2.5 Admins

A Red Hat breach leads to a leak of lots of sensitive customer data, Synology backs down on allowing third-party drives but they are removing features, and managing ZFS properties during replication.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Optimizing ZFS for High-Throughput Storage Workloads   News Red Hat fesses up to GitLab breach after attackers brag of data theft Red Hat breach escalates as Crimson Collective recruits help International Cyber Digest Twitter thread Synology caves, walks back some drive restrictions on upcoming NAS models Synology Removes Graphics Drivers and HEVC & H.264 HW Transcoding Support Discontinuation Notice for HEVC (H.265), AVC (H.264), and VC-1 Transcoding on DSM and BeeStation OS Platforms   Free consulting We were asked about managing ZFS properties during replication.           See our contact page for ways to get in touch.    

The weird errors you see when your root partition is full, TikTok uses a lot of bandwidth by preloading videos, and dealing with a ZFS pool that won’t import.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Keeping Data Safe with OpenZFS: Security, Encryption, and Delegation   News/discussion Dark patterns killed my wife’s Windows 11 installation TikTok video pre-loads cause ‘massive data wastage’   Free consulting We were asked about dealing with a ZFS pool that won’t import. Importing corrupted pool causes PANIC Klara added additional diagnostics to ZFS to help investigate this issue, that shipped as part of 2.3.4 Klara also has a work-around to get past the errors, but it is likely to result in data loss if there are overlapping segments, or the leaking of free space when segments are not entirely removed (not to be attempted without a developer present)             See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Intel and Nvidia are teaming up for multiple reasons, Open AI are planning to build data centers and use a ludicrous amount of power, LLM hallucinations aren’t going away, and how long we keep servers and hard drives in production.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Troubleshooting ZFS – Common Issues and How to Fix Them   News Nvidia, Intel to co-develop “multiple generations” of chips as part of $5 billion deal Nvidia and Intel’s $5 billion deal is apparently about eating AMD’s lunch OpenAI and Nvidia’s $100B AI plan will require power equal to 10 nuclear reactors Nvidia adds more air to the AI bubble with vague $100B OpenAI deal The AI-energy apocalypse might be a little overblown OpenAI’s Stargate project to pave the world with AI datacenters announces five new US locations OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws   Free consulting We were asked about how long we keep servers and hard drives in production.           See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Joe set up a FreeBSD box to serve as a replication target and it was surprisingly straightforward, if rather different from Linux. Plus the lies that storage tells us.   Plug Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes           See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Matrix shows how painful enormous databases can be to restore, why the certificate authority system doesn’t seem to make sense in 2025, a hosting provider thinks they are better than Cloudflare at blocking malicious traffic, a viral app turns out to be written by an enthusiastic dev who doesn’t understand best practices, and using S3 object storage outside of the cloud. With guest host Gary from Linux After Dark and Hybrid Cloud Show.   Plug Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes   News/discussion Matrix.org homeserver grinds to a halt after RAID meltdown Mis-issued certificates for 1.1.1.1 DNS service pose a threat to the Internet The number of mis-issued 1.1.1.1 certificates grows Mythic Beasts will block Cloudflare IPs on shared hosting if abusive traffic gets through Unfortunately, the ICEBlock app is activism theater ICEBlock handled my vulnerability report in the worst possible way   Free consulting We were asked about using S3 object storage outside of the cloud. MinIO           See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

McDonald’s IT systems seem to be riddled with 90s-style coding errors, we finally know where the fraudulent hard drives came from, when IT workers go rogue, and ZFS on root without using FreeBSD or Ubuntu.   Plug Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes   News/discussion How I Hacked McDonald’s Seagate Uncovers Global Scheme That Sold 1 Million Used Drives as New # smartctl -l farm /dev/sdx Developer gets 4 years for activating network “kill switch” to avenge his firing Woman gets 8 years for aiding North Koreans infiltrate 300 US firms   Free consulting We were asked about ZFS on root without using FreeBSD or Ubuntu. Introduction to ZFSBootMenu           See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Google is planning to assert even more control over which Android apps can be installed, the US government takes a 10% stake in Intel, and minimum networking speeds in homes and offices.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes ZFS Basecamp Launch: A Panel with the People Behind ZFS   News/discussion A new layer of security for certified Android devices US government takes 10 percent stake in Intel in exchange for money it was already on the hook for   Free consulting We were asked about minimum networking speeds in homes and offices.           See our contact page for ways to get in touch.      

