It was about time I played with Open vSwitch (OVS). I’m going to take advantage of setting up a new server with Ubuntu Server, KVM, Virtual Machines, and VLANs to build everything with Open vSwitch instead of the traditional Linux Bridge. OVS is a virtual bridge from which I’ll manage all network connections for both the server itself and its virtual machines. Some VMs will receive a Trunk interface while the majority will connect in Access mode to a specific VLAN. …
The goal is to run virt-manager from my Mac to manage VMs on a couple of remote KVM/QEMU host servers without needing to install an X11 environment on them. I’ve documented two options: the first uses a local virtual machine (VirtualBox/Parallels/…) with Ubuntu and a minimal GUI environment (just Xorg/X11 and virt-manager), the second uses HomeBrew. …
I describe how I integrated my photovoltaic installation into Home Assistant, featuring Axitec panels, a SolaX Inverter, and a pair of Triple Power batteries. After trying several options, I settled on the MODBUS/TCP integration which works locally via LAN and exposes more data than the other options. …
I set up these three services on a dedicated server at home to monitor my home automation. InfluxDB is a database super-optimized for working with time series. Grafana lets you create dashboards and graphs from multiple sources, and Telegraf is a lightweight agent that collects, processes, and sends data to our database. I’ve decided to install all three on an Ubuntu 20.04 LTS server, on a virtual machine in KVM, so they’re consumed by the rest of the home automation elements: the Home Assistant server and other devices that can write to InfluxDB. …
I’ve migrated the InfluxDB/Grafana services from my Home Assistant to an external server. Moving the service and setting it up on another server isn’t too difficult. What did take me a while was figuring out how to export and import data between the InfluxDB instances and how to adapt the old Grafana Dashboard to use Flux. …
To have control and management over IT assets, equipment, and labs, I’ve been trying iTop. iTop stands for IT Operations Portal. It’s a complete web-based ITIL service management tool that includes a fully customizable CMDB, a helpdesk system, and a document management tool. It offers bulk import tools and web services to integrate with your IT. I set up a small lab to test it. …