Feb 21 2019
In a previous post, I’ve discussed Metronome, a lightweight graphing framework for PowerDNS services (authoritative server, recursor, dnsdist). In this post, I’ll be documenting how to secure this setup, as in the default configuration, there is no TLS encryption, and anyone can send data to your daemon. I will assume everything has been installed as […]
Feb 18 2019
If you’re running PowerDNS recursor, PowerDNS authoritative server or dnsdist, you may wonder how those services are actually doing. You can add a basic ‘service is functional’ check to your Nagios or Icinga installation, and even add some graphing to your Observium installation, but in reality, those will give you no more than a rough […]
Mar 20 2017
CurrentCost? CurrentCost is a UK company founded in 2010 which provides home power measuring hardware. Their main product is a transmitter which uses an inductive clamp to measure power usage of your household. On top of that, they also provide Individual Appliance Monitors (IAMs) which sit between your device and the outlet, and measure its […]
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Aug 29 2016
As a follow-up to Centrally managing your Let’s Encrypt certificates using the dns-01 challenge, in this article I’ll post a follow-up for Puppet users on how to distribute those certificates easily to your servers. I’ve written a small Puppet module which installs your certificates in /etc/letsencrypt/live/<your.host.name>, which is where the official client places them as […]
Aug 26 2016
Let’s Encrypt In a previous post, I’ve already briefly touched on Let’s Encrypt. It’s a fairly new but already very well established Certificate Authority, providing anyone with free SSL certificates to use for sites and devices they own. This is a welcome change from the older CAs who charge a premium to get that padlock […]
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Mar 7 2016
BitlBee? Some sort of new transformer? BitlBee is an IRC-to-Instant-Messaging gateway. What this basically means is that you can connect your IRC client to BitlBee, then configure your instant messaging accounts on the BitlBee and access them through there, for example Twitter, Facebook, Steam, and even good ol’ trusty MSN and ICQ are still actually […]
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Feb 29 2016
Why sync an SVN repository? In this article, I will discuss how to back up a remote Subversion repository to a local one. Use case is a (dedicated) backup server that retrieves a full backup copy of a repository at scheduled times, and the backup server initiates the backup autonomously. Simply checking out the code […]
Feb 24 2016
What is IPMI? Why still use a serial console? While your desktop or laptop at home isn’t all that far away from you, a server in a remote datacenter isn’t usually within reach. In case of issues with the machine or its operating system, it might be handy to have access to its keyboard and […]
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Dec 30 2015
Introduction to OpenHAB OpenHAB is an open source, Java-powered Home Automation Bus; what this basically means is it’s a centralized hub that can connect to many systems that have found their way into your house, such as your smart TV, your ethernet-capable Audio Receiver, Z-Wave- or Zigbee-powered accessories, HVAC systems, Kodi (aka XBMC), CUPS, and […]
Apr 14 2014
In this post I will explain how to setup Postfix authentication against an AD server. This is similar to regular LDAP authentication, I am running a Samba 4.0 domain, but it should work just as well against a “real” Microsoft AD Domain. Packages required: postfix sasl2-bin libsasl2-modules /etc/default/saslauthd (excerpts): MECHANISMS="ldap" OPTIONS="-c -m /var/spool/postfix/var/run/saslauthd" NAME=Mailserver This […]
