Ivan on the Server Side
A satellite project of labs.iximiuz.com - an indie learning platform to master Linux, Containers, and Kubernetes the hands-on way 🚀
Ivan on the Server Side
Hello 👋 After preparing over 100 practical exercises on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, and networking, which have been solved more than 50K times in total, I can confidently say that the topic that attracts the least interest is building container images. No wonder most images end up bloated and full of CVEs. One reason for the lack of interest may be that container images are no-man's land. Developers may not feel the pain that bloated & vulnerable images cause in production, and the ops people...
iximiuz Labs update: 3x longer playground sessions and Premium for inviting friends
Hey there 👋 A quick update, but you will love it. 3x Longer Playground Sessions How long the max playground session duration should be has been a recurring question. Obviously, the longer the better, but bumping up the default would proportionally increase server utilization, hence the platform's infra bills. At the same time, running agents in playgrounds is becoming more and more popular, and one thing about agents is that you never know when they will finish grinding. Sometimes it's just a...
Elevate your hacking game by bringing the local machine and remote VMs closer together
Hello, server dweller! I spent some time lately adding new port-forwarding capabilities to labctl (and writing docs about it), and the results are actually worth sharing because they enable several new playground use cases. There is a number of ways (and reasons) to bring the playground VMs and the local machine closer together. For example: Accessing a database launched in the playground with the local GUI client (local port forwarding). Making a local Chrome instance accessible in the...
Nested virtualization and more affordable prices come to iximiuz Labs 🎉
Hello 👋 I've got a double portion of good news! Nested virtualization support Have you ever wanted to run a Firecracker microVM in a playground? Or perhaps play with Kata Containers? Use QEMU without the full CPU emulation overhead? Or try that fancy agent sandboxing tool? Historically, none of the above was possible because Firecracker doesn't expose the host's CPU virtualization capabilities (Intel's VMX or AMD's SVM) to its microVMs. Without it, the microVM's kernel cannot activate KVM, so...
Deep dive: How Container Images Actually Work
Hello 👋 I just published a new tutorial: How Container Images Actually Work: Layers, Configs, Manifests, Indexes, and More Docker made container images look deceptively simple from the outside: you docker build, docker push, and docker run, and everything just works. But under the hood, the image format is an intricate graph of content-addressed objects, and, as with any abstraction, implementation details leak. The moment you start doing anything slightly more advanced - multi-platform...
Ivan on the Server Side
Hey there! 👋 It's time for the monthly iximiuz Labs update. Lots of good learning materials on Docker, Kubernetes, and eBPF inside. I'll try to keep it brief, so you can spend more time studying and practicing. Shoutout to our sponsor of the month - Creem. I usually turn down sponsorship offers because reputation is invaluable, but this time I was happy to make an exception because Creem is the service I actually use. Creem is the Merchant of Record behind iximiuz Labs, handling payments,...
Kubernetes the (Very) Hard Way - a new iximiuz Labs course by Márk Sági-Kazár
Hello there! 👋 If you've followed this newsletter for some time, you should definitely know Márk Sági-Kazár - one of the most prolific independent authors on iximiuz Labs. To date, Márk has published over a dozen top-notch tutorials, challenges, and playgrounds on Kubernetes, CI/CD, and secret management. Remember the Kube Mysteries: The Invisible Pod hit? That's him! But what I admire most about Márk's work is not the quantity but the quality. Such meticulous attention to detail, combined...
iximiuz Labs long awaited docs, new learning materials, and an unusual call to action
Hello 👋 Ivan's here with a bunch of iximiuz Labs news and a portion of hands-on learning materials on Linux, networking, containers, Kubernetes, and eBPF. But before we jump into the main issue, I want to feature the sponsor of the month - Creem. Over the past few years, I've turned down numerous sponsorship offers, but this time I was glad to make an exception because Creem is the product I actually use and have been very happy with it. Creem is the Merchant of Record behind iximiuz Labs,...
Ivan on the Server Side
Hello, dear server dweller! Ivan's here with a double portion of good news 🚀 I'm finally done with the feature work I've planned for 2025 (yep, we're well into 2026 already, I know), and I'm eager to present you with the most recent change that has been 6 months in planning and two full weeks in the work - the new playground & content access plans. This is actually a positive development, so don't throw the email into the bin just yet. The second piece of good news is all the new learning...
iximiuz Labs: authors wanted, new UI/UX features, and hot posts on eBPF, Unikernels, and Uncloud 🔥
Hello 👋 iximiuz Labs has just gotten new content & playground catalogs. This is something I've wanted for a long time - the new catalog structure reflects iximiuz Labs' intended direction so much better. Each catalog now opens with a completely reworked filter: iximiuz Labs Official Collection Content by Independent authors Community-contributed materials I'm gradually turning iximiuz Labs from "a single person's blog on steroids" into a fully-fledged publishing platform where anyone can post...
A satellite project of labs.iximiuz.com - an indie learning platform to master Linux, Containers, and Kubernetes the hands-on way 🚀