANT WAIT TO GET MY HANDS ON IT! But, I do have some questions, which I thought I would put down in blog format:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/03/30/mptcp-ssh-squid-openvpn-and-2-cable-modems-double-speed-not-quite-part-2.htmlWed, 30 Mar 2016 20:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/03/30/mptcp-ssh-squid-openvpn-and-2-cable-modems-double-speed-not-quite-part-2.html[NOTE] This part 2 in a series of posts. The rest can be found here. In my previous post I explained what i was trying to do… This post explains what i have been working on recently, and performance results… So, first, what have i tried… There are 3 different things i have tried, and here are some of their details. Some will need to be updated (other parts of this series), and others i will try get back to eventually.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/03/24/continuous-integration-and-blogging.htmlThu, 24 Mar 2016 08:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/03/24/continuous-integration-and-blogging.htmlBack in August of 2012, I started this site using Git and Jekyll. I hosted most of it at home, pushing to a server in house. Then, a few years back, I moved to pushing the files to Amazon S3 and had Cloud Front doing distribution. The last moved had me hosting the files in NearlyFreeSpeech.NET and Cloud Flare doing the content distribution… Well, that changed over the last few days… again… Currently, you are still hitting Cloud Flare when you hit this site, but the backend is back to being hosted on Amazon S3. But the files getting to S3 is more interesting now. All the “code” for this site is up on a GitHub repo and any time something is checked in, Travis CI kicks off, builds the files using Jekyll and pushes to S3 using s3_website. All my “private” keys are hidden in Travis-CI, so no one can access them but me. This makes updating the site a lot easier. I can create a file in GitHub directly, preview it, make changes, etc., and then check in. Once checked in, Travis kicks off, builds and deploys. All Good!https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/03/22/2-cable-modems-double-internet-speed-well-not-really-part-1.htmlTue, 22 Mar 2016 18:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/03/22/2-cable-modems-double-internet-speed-well-not-really-part-1.html[NOTE] This part 1 in a series of posts. The rest can be found here. First, a bit of background, and then I will explain what I am currently running in Part 2… For the last 15 or so years, I have had at least 2 internet connections in to the house… 2 of them have always been Cable Modems from NTL, which became UPC, and now is Virgin Media. When I started, i think the modems where 150/50kbit/s and 600/150kb/s, and have steadily increased in speed, currently at 360/36Mbit/s each… But they have always been somewhat separate, and single thread downloads have always been limited to 1 of the connections… I have been looking for ways around this for years…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/01/15/announcing-b2-uploader-and-hubic-testing-2-0.htmlFri, 15 Jan 2016 23:55:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2016/01/15/announcing-b2-uploader-and-hubic-testing-2-0.htmlI have 2 new side projects to announce on the site today. First has been running for a while (first check-in was December 28th) and it’s called B2Uploader. Its a fairly simple Windows application to upload files to BackBlaze B2. If you are not familiar with BackBlaze, they provide unlimited backup storage for the low price of a fiver a month. They are the guys who design the BackBlaze storage pods (I want one, by the way!) that allow them to provide unlimited storage for the fiver a month (I currently backup over 4Tb to them!), and late last year, they started offing B2 which is a storage platform on their pods, and it has a (somewhat) easy to use API. AND ITS CHEAP! half a cent, up 0.5c, per gig stored per month! That’s crazy cheap!https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/09/30/edge-router-sophos-utm-dmz-and-lan-networks.htmlWed, 30 Sep 2015 20:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/09/30/edge-router-sophos-utm-dmz-and-lan-networks.htmlI have been using an EdgeRouer POE as my main router for most of the network (some of the network still uses PFSense as a router, but thats being removed soon) for the last few weeks, and i am quite happy with it. I also have a second router, a Sophos UTM VM between my first LAN (essentially a DMZ) and my client LAN (there will be more “LANs” over there soon). The Client LAN is NATed between the DMZ and the LAN, which means anything on the LAN i want to access from the DMZ has to be port forwarded… Ideally, not much from the LAN should be accessible though the DMZ, but in my initial setup, stuff like Plex, etc, is…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/09/16/network-and-homelab-v-next-part-4.htmlWed, 16 Sep 2015 14:15:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/09/16/network-and-homelab-v-next-part-4.htmlSo, after some messing, tweaking, and thinking, I have made some progress with the home lab… or at least broken some stuff… I mentioned previously that i had a Ubiqititi networks EdgeRouter POE in the home lab. Originally, the plan was to use a Virtual PFSense box for my core router… Given the power usage of the current PfSense Box (I have 2 MPower Pro’s watching power in the lab) I am now thinking of moving to just the EdgeRouter for, well, edge routing… below is the usage of the ProLiant for the last 12 hours or so:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/08/23/windows-server-2012-r2-returning-to-the-godboxv2.htmlSun, 23 Aug 2015 20:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/08/23/windows-server-2012-r2-returning-to-the-godboxv2.htmlAfter a few months of running Sabayon Linux on the GodboxV2, i am going back to Windows Server. Back around October of last year, i installed Windows 10 Preview on the GodBoxV2, and, well, there where issues with graphics drivers, etc. Then, some time after, i cant remember off hand when, i moved to Sabayon Linux. Its based on Gentoo but has a lot of the components pre-built. Gentoo is a “Build from scratch” sort of OS. You get a basic kernel and a basic set of components, but you build everything else from scratch… including rebuilding the kernel if you want. Sabayon, on the other hand has all that mostly prebuilt, though you can still use Gentoo’s Portage to build stuff yourself.