Open Source

Swapping 5TB in, 3TB out

In this power, the server is running FreeBSD 10.3. I am completely and unreasonably biased: ZFS is the best filesystem out there. Do not take my word for it. Ask around. Today, I started a process I’ve been waiting to do for a while. I am replacing the 3TB drives in a 10-drive raidz2 array with 5TB drives. These new drives are faster, I think perhaps cooler, and, more to the point, bigger. […]

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PostgreSQL – logging to a file

These steps were carried out on FreeBSD 11.0 with PostgreSQL 9.6 (two of my favorite tools). I like logging. I like logging PostgreSQL. With logs, you can see what happened. Without, you can only guess. Setting up logging for PostgreSQL involves several parts, each of which must be completed or else I don’t get what I want. This is not a criticism of PostgreSQL. It’s a feature. I am documenting this because each

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Creating a gmirror swap

This is mostly a note to myself. #### Edit: 2018.09.08 : If you see messages like this: $ sudo gmirror insert swap /dev/da5p2 gmirror: Class not found $ gmirror list -a gmirror: Command ‘list’ not available. You probably need to do this: sudo kldload geom_mirror #### I had these drives: They are involved in this zpool: I decided to create a 6-way mirror for swap: sudo gmirror label -v -b round-robin swap diskid/DISK-653DK7WBFS9Ap2

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cert-puller: using anvil to pull down & install new certificates, then restart services

Now that I have configured my webserver to pull down any new certificates, now it’s time to configure my clients to pull certificates from the webserver. In my quest for a centralized Let’s Encrypt solution, I’ve created the FreeBSD port for acme.sh (an ACME client for Let’s Encrypt) and anvil, a tool for distributing and installing those certificates. In previous blog posts, I’ve described various steps leading up to this: Creating a TXT

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anvil – copying the certificates to the website

In my Let’s Encrypt implementation, I am using a centralized acme.sh solution which generates all the certificates I use and authenticates via dns-01 challenges. I use anvil to distribute those certificates. In this post, I will describe how the website pulls the certificates down from the rsync-jail. I will assume you have read my previous post where I describe the cert-shifter process. Configuring the jail host This solution assumes that the acme.sh jail

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cert-shifter: copying certificates from acme.sh to a fresh directory

I have already described how I use acme.sh to obtain SSL certificates from Let’s Encrypt. Today, I’m going to show you how I use anvil to copy those certificates from the original location to another directory, which is then used for rsync by another jail. Throughout this blog post, it is assumed that the cert-shifter will be run as the anvil user. Please adjust to suit your choices. Why shift certificates? As part

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Introducing anvil – Tools for distributing ssl certificates

I’m in the end-stages of finishing off my centralized Let’s Encrypt solution and I’ve released my code as an open source project named anvil. I’ve also created a FreeBSD port. In this post, I outline the anvil tools and how I use them. In future posts, I will detail the individual components, some of which have already appeared in my blog. Why centralized After reading about the FreeBSD cluster’s use of Let’s Encrypt,

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acme.sh: getting free SSL certificates – installation configuration on FreeBSD

This blog post describes my Let’s Encrypt solution which uses acme.sh and dns-01 challenges to obtain SSL certificates. If you are using HTTP challenges, this post might still be useful, but your configuration will differ slightly. Let’s Encrypt is a certificate authority which has become wildly popular since it was launched in April 2016 (just a short 14 months ago). Why so popular? It provides a secure way to offer free SSL certificates.

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My first big Tarsnap backup

NOTE: I wrote this post nearly two years ago, in May 2015. It has been sitting ignored and unloved in my Drafts. I’ve just published it today. I’m big on backups and I use Bacula. I have about 18 TB on about 350 tapes and about 10 TB of backups on disk. I want more. I last used Tarsnap back in July 2010 (I know that because I found the old Tarsnap registration

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Accessing your Time Capsule when on a different subnet

Last night, when I got my FreeBSD & ZFS based Time Capsule running, I had to connect my laptop to the same network as the server in question. This is not ideal. My usual work flow: connect to the WIFI, then connect to the VPN, then I get access to those services. These are different subnets, so the Netatalk broadcast does not traverse the switch. It stays inside so my laptop does not

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