Sharing experience and building for people

Hola, I’m Alik Khilazhev, AKA alikhil on the internet. I'm a:

Cloud Infrastructure Engineer

I have 8+ years of experience in infrastructure development, DevOps and SRE practices. I specialize in Kubernetes and the surrounding cloud-native ecosystem.
Software Engineer

I enjoy building platform services and tools that empower others. I'm always on the lookout for challenging problems to solve—like puzzles—by writing clean, efficient code in Go, Python, or whatever language the task calls for.
Open Source enthusiast

I'm passionate about open source software and enjoy building complex, resilient systems by combining various open source tools—like playing with LEGO. I also contribute to projects like Terragrunt and Updatecli, among others, to give back to the community.
and Tech Geek

I'm super curious about technology and love diving deep into systems just for fun. I absolutely love tinkering, experimenting, and exploring the world of self-hosting.

You can also find me at the links below.

Why Graceful Shutdown Matters in Kubernetes^[Pinned]

Have you ever deployed a new version of your app in Kubernetes and noticed errors briefly spiking during rollout? Many teams do not even realize this is happening, especially if they are not closely monitoring their error rates during deployments. There is a common misconception in the Kubernetes world that bothers me. The official Kubernetes documentation and most guides claim that “if you want zero downtime upgrades, just use rolling update mode on deployments”. I have learned the hard way that this simply it is not true - rolling updates alone are NOT enough for true zero-downtime deployments. And it is not just about deployments. Your pods can be terminated for many other reasons: scaling events, node maintenance, preemption, resource constraints, and more. Without proper graceful shutdown handling, any of these events can lead to dropped requests and frustrated users. In this post, I will share what I have learned about implementing proper graceful shutdown in Kubernetes. I will show you exactly what happens behind the scenes, provide working code examples, and back everything with real test results that clearly demonstrate the difference. ...

Note on cable management for standing desk

Hey! Eventually, my desk got pretty messy with all the cables and other stuff piled up on it. Also, my cats started playing with and gnawing on wires. So, I decided to reorganize everything on my desk. Check it out! I’ve got a medium-sized table, about 120 by 80 cm. It’s wide (deep) but not too long. I need to keep everything in order and clean so I can work comfortably. ...

How to Use 3 Computers with One Monitor, Keyboard and Mouse – Without a KVM Switch

Hi there! Today, I want to share how I organize my three-computer setup (MacBook Air, Mac mini, and Raspberry Pi) without a KVM switch, using a single keyboard, mouse, and monitor. ...

Remote LAN access with WireGuard and Mikrotik

Recently I have configured out how to access my home and cloud network remotely using WireGuard and Mikrotik Hex S router. With this step-by-step tutorial I will show you (and perhaps my future self) how to do it. ...

Storing and using secrets in Mikrotik RouterOS

Recently I have replaced my stock ISP router with Mikrotik Hex S. I have been using it for a while and I am very happy with it. It is a very powerful device which can be programmed and automated with built-in scripting language. When I started writing my first scripts I faced a problem: how to store and use secrets in my scripts. I have found a solution and I want to share it with you. ...