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/08/10/zfs-home-storage-pool.htmlMon, 10 Aug 2015 11:40:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/08/10/zfs-home-storage-pool.htmlOver the weekend, my BTRFS pool for my /home directory on Linux failed… Not sure what happened, but it made me do something i wanted to do for a while: Build a ZFS pool for my home dir. First things first, the pool consists of 4 2Tb hard drives and 1 128Gb SSD. Its setup in RAIDZ1 (equivilent of RAID 5) and then the SSD is set for caching. To create the pool i ranhttps://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/08/05/ubiquiti-edgerouter-poe-in-the-lab.htmlWed, 05 Aug 2015 21:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/08/05/ubiquiti-edgerouter-poe-in-the-lab.htmlToday, my Ubiquiti EdgeRouter POE arrived in the house. I got it hooked up to both UPC connections (as secondary connections) and all seems to be working grand. Some notes i wanted to put up here: out of the box, the install was quite simple. set my Ethernet connection to a static ip in the 192.168.1.x/24 range, using 192.168.1.1 as gateway and dns, and then point at http://192.168.1.1 for admin. login (ubit for both username and password) and heay presto. I was asked did i agree to the license, and then im in. by default, NAT is off… i turned it on, and enabled DNS and was able to surf. I also noticed the software was out of date… Oddly, there did not seem to be an option to update automatically, but you can manually download the tar and upload it, which i did. so far, so good… not sure yet if i will be using it as my main router, but it may end up being a VoIP router. Finally, speed test result below:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/07/15/network-and-homelab-v-next-part-3.htmlWed, 15 Jul 2015 13:15:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/07/15/network-and-homelab-v-next-part-3.htmlSo, this part of my article set will be talking specifically about the router and wireless network. At the moment, my router is way overkill: Old HP Proliant ML110 G5 Intel Core2Quad Q6600 8 Gb RAM total of 12 Gigabit network cards (of which 4 are currently used…) 500Gb HDD I have been playing with some networking in the house and have managed to build some VLANs. The modems are connected both directly to the Router and to a dedicated switch port for a given VLAN. The plan for the upgrade, which i hope to complete sooner than the rest of the network is as follows:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/06/23/network-and-homelab-v-next-part-2.htmlTue, 23 Jun 2015 09:30:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/06/23/network-and-homelab-v-next-part-2.htmlSo, in my last post i talked about the requirements for the home lab, and in this post, im going to talk about a few more updates i have made in the last few weeks. First, the processors: in the first post, i talked about Xeon D or Xeon E3… Well, i missed one… The Xeon E5. I have 2 of these in GodBox 2, and you can get them into a microATX board. There does seem to be some limits with the microatx boards, but hopefully enough searching will find me what i am looking for. Ideally, i want it to take “normal” DDR3/4 memory (not SODIMMs like the ASRock one above) and also take enough of them to run 64 or 128Gb of ram (thinking 8 would do the job!). Also, i would like to have 4 GigE ports onboard and 1 management port. 4 onboard is not a hard requirement: If i can get one with 2 ports, i can always get a 4 port card for the PCI-Express slot… Finally, i would like it to have at least 6 SATA ports and possibly an MSATA port. Thinking Boot off MSATA (Windows Server 2016 Nano Server would be used), 2 SSDs and 4 HDDs. Using Storage Spaces, use the 2 SSDs as “Fast” storage for the pool.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/06/14/network-and-homelab-v-next-part-1.htmlSun, 14 Jun 2015 15:05:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/06/14/network-and-homelab-v-next-part-1.htmlSo, its that time again… HomeLab upgrade time… Or at least the planning for it. I am in the process of rebuilding my home lab, which involves pull all old servers out of the rack and replacing them with new ones… It also means rewriting the network, possibly upgrading some existing gear and hopefully getting the whole lot done on a budget of some sort… So, why? Well, biggest reason for all this is currently heat and power usage. We use about 4-6x more electricity than the average house here in Ireland, which means our electricity bill is fairly high. It also means that the lab, which is also my office/bedroom, gets quite warm and uncomfortable during the summer month. There is an Air-Con unit in the room, and, well, that’s costing the most on electricity!https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/05/30/pfsense-with-multiple-public-ips.htmlSat, 30 May 2015 17:50:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/05/30/pfsense-with-multiple-public-ips.htmlSo, a few weeks back, i got my hands on a Hetzner Dedicated box. It has a quad core Xeon, 32Gb ram, 3x3Tb hdds, RAID controller and KVMoIP. one of the first thing i did was get myself a /29 IP pool (8 total, 6 usable IPs). There where already 3 IPs given to me: 1 for the KVM, one for the box itself, and 1 as the router for the IP block.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/05/20/quick-tip-for-internet-facing-esxi-servers.htmlWed, 20 May 2015 07:12:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/05/20/quick-tip-for-internet-facing-esxi-servers.htmlQuick tip for all you with internet facing VMWare ESXi Hosts. I have just got my hands on a box on the Hetzner network (more on that later) and using their LARA system i installed ESXi on it. All was good, then I tried login in a couple hours later and i kept getting errors about my password being wrong… So, i tried a few more times, got pissed off and rebooted the box (had to do a hard reboot, since i couldn’t even get in over KVM). I though this was a hardware issue, or a config issue, and left it… yesterday, i had the console open most of the day, and when looking at something i noticed this:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/05/10/vlans-wifi-and-mikrotik.htmlSun, 10 May 2015 17:40:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/05/10/vlans-wifi-and-mikrotik.htmlAbout a month ago, while i was recovering from surgery, i attended a Webinar on Cisco Meraki devices. After the webinar, i was contacted by Maraki and given a MR18 with a 3 year license, to play with and evaluate. So, i set it up in the house and all was good. Thing is, the wifi in the house was grand previously. I have a Routerboard RB951G which does the job and has no issues. And because i am mostly offsite in the office i work, and because i need to remotely manage the network, the MR18 is going into the office from tomorrow morning. I may talk about the MR18 and the rest of the Meraki gear later on, but this is not that post. This post is about something the MR18 did, and i wanted to do on the RB951.