Upgrading MariaDB on Synology Docker: 10.11 to 12.3, WordPress Fix and Nightly Backups
A real MariaDB 10.11 to 12.3 upgrade on Synology, fixing WordPress's broken Docker network and scheduling verified nightly SQL backups before WUD updates.
Category Networking
Networking projects and guides covering switches, routers, DNS, VLANs, remote access, network design and troubleshooting.
Building VLANs Across Two HP ProCurve 2510G Switches in a Home Lab
I wanted to segment my home lab without replacing perfectly capable managed switches. This is how I approached VLANs across two HP ProCurve 2510G switches, including tagged uplinks, untagged access ports, management traffic and the mistakes that can make a VLAN design fail even when the config looks right.
Building a Raspberry Pi PXE Server with Synology NAS Storage for Windows Deployment
I wanted a cleaner way to deploy and recover Windows machines without carrying USB installers around. This is how I split PXE boot services onto a Raspberry Pi while keeping WinPE, Windows images and deployment files on my Synology NAS — including the DHCP, TFTP and port 69 problems I hit along the way.
Changing a Proxmox NFS Server IP When pvesm set Says You Can’t
This one looked like it should take about thirty seconds. My Synology NAS had moved to a new static IP address. One of my Proxmox storage entries still pointed at the old address. So I did the obvious thing: Proxmox…
Moving MQTT to a New Server Without Breaking Every Automation
MQTT is one of those services that quietly becomes more important the longer you use it. At first, I was only using it for a few simple messages. Then more things started depending on it. The Raspberry Pi used it.…
Fixing Home Assistant Behind Cloudflare Tunnel: Trusted Proxies and X-Forwarded-For
Publishing Home Assistant through Cloudflare Tunnel looked like it should be straightforward. I already had Cloudflare Tunnel working for other Realm Labs services, so the basic path was familiar: The tunnel connected. The hostname resolved. Cloudflare could reach the server.…
Why My Synology NFS Share Only Mounted When I Forced NFSv3
One of the more frustrating storage problems I hit in Realm Labs looked like a permissions issue at first. The Synology NAS was online. The NFS share existed. The client could reach the NAS. The export configuration looked right. But…
I Replaced My Core Switch and My Mesh Network Fell Apart
Sometimes a network change looks so simple that you don’t expect it to cause any trouble. This was one of those changes. I had an older HP ProCurve 2810G-24 acting as the core switch in Realm Labs. It had been…
The GPO That Broke Group Policy: WireGuard at Windows Startup
This one was painful because the symptoms made it look like the entire domain was falling apart. I had a Windows domain environment running in Realm Labs and wanted domain-joined machines to automatically bring up a WireGuard tunnel at startup.…
When DNS Broke Docker on My Raspberry Pi
One of the more misleading problems I’ve hit in the Realm Labs setup started with Docker. Or at least, that’s what it looked like. I was trying to pull an image on one of my Raspberry Pis and Docker simply…