Why you can’t rely on a single cloud provider, Jim discovers AI that spreads itself like a worm, and configuring all-flash arrays.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes FreeBSD Summer Roundup: Guide to Lock-In Free Infrastructure   News/discussion AWS deleted my 10-year account and all data without warning AWS Restored My Account: The Human Who Made the Difference Jim’s AI nightmare     Free consulting We were asked about configuring all-flash arrays.           See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

AMD’s recent mobile-class processors impress us with their power to performance ratio, the UK government suggests a preposterous way to save water, setting up verified boot with snapshots, and the best way to configure ZFS to run VMs.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes ZFS Summer Roundup: Smart Hardware Advice   News AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 vs. Ryzen 9 9950X vs. Ryzen 9 9950X3D Linux Performance Review UK Government says delete old emails to save water UK government to invest over £2 billion in the UK’s AI ecosystem   Free consulting We were asked about setting up verified boot with snapshots, and the best way to configure ZFS to run VMs.             See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

The Web is a mess of tracking and AI scraping so do we need a new one, would it even be possible, or is this the wrong question? Plus setting up servers in a garage where dusty woodworking is happening.   Plug Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes   Free consulting We were asked about setting up servers in a garage where dusty woodworking is happening.             See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Jim is concerned that although over-anthropomorphising LLMs is a mistake, we should be cautious about some of their human-like behaviour. Plus how to maintain old ZFS pools, and accessibility in the BSDs.   Plug Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes   Discussion It’s a mistake to over anthropomorphize LLMs, but it’s equally a mistake to *under* anthropomorphize them Grok will no longer call itself Hitler or base its opinions on Elon Musk’s, promises xAI   Free consulting We were asked about how to maintain old ZFS pools, and accessibility in the BSDs.             See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Two recent outages were handled very differently but show the dangers of centralisation, Let’s Encrypt is introducing certificates for IP addresses, and the differences between backup and production systems.   Plug Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes   News/discussion Microsoft’s 19-hour Outlook outage exposes fragility in cloud infrastructure Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 incident on July 14, 2025 We’ve Issued Our First IP Address Certificate   Free consulting We were asked about the differences between backup and production systems.             See our contact page for ways to get in touch.      

To celebrate the 256 milestone we devote the whole episode to explaining why we use ZFS. We explain about data safety, data retention, data portability, and ease of administration.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Klara ZFS Basecamp – Central Resource for Everything ZFS Practical ZFS               See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Microsoft offers Windows 10 updates in return for your settings data, Denmark wants to protect against deepfakes using copyright, someone is wrong on the Internet about RAID, and getting a sysadmin job in your late 40s.   Plug Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes   News/discussion Microsoft’s free updates for Windows 10 draw criticism Denmark plans to thwart deepfakers by giving everyone copyright over their own features Why I Stopped Using RAID on My Plex Media Server   Free consulting We were asked about getting a sysadmin job in your late 40s.             See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

A vulnerability in sudo brings up concerns about feature-creep, and makes us consider alternatives. Plus Broadcom starts auditing VMware customers, and how to decide which outbound ports to open on a large network’s firewall.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Disaster Recovery with ZFS: A Practical Guide   News/discussion Vulnerability Advisory: Sudo chroot Elevation of Privilege VMware perpetual license holder receives audit letter from Broadcom   Free consulting We were asked about how to decide which outbound ports to open on a large network’s firewall.           See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Jim is concerned that we might not see another next-gen filesystem that can compete with ZFS, no matter how much we all want one. Plus whether you should switch to third-party firmware on your router.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes ZFS Performance Tuning – Optimizing for your Workload   Discussion Bcachefs Lands More Improvements For Linux 6.16 After Data Loss Bug Hit v6.15 I’m starting to wonder if modern next-gen filesystems are approaching an inherent limit of human ability to mentally model and manage complexity   Free consulting We were asked whether you should switch to third-party firmware on your router.           See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Nintendo cuts off Switches that dare to play backed up games, more Microsoft AI exploits, why you shouldn’t regularly spin down hard drives, and securing applications on a home server.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Reliable ZFS Storage on Commodity Hardware – A Cost-Efficient, Data-Sure Storage Solution Klara co-hosted a webinar with TrueNAS about ZFS Fast Dedup   News Switch 2 users report online console bans after running personal game “backups” Intellectual Property & Piracy FAQ | Nintendo Support archived version Breaking down ‘EchoLeak’, the First Zero-Click AI Vulnerability Enabling Data Exfiltration from Microsoft 365 Copilot I learned the hard way to never spin down your NAS hard drives   Free consulting We were asked about securing applications on a home server.           See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

