Welcome

Welcome to ReadTheManual

Practical infrastructure skills, taught by someone who ships them.

A blueprint for the infrastructure skills that actually get you hired. Written by a cloud architect with 20 years in production and a rack of mini PCs under the desk.

No filler, no affiliate bait, no tutorials written by people who don’t run what they teach.

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Lab to Leader. The shortest path from what you’re learning at home to the job you actually want.

92 hands-on guides. 6 complete series. Linux, Azure, self-hosting, cybersecurity and career. Updated twice a week.
Every guide is something running in production, not a walkthrough copied from vendor docs.

Built with industry-standard tools

Written by Eric Lonsdale – A UK Based Cloud & Infrastructure Architect with 18+ years in enterprise IT, Azure, and self-hosted infrastructure.

30+ self-hosted services. 725,000+ LinkedIn impressions in the last 12 months. Everything on this site comes from running it in production.

Popular Starting Points

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Linux Fundamentals

Start with the basics — Over 12 step-by-step guides for sysadmins and Linux users, packed with real commands you’ll use every day

Getting Started with the Cloud

Spin up free virtual machines, learn the basics of Azure, and build skills that translate directly into real-world IT roles.

Free Tools, Credits, and Resources to Get Started

You don’t need a big budget. Here’s a curated list of free cloud credits, open-source tools, and starter kits to fuel your lab.

What You’ll Find Here

Whether you’re running your first Pi or deploying full-stack VMs, this site is about doing the job before you get the job.

Homelab builds

Raspberry Pi, Proxmox, Unifi, Docker

Automation projects

n8n, Home Assistant, scripts, AI agents

Cybersecurity/ Hacking

practical, real-world, not textbook fluff

Career guidance

how to go from tinkerer to tech leader

Home Made Clouds

Azure, AWS, GCP, Private and public clouds

Free resources

build sheets, starter guides, templates

Join the RTM Tech Hub

Follow us on socials and subscribe to the YouTube channel for tutorials, build logs, and deep dives into homelabs, cloud, and self-hosting.

YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn

Latest Videos

Watch our latest tutorials and build logs on YouTube — subscribe to the channel

Install Ubuntu Server on a Raspberry Pi (The Right Way)

Your lab. Your rules.

Don’t wait for the job. Build the skill. Show the work. That’s the whole thing.
Welcome to ReadTheManual.

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