Tools

Purpose

This page covers useful tools or products that don’t warrant an in-depth Projects page. No particular order has been assigned to the layout.

Security

Web Server

Technically called Caddyserver, Caddy is a web server and/or reverse proxy written in Go. It’s incredibly useful, simple to get up and running, and provides a modular functionality to build in your own needs. For instance, you can build it with different DNS integrations (e.g. Cloudflare) for automated Let’s Encrypt certificates.

Software Defined Network

ZeroTier is a great add-on, or alternative, to rolling your own VPN concentrator. The networking rules may have a learning curve - I had to shift my mind a bit due to the stateless nature of the traffic. However, there are simpler setups for a home network if your firewall appliance supports OpenVPN or other, built in clients.

IDE

VSCode is an incredible tool with amazing integration for PowerShell, Azure CLI, ARM, Bicep, etc.
The VSCodium is a great option for those that prefer to remove any sort of Microsoft integrations, analytics, etc.

Terminal

Tabby is an amazing cross-platform terminal that solved a problem around managing SSH connections, associated authentication methods, SSH keys, etc. Azure CLI - Interactive Mode Technically this is plugin/module for the Azure CLI, however, it’s so incredibly unique and handy it’s definitely worth a call out.

Diagrams

A picture is worth a thousand words - An up-to-date network diagram? Priceless. app.diagrams.net is an amazing tool with incredible potential for creating diagrams, flow charts, etc. I cannot recommend it, or it’s VSCode/VSCodium extension, highly enough.

Netbox is an incredible asset for a true network/rack layout documentation that serves as a source of truth for your infrastructure.

Personal Notes

Obsidian is an extensible (noticing a theme with that) writing app that can also double as a publishing platform . It didn’t make that cut for me in that regard, but an very solid and actively developed tool.