The article discusses the critical importance of disaster recovery (DR) strategies in modern IT environments, highlighting that traditional backups are insufficient. It emphasizes the necessity of continuous, reliable, secure, and rapid DR solutions to mitigate risks from ransomware, hardware failures, and operational errors. ZFS is presented as an ideal solution due to its features like end-to-end checksumming, atomic snapshots, efficient replication, self-healing capabilities, built-in encryption, and native compression. These features ensure data integrity, minimize downtime, and secure data both at rest and in transit. The article also outlines practical use cases for ZFS in DR environments, such as site-to-site replication, snapshot-based recovery points, disaster simulation testing, encrypted DR replication, and application-specific recovery.
Errata patches for pf(4) syncookies, acme-client(1), and X11 server have been released for OpenBSD 7.6 and 7.7. Binary updates are available for amd64, arm64, and i386 platforms via the syspatch utility.
The Valuable News weekly series provides a summary of news and articles related to UNIX/BSD/Linux systems. This edition highlights several key updates and releases, including the FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE Announcement, which brings network driver updates and OpenZFS improvements. The FreeBSD Foundation continues its quest for better laptop support with enhanced WiFi/GPU drivers.
The j2k25 hackathon report by Klemens Nanni (kn@) highlights several key developments and discussions. Notable updates include improvements to the OpenBSD installer and rc(8) for better handling of randomness seed files, enhancements to the apmd(8) tool for low battery warnings, and various port updates and fixes. The report also delves into technical discussions around chroot(2), daemon(3), and potential new mechanisms for finer directory-level file path operations. Additionally, the hackathon fostered collaborations and discussions on various tools and features, such as the new watch(1) tool and issues with Telegram group calls on OpenBSD. The event was made possible by the OpenBSD Foundation and Yasuoka, providing a productive environment for these advancements.
This guide details the process of setting up an XMPP service to communicate with WhatsApp using the slidge-whatsapp transport module. The author explains the necessity of this integration due to WhatsApp's widespread use and discusses the transition from a Matrix server to an XMPP service. The guide covers the installation and configuration of ejabberd, slidge-whatsapp, and nginx, including troubleshooting common errors encountered during the setup process on FreeBSD. It provides step-by-step commands and configurations for each component, ensuring a smooth integration. The summary aims to help experienced users understand the process while being accessible to beginners. Key points include the installation of dependencies, building and configuring the necessary software, and setting up the services to work together.
The article discusses a significant update to OpenBSD's dhcpd(8) daemon, which is being modified to use UDP sockets instead of BPF (Berkeley Packet Filter). This change, proposed by David Gwynne, aims to improve the reliability of dhcpd in responding to DHCP requests with the correct IP address. The motivation behind this update is to enhance the daemon's ability to handle anycast DHCP servers, where multiple servers share the same IP address. The article explains the technical challenges and solutions involved in this transition, including the use of UDP sockets for better IP handling and the necessity of updating PF firewall rules to accommodate the change. The update has been tested in production and is available for further testing and feedback.
In a series of commits, Robert Nagy updated clang, llvm, and lld in OpenBSD's -current to version 19.1.7 from version 16.0.6. The update was detailed in a CVS log message, and users building from source are advised to follow specific instructions before updating. This change is significant for developers and system administrators using OpenBSD, as it brings the latest features and improvements from the LLVM project. The update process involves a series of commits and requires users to follow detailed instructions to ensure a smooth transition.
How to unlock high speed Wi-Fi on FreeBSD 14, What We’ve Learned Supporting FreeBSD in Production, rsync replaced with openrsync on macOS Sequoia, Framework 13 AMD Setup with FreeBSD, FreeBSD on Dell Latitude 7280, Backup MX with OpenSMTPD, Notes on caddy as QUIC reverse proxy with mac_portacl, and more.
ZFS tuning is crucial for optimizing performance based on specific workloads. This guide delves into fine-tuning key settings such as record size, caching strategies, and hardware choices to maximize throughput, improve IOPS, and reduce latency in ZFS storage environments. It highlights the importance of understanding ZFS architecture, including its dynamic resource allocation and data integrity mechanisms. The guide also discusses different workload types (throughput, IOPS, and latency) and provides insights into optimizing ZFS for each. Additionally, it emphasizes the benefits of seeking expert assistance for performance tuning to achieve better results and plan for future scalability.
The TearFree option has been backported to the modesetting driver in OpenBSD, enabling smoother scrolling by default. This update follows a discussion initiated by Ted Unangst and involves modifications to several files in the xserver directory. The work was primarily done by Ted Unangst, with contributions from other developers. Users with relevant hardware can expect improved performance without additional configuration. The change is part of the ongoing efforts to enhance the OpenBSD graphical experience.
The FreeBSD Release Engineering Team has announced the availability of FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE, the fourth release of the stable/14 branch. Key highlights include support for 802.11ac in the iwlwifi driver, publication of OCI container images in Docker and GitHub repositories, and upgrades to various tools and software such as LLVM, OpenSSH, xz, and expat. The release is available for multiple architectures including amd64, i386, aarch64, armv7, powerpc, powerpc64, and riscv64. It can be installed from bootable ISO images, over the network, or via USB memory sticks. FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE will be supported until June 30, 2026, with the FreeBSD 14 release series supported until November 30, 2028.