SharePoint is exploitable by Microsoft’s AI, NIST proposes a new metric for exploited vulnerabilities, SBCs that look cool for a mini NAS and a router, and setting up a first NAS with 4 disks.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes The Maintainer’s Dilemma: Strategies for Supporting Legacy Drivers Across Decades of Hardware Evolution   News/discussion Exploiting Copilot AI for SharePoint NIST proposes new metric to gauge exploited vulnerabilities ODROID-H4 PLUS ODROID-H4 ULTRA H4 Mini-ITX Kit Banana Pi BPI-R4 Pro is a versatile router board with WiFi 7, 10 Gb and 2.5 Gb LAN, and multiple M.2 connectors   Free consulting We were asked about setting up a first NAS with 4 disks.           See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Google bypasses the usual channels to distrust two certificate authorities, Meta’s new escalation in the privacy arms race, Allan gives us the inside details of a new mixed-disk-size ZFS RAID feature, and moving from UniFi gear to TP-Link.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes The Overlooked Complexity of Firmware Security in the IoT Era   News/discussion Google Chrome to Distrust Two Certificate Authorities Over Compliance and Conduct Issues Meta pauses mobile port tracking tech on Android after researchers cry foul Introducing ZFS AnyRaid, Sponsored by Eshtek   Free consulting We were asked about moving from UniFi gear to TP-Link.           See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Locating people with just a phone call, Google forces a change to Let’s Encrypt certificates, yet another example of a “lifetime” subscription being cut short, connecting drives to a small form factor machine, and managing ssh keys with LDAP.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes What We’ve Learned Supporting FreeBSD in Production (So You Don’t Have To)   News O2 VoLTE: locating any customer with a phone call Ending TLS Client Authentication Certificate Support in 2026 – Let’s Encrypt VPN firm says it didn’t know customers had lifetime subscriptions, cancels them   Free consulting We were asked about connecting drives to a small form factor machine, and managing ssh keys with LDAP. SAS Expanders, Build Your Own JBOD DAS Enclosure and Save – Iteration 1           See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

TrueNAS drops FreeBSD but there’s a community fork, the elusive ZFS send bug that affected encrypted datasets is finally identified and fixed, why the Raspberry Pi doesn’t make a great NAS, and when to use the zpool checkpoint feature.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Maintaining FreeBSD in a Commercial Product – Why Upstream Contributions Matter   News/discussion TrueNAS 25.04 drops FreeBSD: “Fangtooth” only with GNU/Linux base FreeBSD fans rally round zVault upstart ZFS raw-send corruption bug fixed 5 things I regret about using my Raspberry Pi as a NAS   Free consulting We were asked about the zpool checkpoint feature.             See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

The basic computer science problems that still remain unsolvable, why you shouldn’t trust AI to tune ZFS (or answer any admin questions), and setting up a check-in system for a group of friends.   Plug Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes   Discussion Why You Can’t Trust AI to Tune ZFS   Free consulting We were asked about setting up a check-in system for a group of friends.             See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Old passwords work for Windows RDP, Broadcom shows why perpetual software licenses aren’t really forever, Windows Server is getting hotpatching, and preventing changes to archived files.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Owning the Stack: Infrastructure Independence with FreeBSD and ZFS   News/discussion Windows RDP lets you log in using revoked passwords. Microsoft is OK with that Broadcom sends cease-and-desist letters to subscription-less VMware users Microsoft pitches pay-to-patch reboot reduction subscription for Windows Server 2025   Free consulting We were asked about preventing changes to archived files.             See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Crosswalks were comically vulnerable to being hacked, even Google struggles with tiered SSD and HDD storage, some insight into how AI scrapers are using domestic IPs, and creating a ZFS mirror one disk at a time.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Inside FreeBSD Netgraph: Behind the Curtain of Advanced Networking   News/discussion Hacking US crosswalks to talk like Zuck is as easy as 1234 Even Google struggles to balance fast-but-pricey flash and cheap-but-slow hard disks How Colossus optimizes data placement for performance The web is broken, IMHO   Free consulting We were asked about creating a ZFS mirror one disk at a time.             See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Some Synology NAS products will require drives they sold you, doubt is cast on the CVE program, why some FreeBSD packages didn’t appear when they should have, and backing up the keys for encrypted backups.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Robust & Reliable Backup Solutions with OpenZFS   News Synology confirms that higher-end NAS products will require its branded drives CVE program gets last-minute funding from CISA – and maybe a new home CVE fallout: The splintering of the standard vulnerability tracking system has begun   Free consulting We were asked about backing up the keys for encrypted backups.             See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

