Proxmox for small business: how Rainier IT runs its own servers on it, where it fits a small office, and how we build, back up and manage it.
Category: IT Management
IT operations, onboarding, team management, and organizational best practices
What’s New in the Rainier IT Client Portal: Automatic Updates, Device Pages, and What’s Coming Next
The Rainier IT Client Portal now schedules updates automatically, with device pages, an at-a-glance Overview, Bitwarden passwords and Ctrl+K search.
Inside Percival: 28 MCP Servers, 213 Tools, and 7 Workers Powering Our In-House AI Operator
A deep technical tour of Percival, our self-hosted AI operator — 28 MCP servers (213 tools) wired to every system at Rainier IT, 7 autonomous background workers, Claude Haiku over a LiteLLM proxy with Ollama fallback on a GPU LXC, pgvector memory, prompt caching, three-tier approval gates, and WebSocket streaming.
Lock Down Windows 11 in 15 Minutes: A Hardening Checklist
A 15-minute, license-free Windows 11 hardening checklist for SMB endpoints — TPM/Secure Boot, BitLocker, standard-user accounts, Defender + ASR rules, firewall, telemetry trim, and Recall opt-out.
Why Your SMB Needs Windows 11 Pro, Not Home: The $99 Upgrade That Saves $4,000 in Incidents
Windows 11 Home is the wrong product to run a business on. Real BitLocker, Group Policy, Entra/AD join, RDP host, Hyper-V, MDM, and Update for Business are all Pro-only — and the upgrade is $99 with no reinstall.
Lock Down SSH in 10 Minutes: A Hardening Checklist for Linux
Key-only auth, no root, a non-default port, fail2ban, and a workflow that won’t lock you out — every box I run gets this same six-line hardening file.
Make Your Servers Smile: Dynamic MOTDs with Figlet, Cowsay, Fortune, and Lolcat
A tour of /etc/update-motd.d/, the four tiny packages that build a great login banner (figlet, cowsay, fortune, lolcat), and how to drop a unicorn into your SSH greeting in under ten minutes.
Meet “Percival the Great” : The Always-On AI Agent
Behind the scenes: how Rainier IT built Percival, an always-on AI operations agent that watches every client system, answers in plain English, and asks permission before it does anything risky.
The Ultimate IT Onboarding Checklist for New Employees
A smooth onboarding experience sets the tone for a new hire is entire journey with your company. When IT systems are set up properly from […]