Why “4th Try”
The name is the brand. Three tries that do not take, and a fourth that does.
I have shipped enough systems to know the first plan never survives contact with the hardware, the second fixes the wrong thing, and the third almost works. The fourth is the one built on what the first three taught. That is not failure, it is the route. This site keeps the route in view instead of hiding it.
What you will find here
Projects and lab notes on architecture, tools, automation and home-built infrastructure. Each one shows the path it actually took: what I set out to do, what I tried, what I changed and why, and what is running now. Versions, numbers and configs are included, because “it got faster” helps nobody.
If something here saves you a lap, it has done its job.
Who is behind it
I am Michael Lehman, an IT service and platform automation architect with more than 25 years in enterprise infrastructure. By day I design service management, automation, observability and agentic AI solutions for large managed environments. By night I run a homelab that gets rebuilt more often than it strictly needs. 4th Try Tech is my personal project, separate from my employer, and the opinions are my own.
My full background and experience are at michaellehman.me.
The mark
The rocket carries a 4 because it is the fourth try that flies. Coral marks a try that did not take. Green is kept for the one that did, and for nothing else.