Standard install
This list changes maybe once a year. A tool gets in when we can explain it to the client's own staff in fifteen minutes, and gets removed when we stop reading its release notes.
| Tool | What it does here | Since |
|---|---|---|
| Restic | Backups from every workstation and server. Append-only keys so a compromised machine cannot prune its own history. | 2020 |
| OPNsense | Router and firewall on refurbished small-form-factor hardware. Config is exported to the client's repository after every change. | 2019 |
| Uptime Kuma | The four checks that matter per site. Sends to one shared mailbox, not to five phones. | 2022 |
| Syncthing | Field laptops that need the same folder as the office, without a cloud account in the middle. | 2021 |
| Nextcloud | Shared drive replacement where a plain SMB share is not enough. We run it small and boring. | 2021 |
| Ansible | Base configuration for servers. Not for workstations — that experiment lasted four months. | 2023 |
| Vaultwarden | Credentials, owned by the client. We are a normal user in their vault, revocable in one click. | 2022 |
| Netbox | What is plugged into which port, with photos. The single most useful thing we ever introduced. | 2024 |
A full Zabbix install (too much to maintain for four checks), self-hosted mail (nobody should in 2026), and an inventory spreadsheet that three people edited at once. The spreadsheet became Netbox and we have not looked back.