The physical layer
Everything else in this blog runs on something physical, and this section is about that layer: building and installing servers, wiring the network, and keeping the power clean.
I run my own infrastructure in Tyrol. Writing about it here is partly documentation and partly a way to show the work honestly: what a build actually involves, the hardware choices and the reasoning behind them, and the small experiments — including a cluster built from single-board computers — that taught me things the datasheets did not.
Cheap is the point here, not a limitation. We never had much money for hardware, but that was never really the reason. Years ago we tried to run www.ilumina-circle.com inside small, independent containers of our own. The project stopped, but the idea stayed: I want to work out how to build cheap, independent systems. Cheap is what drives independence. If a setup only works with an expensive rack and a big provider behind it, it isn't independent. So I build with single-board computers, tiny PCs and used enterprise hardware, and these posts are about getting solid, reliable results out of that gear.
I show the infrastructure as infrastructure. I am not claiming a certified, publicly operated data centre, and I keep the details that touch physical or network security out of the posts.
Expect posts on server builds, networking and power, plus the occasional single-board-computer experiment. Hands-on, sober, and grounded in real hardware.