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/05/07/using-git-and-route53-together.htmlThu, 07 May 2015 19:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/05/07/using-git-and-route53-together.htmlso, earlier on today, i was talking about using Git with a DNS service called LuaDNS to update your DNS records. Well, thing is, i have 30+ domains registered, and of them about 25 are hosted on Amazon’s Route53. So, moving ALL of them seems, well at the moment, excessive… So, i went digging… there is a tool called cli53 which will allow you to manage route53 objects from the command line. It can also export your zones to BIND format and then re-import them if you have made changes… This all came out of a blog post by the guys and gals at netguru who showed how they integrate their DNS records with their Continuous Integration… Now, i have not gotten to that stage, just yet, but its only 1 step more down the road… but I don’t have my zones in bind format… So, how do i do that?https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/05/07/git-push-dns.htmlThu, 07 May 2015 14:30:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/05/07/git-push-dns.htmlThere are now a lot of services that have “git push” options available… you can build websites with Azure and Github, books using ShareLaTeX and now, DNS using LuaDNS. I have one zone running at the moment (tiernanotoole.net) and you can see the DNS records on github here. I am tempted at moving other records over soon… but i am currently on Amazon Route53 and 1: its works, so dont break it, and 2, not sure how to bulk export records from Route53 to Bind or Lua format.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/04/29/bulk-compressing-images-for-the-web.htmlWed, 29 Apr 2015 16:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/04/29/bulk-compressing-images-for-the-web.htmlNow that all my sites are running Jekyll I am trying to get them optimized for SPEED which meant looking at all the stuff that takes time to download… There are more tweaks (and possibly posts) coming down the road, but to start, I needed to look at images. First things first. I’m running this on a Sabayon Linux box, so some of the install commands will be different… (Also, i do need to explain why I moved from Windows to Linux on the GodboxV2, but that’s a different post…)https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/04/28/all-blogs-moved-to-jekyll.htmlTue, 28 Apr 2015 11:49:53 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/04/28/all-blogs-moved-to-jekyll.htmlWell, its finally happened. All my blogs, Tiernan’s Comms Closet, GeekPhotographer and the Podcast have been moved to Jekyll. I wrote up a long and complicated post explaining how I did it… Now, i dont have to worry about WordPress security issues on my home sites! Happy Days!https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/04/01/hubic-and-duplicity.htmlWed, 01 Apr 2015 06:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/04/01/hubic-and-duplicity.htmlI mentioned HubiC in my last post, and in it i said that you could use Duplicity for backups. Well, this is how you get it to work… First, i am using Ubuntu 14.04 (i think…). I use Ubuntu in house for a few things: its running Tiernan’s Comms Closet, GeekPhotographer and Tiernan’s Podcast all in house, aswell as being used to build this site. The Web Server and MySQL Server are seperated, MySQL running on Windows, web on Ubuntu… but thats a different story… I have a couple of proxy servers running Ubuntu also Other general servers running Ubuntu… dont ask, cause i cant remember what they do half the time… So, Duplicity is a backup application. From their website:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/03/31/hubic-openstack-swift-and-curl.htmlTue, 31 Mar 2015 21:40:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/03/31/hubic-openstack-swift-and-curl.htmlHubiC is an online storage site, built by the guys at OVH. They are currently offering 30Gb free (if you use the link above) or if you pay, you get 110Gb (insted of the usual 100Gb) for EUR1 a month, or 10.5TB (yup… TERABYTES!) for EUR5 a month… Thats a crazy amount of storage for a not crazy amount of money! So, while playing around with different things, I found they have an API, so other than the usual apps to play with (like the Hubic Apps for iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, Windows Desktop and OSX, Duplicity for backing up *nix boxes, and a few others) you can build your own…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/03/26/daily-carry-march-2015-edition.htmlThu, 26 Mar 2015 20:41:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/03/26/daily-carry-march-2015-edition.htmlA couple of years back, i did a post about my Daily Carry for college… Well, I have finished (ish) college, but i still cary a lot of weird and wonderful stuff… So, this is the update… The details are on my Daily Carry page, and, in theory, should always be up to date… Thats the theory anyway… 🙂https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/02/15/mobile-phone-as-a-service.htmlSun, 15 Feb 2015 20:47:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2015/02/15/mobile-phone-as-a-service.htmlAfter my post about the Raspberry Pi acting as a VoIP server, and being able to add a 3G Dongle and allowing it to act as a Mobile Phone gateway, it got me thinking… Why not have something that allows you to rent a mobile phone number in a country, send and recieve text messages, phone calls, etc, all from anywhere in the world? Thats where Mobile Phone as a Service comes in…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2014/01/23/cdn-hosted-blog.htmlThu, 23 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2014/01/23/cdn-hosted-blog.htmlWell, if you can read this, this site is now hosted fully on AWS with both S3 and CloudFront. More details eventually… [UPDATE] How did i host this on S3 and CloudFront? Check out this article by Paul Stamatiou for details…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2013/05/29/raspberry-pi-as-an-asterisk-box.htmlTue, 28 May 2013 23:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2013/05/29/raspberry-pi-as-an-asterisk-box.htmlThe Raspberry Pi is a pretty amazing peice of kit for its price and size. And now, you can make it even more amazing by using it as a VoIP server for your house! Check out Raspberry Asterisk for downloads, documentation, etc, on how to setup a Raspberry Pi and Asterisk. I have a couple Pi’s in the house, and plan on setting this up in the next few days. Keep your eyes on the site… more posts coming!https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2013/01/27/college-bag-contents.htmlSun, 27 Jan 2013 21:28:58 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2013/01/27/college-bag-contents.htmlTomorrow, Monday the 28th January, 2013, will be the start of my final real Semester in College. I have been studying part time for the last 3 and a bit years, and tomorrow marks the begining of the end… Its the final REAL semester, meaning at the end of this i will have exams, but i wont be “finished” as such… I have a final semester from September to December where i hand up my final year project, which i plan on documenting here soon.