Securing a small production VPS by actually watching SSH and HTTP logs

I run a small production VPS (Docker, reverse proxy, SSH keys). Traffic is low, but after looking at the logs I saw constant SSH brute force and HTTP probing for .env, credentials, and random paths.

Nothing was compromised, but it made it clear I wasn’t really watching.

I documented how I approached this using log-based detection, temporary bans, and automation. CrowdSec wasn’t an obvious fit at first (especially with Kamal and container logs), but I got it working after some trial and error.

Article:
https://muthuishere.medium.com/securing-a-production-vps-in-practice-e3feaa9545af

Code / automation:
https://github.com/muthuishere/automated-crowdsec-kamal

Would be interested to hear how others handle this on small production servers.

https://redd.it/1q1d8lf
@r_devops

Need help picking a devops/engineering professional development rig…

I am working on my professional development as an Embedded Systems Engineer. My education was in electrical engineering so my focus is mainly on CS and DevOps stuff.

I am wanting a professional development setup. I want to run a local instance of gitlab-ce likely in a docker container, I want to have a gitlab-runner on the desktop. I want gitlab to be constantly running. I am wanting the computer to be able to easily handle IDEs like keil or visual studio. I also want to be able to run PCB design software Altium and do moderate 3D modeling (without interrupting the gitlab work). I want it to be good enough to expand for future work so I want some breathing room as far as processing power/memory etc if that makes sense. And of course money is a factor. I basically have a $1600 budget for this.

My initial thought is this 64 GB asus nuc on Amazon, but my friend says I should look into getting two rigs, one to run docker and gitlab headlessly and then another running the ide/design software. I don’t know how to get two rigs to meet these requirements while keeping the budget intact…

“ASUS NUC 14 Pro Mini Desktop, Intel 16-Core Ultra 7 155H, 64GB DDR5, 2TB SSD, Wi-Fi 6E, Support 4-Display 4K, Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, Bluetooth, Windows 11 Pro, Black, AI PC for Home/Business/Gaming”

https://a.co/d/8KsO3QK

Does that nuc look like it would be a good choice? Would you recommend another setup?

https://redd.it/1q1gxxm
@r_devops

1.7 YOE in SOC | 1.3 Year Career Gap | Pivot to DevOps. Friends say "Fake it," but I want a sanity check.

Hi everyone,
I am looking for a sanity check on my job search strategy because I am hitting a wall.

My Story:
I originally came from a MERN stack development background. When I started my career, the market was rough, so I took the first role I could get: SOC Analyst (Cybersecurity Compliance). I worked there for 1.7 years, but deep down, I knew compliance wasn't for me.
Toward the end of that job, I collaborated with the infra team and found my passion in DevOps. Unfortunately, due to a personal family emergency, I had to drop out of the workforce entirely. I currently have a career gap of 1.3 years.

The Upskill:
During this gap, I haven't been idle. I’ve been aggressively learning and have built several end-to-end projects involving:
Infrastructure: Terraform, Kubernetes (EKS), Docker.
CI/CD: Jenkins, Ansible, ArgoCD.
DevSecOps: Implementing SonarQube and Trivy (leveraging my security background).
Architecture: Serverless and Microservices.

The Dilemma:
I have tailored my resume for ATS, listing my SOC experience honestly and my DevOps work under "Projects." I am getting zero calls.
My friends are suggesting that I merge the two: Claim I did these DevOps projects at my previous company and explain the 1.3-year gap as "Freelance DevOps work" to fill the void.

My Questions:
1. Is the 1.3-year gap the main reason for the silence?
2. Is "embellishing" my past experience the only way to bypass HR filters in this market?
3. Can I honestly pivot to a DevSecOps role given my SOC background, or am I considered a "fresher" again?

Any advice is appreciated.

https://redd.it/1q18400
@r_devops

Every uptime monitor wants me to configure through a UI

After using Uptime Kuma I realized how annoying configuring everything through the UI actually is. I have a backup of the DB but the setup takes too long. I want to configure stuff with IAC so I can spin it up anywhere without caring too much.

Config is ultra simple yaml:

hosts:
API:
target: 'https://myapi.com'
port: 443
expect: 200
interval: 30

Website:
target: 'https://mywebsite.com'
port: 443
expect: 200
interval: 30


So I built a simple monitoring tool. Running it in my homelab, thinking about adding alerting and maintenance windows to the config too. Does something like this already exist? I have a GitHub repo and on push a GitHub Action publishes the changes.

https://redd.it/1q1jag5
@r_devops

ServiceRadar is seeking early contributors!

