BLOG
Why this DevOps portfolio exists
Why the learning process, not just the finished result, is the point of this site.
Read article →tom@siddle:~/devops$ whoami
Tom Siddle
Junior System Administration / Linux / Infrastructure
I document my transition into IT by publishing the systems I build, the problems I encounter, and the reasoning I use to solve them.
$
current_quest
CURRENT QUEST
Self-host this website on my own Linux infrastructure.
The lab site is now served from my own Ubuntu/KVM infrastructure over public HTTP. HTTPS is the current stage; the provider-hosted copy remains available as a fallback while the migration is completed.
- doneUbuntu Server host
- doneHeadless operation
- doneSSH / SFTP administration
- doneNetwork configuration investigation
- doneKVM / libvirt
- doneBridged VM networking
- doneWeb-server VM / nginx
- donePublic DNS + HTTP exposure
- currentHTTPS / TLS
- plannedFirewall / secure exposure
- plannedMonitoring
- plannedBackups
- plannedProduction migration
$
current_focus
Linux system administration
Processes, users, permissions, packages, services, logs and repeatable administration.
Networking & troubleshooting
DHCP, routing, Netplan, systemd-networkd and evidence-driven fault isolation.
Virtualization
KVM / libvirt is the current infrastructure topic, with VM networking and isolation next.
$
latest
BLOG
Why ssh.service can be disabled while SSH still works
A systemd socket-activation observation that challenged a simple service mental model.
Read article →BLOG
Solving the problem versus understanding the problem
Why production recovery and lab investigation should deliberately optimize for different things.
Read article →$
recent_learning_log
2026-09-07 · LAB
KVM / libvirt fundamentals
Current infrastructure topic: understanding the virtualization layer before building the server VM.
2026-08-24 · FAILURE / FIX
Host unreachable — but the server was fine
A reminder to test the client-side network state before escalating the server hypothesis.
2026-08-23 · SIDEQUEST
ssh.service versus ssh.socket
Investigating what actually listens and how systemd can activate a service on demand.