Deep dives into Linux systems, ZFS encryption, Proxmox virtualization, and security tooling.https://ashu.io/en-ushttps://ashu.io/blog/hy-memory-hermes-setup/https://ashu.io/blog/hy-memory-hermes-setup/How to set up Hy-Memory, Tencent Hunyuan's six-layer memory framework for AI agents, with benchmarks, migration gotchas, and lessons from a five-agent fleet.Wed, 12 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTAI InfrastructureHy-MemoryAI MemoryHermes AgentTencentAI AgentsSelf-HostingAI InfrastructureLLMblog@ashu.io (Ashutosh Varma)https://ashu.io/blog/why-you-need-a-local-llm-gateway-bifrost-setup-guide/https://ashu.io/blog/why-you-need-a-local-llm-gateway-bifrost-setup-guide/If you're calling LLM APIs directly from your apps, you're flying blind. A local LLM gateway gives you logs, fallbacks, cost tracking, and a single configuration point for every provider. This post covers why that matters and how to deploy Bifrost in Docker in under five minutes.Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTAI InfrastructureBifrostLLM GatewayDockerSelf-HostingAI InfrastructureOpenAI APIblog@ashu.io (Ashutosh Varma)https://ashu.io/blog/cache-stack-time-slash-llm-api-bill/https://ashu.io/blog/cache-stack-time-slash-llm-api-bill/Cache hit rate is the single number that determines your LLM bill. A small cache improvement cuts cost in half because cached tokens are 10-20x cheaper than fresh ones. Here's how to get there with Bifrost, OpenRouter session_id, and timing your API calls.Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTAI InfrastructureBifrostLLMCacheToken OptimizationOpenRouterDeepSeekGLMKimiMiMoblog@ashu.io (Ashutosh Varma)https://ashu.io/blog/gave-my-ai-unblockable-internet/https://ashu.io/blog/gave-my-ai-unblockable-internet/How I gave my AI agents unblockable web access using Firecrawl, Camofox, a residential proxy chain, and SearXNG — all self-hosted on a homelab.Tue, 23 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTAI InfrastructureHermesFirecrawlCamofoxSearXNGSelf-HostedHomelabWeb ScrapingAIblog@ashu.io (Ashutosh Varma)https://ashu.io/blog/crowdsec-homelab/https://ashu.io/blog/crowdsec-homelab/Run CrowdSec in Docker as a central detection engine, with nftables bouncer on Proxmox and cs-routeros-bouncer on MikroTik. Full setup with collection tuning, whitelisting, and CAPI tradeoffs.Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTSecurityCrowdSecDockerProxmoxMikroTiknftablesFirewallHomelabblog@ashu.io (Ashutosh Varma)https://ashu.io/blog/arch-zfs-enc/https://ashu.io/blog/arch-zfs-enc/Full walkthrough for installing Arch Linux with ZFS as the root filesystem, native encryption via a passphrase, and GRUB bootloader configuration.Wed, 28 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMTLinuxArch LinuxZFSEncryptionGRUBInstallationblog@ashu.io (Ashutosh Varma)https://ashu.io/blog/ssh-u2f/https://ashu.io/blog/ssh-u2f/How to use ed25519-sk keys for 2FA SSH authentication. No more GPG hacks. Works with any FIDO2/U2F compatible security key.Tue, 27 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMTSecuritySSHFIDO2U2FYubiKey2FAblog@ashu.io (Ashutosh Varma)https://ashu.io/blog/media-server-lxc/https://ashu.io/blog/media-server-lxc/GPU passthrough to a privileged LXC container for hardware transcoding. Intel, AMD, and Nvidia driver setup on the Proxmox host.Sun, 25 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMTProxmoxProxmoxLXCPlexJellyfinGPUTranscodingblog@ashu.io (Ashutosh Varma)https://ashu.io/blog/yubikey-pam/https://ashu.io/blog/yubikey-pam/Configure pam-u2f for system login, sudo, and su. Individual vs central configuration files, plus passwordless sudo with a Yubikey touch.Sat, 24 Jul 2021 17:59:00 GMTSecurityYubiKeyU2FPAMLinuxAuthenticationblog@ashu.io (Ashutosh Varma)https://ashu.io/blog/pihole-rpi-install/https://ashu.io/blog/pihole-rpi-install/Network-wide ad blocking with a DNS sinkhole on Raspberry Pi. Setup, DHCP configuration, and secondary DNS failover.Sat, 24 Jul 2021 16:04:00 GMTLinuxRaspberry PiPi-holeDNSNetworkingAd Blockingblog@ashu.io (Ashutosh Varma)https://ashu.io/blog/docker-proxmox/https://ashu.io/blog/docker-proxmox/Running Docker inside an unprivileged LXC container with nesting, keyctl, and fuse features enabled. No bare-metal Docker on Proxmox.Sat, 24 Jul 2021 00:02:00 GMTProxmoxDockerProxmoxLXCContainersblog@ashu.io (Ashutosh Varma)