IPv4 addresses are worth an awful lot of money, the serious dangers of a seemingly sensible deepfake law, Microsoft is 50 years old, and our thoughts on antivirus on Linux and Windows.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Accurate and Effective Storage Benchmarking   News Your IPv4 stash can now be collateral for $100M loans Congress close to passing deepfake law—Trump said he wants to use it himself Microsoft is now 50 years old   Free consulting We were asked about antivirus on Linux and Windows.             See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Jim’s server is getting hammered by AI scrapers and he’s big mad about it, why RCS doesn’t work on Android without Google apps, a complex Google account issue, and how Jim and Allan handle their WireGuard configs.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Network Offload and Socket Splicing (SO_SPLICE) in FreeBSD   News Jim hit by AI scrapers Open source devs say AI crawlers dominate traffic, forcing blocks on entire countries AI bots strain Wikimedia as bandwidth surges 50% 80% of Web Traffic Is Bots — The Hidden Cost of AI Scraping Threat Spotlight: The good, the bad, and the ‘gray bots’ – the Gen AI scraper bots targeting your web apps An AI Scraping Tool Is Overwhelming Websites With Traffic   Free consulting We were asked about RCS on AOSP, a complex Google account issue, and how Jim and Allan handle their WireGuard configs. wg-admin               See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Whether tech debt is inevitable and where the blame lies, how to properly organise ZFS datasets, and selectively managing updates.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes ZFS Orchestration Tools – Part 2: Replication                 SysCloud Over 2,000 IT admins already trust SysCloud to protect their SaaS data. Head to SysCloud.com for a 30-day free trial—and for a limited time, use code 25ADMINS to get 50% off your first purchase.                 See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

The key differences between throughput and latency – and when they matter, the tech that we’d keep if we stopped working in IT, and avoiding bitrot with rsync backups.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Core Infrastructure: Why You Need to Control Your NTP   Free consulting We were asked about avoiding bitrot with rsync backups. Parchive           SysCloud Over 2,000 IT admins already trust SysCloud to protect their SaaS data. Head to SysCloud.com for a 30-day free trial—and for a limited time, use code 25ADMINS to get 50% off your first purchase.                 See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

RISC-V is on the rise in China, why Power CPUs aren’t as promising, the dystopian nightmare of surveillance tech at work, and decrypting ZFS at boot.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Understanding ZFS in the Real World: Mistakes Made, Lessons Learned & Future Plans   News/discussion Alibaba launches server-grade RISC-V CPU design Raptor Computing Systems Y Combinator deletes posts after a startup’s demo goes viral Your Boss Wants You Back in the Office. This Surveillance Tech Could Be Waiting for You     Free consulting We were asked about automatically decrypting ZFS at boot.             SysCloud Over 2,000 IT admins already trust SysCloud to protect their SaaS data. Head to SysCloud.com for a 30-day free trial—and for a limited time, use code 25ADMINS to get 50% off your first purchase.                 See our contact page for ways to get in touch.    