We are building an Open Source network management, asset tracking, and observability platform in Elixir and are looking for contributors. Our stack is Elixir/Phoenix LiveView built around ERTS technology, powered by Postgres + extensions. We also use golang and rust for various services, and our stack runs mostly on docker or kubernetes. We also have a very robust CICD system built on bazel, github ARC, and more. This is a great opportunity to learn cutting edge devops systems and patterns and help build the future of network management systems.

If you are passionate about network management and building cloud native software we would love to connect.


https://github.com/carverauto/serviceradar

https://redd.it/1q1jji1
@r_devops

How do you enforce data contracts end-to-end across microservices → warehouse?

Hey folks,
We ingest events from microservices into a warehouse. A producer shipped a “small” schema change, and our ingestion kept running but started failing decoding/validation downstream. Nobody noticed for a while → we effectively lost data until someone spotted a gap.

We’re a pretty large org, which makes me feel we’re missing something basic or doing something wrong. This isn’t strictly in my responsibility, but I’m wondering: is this also common on your side? If you’ve solved it, what guardrails actually work to catch this fast?

https://redd.it/1q1bk6l
@r_devops

Patching: The Boring Security Practice That Could Save You $700 Million

https://lukasniessen.medium.com/patching-the-boring-security-practice-that-could-save-you-700-million-4d8f8b4b56a1?source=user_profile_page---------2-------------e997ef2a34b8----------------------

https://redd.it/1q1r2tx
@r_devops

Looking to form a small DevOps group for learning, motivation & side gigs

Hey everyone 👋

I’m a DevOps engineer and I’m trying to be more intentional about growth outside my day job.

Instead of doing it alone, I’m thinking of creating a small, focused group of DevOps folks who want to:

-Upskill together (real-world DevOps skills)
-Share learning resources and experiences
-Keep each other motivated
-Explore legit side gigs / freelancing opportunities when they come up.

This is not a course, not a paid group, and not spam.

Just a few like-minded people who want to grow steadily and support each other.

If this resonates with you, comment or DM me:

Your experience level (beginner / intermediate / experienced)
What you’re currently learning or aiming for

If enough people are interested, we can decide the best platform (Discord / Slack / WhatsApp).

Cheers!

https://redd.it/1q1qjx0
@r_devops

Need help deciding on what path to take in 2026

 I'm having trouble figuring out what I should focus on this upcoming year. I have some experience that I will list below from my resume. I really like programming. I like building things I like the job from my internships/apprenticeships. DevOps has been fun but also generally the back end is something that I'm interested in especially with some of my Java experience.

My experience is a bit general which is why I have concerns. And ultimately I'm not sure if I should be focusing on one thing or another. And not having a job is kind of starting to wear me down.

For context I don't have a degree in computer science. I come from a non tech background but I've been working hard at it for the past five years. I have had an internship at a fairly large company in the San Francisco Bay Area from Year Up, that I completed in 2024 for IT as a support specialist. In that job I also worked very closely with the client platform engineering team and did a lot of Devops, though I am pretty rusty because it was 6 months for Year up training and only 6 months for the internship at the larger company and then in 2025 I joined an apprenticeship for that same company for a different team. At the apprenticeship I was on the back end team doing Java and data pipelines. Unfortunately there were some issues with the team and things didn't work out for me and I've been unemployed since  the beginning of November.

My issues are that jumping from IT to devops to Java has left me a bit under-experienced practically. Additionally the apprenticeship this past year was not ideal for learning the skills I needed to be self sufficient as I realistically spent 3 months on the backend team/learning Java for the first time. So I would not be able to pass coding challenges for interviews. Additionally stepping away from IT/Devops has left my IT knowledge a bit lacking too.

I have a couple options for this upcoming year so I will try to lay them out.

I can try and get the Network+ certificate while looking for an IT job right away. To me that feels like the most attainable job to get quickly. Something like help desk or something like support analyst. But I genuinely don’t know how to get a job, it’s been 2 years since I did a job search. I don’t know if I can just start applying on Linkedin, or talking to staffing agencies or what…

Another path is really honing my Java skills, getting good at coding, and hoping my experience at the large Silicon valley company will carry me to a job via applications? I have some friends that work for the mag 7, Meta, Google, Apple, etc that have given me referrals. Though I am struggling to find junior roles or 0-2 years experience roles with them or even anywhere in general.

