2.5 Admins 228: Century-Scale Storage

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.   Plugs 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.