bjbeier
Working in tech for half of my life and tinkering in tech for almost all of it, I’ve dabbled in a little bit of everything. Working in Help Desk and learning corporate IT to managing multiple systems as a Systems Admin up to oversight at an executive level. My knowledge is always expanding and I’m always trying to learn something new.
Over the last few years I’ve been heading down the path of Linux, more from a server side. I’ve always been a Windows guy as that is widely used both in business as well as residential. But Linux was something I didn’t have as much exposure to and wasn’t very well versed in. I knew some basic commands and could navigate the GUI of the basic distros, but I knew there was so much more.
I started my journey with a simple Raspberry Pi and Ubuntu Server. I tinkered with the Pi for basic projects like a game system emulator, a NAS to store some files and even a Plex server to steam my media library. I read article after article and followed guide after guide trying to learn as much as I could. I’d go down rabbit holes on some projects that would take me weeks of tinkering before I finally got it working just right.
Over time, I collected a few more PI’s, until the shortage hit, and even took an old desktop and installed Linux on it. Slowly I was building my own little network of devices and some of them were even useful. I had to start labeling things with IP addresses and hostnames and draw a network diagram of everything so I could easily see what I had and how it was connected.
The more I dabbled, the more I added. Then I found out about Docker. Talk about a rabbit hole! That’s been the path I’ve been on for the last year or so. I’ve containerized all the things and even recently migrated a bunch of containers from one server to another, and it actually went pretty well. I’ve added so many cool things to my infrastructure, PiHole for DNS, Wireguard for VPN, Duplicati and UrBackup for backups, WordPress for websites, Uptime Kuma to monitor everything and even a dashboard with Homepage so I can easily access everything.
Working with Docker I quickly learned how much easier it was to setup and recreate services using Docker Compose. That even led me into learning Git and setting up code repositories for all my different services to keep track of the projects and the changes I was making. This was honestly the hardest part for me as I’m simply terrible at documentation. But I’ve identified that weakness and I’m working on it.
I’ve learned so much in such a short time that I simply can’t believe only a few years ago I was tinkering with a single Raspberry Pi in the basement. I’ve found so many great tech folks out there on YouTube sharing tons of great knowledge. Jeff Geerling, Techno Tim, Network Chuck, and Christian Lempa are just a few of the many out there. If you have any interest in learning anything tech related, do yourself a favor and give them a look. As I continue on my journey, I’m excited at the thought of all the other things I’m going to uncover and learn.