New nameserver

Finally got the nameserver replaced today, after several days of struggle spread over recent weeks. I used a Raspberry Pi running Debian Stretch, which, though it may sound under-powered, is actually running at a clock-speed 1.5 times the old server, which was a re-purposed thin client. Our small domain has a very light DNS load, but I prefer to have it running on its own box, and not to have all the critical eggs in one basket.

Anyway, I struggled a bit to get the zone files served correctly, since a few things had changed since the old server. At first named was failing to start, and then I was getting SERVFAIL errors on authoritative lookups. I learned new things and have a better understanding of dns, systemd, and iptables after this experience.

Rapid Pi Case 2

This is version 2 of the Rapid Pi Case. This one is more elegant and even more rapid than the first. It also has some ventilation, and easy access to ports on the Pi using a craft knife. In this case, you can see the HDMI plugged in.

Rapid Pi Case

I have a Raspberry Pi in my house which is mostly for testing things out for school or workshops. For example when I needed a samba server for a workshop, or a web server with sftp chroots for kids to practice web sites. Anyway, it runs headless powered by a usb cable from the firewall and sits on top of it, next to the router. If I need to prepare something graphical like a Scratch workshop, I connect to a remote desktop using vnc. Until today, it has been inside my lego case; the one I spent about a week making and perfecting. So to bring my lego case back into circulation, I decided a quick replacement was needed. This is what I came up with.

Not like the cases you see on the Internet, but in terms of functionality return for time invested, its a winner. There is an ethernet cable running in one end, and the usb into the other. Five minutes' work. Maybe ten. It took longer to write this post. It even has its IP address handily visible, look.