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2013/01/18/raspberry-pi-as-a-mobile-wifi-hotspot-part-1.htmlFri, 18 Jan 2013 06:57:16 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2013/01/18/raspberry-pi-as-a-mobile-wifi-hotspot-part-1.htmlI have been using an iPhone 4 as a wifi hotspot for a while now. It does not have a “phone” SIM in it, with calls and texts enabled, instead it has a 3G Data SIM from a dongle… It works OK, but there are a few issues i have with it… No easy way to see how much data is being used, unless you Jail Break, and then battery life goes away… not very hackable… other than Jail Break, and thats not hackable enough… not a lot of storage: 16Gb, and most of that is takin up by Music and Apps no background network daemons… more on that in a second… The Network Daemons i am thinking would be useful for a WiFi Hotspot would be Squid, WANProxy, SSH, PPTP or OpenVPN Client and possibly a downloader of some sort. What i am thinking is as follows:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2013/01/15/moving-sites-to-nearlyfreespeech.htmlTue, 15 Jan 2013 18:23:02 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2013/01/15/moving-sites-to-nearlyfreespeech.htmlI have been running a Dedicated Server from Hetzner for a while now, but have started to look at what i am running on the site, and reailized i under utilize the machine a lot… For example, this site is generated using Jekyll, which takes up very little power, and becomes static HTML files. My other blogs (Tiernan’s Comms Closet and GeekPhotographer) are both low traffic WordPress sites, and I run a couple of other static sites also for friends… All in all, not a lot of power…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/12/20/send-emails-as-a-distribution-group-in-office365.htmlThu, 20 Dec 2012 12:13:21 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/12/20/send-emails-as-a-distribution-group-in-office365.htmlI am in the process of moving my Email domains from one Office365 plan (a Professional) to an Enterprise Plan. During the move, i set up some Email Aliases for older email addresses, which are still being used, but i dont send a lot of email from. But if i do need to send emails from these addresses, with the help of Powershell, I managed to set it up. The full details are listed on “how to send as an alias in Office 365”. It works perfectly! And, as a bit of shamless self promotion, if you are interested in Office365, why not drop me a mail at Tiernan at LimitedSlipNetworks dot com and i can set you up with a trial and more information.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/12/20/ipv6-firewall-rules-for-mikrotik-routeros.htmlThu, 20 Dec 2012 10:09:06 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/12/20/ipv6-firewall-rules-for-mikrotik-routeros.htmlAfter yesterday’s post on IPv6 Networking in the house, I realized that all machines internally had publically facing IPv6 addresses! I started to panic, then went looking online, and found the following script: This script, when run on your RouterOS board, will allow Established and Related connections, allow outgoing connections, and drop anything incoming that has not been requested… so, now everything inside the network should be more secured… I am new to this IPv6 stuff, so I am still learning… but, i am getting there…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/12/19/ipv6-mikrotik-linux-windows.htmlWed, 19 Dec 2012 15:24:07 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/12/19/ipv6-mikrotik-linux-windows.htmlI have been wanting to setup an IPv6 network for a while now, but never had the hardware or network to support it. My broadband Modem, a Cisco EPC3925, was pretty useless… But with the advent of Bridging on the Cisco EPC3925 it now works! The first thing i needed to do was setup a Tunnel Broker Account with Hurricane Electric. I got a /64 block of IPv6 addresses, which should do me for a while… 🙂https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/12/12/compressing-and-uncompressing-protobuf-items-in-c.htmlWed, 12 Dec 2012 10:29:32 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/12/12/compressing-and-uncompressing-protobuf-items-in-c.htmlPart of a project i am working on required sending large amounts of data between different instances. To get this to work efficially, we started using the ProtoBuf using ProtoBuf-net in .NET. but the files where still quite large (17mb, give or take). So, we looked into compression… here is some examples of how we managed to compress the protobuf files. We got some decient compression: 3mb files, down from 17mb. very happy.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/12/05/git-tips-and-tricks.htmlWed, 05 Dec 2012 15:48:44 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/12/05/git-tips-and-tricks.htmlI use GIT a lot for different things, including this blog. so, here are a few tips and tricks i have found useful over the while… Using Dropbox as a local GIT/Mercurial Repository: my own post from a while back. Twelve GIT curated Tips and Workflows from the Trenches Using GIT with Subversion: tips that will make your life easier: The office has an SVN server, but i like GIT. This doc, with the help of git-svn and this post on StackOverflow allows me to use GIT locally, and then push to SVN. 25 tips for intermediate git users git ready: learn git one commit at a time A few git tips you dont already know The ProGIT book (paperback amazon) or Kindle Edition. Also available onlinehttps://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/11/30/symform-p2p-backup.htmlFri, 30 Nov 2012 09:13:27 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/11/30/symform-p2p-backup.htmlI have previously posted about CrashPlan as my Backup System. I also, a long time ago, talked about Backing up SQL, MySQL and other stuff on my other blog. Well, CrashPlan is all good, but there are 2 “niggly” bits with it… Its not FREE (well, this year i got it Free on Black Friday…) but it is cheap ($120 a year to backup 10 machines to the cloud aint bad.) Its NOT FAST! The CrashPlan Datacenters all live in the US, and my servers live in Europe (either Dublin or Germany). So, bandwidth is limited… Getting less than 1Mbit/s most times, but have seen it reach 3… I have 20Mbits/s upload… even half that would be nice… So, thats where Symform comes in. Symform is a P2P Backup Service, which runs on Windows, Linux and MacOSX. In theory, it should run anywhere that has a Mono runtime since its written in .NET. Anyway, you start with 10Gb of free storage, and you can increese that by one of 2 ways:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/11/29/enabling-vnc-from-ssh-on-osx.htmlThu, 29 Nov 2012 15:16:49 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/11/29/enabling-vnc-from-ssh-on-osx.htmlI have a Late 2008 MacBook Pro in the house, and SSH is enabled on it. I usually leave it on when in work. Anyway, SSH is enabled, but VNC access is not… I found the following command on Ryan’s Tech Notes allowing you to enable it though SSH: ** NOTE ** Change mypasswd to your own password!!! If you need to disable it, use the following: Also, of note, I am using RealVNC client for Windows to connect.