Ten-year-old Chromecasts stop working, movie DVDs start rotting, Skype is finally dying, using ZFS on VM guests and hosts.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes ZFS Space Accounting Explained   News Google apologizes for Chromecast outage in email to users “They curdle like milk”: WB DVDs from 2006–2008 are rotting away in their cases Microsoft is shutting down Skype in favor of Teams     Free consulting We were asked about using ZFS on VM guests and hosts.                 See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

HP was forcing people to wait on hold for 15 minutes to get support, the DOGE site was embarrassingly insecure, setting up encrypted offsite backups, and mixing SATA and NVMe in a server.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Why FreeBSD is the Right Choice for Embedded Devices   News/discusison HP ditches 15-minute wait time policy due to ‘feedback’ Anyone Can Push Updates to the DOGE.gov Website (archive.is)   Free consulting We were asked about mixing SATA and NVMe in a server.         Factor Eat smart with Factor. Get started at factormeals.com/factorpodcast and use code FACTORPODCAST to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping.     SysCloud Over 2,000 IT admins already trust SysCloud to protect their SaaS data. Head to SysCloud.com for a 30-day free trial—and for a limited time, use code 25ADMINS to get 50% off your first purchase.                 See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Arm is going to make its own server chips, WordPress is selling “100 year” domain registrations, geo-redundancy for VPSs, and backing up Windows to Backblaze B2.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Isolating Containers with ZFS and Linux Namespaces   News Arm to launch its own chip in move that could upend semiconductor industry The WordPress.com 100-Year Domain   Free Consulting We were asked about geo-redundancy for VPSs, and backing up Windows to Backblaze B2.   Hybrid Cloud Show – Episode 24 gdnsd DNSMadeEasy – Failover Service [Allan’s Affiliate Link] Kopia snapshot verify | Kopia RAID is NOT a Backup and Other Hard Truths About Disaster Recovery             SysCloud Over 2,000 IT admins already trust SysCloud to protect their SaaS data. Head to SysCloud.com for a 30-day free trial—and for a limited time, use code 25ADMINS to get 50% off your first purchase.                 See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Google found a way to run unofficial microcode on AMD CPUs, whether software should get a CVE when it goes end of life, LLMs changing Redditors’ minds and self-replicating, and managing SSH keys at scale.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes ZFS Orchestration Tools – Part 1: Snapshots   News/discussion How to make any AMD Zen CPU always generate 4 from RDRAND CVEs for End of Life? OpenAI says its models are more persuasive than 82 percent of Reddit users AI can now replicate itself — a milestone that has experts terrified   Free Consulting We were asked about managing SSH keys at scale.               See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Used Seagate drives are being sold as “new”, another reminder not to hack Windows 11 onto unsupported hardware, about using ZFS on VPS block storage, picking hardware to run VMs, and delegating datasets to containers.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Controlling Your Core Infrastructure: DNS   News Fraud with Seagate hard disks: Dealers swap, Seagate investigates Fraud with Seagate hard disks: Dozens of readers report suspected cases openSeaChest Windows 11 on devices that don’t meet minimum system requirements   Free Consulting We were asked about using ZFS on VPS block storage, picking hardware to run VMs, and delegating datasets to containers. Klara: Isolating Containers with ZFS and Linux Namespaces         SysCloud Over 2,000 IT admins already trust SysCloud to protect their SaaS data. Head to SysCloud.com for a 30-day free trial—and for a limited time, use code 25ADMINS to get 50% off your first purchase.                 See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

We appreciate the elegance of subnets as well as the power of custom benchmarking, Xboxes will support large amounts of external storage, why it’s not looking great for bcachefs, malware and remote desktops, and our thoughts on Fortigate network gear.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Key Considerations for Benchmarking Network Storage Performance   News/discussion Xbox beta tests support for massive amounts of external storage Migrating away from bcachefs   Free Consulting We were asked about malware and remote desktops, and our thoughts on Fortigate network gear.           SysCloud Over 2,000 IT admins already trust SysCloud to protect their SaaS data. Head to SysCloud.com for a 30-day free trial—and for a limited time, use code 25ADMINS to get 50% off your first purchase.   Factor Eat smart with Factor. Get started at factormeals.com/25a50off and use code 25a50off to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping.               See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