The next path focusing on Java, honing my skills like I mentioned, and electing to go back to school for the Computer Science degree. I found WGU which is an accredited online school. Due to my history at another college, I have enough transfer credits where I will only need \~52 credits from WGU to get my bachelors. I believe I can likely get this done in about a year.



So yeah, to reiterate I need a job sooner rather than later. But at the same time I’m not sure which area to focus on for studying while I conduct my job search. I want to spend my time wisely. While I’m leaning towards IT and certs just to get some kind of income from tech. I just don't know how relevant a Network+ cert would be in the short term or if the knowledge would actually get me a job…

A part of me wants to just go full in on Java/backend/maybe DevOps, and college. I think having that I'm close to graduating on my resume for Comp Sci would be enough to get some interviews this year? Plus the true college experience (I assume) would push me to be a much better programmer.


My Experience (I can add more detail if it would help):

**Software Engineer**

*San Francisco, CA | January 2025 – November 2025*


**It Support Analyst**

*San Francisco, CA | May 2024 – January

2025*



https://redd.it/1q1qq5o
@r_devops

Who here works as a Sales Engineer / Solutions Engineer? Looking for real-world advice

I currently work as a contractor and often collaborate with distributed teams. In most projects, especially when there is an on-call rotation or production responsibility, I’ve noticed that almost every major technical or architectural decision has to go through the Sales Engineer / Solutions Engineering team.
As someone coming from a more hands-on engineering background, I’m trying to understand this role better.
I would really appreciate advice on:
>What the day-to-day responsibilities of a Sales Engineer / Solutions Engineer actually look like
>How leads are sourced, and what the role looks like during periods when no deals are being closed
>What skills, background, or experience are critical to transition into this role from an engineering position
>Any harsh or less-talked-about realities of working in Sales / Solutions Engineering
If you’re working in Sales Engineering or Solutions Engineering, I’d love to hear your perspective.
I started looking into this role after coming across the compensation numbers on the careers page of one of my dream companies, and honestly, it made me curious— especially compared to traditional engineering roles.

https://redd.it/1q1rijx
@r_devops

Unexpected ₹9 lakh Azure bill after startup credits expired, seeking advice on waiver/refund

I had $1000 Azure startup credits and was using OpenAI APIs + Data Lake for personal/learning work.
After credits expired, some services kept running unknowingly and I now have a ~₹9 lakh bill.

I deleted everything immediately and raised a billing support ticket for waiver.
Has anyone successfully gotten such charges waived or reduced?
Any tips or do’s/don’ts would help a lot.

https://redd.it/1q1prko
@r_devops

Radio station with a host that judges your workflows, explained in detail

This is post I made purely to provide value and explain to everyone in detail how I did it. Hope it clears things up!

What it is

Nikolytics Radio is a late-night jazz station for founders who work too late. 3-hour YouTube videos. AI-generated jazz. A tired DJ named Sonny Nix who checks in between tracks with deadpan observations about your inbox, your pipeline, and why that proposal is still sitting in drafts.

Five volumes in five days. 70+ subscribers. Over 200k views on the first Reddit post.

It's a passion project that doubles as marketing for my automation consultancy.

The concept

The pitch: You're at your desk at 3 AM. Everyone's asleep. You put on Nikolytics Radio. A weathered voice observes your situation with dark humor. He's been where you are. He doesn't fix it. He just... sees it. Then plays a record.

The DJ (Sonny Nix) is a former founder who burned out and now plays jazz for strangers. He has recurring "listeners" who write in: Todd from Accounting whose job got automated, Margaret from Operations who finished her task list and doesn't know what to do with herself.

It's 95% vibe, 5% branding. If you removed every mention of my business, the station would still work. That's the point.

The tech stack

Music generation: Suno

I wrote 49 artist-specific prompts optimized for deep work. Each prompt targets a specific jazz style piano trio, cool trumpet, tenor ballad, etc. Settings: Instrumental only, \~3-4 min tracks, specific mood tags.

Example prompt structure:

jazz, 1950s late-night jazz combo: brushed kit, upright bass walking gently,
warm felted piano carrying the main theme, soft brass pads...
mood tags: soft, warm, slow, lounge, nostalgic

Generate 3-4 per prompt, pick the best, discard anything too busy or with abrupt endings.

Voice generation: ElevenLabs

Custom voice clone for Sonny Nix. I use their V3 model with specific audio tags:

`[mischievously]` \- dry humor, irony
[whispers] \- punchlines, gut punches
`[sighs]` \- weariness
[excited] \- mock ads only (ironic use)
`...` \- pauses

V3 doesn't support some tags like \[warm\] or \[tired\], so the words have to carry the emotion. Write tired sentences. Sorrowful observations.

