Introducing illumos Cafe: a community-run hub on illumos, inspired by BSD Cafe. Fediverse-ready (Mastodon, snac). Built for OS diversity, transparency, and positivity.| IT Notes
Build a bulletproof backup server with FreeBSD, ZFS, and jails. Complete guide covering encryption, security hardening, and multiple backup strategies for enterprise-grade data protection.| IT Notes
A new article on running WordPress on FreeBSD with BastilleBSD has been published on the BSD Cafe Journal, plus a small update on future technical content.| IT Notes
When a datacenter fire threatened 142 of my servers, my backup strategy had them back online in hours. This post shares my personal philosophy on creating a resilient system, focusing on the crucial planning that must happen before you write a single script.| IT Notes
A practical guide to installing FreeBSD on hosting providers that don't officially support it, using the powerful mfsBSD tool for rescue mode installations.| IT Notes
What happens when developers stop understanding code and just trust the 'vibe'? A real case of vulnerability hidden behind 'perfect' AI code and the implications for programming's future.| IT Notes
A GlusterFS failure during a critical client upgrade turned into a nightmare of false accusations and politics, revealing a deeper story of corruption.| IT Notes
A story from 16 years ago - trust, tech, and a server that had to disappear. They offered me a blank check. I said no.| IT Notes
Create a personal blog with NetBSD on a 1€ VPS - efficient, secure, and completely under your control. Minimal cost, maximum performance. Because your thoughts don't need to float in someone else's cloud.| IT Notes
Announcing the public release of BSSG, a Bash Static Site Generator born from a personal journey away from complex dynamic CMS. Discover a simple, portable alternative for your blog.| IT Notes
A tale of bad logging practices, overengineering, and a near-death experience.| IT Notes
A simple approach to prevent ZFS pools from getting stuck due to a lack of free space.| IT Notes
I share my experience migrating a client’s Windows BIOS VMs from Proxmox to FreeBSD/uefi, using bhyve and ZFS.| IT Notes
I share my experience migrating a client’s VMs from Proxmox to FreeBSD, using bhyve and ZFS.| IT Notes
A healthcare client risks IT failure by ignoring outdated infrastructure in favor of an impractical cloud migration plan.| IT Notes
Mastodon imposes a limit of 500 characters and 4 poll options. Here's how to change them.| IT Notes
The slides, the notes, and the text behind my presentation at OSDay 2025 in Florence, Italy - 'Why Choose to Use the BSDs in 2025.| IT Notes
How a simple idea turned into an international weather service on the Fediverse.| IT Notes
Using nginx to cache proxied media in snac to improve performance and privacy| IT Notes
Using nginx to cache snac multimedia files to boost performance| IT Notes
The slides, the video, and the text behind my presentation at EuroBSDCon 2024 - 'Why and how we're migrating many of our servers from Linux to the BSDs.| IT Notes
Learn how to build a self-hosted CDN using NetBSD, Varnish, and nginx| IT Notes
Learn how to build a self-hosted CDN using FreeBSD jails, Nginx, Varnish, WireGuard, and PowerDNS to improve media delivery for your website without relying on external providers.| IT Notes
Learn how to bridge networks across multiple VPS instances using Wireguard and VXLAN on FreeBSD, enabling secure and flexible service distribution.| IT Notes
Experience a journey from Kubernetes to FreeBSD, achieving major cost savings and efficiency through real-world optimization.| IT Notes
Comparative tests show FreeBSD's virtualization performance surpasses Proxmox, especially with NVMe drivers.| IT Notes
How to Create a FreeBSD Jail Hosting XRDP and XFCE for Remote Desktop Access| IT Notes
A few days ago, coinciding with the update to FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE, I encountered several servers that were operational, stable, and efficient. These servers hosted a number of service jails and, primarily, several VMs managed with bhyve. The VMs, mainly FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Linux, are stable and efficient. Each has its own IP address and is designed for specific functions. However, I had a realization: it makes sense for Linux and OpenBSD, but what's the point of having FreeBSD VMs within F...| IT Notes
Note: This article is dated, and while the core principles may still be correct, technologies have evolved. I currently have an update in progress, which will include more recent content. Please check back soon for the updated version.| IT Notes
I'm using BTRFS with satisfaction (I mentioned it in 2014 and, more recently, in the IT-Notes blog). I don't consider it optimal for all types of loads, but it solves many problems in many situations. One of the things I use with more satisfaction is the dynamic snapshot generation function, which guarantees the possibility to have a perfect and immediate copy of a specific volume (or subvolume). When a backup is needed, for example, the use of snapshots is fundamental and having them at file...| IT Notes
I've been using BTRFS for years and have encountered few problems. Some of them are small and can be avoided with some smart improvements. The following advice is based on my experience.| IT Notes
Preamble: I believe it's time to bid farewell to this venerable Linux server.| IT Notes
Since the time I left BlackBerry behind many years ago, I've consistently sought ways to keep my phones connected to my email accounts. I enjoy receiving emails in real-time, and as a result, I've always used tools that allow me to get instant (or near-instant) notifications whenever a message arrives.| IT Notes
Note: This article assumes a setup based on FreeBSD. If you prefer a version based on OpenBSD, it is available here.| IT Notes
In 2010, one morning, a client called. My task was to set up a new complex server within a tight two-day window. Given the constraints, I opted for my top choice at the time for such tasks: NetBSD and Xen. To my astonishment, over 10 years later, the server was still up and running perfectly| IT Notes
I’ve always kept an eye both on Android and iOS devices. I’ve been using an iPhone for the last 3+ years, and, one month ago, got a Google Pixel 7. Here’s what I found out.| IT Notes
VPNs are very useful both for management and personal use. Many people turn to commercial companies that provide them, but it is easy to install your own on a OpenBSD VPS. Be the owner of your data.| IT Notes
In recent years, we've been migrating many of our servers from Linux to FreeBSD as part of our consolidation and optimization efforts. Specifically, we've been moving services that were previously deployed using Docker onto FreeBSD, and it has proven to be a great choice for handling workloads efficiently.| IT Notes
RouterOS 6 is running great on bhyve. Unfortunately, things change when dealing with RouterOS 7. It doesn’t boot at all. Here’s how to solve.| IT Notes
I have already dealt with the problem of performing a correct backup. This time I will give you some insights into how I make backups and how I am able to guarantee a certain level of security.| IT Notes
A comprehensive guide to installing Mastodon on a FreeBSD jail using BastilleBSD| IT Notes
After my post on why we’re migrating (many of) our servers to FreeBSD, I’ve received a lot of feedback. Many questions, many comments. Many e-mails from Linux users asking how we’re migrating, how jails can replace lxc or (in part) Docker, and how we’re monitoring and performing backups/restores.| IT Notes
Alpine Linux and lxd are perfect together, especially if combined with a good file system. Let’s see how to install them on a btrfs file system.| IT Notes
Sometimes you want (or need) to assign a public OVH failover IP address to a FreeBSD jail but there’s not much documentation on how to do it inside a jail.| IT Notes
Lxc containers are fast, small and useful. Proxmox Backup Server is quite slow with them, so here’s how to perform a fast and efficient backup using Borg.| IT Notes
After my post on why we’re migrating (most of) our servers from Linux to FreeBSD, I’ve started to write about how we’re doing it. After covering a basic installation (we’re doing a massive use of jails), I’m going now to describe how we’re performing backups.| IT Notes
If you are using Proxmox, ZFS is one of the best local storage options. You can easily backup your lxc containers using Borg.| IT Notes
More about this in the article I wrote to accompany my talk at EuroBSDCon 2024.| IT Notes