An embarrassing typo suggests that MasterCard’s monitoring isn’t as good as it should be, tricky offsite backups, why two-factor authentication over SMS is a bad idea, and keeping two Mac laptops in sync.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Klara Webinar, Feb 13th: RAID is NOT a Backup and Other Hard Truths About Disaster Recovery   News MasterCard DNS Error Went Unnoticed for Years   Free Consulting We were asked about tricky offsite backups, why Two-factor authentication over SMS is a bad idea, and keeping two Mac laptops in sync.           ServerMania Get 15% Off dedicated servers – recurring for Life at servermania.com/25a with code 25ADMINS   Automox Check out the brand new Autonomous IT podcast. Listen in as a variety of experts in the IT Operations space discuss the latest Patch Tuesday releases, mitigation tips, and custom automations to help with CVE remediations. Listen now on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.             See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Microsoft didn’t control an important domain that it was using and end up red-faced, the dangers of using free VPN apps, a proof of concept exploit is out for last year’s SSH vulnerability, USB is getting slightly less confusing labels, and swapping the motherboard in a TrueNAS SCALE system.   News Edgio bankruptcy results in endpoint change for Microsoft VPN used for VR game cheat sells access to your home network PoC Exploit Released For OpenSSH Arbitrary Code Execution Vulnerability An updated USB logo will now mark the fastest docking stations   Free Consulting We were asked about swapping the motherboard in a TrueNAS SCALE system.           Entroware This episode is sponsored by Entroware. They are a UK-based company who sells computers with Ubuntu and Ubuntu MATE preinstalled. They have configurable laptops, desktops and servers to suit a wide range of Linux users. Check them out and don’t forget to mention us at checkout if you buy one of their great machines.             See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

A new version of ZFS is out and we go over the great new features. Plus recovering data after accidentally writing part of an ISO onto a USB drive, how to deal with abuse of your domain, and replacing all the drives in a ZFS pool while keeping the birth date.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Managing and Tracking Storage Performance   News Zfs-2.3.0 Introducing OpenZFS Fast Dedup   Free Consulting We were asked about recovering data after accidentally writing part of an ISO onto a USB drive, how to deal with abuse of your domain, and replacing all the drives in a ZFS pool while keeping the birth date.           ServerMania Get 15% Off dedicated servers – recurring for Life at servermania.com/25a with code 25ADMINS           See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Jim and Allan explain the benefits of a lithium iron phosphate “UPS”, whether it’s possible to delete every single copy of a file, and using Bluetooth in a Windows 11 VM.   Plug Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes   Discussion Anker SOLIX C300 Anker SOLIX F3800   Free Consulting We were asked about using Bluetooth in a Windows 11 VM.         See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

What it would take to reliably store data for a hundred years including Institutional funding and organization, decade-proof redundancy, multiple hot and cold copies,hedging your bets against multiple media, and more. Plus backing up ZFS without normal snapshots.   Plug Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes   Discussion Century-Scale Storage     Free Consulting We were asked about backing up ZFS without normal snapshots.           ServerMania Get 15% Off dedicated servers – recurring for Life at servermania.com/25a with code 25ADMINS           See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Windows ssh is sending more telemetry than you might think, Let’s Encrypt will offer 6 days certificates, a PSA about domains that don’t send emails, and performance issues in a Synology NAS.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Winter 2024 Roundup: Storage and Network Diagnostics   News/discussion ssh on Windows sends telemetry sshTelemetry.c Let’s Encrypt to offer 6 day certs Important reminder, if you own a domain name and don’t use it for sending email   Free Consulting We were asked about performance issues in a Synology NAS.           ServerMania Get 15% Off dedicated servers – recurring for Life at servermania.com/25a with code 25ADMINS           See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Chinese researchers are making progress with quantum computing but they haven’t broken modern RSA or AES encryption, Russian attackers compromised a business via a nearby building’s WiFi, a startup runs out of money and bricks a robot for kids, and hardening Linux systems.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes ZFS Storage Fault Management on Linux   News/discussion No, Chinese quantum computers haven’t hacked military-grade encryption The Nearest Neighbor Attack: How A Russian APT Weaponized Nearby Wi-Fi Networks for Covert Access Startup will brick $800 emotional support robot for kids without refunds The confusing reality of AI friends   Free consulting We were asked about hardening Linux systems.             ServerMania Get 15% Off dedicated servers – recurring for Life at servermania.com/25a with code 25ADMINS   1Password Extended Access Management: Secure every sign-in for every app on every device. Support the show and check it out at 1password.com/25a         See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

