Dokku gives you a tiny Heroku; you still own production
Dokku can deploy open-source software quickly, but its runtime and storage model create tradeoffs. Here is where the friction appears and when a VPS is simpler.
Encrypted backups are useless without recoverable keys
Encrypted backups are useless without recoverable keys. A practical production guide with diagnostic commands, failure interpretation, and a safe decision…
Ephemeral port exhaustion: the hidden client-side outage
Ephemeral port exhaustion: the hidden client-side outage. A practical production guide with diagnostic commands, failure interpretation, and a safe…
Fail2ban for SSH: useful guardrail, not your primary lock
Fail2ban for SSH: useful guardrail, not your primary lock. Audit the exposure, understand the threat model, apply changes safely, and keep an independent…
Feature flag rollout caused an incident: contain and learn
Feature flag rollout caused an incident: contain and learn. A practical production guide with diagnostic commands, failure interpretation, and a safe…
Fly Volumes and the hidden work behind stateful open source
Fly.io can deploy open-source software quickly, but its runtime and storage model create tradeoffs. Here is where the friction appears and when a VPS is…
Run a disaster-recovery game day that teaches the truth
Run a disaster-recovery game day that teaches the truth. A practical production guide with diagnostic commands, failure interpretation, and a safe decision…
GitHub Actions permission denied after token hardening
GitHub Actions permission denied after token hardening. A practical production guide with diagnostic commands, failure interpretation, and a safe decision…
GitHub Actions self-hosted runner offline: service and network debugging
GitHub Actions self-hosted runner offline: service and network debugging. A practical production guide with diagnostic commands, failure interpretation,…
Health checks vs synthetic monitoring: green is not enough
Health checks vs synthetic monitoring: green is not enough. A practical production guide with diagnostic commands, failure interpretation, and a safe…
Heroku's ephemeral filesystem versus file-backed open source apps
Heroku can deploy open-source software quickly, but its runtime and storage model create tradeoffs. Here is where the friction appears and when a VPS is…
HTTP 502 vs 503 vs 504: use the status as a starting clue
HTTP 502 vs 503 vs 504: use the status as a starting clue. A practical production guide with diagnostic commands, failure interpretation, and a safe…
Idle servers cost more than compute: patching and attack surface
Idle servers cost more than compute: patching and attack surface. A practical production guide with diagnostic commands, failure interpretation, and a safe…
Immutable deployment artifacts: stop rebuilding on the server
Immutable deployment artifacts: stop rebuilding on the server. A practical production guide with diagnostic commands, failure interpretation, and a safe…
API latency spike: a no-panic investigation
API latency spike: a no-panic investigation. A time-boxed incident workflow: verify impact, gather high-signal evidence, restore service safely, and…
Credential rotation after a server incident: the order matters
Credential rotation after a server incident: the order matters. Audit the exposure, understand the threat model, apply changes safely, and keep an…
Application cannot reach the database: trace the whole path
Application cannot reach the database: trace the whole path. A time-boxed incident workflow: verify impact, gather high-signal evidence, restore service…
The deploy broke production: rollback first or debug first?
The deploy broke production: rollback first or debug first?. A time-boxed incident workflow: verify impact, gather high-signal evidence, restore service…
DNS change went wrong: TTLs, caches, and split answers
DNS change went wrong: TTLs, caches, and split answers. A time-boxed incident workflow: verify impact, gather high-signal evidence, restore service safely,…
Docker Compose outage: dependency order is not readiness
Docker Compose outage: dependency order is not readiness. A time-boxed incident workflow: verify impact, gather high-signal evidence, restore service…
High I/O wait: find the disk queue behind the slowdown
High I/O wait: find the disk queue behind the slowdown. A time-boxed incident workflow: verify impact, gather high-signal evidence, restore service safely,…
Load balancer says unhealthy while the app looks fine
Load balancer says unhealthy while the app looks fine. A time-boxed incident workflow: verify impact, gather high-signal evidence, restore service safely,…
No space left on device: disk blocks, inodes, and deleted files
No space left on device: disk blocks, inodes, and deleted files. A time-boxed incident workflow: verify impact, gather high-signal evidence, restore…
The OOM killer terminated your app: what to inspect next
The OOM killer terminated your app: what to inspect next. A time-boxed incident workflow: verify impact, gather high-signal evidence, restore service…