2.5 Admins

The one bit of advice we’d give to someone wanting to become a professional sysadmin. This is a short episode because Joe is having a break for the Christmas period. See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

Apple deletes a person’s entire digital life, PornHub Premium user data is leaked, Mozilla’s new CEO wants to ruin Firefox, Tech Force in the USA is alarming, and fine tuning storage for databases. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Is DWPD Still a Useful SSD Spec? News/discussion 20 Years of Digital Life, Gone in an Instant, thanks to Apple PornHub extorted after hackers steal Premium member activity data Mozilla’s next chapter: Building the world’s most trusted software company Rest assured, Firefox will always remain a browser built around user control Tech Force Trump administration launches Tech Force hiring push Free consulting We were asked about fine tuning storage for databases. See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

The Crucial brand of consumer SSDs and RAM is going away, AMD and Intel memory encryption can be bypassed with cheap hardware, more AI buffoonery, and monitoring users’ usage on a network. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes When RAID Isn’t Enough: ZFS Redundancy Done Right News/discussion Micron Announces Exit from Crucial Consumer Business Cheap Hardware Module Bypasses AMD, Intel Memory Encryption Google’s vibe coding platform deletes entire drive One day, AI might be better than you at surfing the web. That day isn’t today Free consulting We were asked about monitoring users’ usage on a network. Tailscale Tailscale is an easy to deploy, zero-config, no-fuss VPN that allows you to build simple networks across complex infrastructure. Go to tailscale.com/25a and try Tailscale out for free for up to 100 devices and 3 users, with no credit card required. Use code LATENIGHTLINUX for three free months of any Tailscale paid plan. See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

What a government crackdown on VPNs would look like, malware groups play the long game with browser extensions, a new major version of FreeBSD is released, and using a single database vs one DB per application or VM. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes ZFS Enabled Disaster Recovery for Virtualization News/discussion The VPN panic is only getting started Stealthy browser extensions waited years before infecting 4.3M Chrome, Edge users with backdoors and spyware FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE Announcement Free consulting We were asked about using a single database vs one DB per application or VM. See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

Google kept collecting sensor data even after bricking Nest thermostats, FreeBSD’s container support gets serious, and where to find cheap (or even dirt cheap) used hardware. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes How to Set Up a Highly Available ZFS Pool Using Mirroring and iSCSI December Webinar: The 12 Days of ZFS: Tips, Tricks, and Treats News/discussion Google is collecting troves of data from downgraded Nest thermostats FreeBSD Officially Supported in OCI Runtime Specification v1.3 Free consulting We were asked about where to find cheap (or even dirt cheap) used hardware. Tailscale Tailscale is an easy to deploy, zero-config, no-fuss VPN that allows you to build simple networks across complex infrastructure. Go to tailscale.com/25a and try Tailscale out for free for up to 100 devices and 3 users, with no credit card required. Use code LATENIGHTLINUX for three free months of any Tailscale paid plan. See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

Windows is becoming an “agentic OS”, some WD SMR drives are dying prematurely, backing up VMware with ZFS, and separating trusted and non-trusted devices on your network. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Understanding Storage Performance Metrics December Webinar: The 12 Days of ZFS: Tips, Tricks, and Treats News/discussion Microsoft is turning Windows into an ‘agentic OS,’ starting with the taskbar Critics scoff after Microsoft warns AI feature can infect machines and pilfer data WD launches investigation into problems with its controversial SMR hard drives Free consulting We were asked about backing up VMware with ZFS, and separating trusted and non-trusted devices on your network. See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

Allan tells us about the recent OpenZFS Summit including inconsistent JBODs, more details about mixed disk sizes in ZFS with AnyRaid, an upcoming standard that allows you to keep using partially dead hard drives, Seagate’s roadmap for 50 and 100 TB drives, and NVMe connected mechanical drives. Plus using a separate mini PC for work. Plug s Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Building Enterprise-Grade Storage on Proxmox with ZFS December Webinar: The 12 Days of ZFS: Tips, Tricks, and Treats Free consulting We were asked about using a separate mini PC for work. See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

Why you should seriously consider buying refurbished hard drives, why drives might be lasting longer than they once did, Jim’s M.2 NVMe drive died at an inopportune moment, using multiple partitions on disks with ZFS. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Advanced ZFS Dataset Management: Snapshots, Clones, and Bookmarks November Webinar: ZFS Mastery: The Bits They Don’t Put in the Man Pages News/discussion Do Refurbished Hard Disks Make Sense For Your Home NAS Server? Are Hard Drives Getting Better? Let’s Revisit the Bathtub Curve Jim’s M.2 NVMe nightmare Free consulting We were asked about using multiple partitions on disks with ZFS. See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

Why you should keep your Baseboard Management Controller off the network, ZFS is hard to defeat with a zip bomb, how bad the Internet bot problem probably is, and building a small home server cluster. Plug Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Discussion Supermicro server motherboards can be infected with unremovable malware When a decompression ZIP bomb meets ZFS: 19 PB written on a 15 TB disk Free consulting We were asked about building a small home server cluster. See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

It looks like the storage companies aren’t betting on the AI bubble lasting much longer, the arguments against self-hosting, and setting up a server for virtualization and containers. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes ZFS Performance Tuning in the Real World: ARC, L2ARC, and SLOG Discussion Expect HDD, SSD shortages as AI rewrites the rules of storage hierarchy — multiple companies announce price hikes, too The Future is NOT Self-Hosted Free consulting We were asked about setting up a server for virtualization and containers. See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

Windows 10 is officially end of life but Microsoft extends free updates for Windows 10 in Europe, it gets even harder to use a local account in Windows 11, and whether repurposing old server hardware is worth it. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes What the Future Brings – ZFS Features, Roadmap, and Innovations News/discussion Major backtrack as Microsoft makes Windows 10 extended security updates FREE for an extra year — but only in certain markets Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without an online account Free consulting We were asked about repurposing old server hardware. See our contact page for ways to get in touch.

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.