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ENGINEER GUIDES
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02 / ENGINEER GUIDE

Engineer reference

Linux, Docker, Git, networking, security, databases — 143+ practical guides you can copy and run.

All guides
TroubleshootingIntermediate

Recover Commits After git reset --hard — reflog and ORIG_HEAD Runbook

What to do right after git reset --hard: find the lost commit with reflog or ORIG_HEAD, branch it back, and know what cannot be recovered.

Open guide
TroubleshootingIntermediate

Kubernetes Endpoints None Fix — Empty Service Backends Runbook

When a Service has no Endpoints/EndpointSlices, traffic goes nowhere. Match selectors to labels, require Ready pods, verify targetPort, then check NetworkPolicy and the dataplane.

Open guide
TroubleshootingIntermediate

Kubernetes ImagePullBackOff Fix — Events Checklist and Commands

A diagnostic runbook for ImagePullBackOff and ErrImagePull: read Events, classify not-found vs auth vs network vs rate-limit, then verify with describe, secrets, and node-side pull.

Open guide
Networking / ServersAdvanced

keepalived VRRP: Setting Up Virtual IP Failover with Health Checks and Split-Brain Prevention

Share a virtual IP across nodes with VRRP so traffic fails over without downtime when the master dies. Covers MASTER/BACKUP setup, vrrp_script health checks, and split-brain prevention for production.

Open guide
Docker / ContainersAdvanced

Kubernetes RBAC: Diagnosing 'Forbidden' Errors and Granting Least-Privilege Access with Roles and ServiceAccounts

How to minimize cluster permissions with Role, ClusterRole, bindings, and ServiceAccount. Covers kubectl auth can-i debugging and least-privilege examples for CI deployments.

Open guide
DatabasesIntermediate

PostgreSQL Privileges: Setting Up Read-Only and Least-Privilege Roles with GRANT, REVOKE, and DEFAULT PRIVILEGES

A role is both a user and a group; privileges stack in three layers (database → schema → table); DEFAULT PRIVILEGES covers tables that do not exist yet. Design read-only accounts and least privilege with production-ready SQL.

Open guide
Linux / ShellDocker / ContainersGit / CI·CDNetworking / ServersSecurity HardeningDatabases
04 / LATEST

Latest

Recently published articles, in chronological order.

Archive
Vault vs AWS Secrets Manager vs SOPS: Cost Comparison and Selection Criteria
Tool Reviews

Vault vs AWS Secrets Manager vs SOPS: Cost Comparison and Selection Criteria

We compared three secret-management tools by monthly cost formulas and operational burden—not feature checklists. Included: monthly bills for 30, 300, and 1,000 secrets, five SOPS age commands, ESO integration YAML, and how to judge Vault’s BSL license.

Aug 31
Fixing Missing Kubernetes ServiceAccount Tokens and 401 Unauthorized (1.24+)
Security

Fixing Missing Kubernetes ServiceAccount Tokens and 401 Unauthorized (1.24+)

If a Pod is missing its ServiceAccount token file or returns 401 Unauthorized, you have an authentication problem, not an RBAC problem. This post covers an error-text triage table, version differences after Kubernetes 1.24, automount precedence, and projected-token refresh and revocation.

Aug 27
Fixing no pg_hba.conf entry and password authentication failed by Root Cause
Infrastructure

Fixing no pg_hba.conf entry and password authentication failed by Root Cause

How to map six PostgreSQL connection errors onto the network, pg_hba, and authentication layers and diagnose them in 30 seconds. Covers an error-text lookup table, ss and pg_hba_file_rules diagnostics, first-match rules, PG14 scram-sha-256

Aug 25
Diagnosing Kubernetes MTU Issues — When ping Works but Large Responses Hang
Infrastructure

Diagnosing Kubernetes MTU Issues — When ping Works but Large Responses Hang

If ping is fine but curl hangs only on large responses and the TLS handshake goes silent, you have an MTU problem. This post covers DF-bit ping binary search, the VXLAN 1450 / GCP 1410 calculation table, where to set Flannel, Calico, and Ci

Aug 25
VictoriaMetrics vs Thanos vs Grafana Cloud: Monthly Cost Comparison (1 Million Time Series)
Tool Reviews

VictoriaMetrics vs Thanos vs Grafana Cloud: Monthly Cost Comparison (1 Million Time Series)

Monthly KRW cost formulas for Prometheus+Thanos, Grafana Cloud, and VictoriaMetrics at 20 nodes and 1 million active series. Includes a TCO table with ops effort, a 5-axis decision matrix, cardinality-explosion response, and a migration run

Aug 19
Diagnosing 504 Gateway Time-out: An nginx · ALB · gunicorn Timeout Alignment Runbook
Infrastructure

Diagnosing 504 Gateway Time-out: An nginx · ALB · gunicorn Timeout Alignment Runbook

A procedure for pinpointing which of CloudFront, ALB, nginx, or gunicorn hung up first when a 504 Gateway Time-out appears, using only curl instrumentation and response headers. Covers per-layer timeout tables, alignment principles, and how

Aug 18
pip install succeeded, but ModuleNotFoundError? Six-way interpreter path diagnosis
Development

pip install succeeded, but ModuleNotFoundError? Six-way interpreter path diagnosis

pip install succeeded but import still fails? Instead of reinstalling, compare the running interpreter and pip install paths with four commands, pin the cause to one of six branches, and apply one-line fixes plus recurrence prevention for v

Aug 12
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“
EDITORIAL NOTE
Raise the density of context, not the volume of information. Facts pile up quickly; choosing the signals that matter and adding the surrounding context is still our job.
N
Nodelog editorial
TECH EDITORIAL · 2026.11