Posts

What is CI/CD and Why DevOps Engineers Need It If you’ve ever deployed an application manually — copying files, restarting services, and fixing unexpected issues at 2 AM — you know the pain. That’s where CI/CD comes in. It’s not just buzzwords, but one of the core practices in DevOps. Breaking It Down CI (Continuous Integration) Developers merge their code frequently (ideally daily) into a shared repo. Automated pipelines check if the new code builds, tests pass, and nothing is broken. ...

What is a Helm Subchart and How to Use It When you start using Helm to manage applications in Kubernetes, you’ll quickly discover that not everything should live in a single chart. Sometimes, an application depends on other components — like a database, cache, or monitoring tool. This is where subcharts come into play. What is a Subchart? A subchart is simply another Helm chart that lives inside the charts/ directory of your main chart. It’s a way to define dependencies. For example, your app may need Redis. Instead of reinventing the wheel, you include the Redis Helm chart as a subchart. ...

What is mbuffer and How It Can Be Useful When working with large data transfers in Linux — for example, copying databases, streaming backups, or piping data over the network — you might face performance bottlenecks. This is where mbuffer comes in. What is mbuffer? mbuffer (short for media buffer) is a tool that adds a high-performance buffer between a producer (like tar, dd, pg_dump) and a consumer (like ssh, gzip, disk). It works like a smart middleman: it temporarily stores data in memory and forwards it more smoothly. ...

What is Syncoid and How It Can Be Useful If you use ZFS on Linux or BSD, you might have datasets and snapshots that need to be replicated between servers. Syncoid is a tool that simplifies ZFS replication and backup. Why Syncoid? Automates snapshot replication — copies snapshots between datasets or servers. Incremental transfers — only changes are sent over the network, saving bandwidth. Easy CLI usage — no need to write complex ZFS send/receive scripts. Supports remote hosts — replication over SSH is built-in. Example: Basic Syncoid Usage Assume you have a source dataset tank/data and want to replicate it to backup/data on a remote server: ...

Optimizing etcd on Slow Disks in Kubernetes In Kubernetes, etcd is the central database that stores the entire cluster state. If etcd runs on slow disks, you might notice performance issues: API requests slow down, pods take longer to schedule, and sometimes the cluster feels “laggy.” Why etcd Struggles on Slow Disks etcd is very I/O-intensive. Each write goes to disk to guarantee consistency. On spinning HDDs or cheap cloud disks with poor IOPS, etcd can quickly become a bottleneck. ...