Northwind Tech Notes

Random notes on Linux, networking & self-hosting.

Replacing cron with systemd timers in 2026

systemd timers have matured nicely. Persistent state, randomised delay, and journalctl integration make them a better default than cron for most boxes. A quick migration checklist…

linuxsystemd

Small nginx tuning wins for low-memory VPS

On a 1 GB VPS every worker counts. Worker count, ssl_session_cache, gzip levels and keepalive to upstream — what actually moved the needle on my box…

$ nginx -t && systemctl reload nginx
nginxperformance

WireGuard roaming notes

Endpoints roam better than I expected, but persistent keepalive still matters behind NAT. Notes from three months of running a small mesh…

networkingwireguard

Revisiting the 3-2-1 backup rule

Restic + a cheap object storage bucket + a script in a systemd timer. Boring, tested, and it saved me once already…

backuprestic