07 Mar 2026

Ok, we installed the system (Ubuntu 2024.04) and prepared the disks for backups, now we have to make the machine behave like a server: we must be able to reach it remotely. As long as we are in a local network we can access it knowing it's IP address with tools as Secure Shell (SSH), Secure File Transfert Protocol, VNC and many others. But we want to access the server from outside our local network, even from our mobile when we are on vacation, and that's a slightly harder task, because the server is plugged to a router to access the internet, and the public IP of the router changes in time.

Today there are many services that enable the remote connection, personally I use Tailscale. You will have to register an account to this service, but as long as you have only three users and one hundred (!) connected devices, you can live on their free tier. Once you have the account, you have to connect your machines. First I connected my laptop (Windows 10) and my mobile (Android), and that's a rather simple task: once you have downloaded the installers, you run the clients and log them into your Tailscale account. On your Tailscale dashboard, you can see the status (online / offline) of your devices (called "machines"). Now we have to add the server the tailnet. Open the terminal and type:

curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh

That's it! Now start the service:

sudo tailscale up

The terminal will show you a link. Follow it and you will be redirected to your Tailscale account login page. Once logged in, the server will appear on the dashboard. On the dashboard you can manage your machines. In example I selected the server machine and I set it's access key never to expire. Thats's normal for a server that needs to be always available. To access remotely the server's terminal, I added the Tailscale SSH to it:

sudo tailscale set --ssh

The SSH flag appears on the dashbord, next to the server machine. That's great, this way you have an encrypted connection on a VPN! From my laptop I access the server's terminal with PuTTY, and I upload files with Filezilla.

Okay, now the server is ready, unplug the screen, the keyboard and the mouse, sit the server next to your router, plug in the ethernet cable and switch the power on: the server will immediately join your tailnet, accessible from everywhere.

02 Mar 2026

As I purchased the Lenovo ThinkCentre as my home server, I noticed that the disk was wrong: 256GB instead of 512! I complained with the supplier and they sent me the right one, so now I have a spare SATA SSD with Windows 10 Pro installed.

I knew that this kind of mini PC can handle more than one disk, and that the NVME that eventually sits on the bottom is faster then the SATA, so I bought one at a local retailer (480GB). My idea was to install the system on the fast disk, and to use the slower for backups.

My system of choice is of course Ubuntu. You download the ISO image of the system on a USB device, plug it in the computer and reboot it. You must be sure that the USB device is first in the boot sequence (check your BIOS). In my case, as I have two disks, I put the USB as first bootable device, the NVME as second and so on.

With the USB plugged in, the system it holds will be in charge. From there you can test your machine (see if everything works) or install Ubuntu permanently. I targeted the NVME for the install. Once the process is complete you reboot the machine and unplug the USB, so the installed system takes control of the machine. If something goes wrong you replug the USB and start over.

Ubuntu is a very friendly operating system, you can do almost everything with a graphic interface, but if you are experienced enough, you can use the terminal. In my case I changed the name of the backup disk with the "Disks" application, then I fired up the terminal to change write permissions to the disk, so that any user can write stuff on it:

sudo chmod ugo+rw /path/to/your/disk

Just to remember: this command assigns (+) (r)ead and (w)rite permissions to all (u)sers, (g)roups and (o)thers for a given folder/disk.

Edit: just to be sure, I gave the user full ownership of the backup disk with the "Disks" application. I try to use the terminal as much as I can, but coming from Windows I'm more a GUI guy.

04 Feb 2026

While cleaning up my web host account I accidentally destroyed the database of this website, so navigating to digitalkOmiX.com threw a 500 error. Fortunately my web host makes automatic backups, so I just emailed the support team and I received a response within minutes. The *.dump file was uploaded to my account, ready to be restored. A brief explanation of "how to fix" was provided, all by email.

First I had to recreate the database with the same name of the deleted one, along with it's user. Upon creation a new password was issued, so I had to copy/paste it. Accessing my account via SSH in the same directory where the *.dump file was uploaded, I restored the Postgres database with the following command:

pg-restore -U <database user> -d <database name> file.dump

I was prompted for the new password and the process worked seamlessly. Next I had to update the same password in the configuration file of the application that managed the database. I restarted the server and the website was back online!

Huge thanks to the (((Opalstack staff! 

30 Jan 2026

I already have a homelab, but it sits in my studio, so I'll call it StudioLab. It's made from a small HP we had at work, RAM 16 GB, two SSD respectively 512 and 256 GB. It's too big and noisy to stay at home, but suitable for a work environment. It has Proxmox installed, here I learned to use VMs and Linux containers. Actually there is a LXC for a name server (BIND) and a VM with an Immich instance, other stuff is just shut down. The machine is remote controlled via a Tailscale VPN.

29 Jan 2026

I'm building a homelab! First you need a machine: I bought this refurbished Lenovo ThinkCentre M710q Tiny, 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD. It's a very cute computer, small and quiet. Just one screw and you can access all the internals, on the bottom there is also place for another drive, a NVMe SSD (maybe I'll buy it and install the OS there to speed it up). It comes with Windows 10 Pro installed, but I'll swap it with Ubuntu 24.04. Of course they messed up with the shipment (the SATA SSD is half the size), and I'm waiting for the replacement.

26 Jun 2025

La settimana scorsa è venuto a mancare mio padre. Era un fisico teorico, per il suo contributo alla ricerca potete cercare qui:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Guerra

Papà era molto giovane quando io ed i miei fratelli siamo nati. Abbiamo avuto il privilegio di condividere con lui tante esperienze di prima mano: i primi viaggi all'estero, le prime puntate di Star Trek... Aveva una capacità di concentrazione straordinaria, riempiva fogli e fogli di formule mentre noi nella stanza a fianco distruggevamo i soprammobili a pallonate.

Io ed i miei fratelli siamo nati sotto due Soli, uno molto caldo, quello di mia madre, uno un po' più freddo ma molto luminoso, quello di mio padre. Si sono spenti entrambi, ma ne sentiamo ancora il tepore e ne siamo illuminati.