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/11/22/moving-your-tmg-sql-server-logs-db-and-other-tmg-tips.htmlThu, 22 Nov 2012 07:27:55 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/11/22/moving-your-tmg-sql-server-logs-db-and-other-tmg-tips.htmlIn house, I have been using Microsoft TMG 2010 Server for a while now. I use it as a firewall for some of the machines on the network, and also as a proxy for most, if not all, machines. When acting as a Firewall, all traffic flows though the machine, be it HTTP/HTTPS, SMTP/POP3/IMAP, or anything for that matter. You can also lock down ports on the box, which is a feature of most firewalls, but i like TMG due to its relitive ease of use…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/11/19/routeros-dynamic-ip-updates.htmlMon, 19 Nov 2012 10:19:26 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/11/19/routeros-dynamic-ip-updates.htmlI have been using a MikroTik RouterBoard RB750 for a while now, and i love it! Over the weekend, i upgraded it to a RB1100. Its the same software running the device, but the device is faster (800Mhz PowerPC chip VS MIPS-BE at 680Mhz), has more memory (512Mb upgradable to 1.5Gb vs 32Mb) and more storage (think its 512Mb on board, plus 4Gb MicroSD card vs 32mb…). It also has more ports (13 GigE VS 5) and 2 Switch Groups, which i have no idea what they do just yet…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/31/custom-msdeploy-overwrite-rules.htmlWed, 31 Oct 2012 09:45:54 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/31/custom-msdeploy-overwrite-rules.htmlI have a project which we are trying to automate the deployment system. The plan is to automatically deploy the project to a staging server anytime the build succeeds from SVN. I have had a few problems with this, but here are some of the links which may come in handy for you. MSDeploy skip rules when using MSBuild PublishProfile with Visual Studio 2012 Web Deploy : Customizing a deployment package How to set MSDeploy settings in .csproj file MSBuild target VSMSdeploy doesn’t seem to support skip with a skipAction Still some tweaks to get this to work… If i find any more links i will put them here… The problem we are haivng is when a deploy happens, the WebDeployment tool cannot overwrite the log files directory, since they are in use… one option would be to restart IIS, which would be ok in staging, but we want to keep the logs in test and production, so, we need to figure out how to tell Web Deploy not to over write the files.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/26/wanproxy-and-squid-with-upstream-servers.htmlFri, 26 Oct 2012 13:14:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/26/wanproxy-and-squid-with-upstream-servers.htmlIn my previous post on WANProxy, i did not really go into detail about what it actually was. The direct quote from their site is WANProxy is a free, portable TCP proxy which makes TCP connections send less data, which improves TCP performance and throughput over lossy links, slow links and long links. This is just what you need to improve performance over satellite, wireless and WAN links. This is something that has interested me for a while, so i have been looking into it, and so far so good. In my last post i mentioned i was proxying Squid traffic, in todays post, i still am, but with some tweaks.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/24/building-wanproxy-on-ubuntu-12-04.htmlWed, 24 Oct 2012 14:28:07 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/24/building-wanproxy-on-ubuntu-12-04.html[Updated 2016/04/09] I had to use this today to build on Debian 8.3 for 2 different boxes. So, making minor changes (url to git proxy, and where you build from) to make sure this works now. I have been looking into WANProxy for a while now, but never successfully got it to build… I have been more successfull reciently, so here is what you need to do. ** NOTE **: I built this on Ubuntu 12.04, so these are the tips for that… Not sure about other Distros… ** Second NOTE ** : I am using the Digows GitHub Repo for downloads… There is also the WANProxy SVN Server and their official downloads page.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/18/boot-raspberry-pi-with-ssh-enabled-enable-wifi-on-boot-and-more.htmlThu, 18 Oct 2012 16:45:01 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/18/boot-raspberry-pi-with-ssh-enabled-enable-wifi-on-boot-and-more.htmlSome interesting links for the Raspberry Pi today: So, you just bought a new Raspberry Pi and need to enable SSH, but dont have a screen? Prepare for SSH without a Screen shows you what to do! How to Bring up WLAN0 on boot shows you how to start your Wifi adapter when you boot your Pihttps://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/15/gps-and-raspberry-pi.htmlMon, 15 Oct 2012 16:20:17 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/15/gps-and-raspberry-pi.htmlNeed to add GPS to your Raspberry Pi? How do i attach a GPS to a Raspberry answers your question!https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/15/raspberry-pi-now-with-512mb-ram-other-random-links.htmlMon, 15 Oct 2012 12:37:20 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/15/raspberry-pi-now-with-512mb-ram-other-random-links.htmlEarlier on today, the Raspberry Pi Foundation announced that the Model B will now be shipping with 512Mb RAM as standard, with no price change. I posted the link up on Hacker News and its caused quite a lot of happy people! So, with the news of extra RAM, its started making me think of more things the Pi could be used for… An Austrian hosting company are offering free Co-Location for Raspberry Pis with a 100Mb/s uplink and 100Gb bandwidth! FREE! with 512Mb RAM (or even 256Mb RAM) thats enough for a small site. or even a medium