https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/ Platform engineering, Azure architecture, DevSecOps, and engineering leadership insights. en-au Fri, 18 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-unbound-recursive-dns https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-unbound-recursive-dns Fri, 18 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000 AdGuard blocks ads but still forwards every query to Quad9 or Cloudflare. Here's how I replaced that with Unbound — a pure recursive resolver that queries root servers directly, with no upstream seeing your traffic. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-hermes-vm-migration https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-hermes-vm-migration Sat, 12 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000 How I migrated the Hermes AI agent from a Windows laptop to a Proxmox VM — systemd user services, Tailscale MagicDNS blocking HuggingFace CDN, Electron on RDP needing --no-sandbox and --disable-gpu, and why a VM with PBS backups is the right home for an always-on AI agent. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-double-disk-failure-without-parity https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-double-disk-failure-without-parity Sat, 04 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Moving Unraid to bare metal gave it direct SMART access for the first time — and the first disk scan immediately flagged a dying boot/cache SSD and a dying 2TB data disk simultaneously, with zero parity protection in place. How sequential rsync, a five-minute watchdog cron, and a temporary flash-boot detour got both drives replaced without losing a byte. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-nas-to-das-migration https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-nas-to-das-migration Sat, 28 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000 How three converging pressures — data risk, idle drives, and a 4-bay ceiling — drove a calculated migration from a Synology DS416play to a Proxmox-hosted Unraid array on a QNAP TL-D800C DAS, with Telegram monitoring and ~100 MB/s sustained transfer speeds. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-hermes-ai-agent https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-hermes-ai-agent Fri, 19 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000 How I used Hermes Agent to build a verified knowledge base of my entire homelab, caught real undocumented drift via SSH, and now control Plex, arrstack, and n8n from a Telegram chat. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-telegram-yt-dlp-bot https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-telegram-yt-dlp-bot Sat, 14 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000 How I built a self-hosted Telegram bot that downloads videos at any quality using n8n, yt-dlp, and FastAPI — and the four n8n quirks that made it harder than expected. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-full-lxc-migration https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-full-lxc-migration Sun, 08 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Completing the VM100 decomposition: migrating Jellyfin, Scrypted, the full Arrstack, and Homepage into their own LXCs — and the bind-mount lessons that made it click. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-proxmox-lxc-decomposition https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-proxmox-lxc-decomposition Sun, 08 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0000 How I decomposed a monolith homelab VM into dedicated Proxmox LXCs for AdGuard Home, Caddy with Cloudflare Tunnels, and Plex with iGPU passthrough — plus hardening an Intel e1000e NIC that started dropping under load. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-p2v-proxmox-migration https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-p2v-proxmox-migration Sat, 07 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000 How I migrated a bare-metal homelab server to Proxmox using direct SSD passthrough, bypassing failed Clonezilla imaging. Covers dual-interface networking, jumbo frames, NFS automounts, automated backups, and the architecture strategy this unlocks. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-xcaddy-cloudflare-tunnel-adguard https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-xcaddy-cloudflare-tunnel-adguard Sat, 06 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000 How I replaced label-heavy Traefik and legacy Pi-hole workflows with native Caddy and AdGuard Home for cleaner config ownership, safer exposure, and faster operations. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-vaultwarden-self-hosted-passwords https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-vaultwarden-self-hosted-passwords Fri, 22 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000 How I replaced 1Password with a self-hosted Vaultwarden instance — zero subscription cost, full data ownership, nightly NAS backups, and seamless Bitwarden apps across every device. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-sso-authentik https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-sso-authentik Sun, 11 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000 How I eliminated password fatigue across 15+ self-hosted apps with Authentik SSO, Traefik forward-auth middleware, MFA, and external access via Cloudflare Tunnel. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-secrets-management https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-secrets-management Sun, 10 May 2026 11:00:00 +0000 A complete secrets lifecycle with automated redaction, leak scanning, rehydration workflows, and rotation practices. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/backstage-idp-platform-capacity https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/backstage-idp-platform-capacity Fri, 08 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000 How a Backstage-based internal developer portal reduced platform toil, improved service visibility, and made self-service engineering practical. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-disaster-recovery https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-disaster-recovery Thu, 07 May 2026 11:00:00 +0000 How I rebuild my entire homelab from a clean Ubuntu install using a Git-backed config repo, compose-based restore, and secret rehydration. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/platform-engineering-innovation-with-guardrails https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/platform-engineering-innovation-with-guardrails Wed, 06 May 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Why platform teams create the most value when they turn experimentation into secure, compliant, and self-service operating paths. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/ai-adoption-platform-teams https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/ai-adoption-platform-teams Sun, 03 May 2026 11:00:00 +0000 How to make AI genuinely useful for developers with grounded internal context, prompt patterns, review guardrails, and a practical reference architecture. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-backup-automation https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-backup-automation Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:00:00 +0000 How I built a daily backup pipeline that syncs configs, redacts secrets, scans for leaks, and pushes sanitized snapshots to GitHub. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-docker-compose-stack https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-docker-compose-stack Mon, 20 Apr 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Running Traefik, Pi-hole, Plex, Arr stack, Immich, Home Assistant on a single Ubuntu host with Docker Compose. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/leading-through-uncertainty-engineering-teams https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/leading-through-uncertainty-engineering-teams Sat, 18 Apr 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Leadership lessons on navigating uncertainty with transparency, team ownership, and enough protection to keep focus intact. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-start-here https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/homelab-start-here Sun, 12 Apr 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Introduction to my Docker-based homelab running Traefik, Pi-hole, Plex, Arr stack, Immich, Home Assistant with automated backups and disaster recovery. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/idp-self-service-playbook https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/idp-self-service-playbook Thu, 02 Apr 2026 09:00:00 +0000 How to make Backstage self-service real with software catalogs, golden-path templates, and developer workflows teams actually want to use. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/ai-amplifier-engineering-judgment https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/ai-amplifier-engineering-judgment Mon, 30 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0000 Practical lessons on using AI to remove repetitive work, raise team capability, and keep engineering judgment at the center. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/immutable-infrastructure-journey https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/immutable-infrastructure-journey Tue, 24 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0000 How to move from ad hoc server changes to rebuildable systems with config allowlists, dry-run restore workflows, and Git-backed anti-drift automation. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/platform-engineering-at-scale https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/platform-engineering-at-scale Sun, 15 Mar 2026 12:00:00 +0000 How platform teams reclaim engineering capacity through self-service, automation, guardrails, and pragmatic AI adoption that reduces KTLO and coordination drag. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/cloudflare-frontend-standardization https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/cloudflare-frontend-standardization Thu, 19 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Why an edge-first frontend model on Cloudflare can reduce idle infrastructure cost, improve global performance, and simplify deployment operations. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/saas-wholesale-automotive https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/saas-wholesale-automotive Mon, 05 Jan 2026 10:00:00 +0000 A practical framework for evaluating SaaS in automotive wholesale, from process fit and integrations to security and rollout. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/dependabot-dependency-automation https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/dependabot-dependency-automation Thu, 11 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0000 How to use Dependabot to automate dependency updates, reduce security drift, and keep review noise under control with better policy design. https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/git-flow-branching-strategy https://anas.semesmieh.com/blog/posts/git-flow-branching-strategy Thu, 16 Oct 2025 12:00:00 +0000 How a disciplined Git Flow model reduced release friction, improved traceability, and made multi-team delivery easier to scale without adding process theatre.