Virtually Potato
open-menu closeme
vPotato
K8s on vSphere
vRA 8
Projects
Scripts
Tips
Connect icon
CounterSocial GitHub SimpleX Chat
github rss
  • Create Virtual Machines on a Chromebook with HashiCorp Vagrant

    calendar Feb 20, 2023  · edit Feb 25, 2023 · 8 min read · linux chromeos homelab infrastructure-as-code  ·
    Share on: twitter facebook linkedin copy
    Create Virtual Machines on a Chromebook with HashiCorp Vagrant

    I've lately been trying to do more with Salt at work, but I'm still very much a novice with that tool. I thought it would be great to have a nice little portable lab environment where I could deploy a few lightweight VMs and practice managing them with Salt - without impacting any systems that are actually being used …


    Read More
  • Tailscale golink: Private Shortlinks for your Tailnet

    calendar Feb 12, 2023  · edit Feb 13, 2023 · 6 min read · docker vpn tailscale wireguard containers  ·
    Share on: twitter facebook linkedin copy
    Tailscale golink: Private Shortlinks for your Tailnet

    I've shared in the past about how I use custom search engines in Chrome as quick web shortcuts. And I may have mentioned my love for Tailscale a time or two as well. Well I recently learned of a way to combine these two passions: Tailscale golink. The golink announcement post on the Tailscale blog offers a great …


    Read More
  • Gitea: Ultralight Self-Hosted Git Server

    calendar Jul 22, 2022  · edit Jan 19, 2023 · 15 min read · linux docker cloud tailscale  ·
    Share on: twitter facebook linkedin copy
    Gitea: Ultralight Self-Hosted Git Server

    I recently started using Obsidian for keeping notes, tracking projects, and just generally organizing all the information that would otherwise pass into my brain and then fall out the other side. Unlike other similar solutions which operate entirely in The Cloud, Obsidian works with Markdown files stored in a local …


    Read More
  • ESXi ARM Edition on the Quartz64 SBC

    calendar Apr 23, 2022  · edit Dec 14, 2022 · 16 min read · vmware linux chromeos homelab tailscale photon vpn  ·
    Share on: twitter facebook linkedin copy
    ESXi ARM Edition on the Quartz64 SBC

    ESXi-ARM Fling v1.10 Update On July 20, 2022, VMware released a major update for the ESXi-ARM Fling. Among other fixes and improvements, this version enables in-place ESXi upgrades and adds support for the Quartz64's on-board NIC. To update, I: Wrote the new ISO installer to another USB drive. Attached the installer …


    Read More
  • Secure Networking Made Simple with Tailscale

    calendar Jan 1, 2022  · edit Jul 10, 2022 · 16 min read · vpn wireguard homelab cloud linux networking security  ·
    Share on: twitter facebook linkedin copy
    Secure Networking Made Simple with Tailscale

    Not all that long ago, I shared about a somewhat-complicated WireGuard VPN setup that I had started using to replace my previous OpenVPN solution. I raved about WireGuard's speed, security, and flexible (if complex) Cryptokey Routing, but adding and managing peers with WireGuard is a fairly manual (and tedious) …


    Read More
  • Snikket Private XMPP Chat on Oracle Cloud Free Tier

    calendar Dec 23, 2021  · edit Mar 30, 2023 · 16 min read · linux cloud docker containers chat  ·
    Share on: twitter facebook linkedin copy
    Snikket Private XMPP Chat on Oracle Cloud Free Tier

    Non-technical users deserve private communications, too. I shared a few months back about the steps I took to deploy my own Matrix homeserver instance, and I've happily been using the Element client for secure end-to-end encrypted chats with a small group of my technically-inclined friends. Being able to have private …


    Read More
  • Cloud-hosted WireGuard VPN for remote homelab access

    calendar Oct 28, 2021 · 21 min read · linux gcp cloud wireguard vpn homelab tasker automation networking security  ·
    Share on: twitter facebook linkedin copy
    Cloud-hosted WireGuard VPN for remote homelab access

    For a while now, I've been using an OpenVPN Access Server virtual appliance for remotely accessing my homelab. That's worked fine but it comes with a lot of overhead. It also requires maintaining an SSL certificate and forwarding three ports through my home router, in addition to managing a fairly complex software …


    Read More
  • Free serverless URL shortener on Google Cloud Run

    calendar Aug 20, 2021  · edit Feb 3, 2022 · 4 min read · gcp cloud serverless  ·
    Share on: twitter facebook linkedin copy

    Intro I've been using short.io with a custom domain to keep track of and share messy links for a few months now. That approach has worked very well, but it's also seriously overkill for my needs. I don't need (nor want) tracking metrics to know anything about when those links get clicked, and short.io doesn't provide …


    Read More
  • Federated Matrix Server (Synapse) on Oracle Cloud's Free Tier

    calendar Jun 28, 2021  · edit Sep 17, 2021 · 16 min read · docker linux cloud containers chat  ·
    Share on: twitter facebook linkedin copy
    Federated Matrix Server (Synapse) on Oracle Cloud's Free Tier

    I've heard a lot lately about how generous Oracle Cloud's free tier is, particularly when compared with the free offerings from other public cloud providers. Signing up for an account was fairly straight-forward, though I did have to wait a few hours for an actual human to call me on an actual telephone to verify my …


