Tag: howto

VLANs with Linux, NFTables and Ubiquiti Unifi

While setting up my new Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi access points, I spent more time than I’d like to admit troubleshooting my new guest network before I got it to work, so that topic is the basis for this post. The problem I encountered turned out to be completely trivial and I’ll spend a paragraph further… Continue reading VLANs with Linux, NFTables and Ubiquiti Unifi

Deploying a Ubiquiti Unifi appliance with Ansible

I finally got tired of my old 802.11n Apple Airport Express(!) that has been serving the kitchen part of our house with an Internet connection for many years. Effectively it tops out at ~100Mbps speeds and has pretty poor range. It is being replaced by a Ubiquiti Unifi6 Lite access point. In preparation for this,… Continue reading Deploying a Ubiquiti Unifi appliance with Ansible

DNS, DDNS, and DHCP on a Linux router – Part 2

(Update 2022-07-15: I have set up a Git repository containing the example files used in this post to simplify understanding of the file and directory structures.) In a previous post I described how to set up a simple and efficient router and perimeter firewall on just about any computer. What I kind of glossed over… Continue reading DNS, DDNS, and DHCP on a Linux router – Part 2

Build your own router with nftables – Part 1

Introduction A few years ago, Jim Salter wrote a number of articles for Ars Technica related to his “homebrew routers“. Much of what he wrote then still stands, but time marches on, and now that I rebuilt my home router, I figured the lessons should be translated to a modern Ubuntu installation and the more… Continue reading Build your own router with nftables – Part 1

Set up TPM support in vCenter on Dell R7515

Quick HowTo/reminder to myself on how to activate TPM on ESXi hosts connected to vCenter. The smoothest way is to configure the servers before they are connected to vCenter: Otherwise they must be removed from the inventory and re-added. The BIOS security settings must be correctly configured: Select System Security. TPM Security must be turned… Continue reading Set up TPM support in vCenter on Dell R7515

Fixing vSAN driver compatibility on Dell R7515

A while back, we purchased some vSAN Ready nodes for a new cluster. The machines came with ESXi installed in an all-NVMe configuration, but when setting up vSAN, Skyline Health kept complaining that the driver used for the write-intensive cache drives wasn’t certified for this purpose. I opened support cases with both VMware and Dell… Continue reading Fixing vSAN driver compatibility on Dell R7515

Email address tags in Postfix and Dovecot

What if you could tag the mail address you provide when registering for various services to simplify the management of the inevitable stream of unsolicited mail that follows? If you could register myname+theservicename@mydomain.tld it would make it very easy to recognize mail from that service – and it would make it easy to pinpoint common… Continue reading Email address tags in Postfix and Dovecot

Deploying VMware virtual machines using Ansible

I’ve been experimenting with deploying entire environments using Ansible. As usual I had to pass a couple of small thresholds and stumble into a couple of pitfalls before I was comfortable with solution, and so I’m documenting the process here. I’m thinking of creating a separate post describing my general Ansible workflow in more detail… Continue reading Deploying VMware virtual machines using Ansible

Managing Windows servers with Ansible

Although I to a large degree get to play with the fun stuff at work, much of our environment still consists of Windows servers, and that will not be changing for a long time. As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, I try to script my way around singular Windows servers using Powershell whenever it makes… Continue reading Managing Windows servers with Ansible