The US government tells people to use encrypted messaging, mandated MFA in healthcare raises a scary geopolitical question, QNAP bungles a firmware update, and securing access to self hosted applications with mTLS.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Deploying pNFS file sharing with FreeBSD   News/discussion FBI Warns iPhone And Android Users—Stop Sending Texts US senators propose mandated MFA, encryption in healthcare QNAP firmware update leaves NAS owners locked out of their boxes   Free consulting We were asked about securing access to self hosted applications with mTLS.             Automox Check out the brand new Autonomous IT podcast. Listen in as a variety of experts in the IT Operations space discuss the latest Patch Tuesday releases, mitigation tips, and custom automations to help with CVE remediations. Listen now on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.   1Password Extended Access Management: Secure every sign-in for every app on every device. Support the show and check it out at 1password.com/25a           See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Intel’s CEO departs but replacing him won’t magically solve its serious problems, Zipcar wasn’t prepared for an outage and handled it really badly, moving to an email provider that supports DMARC, and picking a NAS distribution.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes ZFS Ask Me Anything – December 12th Applying the ARC Algorithm to the ARC   News Intel CEO takes his leave as ambition meets reality What happened to Intel? Zipcar Outage Strands Customers in Random Places   Free consulting We were asked about moving to an email provider that supports DMARC, and picking a NAS distribution.             ServerMania Get 15% Off dedicated servers – recurring for Life at servermania.com/25a with code 25ADMINS             See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Equinix is shutting down its bare metal service, D-Link advises people to dump old vulnerable routers, Google makes changes to how it ranks some affiliate-driven “reviews”, and data caps seem to be sticking around. Plus mixing different brands and types of disks, using other partitions on a ZFS drive, and scaling a fleet of FreeBSD hosts with jails.   Plug Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Introducing OpenZFS Fast Dedup   News/discussion Equinix to shutter bare metal IaaS service in 2026 D-Link says replace vulnerable routers or risk pwnage Google cracks down on “Parasite SEO,” punishing established publishers Cable companies and Trump’s FCC chair agree: Data caps are good for you   Free consulting We were asked about mixing different brands and types of disks, using other partitions on a ZFS drive, and scaling a fleet of FreeBSD hosts with jails.   nomad-pot-driver Cluster provisioning with Nomad and Pot on FreeBSD             ServerMania Find this year’s Black Friday & Cyber Week deals at servermania.com/blackfriday   1Password Extended Access Management: Secure every sign-in for every app on every device. Support the show and check it out at 1password.com/25a           See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Windows server unexpectedly upgrades major versions, Microsoft reinvents the idea of a thin client, restricting a friend’s access to just their backups, and the importance of warranties when buying hardware.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes DKMS vs kmod: The Essential Guide for ZFS on Linux   News Windows Server 2025 takes admins by surprise No word from Microsoft on shock Windows Server 2025 installs Windows Server 2025 known issues and notifications Windows 11 update bug falsely warns of end of support, confusing users Windows 365 Link—the first Cloud PC device   Free consulting We were asked about restricting a friend’s access to just their backups, and the importance of warranties when buying hardware. 2.5 Admins 218: TLS TTL                   See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Jim and Allan discover modern charging tech and marvel at what’s possible in the USB-C era, more on IPv6 firewalls, using ZFS like Git, and running your own authoritative DNS server.           Automox Check out the brand new Autonomous IT podcast. Listen in as a variety of experts in the IT Operations space discuss the latest Patch Tuesday releases, mitigation tips, and custom automations to help with CVE remediations. Listen now on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.   1Password Extended Access Management: Secure every sign-in for every app on every device. Support the show and check it out at 1password.com/25a           See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

How using a copy-on-write filesystem like ZFS can get systems back online within seconds after ransomeware encrypts all your data, and even warn you more quickly that it’s happening. Plus Jim and Allan’s advice on getting a job as a sysadmin.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Klara: 5 Reasons Why Your ZFS Storage Benchmarks Are Wrong   Free consulting We were asked about getting a job as a sysadmin.                   See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

It’s Halloween so Jim and Allan share horrific and spooky stories from their sysadmin careers. Plus picking a UPS for a homelab.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Klara: NAS: Maintenance Best Practices                   See our contact page for ways to get in touch.