site (like this one) running statically. Since the Pi can connect to the internet using 3G, you could install a copy of Squid and use an SSH tunnel back to your main office or home, have have multiple levels of caching going on… It would also secure your browsing. Sending SMS messages though the Raspberry Pi could be useful for sending diagnostic info if the device is remote… [XBMC on the Raspberry Pi] would make your media center a lot smaller, use less power, etc. just a note on the idea of using 3G and Squid for the Pi… This is something i am interested in, so its something i want to start playing with. The idea would be as follows:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/12/more-raspberry-pi-and-camera-antics.htmlFri, 12 Oct 2012 15:13:53 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/12/more-raspberry-pi-and-camera-antics.htmlA while back I posted about the Raspberry Pi, and in the post was a link to a Photographer who was embeding a Raspberry Pi into a Canon 5D MKII battery grip. Well, its been a while, and i have been thinking about the Pi and Cameras, so I went looking around… Here is what i found. HDR Photography with a Raspberry Pi and GPhoto2: It was linked at the end of David’s post, and i missed it completely. David mentions he was using GPhoto2 to take photos from the Pi, so its a good place to start. GPhoto2 and the Raspberry Pi: starters guide on getting the Pi to talk to your Camera. Not specifically Pi+Camera released, but the Stackoverflow Raspberry Pi Page is a handy resource for asking questions… The one thing i have not been able to figure out is how to tell the Pi to take the photos out of the camera wihtout having a monitor plugged in. I was thinking either tell it, on boot, to start monitoring the camera and download everything. This way, if you have it plugged into a external power source, it will be monitoring and downloading to somewhere… USB HDD, USB Key, etc. If there is a Wifi spot around, try uploading them to a location, posibily manageable via web interface of some sort… Lots of interesting ideas can be done… its just a matter of doing them… 🙂https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/12/routeros-using-host-names-in-firewall-rules.htmlFri, 12 Oct 2012 07:43:17 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/12/routeros-using-host-names-in-firewall-rules.htmlAs a follow-up to yesterday’s post on RouterOS Blocking Machine access to all but one IP, I thought I would show how to add extra IPs to that list, without having a shedload of firewall filters. First things first, get your list of IPs you allow access to. In my case, I just did an NSLOOKUP on the name and got the IPs. Create an “Address List” in RouterOS. This can be done on the Web Interface by going to IP / Firewall / Address List and clicking Add. I had none previously, so I created a new rule, naming it ExpressVPN (the lads I use for VPN access) and added the first address. this is where things get interesting. for extra IP (for ExpressVPN, I have 4) you create a new address with the SAME name, but different IP. in your firewall rule, you should have either an src address or a dst address. in my case, I had both, but this was a change for the dst address. I removed the address from the rule, and I added it as a dst address list entry. If you have multiple address lists, you will see them here. to do this at the command prompt:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/11/routeros-blocking-machine-access-to-all-but-one-ip.htmlThu, 11 Oct 2012 13:09:20 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/11/routeros-blocking-machine-access-to-all-but-one-ip.htmlSo, I have a machine on my network, which should be only connecting to the internet through a VPN. I needed to tell my RouterOS box to block all access, except to this said IP address. The following should do the trick. YMMV this will drop any packets from the srcaddress (IP address) that are not for the destination dstaddress (IP address). in my case, dstaddress is the VPN server I want to connect to. So, in theory, all packets should just go through the VPN and not leak out into the rest of the network. again, still testing this so be careful!https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/05/zfs-iscsi-nfs-sftp-hyper-v-and-more.htmlFri, 05 Oct 2012 08:38:13 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/05/zfs-iscsi-nfs-sftp-hyper-v-and-more.htmlAs part of my new task to make my files safer and backups faster, and, well, cheap, I am looking into ZFS for my storage needs. My needs are as follows: Allow me to store lots of different types of data (Photos, Videos, Music, VMs) in different formats (RAW and JPG photos, MP4, AVI and DivX Videos, with DVD and BluRay rips also a posibility, MP3 music and VHD files from HyperV, inclduing ISOs and Snapshots). I also need to store different file systems using iSCSI (Mac and Windows clients will be mounting the storage). must be safe. DO NOT LOSE DATA! must be somewhat fast. I have VHDs weighing in at 100Gb… my photo collection is 600Gb. If i need to move or copy files to the storage system, it must be fast. So, ZFS offers all these features. I can export a file share as iSCSI, NFS, SMB, etc. All works well. But the replication stuff is the interesting part…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/04/more-jekyll-stuff.htmlThu, 04 Oct 2012 20:57:52 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/04/more-jekyll-stuff.htmlCouple of bits and pieces on Jekyll stuff today… I am tweaking the outline of the site, so i am surfing around finding stuff… here is what i have found Host a static site on Amazon S3: Interesting idea, and something i would look into eventually… And with the help of CloudFront you could host your whole blog on a CDN! Rake tasks for Jekyll: Rake is the Ruby version of make… and a RakeFile can have tasks, which are in Ruby… They can do, from what i can gather, pretty much anything… So, some examples of what you can do with them are linked here… I especially like the New Post generator… very handy! Jekyll Plugins: Various different plugins for Jekyll… I am interested in a few of these, mainly the Generate_projects one, which generates a page for your projects based on your GitHub projects… very cool stuff… Strictly speaking, this is not just a Jekyll how to, but Migrating from WordPress to Jekyll is a handy read. my main blog, my podcast and photography blog both run WordPress. migrating them to Jekyll would mean i could move them directly to a CDN and make things a lot faster… Maybe something i plan doing soon… If you have any tips or tricks, why not leave a comment and i can add them to the post.