NetBay journal

Guides for operators

Practical guides for Linux, containers, CI/CD, self-hosting, and running VPS infrastructure from Netbay Engineering.

499 articles · 24 topics

Immutable Artifacts: Build Once, Promote Across Environments

Stop rebuilding in every environment. Build a versioned artifact once in CI and promote it through staging to production unchanged.

CI/CDApril 23, 20267 min read

GitHub Actions Context and Expressions Explained

Master the GitHub Actions github, secrets, inputs, matrix and needs contexts, plus the expression functions that power every if condition and output.

GitHubApril 23, 20268 min read

HAProxy Load Balancing with Health Checks

Front a pair of app servers with HAProxy, configure TCP and HTTP health checks, and let automatic failover keep your availability intact through outages.

ProxiesApril 23, 20267 min read

Laravel on a VPS: Storage, Queues, Scheduler

Run Laravel on a VPS with a writable storage tree, a systemd queue worker, and cron for schedule:run so logs, jobs, and scheduled tasks survive every deploy.

App DeploymentApril 23, 20269 min read

DKIM Signing With OpenDKIM on a Small MTA

DKIM survives forwarding when SPF does not. Sign with OpenDKIM on Postfix, publish a 2048-bit TXT key, and verify the signature on a received copy.

EmailApril 23, 20268 min read

Queue LLM Inference Jobs with Redis on Ubuntu

Move model calls off the HTTP request path into a Redis list plus a worker so a Lucknow VPS can absorb bursts without dropping chats or overrunning spend.

AI InfrastructureApril 23, 20268 min read

SQLite Schema Migrations Without a Framework

Version SQLite with a schema_migrations table and numbered SQL files so deploys apply ALTERs once, in order, without a heavy framework on the VPS.

DatabasesApril 22, 20268 min read

CAA Records So Only Your Certificate Authority Can Issue

Add CAA records so only the certificate authority you choose can issue for your domain, then verify that policy before the next ACME issuance.

DNS & TLSApril 22, 20267 min read

SSH Agent Forwarding Without Leaking Your Farm

Use ssh-agent for passphrases, prefer ProxyJump over ForwardAgent, and lock confirmation so a compromised jump host cannot silently sign as you.

Linux AdministrationApril 22, 20268 min read

Why Browser-Use Agents Are Dangerous in Prod

A browser-use agent can click, type, and exfiltrate from any tab it can reach. Run it sandboxed, or do not run it at all on a production VPS.

AI AgentsApril 22, 20268 min read

Docker Networking: Bridge, Host, Macvlan, Custom

Compare Docker's bridge, host, and macvlan network modes, and learn when custom user-defined networks give services the isolation they need.

ContainersApril 21, 20268 min read

Building Images with Buildah Without a Daemon

Assemble OCI container images with Buildah's rootless, daemonless build steps and combine them with systemd or CI for reproducible pipelines.

Containers & OrchestrationApril 21, 20266 min read