Being able to send emails within an automation script can be very useful, especially for notifying the server admin for issues.

Longhorn’s powerful volume snapshotting feature can be integrated with kubernetes’ VolumeSnapshots CRDs and used by velero to create consistent volume backups.

Longhorn volume backups are based on its implementation of volume snapshots.

When a volume snapshot is requested, a new read-only layer is created from the live filesystem data. Each snapshot creates an additional read-only layer, similarly on how docker container images are built. Thus, deleting a file that is stored on a previous layer doesn’t decrease the volume size.

Velero supports generic S3 locations for its backups, provided that they are compatibile with the AWS implementation. Oracle Cloud Object Storage (especially when used in the free tier) can be useful for experimenting with Object Storage for various use cases.

K3s and Kube-VIP are two powerful tools that are transforming how we deploy and manage Kubernetes clusters in edge, small-scale, and resource-constrained environments. K3s, a lightweight Kubernetes distribution developed by Rancher Labs, simplifies the deployment of Kubernetes while maintaining compatibility with full Kubernetes environments. With its reduced resource footprint and optimized design, K3s is ideal for scenarios where hardware resources are limited, such as IoT devices, small cloud instances, and development environments. As Kubernetes adoption continues to grow across industries, K3s has emerged as a go-to solution for those who need the power and flexibility of Kubernetes without the complexity and overhead of a traditional installation.

One time I was in the akward situation where some container images were deleted by mistake from the registry by a bugged automation script. As expected, most of the images were pretty old and couldn’t be rebuilt (offline repositories, broken links, etc.).

Reading the content of a persistent volume claim in kubernetes is not an operation supported natively through the APIs.

Creating a copy of a PV can be useful to debug and modify its data while the original PV remains unaffected.

Self-hosting programs you use often and on multiple devices has many benefits such as data privacy and platform customization.

FreshRSS is an open-source self-hosted RSS feeds aggregator. It comes with a web GUI but supports many mobile clients and it’s the ideal solution to centrally manage RSS feeds on many devices.