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/03/handbrake-cluster.htmlWed, 03 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/03/handbrake-cluster.html[UPDATED] someone asked in the comments if there was an binary build for this file. there is now! http://handbrakecluster.codeplex.com now hosts the code and binaries, and will soon have help files and documentation. A few days back, i wrote a post titled Powershell + Handbrake + AppleTV + iTunes = Automatic TV. ish. In it i included a block of Powershell code to bulk convert TV shows from whatever format you had them in to a M4V format for the AppleTV. Well, as they say “If necessity is the mother of all invension, lazyness must be the father”. I have a lot of shows i wanted converted to the AppleTV, so i built something. Its called HandBrake Cluster and is written in .NET 4.5, uses MSMQ and Handbrake to do the processing. The workflow is as follows:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/02/enabling-true-bridging-modem-on-a-cisco-ecp3925-cable-modem-upc-ireland.htmlTue, 02 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/10/02/enabling-true-bridging-modem-on-a-cisco-ecp3925-cable-modem-upc-ireland.htmlI am a UPC Ireland customer, and have 2 cable modems into the house, both Cisco EPC3925s. These are not exactly great modems for power users, but are grand for normal use. Me, however, being a poweruser wanted something a little more, how should I put it, powerful. A couple of months back, a tutorial was posted on Boards.ie which showed you How to enable “bridging” on your UPC modem. When i say “Bridging”, they used DMZ, turned off firewalls, static IPs internally, turned off WiFi and DHCP, etc. It worked, quite well actually, but was “odd”. Today, however, there is a new tutorial Enabling REAL bridging on a Cisco EPC3925. I have tried this, and so far, it works! now just to set my router to work correctly, and update my IPs if they change.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/09/28/powershell-handbrake-appletv-itunes-automatic-tv-ish.htmlFri, 28 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/09/28/powershell-handbrake-appletv-itunes-automatic-tv-ish.htmlI have an AppleTV in the house (3, actually) and I am very happy with its ease of use, size and cost. You can’t argue with the small price! I also have a lot of content that works great with the AppleTV in iTunes, but I have content which does not work so great with the AppleTV. So, I needed to find a way to convert files quickly and easily. that’s where PowerShell and Handbrake come in.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/09/27/crashplan-backups.htmlThu, 27 Sep 2012 11:32:32 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/09/27/crashplan-backups.htmlI have been running CrashPlan for a while now, and, other than some minor issues (backup speed to their central location is the big one), everything has been going grand. I use it to backup about 600GB of photos and videos, 500GB+ of VMs, documents, source code and a fair whack of other stuff… In total, about 2TB of data. Anyway, here are some tips i have figured out over the last while for making Crashplan work a little better…https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/09/27/more-voip-stuff.htmlThu, 27 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/09/27/more-voip-stuff.htmlAs part of my ongoing plan to upgrade the house to VoIP, and as a follow up to my first VoIP stuff post, here are some more things i have found. I have added SipDiscount and SipGate for making and recieving calls. SipDiscount allows me to set pretty much any number as my Caller ID, as long as i “own” that number (they either text or call you with a code, and you enter it on their site). They also allow me to make cheap calls to Irish Mobiles (check their rates here) SipGate gave me a incoming UK phone number. Its an 0845 number, which I dont know what that means. but it was free, so its all good. Not sure if i can recieve text messages on it though. I have a Blueface account, which gives me an Irish 076 VoIP number. 076 is the standard VoIP number here in Ireland. I have a IpKall number, which is based in Washington State. You need to recieve a call on this line at least once every 30 days to keep it active. My Google Voice accepts calls and forwards them to my IpKall number, which then rings my BlueFace SIP account (since i know they will be up all the time, by my home server may be offline since i am only testing) which, if a SIP device is connected, will forward it again. if i am offline, or no sip devices are active, that call is redirected to voice mail. Its all very complicated at the moment, but the plan will be that any incoming calls should go directly to the machine in house, which will ring the desk phone and any other SIP clients. Any incoming PSTN calls will also do the same. Outgoing calls will depend on the dialing plan, which i still need to figure out, but the theory goes as follows:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/09/25/building-a-cross-compiler-for-your-raspberry-pi.htmlTue, 25 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/09/25/building-a-cross-compiler-for-your-raspberry-pi.htmlMy main machine at home, known as “The GodBox” is a Dual Processor, Quad Core Xeon 5520 with 60Gb RAM, 2 300Gb 10,000 RPM Western Digital Velociraptor in RAID 0 for boot, 4X1Tb 7200RPM drives for storage, 2 more 300Gb 10,000 RPM drives for “scratch disk” and a couple high(ish) end graphics cards with 3 monitors plugged in. Hence the name, GodBox! Anyway, The Raspberry Pi, on the other hand, has a 700Mhz processor, 256Mb RAM and not much else. So, if you need to write code for your Pi, and you don’t want to wait a long time to compile, check out this tutorial on how to build a cross compiler for your raspberry pi which will allow you to build your apps on a different machine. I have a college project which the Raspberry Pi will be used for, and i am thinking this will be how i build code.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/09/24/microtik-routeros-vpn-setup.htmlSun, 23 Sep 2012 23:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/09/24/microtik-routeros-vpn-setup.htmlI have been running a MikroTik RouterBoard in the house for a couple of months now (the RB750G) and I am very much loving the thing. But one thing you may need to do is setup VPN connections… Here are some tips on how to create a VPN Server and Client on your RouterBoard. ##Client Setup to setup a client, you need to do the following: What does that all do? the first line creates an l2tp-client interface, pointing at “servername” with the username and password set. encryption, etc is enabled… Line 2 then enables the client. Line 3 sets all traffic comming from networkaddress/24 (for example, 192.168.0.1/24) to be sent though the VPN. any traffic going into networkaddress (same example) is not sent though the VPN. Line 4 creates a gateway, for all addresses (0.0.0.0/0) to use the VPN address. finally, NAT Masquerading is enabled on the VPN interface.