September 19, 2025
WP-CLI: A Comprehensive Guide to Managing WordPress from the Command Line
Introduction
WP-CLI is the official command-line tool for WordPress, allowing you to manage your sites without logging into the admin panel. With WP-CLI, you can install plugins, update WordPress core, manage users, handle database tasks, and even run advanced automation workflows.
In this guide, we’ll explore what WP-CLI is, how to install it, and provide practical examples of its most useful commands.
September 18, 2025
Netplan: advanced network configuration (tunnels, VLAN, bridges, bonding)
Introduction
Netplan is a utility for declarative network configuration in Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, and derivatives).
It is usually used for simple cases like Ethernet or Wi-Fi, but it can do much more:
- tunnel interfaces (IPIP, GRE, VXLAN, WireGuard),
- VLAN,
- bridges,
- bonding (interface aggregation).
These features allow building complex network topologies — from home VPNs to data centers and cloud environments.
Tunnel interfaces
Tunnels encapsulate packets of one protocol into another. They are used for VPNs, inter-server connections, or network isolation.
September 17, 2025
Network Troubleshooting for Beginners: Listening to the Wires
Introduction
Imagine: ping works, DNS responds, ports are open, mtr shows no loss, but curl returns errors like connection reset by peer or SSL handshake failed. There’s clearly a problem, but standard tools are powerless.
At such moments, the only option is to look at the actual traffic — in other words, “listen to the wires.” This process is called packet sniffing or packet analysis. In this article, we’ll go through how to use three key tools: tcpdump, sngrep, and Wireshark.
September 9, 2025
Guide: How to Install Jitsi Meet on Your Server Using Docker
Want to set up your own fully private video conferencing server?
Jitsi Meet is a great choice, and installing it with Docker is the fastest and most reliable way. This article provides a step-by-step guide to get your server up and running in just a few minutes.
Step 1: Preparation
Before installing, make sure you have:
- A Linux server (e.g., Ubuntu).
- A domain name pointing to your server’s IP (e.g.,
meet.your-domain.com). - Installed Docker and Docker Compose.
👉 If Docker isn’t installed yet — use the instructions from the previous article.
September 8, 2025
curl for beginners: your first step into the world of HTTP requests
Hello! If you’re even a little interested in the web, you’ve probably heard of curl.
It’s a powerful and versatile command-line tool for interacting with web servers. It is used to send and receive data over various protocols: HTTP, FTP, SFTP, as well as mail protocols.
This guide is your first step. We’ll focus on the basics to help you understand how curl works and how to use it for everyday tasks.
September 7, 2025
Jitsi Meet vs Google Meet: when full control over data matters most
Introduction
We are used to using convenient services like Google Meet or Zoom. But what if you are a doctor, mentor, or consultant for whom privacy and full control over client data are crucial?
Let’s compare two popular tools: Jitsi Meet and Google Meet, and figure out which one is better suited for professional work.
What is Jitsi Meet?
Jitsi Meet is not just a video conferencing service but a full-fledged platform with open-source code. It can be used via the public server (meet.jit.si) or deployed on your own server for complete control.
September 5, 2025
Logrotate and Docker: Why and How?
Introduction
Logrotate is a powerful tool for log management in Linux, but its interaction with Docker has its own specifics.
This guide explains how to properly use logrotate with Docker containers and when it’s better to rely on Docker’s built-in log management tools.
Docker Containers and Logs
Docker collects logs from the standard output streams (stdout and stderr) of containers and, by default, stores them as JSON files:
August 16, 2025
Keenetic: A Router Whose Main Asset Is Its Operating System
A Quick Look at Keenetic
In the world of home routers, where most devices come with proprietary, bloated firmware, Keenetic stands out with its unique approach. Instead of competing solely on hardware, the company focuses on its own operating system — KeeneticOS. This makes their devices not just routers, but flexible, stable, and expandable network platforms.
KeeneticOS: Modular and Reliable Core
Under the hood, Keenetic runs a Linux-based system topped with a unique modular operating system. This approach offers two key advantages that tech-savvy users will appreciate:
August 5, 2025
Introduction: A Hidden Network Issue
Developers and system administrators using servers on the OpenStack platform (for example, the C*-M*-D* hosting plans from reg.ru) sometimes encounter mysterious network problems. The internet seems to work, but when trying to transfer large amounts of data or establish connections to certain services, requests may hang or fail due to timeouts.
The provider explains this issue as a feature of their infrastructure:
Servers on the OpenStack platform use VxLAN technology, which reserves 50 bytes for service information. Because of this, the maximum transmission unit (MTU) on the server’s main network interface (ens3) is 1450 bytes.
