System Administration

How to Create a Linux Golden Image on Linode (Step-by-Step Lab)
Learn how to create a Linux Golden Image on Linode and use it to deploy secure, preconfigured VPS instances in minutes.

In this hands-on Linux tutorial, you’ll learn what a Golden Image is, why system administrators use them, and the best practices to follow when building one. We’ll prepare a reusable Linode image by installing updates, preinstalling essential packages, configuring Fail2ban, and converting the finished VPS into a deployment-ready template.

By the end of the lab, you’ll be able to launch new Linux servers from your Golden Image – saving time, improving consistency, and eliminating repetitive server configuration.

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My Actual Linux Setup Revealed: What I’m Using Now

What Linux distributions, hardware, and software do I actually use? In this video, I share some of the Linux distros, laptops, desktops, server operating systems, and applications that currently support my workflow.

You’ll learn which Linux distributions I’ve been using lately, why keeping an alternative distro in mind can be useful, and which distro I prefer for Linux servers. I’ll also show you some of my current computer hardware and briefly discuss several Linux apps and tools I use.

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GB vs GiB: The Shocking Truth About Storage Sizes

GB vs GiB and TB vs TiB—what’s the difference? Learn why storage sizes often appear incorrect, how SI and IEC prefixes work, and which units accurately describe your SSD, hard drive, and computer storage.

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How to Test Your Network Speed on Linux with iPerf3

Do you actually know how fast your network is? Not what your switch spec sheet says — what it’s really doing between two hosts. iPerf3 is the tool sysadmins and homelab enthusiasts reach for when they need real answers, and in this video I’ll show you how to use it from the ground up.

We cover everything from installation to practical usage, including how to test WiFi vs wired, push a 10 gigabit ethernet connection, bind to a specific interface, and dial in your test parameters for accurate results.

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Why You NEED UUIDs in fstab (Linux Storage Explained)

If you’ve ever rebooted a Linux server and had it fail to come back up, there’s a good chance the culprit is sitting right in your /etc/fstab file. Device names like /dev/sda1 can shift after a reboot, a drive swap, or even a kernel update — and when that happens, your mounts break and your server may not boot at all. In this video, I break down why UUIDs matter for Linux storage, and I show you a real production server that ran into exactly this problem.

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Read more: Why You NEED UUIDs in fstab (Linux Storage Explained)
Kestra’s Proxmox Plugin: Create a Workflow to Easily Spin-Up VMs

Manually spinning up VMs in Proxmox gets old fast. In this video, I’m using Kestra (an open-source workflow automation platform) to automatically clone a VM template and start it, all without touching the Proxmox UI! You’ll see the process of buiding the workflow, setting up the Proxmox API – and more! In this step-by-step video, you’ll be able to build this for yourself.

Thanks to Kestra for supporting this tutorial! You can self-host it and use it to automate entire workflows , so check it out!

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Behind the Scenes: My Linux Terminal & Server Workflow

Your terminal setup says a lot about your workflow – in this video, I walk through how I configure my Linux terminal environment, covering tmux, Vim, my Bash configuration, and even a live Ansible provisioning run to deploy this setup across my LLTV servers.

If you’re looking to build a faster, more efficient terminal workflow on Linux, this video covers the core tools I rely on every day as a sysadmin.

Download my dotfiles here!
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How Hackers Actually Breach Systems – Secrets of Red Team Engineering

What does hacking really look like – and how do attackers actually break into systems? In this video, I sit down with Casey Erdmann, Red Team Engineer and author of Red Team Engineering, to pull back the curtain on how real-world cyberattacks work, what cybersecurity is actually like to learn, and what most people get completely wrong about hacking.

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First Things To Do On Every New Linux Server

In this video, I’ll walk you through the essential first steps you should take every time you deploy a new Linux server. Whether you’re a seasoned sysadmin or just getting started with Linux server administration, these foundational steps will help you secure your server, set up SSH key authentication, and establish a solid baseline configuration.

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My Real-World Workflow for Deploying Servers & Workstations

Ever wonder what actually happens behind the scenes when I spin up a new server or workstation? In this video, I’m giving you a behind-the-scenes look at my full deployment workflow — covering how I provision cloud VPS servers, configure them with Ansible, deploy workstations, and manage it all through a consistent configuration management approach.

Ansible is a key piece of this puzzle, but this video is really about the bigger picture: how all the pieces fit together to make server and workstation deployment fast, repeatable, and low-maintenance.

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