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/09/17/ssh-tunneling-made-simple.htmlSun, 16 Sep 2012 23:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/09/17/ssh-tunneling-made-simple.htmlSomething I do on a regular basis is use the internet while “out and about”. This could be college, which has a semi open network, or it could be a coffee shop, which also usually has a semi open connection. There is also the possibility of using the a mobile internet connection on my iPhone, which can be slow, but at least its only shared with me… Anyway, over on RevSys.com, there is a post SSH Tunneling made simple which shows you how to open an SSH tunnel to your machine somewhere else (could be at home, as is my case, or a VPS/Dedicated server somewhere, or even on Amazon…) and use that for different things… In the case he shows, its for SMTP access. For my case, i am forwarding my local port 3128 to my Microsoft TMG 2010 Server in house on port 8080. Then my system proxy on my laptop is set to use localhost:3128 for all web and HTTPS requests. Very handy. One other tip: Using the -C flag, so your command may look like:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/09/11/voip-stuff.htmlTue, 11 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/09/11/voip-stuff.htmlI have been very interested in VOIP stuff for the last while now, and finally started looking at implementing it in the house. Here are some links which may be useful. I will do a full post soon. Asterisk 1.8 with chan_mobile on Centos 6: chan_mobile allows you to use a Bluetooth phone to make calls with Asterisk Use an old Mobile Phone as a GMS Gateway in asterisk: again, similar to above, but with Ubuntu. 3CX: my current choice in VOIP software. The main VOIP hardware I use is:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/09/06/raspberry-pi-stuff.htmlThu, 06 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/09/06/raspberry-pi-stuff.htmlA couple of months back, I got my hands on a Raspberry Pi, a tiny development board that can run a full copy of Linux, has an HDMI port, a couple of USB ports, Ethernet and a few other little bits and pieces. The full specs, from the Wikipedia Article, are as follows: Operating system: Linux (Debian GNU/Linux, Fedora, and Arch Linux ARM) Power: 2.5 W (model A), 3.5 W (model B) CPU: ARM1176JZF-S (armv6k) 700 MHz Storage capacity: SD card slot (SD or SDHC card) Memory: 256 MByte Graphics: Broadcom VideoCore IV There have been a few things i have wanted to play with it for but have not implemented all of them yet. still learning. but some interesting projects have come to my attention. here they are, in no particular order:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/09/03/build-your-own-private-git-server.htmlMon, 03 Sep 2012 10:28:11 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/09/03/build-your-own-private-git-server.htmlThis site is built with GIT, GitoLite and Jekyll. I posted about this before. but how do you set up your own Git Server? checkout How to install and set up a Git Repository Server using Gitolite on Linux Ubuntu 10.04 and 11.04 on mmncs.com. I am using Ubuntu 12.04, but it’s mostly the same.https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/08/31/understanding-storage-spaces-in-windows-8-and-windows-server-2012.htmlFri, 31 Aug 2012 09:04:14 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/08/31/understanding-storage-spaces-in-windows-8-and-windows-server-2012.htmlSo, Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 have both RTMed in the last couple of weeks and will be available to the public in the next month or so (September for Server, October for Client). If you are an MSDN Subscriber, you already have Client, and will (hopefully) get server in the next couple of weeks. Fingers crossed. Anyway, one of the interesting features i am waiting for is Storage Spaces Tim Anderson’s Gadget Writing blog has some information on how Storage Spaces works. handy notes on what to do and what not to do. https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/08/31/sublime-text-2-with-powershell.htmlFri, 31 Aug 2012 09:00:13 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/08/31/sublime-text-2-with-powershell.htmlMy new Favorite cross platform text editor is Sublime Text 2. It works on Windows, Mac OS and Linux, and i am very happy with it. My only problem is the path to start it is not exactly easy to type… So, with the help of PowerShell, my new favorite command line tool on Windows, i added an alias: Set-Alias subl 'c:\program files\sublime text 2\sublime_text.exe' I added this to my Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 file in Documents\WindowsPowerShell folder. If you don’t have one of these files, check out this Computer Performance.Co.UK post on Creating PowerShell profile files and then edit the file and add the line above… Now, I can edit files in PowerShell with Sublime Text 2 by typing:https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/08/30/autoscaling-with-amazon.htmlThu, 30 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/08/30/autoscaling-with-amazon.htmlI have a few Amazon EC2 instances running on a project, and one of these instances was known as the Zombie Instance! Every time i killed it, it came back to life a few min later… I found out that i, at some point, set that instance to be in an AutoScaling group. Any time the instance died, Amazon would check and restart the instance. So, how did I kill this undead instance? Check out “Auto Scaling with Amazon EC2 II” on LLOVIZNA’s blog. They had the same issue i had (trying to kill the Auto Scaling group gives an error) and figured out how to do it. Handy stuff. Now the instance is dead, and hopefully it wont come back any time soon… Mind you, When AutoScaling works correctly, it can be very cool indeed!https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/08/29/my-new-git-powered-site.htmlWed, 29 Aug 2012 12:54:40 +0000https://www.tiernanotoole.ie/2012/08/29/my-new-git-powered-site.htmlSo, this site is brought to you by GIT, Jekyll and Magic… here is how i did it… I have a Linux VM running the site. Its an Ubuntu 12.04 server. On that i installed Jekyll. I also have gitolite installed for personal git repos. In the Git Repo for this site, under the hooks directory, I added a post-receive file which I got from here originally. Apache is set to serve the directory that Jekyll produces… That’s what you are reading here. If you are interested, you can find the code and config for this site on my github repo