2.5 Admins

A bug in APT shines a light on a long-standing issue, backing up databases in containers, the pros and cons of using FreeBSD to host Linux VMs, network isolation for VMs, and using another backup technology in addition to ZFS. With guest host Sean from Hybrid Cloud Show.

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News/discussion

APT can merge two different package downloads after an HTTP redirect gives them the same URI

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A modern Proxmox Docker architecture with disposable VMs, VirtIO-FS, and ZFS

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Why you should be watching for SSL certificates that you didn’t issue, Let’s Encrypt is shortening the length of certs to 64 days, Ubuntu tightens up GRUB with secure boot, an Intel driver bug breaks IPv6 for major services, and running websites from a home Internet connection.

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FreeBSD Release Cycles and Enterprise Requirements: Why LTS Matters

News/discussion

Chrome’s Response to Recent ccTLD Registry Hijacks

64-Day Certificate Lifetimes Coming Feb 2027 – Let’s Encrypt

Ubuntu 26.10 drops Btrfs, XFS & ZFS /boot with Secure Boot

A preinstalled Intel driver is silently breaking IPv6, OneNote and Microsoft 365

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Supermarkets found out why their fridges shouldn’t be on the Internet and Samsung smart fridges broke after a firmware update, why we don’t recommend MoCA, some tips for running ethernet cables in your house, and why it’s fine to use a short TTL with your domains.

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Biggest ZFS Misconfigurations and How to Fix Them: Part 2

News/discussion

Hackers heat French supermarket fridges, sparking fires and spoiling food

The username is admin and the password changes every day automatically to.. the current date

Freeze the Controller, Defrost the Food: Uncovering Vulnerabilities in Danfoss Refrigeration Controllers

Owners mourn spoiled food after firmware update bricks Samsung smart fridges

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Example coax cable tester

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Biggest ZFS Misconfigurations and How to Fix Them: Part 1

News/discussion

How I kept cool with NYC’s free battery program for window AC units

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Google offers a few pennies to web publishers to make up for stealing their content and not sending them any traffic, the tech we’d try to use after the apocalypse, why Jim doesn’t virtualise his clients’ desktops, and setting up Volume Shadow Copy so your users can restore their own files.

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FreeBSD: The Hidden Cost of Upgrading in Production

News/discussion

Google’s early attempt to pay websites for AI answers is struggling

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The challenges of funding open source software projects, how Netflix uses FreeBSD in a positive way, why you shouldn’t try to complicate your monitoring, and running servers in a small residence.

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Why Is Everyone Stuck on FreeBSD 13?

Discussion

Netflix Case Study

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Microsoft really wants you to update your Exchange server, our thoughts on immutable distros, more on Jim’s approach to internet access for his kids, restricting access to servers on a corporate network, and cloning and backing up operating systems with ZFS.

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OpenZFS User and Developer Summit 2026: October 27-30

News

Microsoft to bounce mail from outdated Exchange servers

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Some of the ways you can mitigate the ridiculous hardware prices, and designing a small business LAN.

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FreeBSD’s Release Cycle: What It Means for Your Upgrade Schedule

Free consulting

We were asked about designing a small business LAN.

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A BGP hijack involved some basic errors, Microsoft teaches people to ignore warnings in Windows, Zoom appears to be reading the clipboard on X11, why a non-US open certificate authority is feasible in theory, and keeping a NAS powered on as little as possible.

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News/discussion

BGP hijack infecting networks caused by a comedy of errors that’s not funny at all

Windows bug incorrectly tells users that Microsoft Defender Antivirus is turned off

I noticed today that an update to the #Linux #Zoom client has made it start proactively reading _everything_ written to the X11 clipboard

Free consulting

We were asked about keeping a NAS powered on as little as possible.

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What to read into a study of long-term Backblaze hard drive failure data, why the difference between TB and TiB matters, and what to do about an overheating host bus adapter.

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ZFS vs Ceph: Choosing the Right Storage Architecture

News/discussion

Peer-reviewed study of 443,000 Backblaze hard drives ranks HGST most reliable and Toshiba the least — Analysis of 1.66 million drive-years finds Seagate and Toshiba HDDs fail at roughly twice the rate of WD and HGST

Changing Language for Storage Capacity

Free consulting

We were asked about an overheating host bus adapter.

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