    Read More
  • AdGuard Home in Docker on Photon OS

    calendar May 27, 2021 · 7 min read · docker vmware containers networking security  ·
    Share on: twitter facebook linkedin copy
    AdGuard Home in Docker on Photon OS

    I was recently introduced to AdGuard Home by way of its very slick Home Assistant Add-On. Compared to the relatively-complicated Pi-hole setup that I had implemented several months back, AdGuard Home was much simpler to deploy (particularly since I basically just had to click the "Install" button from the …


    Read More
  • Auto-connect to ProtonVPN on untrusted WiFi with Tasker [Update!]

    calendar Nov 24, 2020  · edit Mar 12, 2021 · 10 min read · android automation tasker vpn  ·
    Share on: twitter facebook linkedin copy
    Auto-connect to ProtonVPN on untrusted WiFi with Tasker [Update!]

    [Update 2021-03-12] This solution recently stopped working for me. While looking for a fix, I found that OpenVPN had published some notes on controlling the official OpenVPN Connect app from Tasker. Jump to the Update below to learn how I adapted my setup with this new knowledge. I recently shared how I use Tasker and …


    Read More
  • Safeguard your Android's battery with Tasker + Home Assistant

    calendar Nov 14, 2020 · 4 min read · android tasker automation homeassistant  ·
    Share on: twitter facebook linkedin copy
    Safeguard your Android's battery with Tasker + Home Assistant

    A few months ago, I started using the AccuBattery app to keep a closer eye on how I'd been charging my phones. The app has a handy feature that notifies you once the battery level reaches a certain threshold so you can pull the phone off the charger and extend the lithium battery's service life, and it even offers an …


    Read More
  • Setting up Linux on a new Lenovo Chromebook Duet (bonus arm64 complications!)

    calendar Oct 27, 2020  · edit May 20, 2021 · 8 min read · chromeos linux crostini docker shell containers  ·
    Share on: twitter facebook linkedin copy
    Setting up Linux on a new Lenovo Chromebook Duet (bonus arm64 complications!)

    I've written in the past about the Linux setup I've been using on my Pixel Slate. My Slate's keyboard stopped working over the weekend, though, and there don't seem to be any replacements (either Google or Brydge) to be found. And then I saw that Walmart had the 64GB Lenovo Chromebook Duet temporarily marked down to a …


    Read More
  • BitWarden password manager self-hosted on free Google Cloud instance

    calendar Sep 26, 2018  · edit Mar 6, 2022 · 6 min read · docker linux cloud gcp security  ·
    Share on: twitter facebook linkedin copy
    BitWarden password manager self-hosted on free Google Cloud instance

    A friend mentioned the BitWarden password manager to me yesterday and I had to confess that I'd never heard of it. I started researching it and was impressed by what I found: it's free, open-source, feature-packed, fully cross-platform (with Windows/Linux/MacOS desktop clients, Android/iOS mobile apps, and browser …


    Read More

John Bowdre photo

John Bowdre

Wrangler of imaginary computers.
vExpert Badge
Read More

Featured Posts

  • Create Virtual Machines on a Chromebook with HashiCorp Vagrant
  • ESXi ARM Edition on the Quartz64 SBC
  • Secure Networking Made Simple with Tailscale
  • Burn an ISO to USB with the Chromebook Recovery Utility

Recent Posts

  • Cat a File Without Comments
  • Create Virtual Machines on a Chromebook with HashiCorp Vagrant
  • PSA: Microsoft's KB5022842 breaks Windows Server 2022 VMs with Secure Boot
  • Tailscale golink: Private Shortlinks for your Tailnet
  • Tailscale on VMware Photon OS
  • K8s on vSphere: Building a Kubernetes Node Template With Packer

Series

TIPS 15 PROJECTS 14 VRA8 14 SCRIPTS 8 K8S-ON-VSPHERE 3

Tags

VMWARE 31 LINUX 20 VRA 14 CONTAINERS 10 DOCKER 9 AUTOMATION 8 HOMELAB 8 SHELL 8 CHROMEOS 7 CLOUD 7
All Tags
3DPRINTING1 ABX2 ACTIVEDIRECTORY2 ANDROID2 API2 AUTOMATION8 AVAILABILITY1 CERTS2 CHAT2 CHROME1 CHROMEOS7 CLOUD7 CLUSTER2 CONTAINERS10 CROSTINI3 DOCKER9 GCP3 HOMEASSISTANT1 HOMELAB8 HUGO2 INFRASTRUCTURE-AS-CODE2 JAVASCRIPT7 JEKYLL3 KUBERNETES6 LCM2 LINUX20 LOGS2 META5 NETWORKING6 NSX1 OPENSSL1 PACKER1 PHOTON1 PHPIPAM1 POWERCLI4 POWERSHELL7 PYTHON3 REGEX3 REST2 SALT1 SECURITY6 SERVERLESS1 SHELL8 TAILSCALE4 TANZU5 TASKER3 VMWARE31 VPN6 VRA14 VRO7 VSPHERE3 WINDOWS6 WIREGUARD4 WSL2
[A~Z][0~9]
Virtually Potato

Copyright 2018-  Virtually Potato. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by Hugo, Hugo Clarity theme, and Netlify. Privacy-friendly analytics with Cabin.
View source.

to-top