Script writing: txt

I mostly write the noscripts, claude double checks for optimizations

Assembly: Logic Pro

120 BPM grid. Drop the tracks, drop the voice clips. Crossfade. Each episode is \~30 drops across 3 hours. Export as MP3.

Video: FFmpeg

Static image + audio. One command:

ffmpeg -loop 1 -i image.png -i audio.mp3 -c:v libx264 -tune stillimage
-c:a aac -b:a 320k -shortest output.mp4

The writing system

Each episode has 30 "drops" - short DJ segments between songs:

Station IDs \- Quick brand hits ("Nikolytics Radio... still here.")
Bumpers \- One-liners ("The coffee's cold. You noticed an hour ago. Still drinking it.")
Pain points \- Observations that hit too close ("Revision eight. The scope tripled. The budget didn't.")
Testimonials \- Fictional listeners writing in
Mock ads \- Parody sponsor segments ("Introducing Scope Creep Insurance...")
Dedications \- "This one goes out to everyone who almost quit today..."
Recurring segments \- Pipeline Weather, Outreach Report, Inbox Conditions

The key insight: Sonny has emotional range. He's not monotone. He moves between tired, mischievous, sorrowful. He worries about Todd. He offers brief sympathy to Sarah. Then plays a record.

What worked

1. The vibe is the moat. Most automation consultants are boring. This is different enough that people share it.
2. Worldbuilding compounds. Todd's promotion arc. Margaret's puzzle. Callbacks like "Here it's always 3 AM." Returning listeners feel like regulars.
3. Reddit got it started. First post on r/productivity got 14k views. Someone called it "Slop Radio FM." Now that's a badge of honor we reference in the show.
4. Daily uploads built

momentum. Five volumes in five days. The algorithm likes consistency.

What I learned about AI voice

ElevenLabs V3 is good but literal. It interprets quotes as character voices (breaks everything). Always paraphrase.
Tags only work if the model supports them. No [warm\], no [tired\]. The text has to do the work.
Regenerate 2-3x per drop, pick the best take. Same noscript, different reads.
Punchlines land in [whispers]. Setup is [mischievously]. Then stop - no extra lines after the joke lands.

Time investment

Initial setup (prompts, character docs, templates): \~15 hours
Per episode now: \~2 hours
Generate music: 30 min
Generate voice drops: 30 min
Assembly in Logic: 30 min
YouTube upload + denoscription: 30 min

What could be automated further

Voice generation \- Currently pasting drops one by one into ElevenLabs. Could batch via API.
Timestamps \- Calculating from bar positions manually. Already wrote a Python noscript, could integrate it.
YouTube denoscription \- Template exists, still copy-pasting. Easy n8n automation.
Episode assembly \- The real bottleneck. Logic Pro is manual drag-and-drop. Exploring noscripted alternatives.

Writing stays mine.

The dream: one-click episode generation. Not there yet, but the pieces exist.

After getting the desired results and I train the AI enough to understand how everything is supposed to work, it will be automated. I need it to be perfectly in sync with my concept.

Link

**https://www.youtube.com/@NikolyticsRadio**

Happy to answer questions about the workflow, the writing system, or the Suno/ElevenLabs settings.

TL;DR: Built a fake radio station with AI music (Suno), AI voice (ElevenLabs), and my noscripts. The DJ has a character bible. There's lore. It's marketing for my automation business but also just... a thing that exists now. 70 subscribers in 5 days.

https://redd.it/1q1w2l1
@r_devops

Al won't make coding obsolete. Coding was never the hard part.



Most takes about Al replacing programmers miss where the real cost sits.

Typing code is just trannoscription. The hard work is upstream: figuring out what's actually needed, resolving ambiguity, handling edge cases, and designing systems that survive real usage. By the time you're coding, most of the thinking should already be done.

Tools like GPT, Claude, Cosine, etc. are great at removing accidental complexity, boilerplate, glue code, ceremony. That's real progress. But it doesn't touch essential complexity.

If your system has hundreds of rules, constraints, and tradeoffs, someone still has to specify them. You can't compress semantics without losing meaning. Any missing detail just comes back later as bugs or "unexpected behavior."

Strip away the tooling differences and coding, no-code, and vibe coding all collapse into the same job, clearly communicating required behavior to an execution engine.

https://redd.it/1q1wpr4
@r_devops