August 4, 2025
What is Virtualization?
Virtualization is a technology that allows the creation of virtual versions of resources such as servers, operating systems, storage, or networks. It makes it possible to run multiple “virtual machines” (VMs) on a single physical server. Each VM operates as a fully independent computer with its own operating system and applications, while sharing the physical resources of the underlying hardware.
The key component of virtualization is the hypervisor. A hypervisor is software that creates and manages virtual machines, distributing the host machine’s physical resources (CPU time, RAM, disk space, and network interfaces) among them.
July 27, 2025
In today’s world, where every aspect of business depends on IT, and downtime is measured not only in lost revenue but also in missed opportunities and reputational damage, connection stability becomes a critically important factor. From email and internal CRMs to online sales and cloud services — all of it requires constant and reliable network access.
This is where network link redundancy comes into play. It’s not just “insurance” — it’s a fundamental part of your business continuity and high availability strategy for your IT infrastructure.
July 21, 2025
Loki + Grafana: A Lightweight and Cost-Effective Logging Solution for the Cloud
We’re wrapping up our series on centralized logging with a modern and innovative solution: Loki together with Grafana. Developed by Grafana Labs, this stack reimagines how logging works — making it simple, efficient, and especially appealing for those already using Prometheus.
What Is Loki and How Does It Work?
Loki is a log aggregation system designed to minimize resource usage. It indexes only metadata (labels), while the log messages themselves are stored in compressed form — following the same philosophy as Prometheus, but for logs.
July 18, 2025
ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana): The Classic Stack for Log Collection and Analysis
After establishing that centralized logging is not just a convenience but a necessity, it’s time to dive into specific tools. Let’s start with one of the most well-known and widely adopted solutions in the logging world — the ELK Stack.
The ELK Stack is a set of three open-source components developed by Elastic. It provides a powerful, flexible, and scalable solution for log collection, processing, storage, search, and visualization.
July 17, 2025
Why Do We Need Centralized Logging? Making Sense of Log Chaos
We’ve already discussed the importance of metrics monitoring for understanding the health of your IT infrastructure. But metrics are only part of the picture. To truly understand what’s happening inside your systems and applications, you need logs.
Logs are records of events generated by operating systems, applications, network devices, and nearly any software component. They capture what, when, where, and why something happened. Think of them as the “black box” of your infrastructure — an invaluable source of information for debugging, auditing, and incident investigation.
July 16, 2025
In our series on monitoring systems, we’ve reviewed Munin, Prometheus with Grafana, and Zabbix. Now it’s time to talk about a solution that addresses one of the main pain points of Prometheus users — long-term, scalable, and efficient time-series storage. Meet VictoriaMetrics, a high-performance and cost-effective TSDB (time-series database) that perfectly complements the Prometheus ecosystem when paired with Grafana for visualization.
What Is VictoriaMetrics and Why Do You Need It?
Prometheus handles real-time monitoring and storage well, but its built-in TSDB isn’t designed for long-term retention or scaling to terabytes or petabytes of data. That’s where VictoriaMetrics comes in.
July 15, 2025
We’ve already looked at Munin for basic insights and Prometheus + Grafana for cloud environments. Now let’s turn to Zabbix — a powerful, versatile, and scalable monitoring system that offers a comprehensive out-of-the-box solution for medium and large infrastructures. Zabbix is often chosen by organizations needing centralized monitoring, flexible alerting, and a wide range of data collection methods.
What Is Zabbix and How Does It Work?
Zabbix is a mature open-source monitoring system designed to track the state and performance of various IT components: servers, virtual machines, network devices, databases, web services, and applications.
July 14, 2025
We’ve reviewed Munin as a simple solution for basic monitoring. Now let’s move on to a stack that has become an indispensable tool in the world of modern cloud infrastructure, microservices, and containers: Prometheus, Node Exporter, and Grafana. This trio provides a powerful, flexible, and scalable approach to collecting, storing, analyzing, and visualizing metrics.
What is Prometheus and Its Ecosystem?
Prometheus is an open-source monitoring system originally developed at Google and later handed over to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). Its key feature is the “pull” model: Prometheus scrapes metrics from targets via HTTP endpoints.
July 9, 2025
Introduction to Plesk
Plesk is another global leader in web hosting control panels, often competing with cPanel for the top spot. What makes Plesk stand out is its modularity, flexibility, and focus not only on traditional hosting but also on web developers, agencies, and DevOps teams. Plesk supports a wide range of operating systems, including both Linux and Windows Server, making it an extremely versatile solution. Like cPanel, Plesk is a commercial product with various licenses depending on needs.
