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Howto build Freedive - A FreeBSD GUI Management Tool

(2024-05-23):
Freedive emerges as an innovative standalone tool for FreeBSD, offering a graphical user interface (GUI) that revolutionizes the way systems are managed, enabling both newcomers and experienced users to administer their FreeBSD installations with ease. This GUI, accessible through a mobile-friendly web interface, democratizes the use of FreeBSD by allowing beginners to engage with the operating system without the need to delve into the complexities of the command-line shell. Designed with responsiveness in mind, Freedive's interface adapts seamlessly to various screen sizes, ensuring that system administrators can perform essential tasks from virtually any device, be it a smartphone, tablet, or desktop. The intuitive design of Freedive's web interface lowers the entry barrier for managing FreeBSD systems, making it more approachable for users who may not be familiar with Unix-like environments. By providing a full spectrum of system management capabilities through its GUI, Freedive empowers users to perform tasks ranging from .... [read more]

Howto Create a Cheap Multi Site High Availability Setup with a Wireguard Tunnel

(2024-05-12):
In today's interconnected world, ensuring high availability (HA) across multiple sites is crucial for businesses to maintain continuity and reliability. While traditional solutions often rely on complex protocols like BGP or GRE tunnels, implementing a cost-effective HA setup using WireGuard VPN tunnels provides a simpler yet robust alternative. This solution leverages the flexibility of WireGuard VPNs to create secure connections between multiple sites, with the added benefit of easy setup and management but also keeping the overall costs low. Within this solution all traffic terminates on public IPv4 and IPv6 IPs and will be routed or NATed (depending on the operators personal decision) to the desired endpoint. In this solution any endpoint can be used, even behind a (CG)NAT, because the site endpoint will initiate the VPN connection to the main Wireguard VPN server which holds the public IPs. In this example, a simple webserver will be made available in .... [read more]

Howto Integrate Matrix Alerts into Grafana

(2024-05-07):
Unfortunately, Grafana does not support Matrix notification by default. While Matrix is originally a free and open-source chat service, it also provides API and Bot support which makes it handy for service notifications. With End-to-end encryption, open-source, self-hosting possibilities and multi client support it provides all necessary features to integrate this as a fast and reliable notification solution to receive any kind of monitoring alerts. With the grafana-matrix-forwarder by Hector S. , a Grafana integration for Matrix alert notifications can be easily done within just a few minutes. In this case, the grafana-matrix-forwarder (written in Go) just runs as a dedicated binary and accepts requests by http on port tcp/6000. The integration will follow as a webhook in Grafana. The installation and configuration of this forwarder is pretty easy and straight forward. The binary will just be copied and executed by a dedicated user. useradd -m grafanamatrixforwarder -s /bin/nologin cd .... [read more]

Introducing BoxyBSD as a non-profit VM Hosting Project with a Focus on BSD

(2024-04-08):
BoxyBSD is a non-profit project dedicated to providing free virtual machine (VM) hosting on IPv6, with a particular emphasis on BSD-based systems such as FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD. The project's primary objective is to contribute back value to the open-source community by offering a platform where beginners and newcomers can learn and educate themselves using real systems. By offering free virtual machine hosting, BoxyBSD aims to remove financial barriers that often deter individuals from gaining hands-on experience with BSD-based systems. This initiative allows users to explore, experiment, and learn about these systems in a practical and interactive manner. BoxyBSD's focus on BSD-based systems ensures that users have access to a diverse range of operating environments, enabling them to familiarize themselves with different BSD distributions and their respective features. This approach not only promotes knowledge and understanding within the community but also encourages collaboration and innovation among enthusiasts, students, and professionals .... [read more]

Proxmox's New Import Wizard for (live) Importing Virtual Machines from VMware ESXi

(2024-03-28):
Proxmox just released its new import wizard which makes it much easier to migrate virtual machines from a VMware ESXi system to a Proxmox environment. This being said, it also offers the general support of live importing virtual machines. Migrating VMs to the Proxmox environment uses the official ESXi API through a user space filesystem with a fine-tuned read-ahead cache which is fully written in Rust. Unlike before, this solution does not require the manual steps of copying the virtual machine's image file, converting (depending on Proxmox version), importing and assigning anymore and streamlines the whole user experience within the Proxmox webui. Requirements * PVE 8+ * pve-manager 8.1-8 * libpve-storage-perl 8.1.3 * pve-esxi-import-tools Installation Integrating this is pretty straight forward: pve-esxi-import-tools is already available within the pvetest and pve-no-subscription repositories and can easily be installed (to do on each Proxmox node) by running to following commands: $> apt-get update .... [read more]

Howto Install QualvoSec Security Patch Management on Debian and Ubuntu

(2024-03-07):
Security patch management is a critical aspect of maintaining the security and resilience of an organization's digital infrastructure. It involves the timely identification, testing, and application of software updates to address vulnerabilities in operating systems, applications, and other software components. This proactive approach is essential to prevent security breaches, data breaches, and unauthorized access, safeguarding sensitive information and ensuring smooth system operation. The how-to guide focuses on integrating QualvoSec (you can find more information here ) into an organization's infrastructure to streamline and enhance security patch management processes. QualvoSec is a comprehensive security solution designed to automate and simplify the patch management lifecycle. By following the guide, users can achieve benefits such as automated vulnerability assessment, centralized patch deployment, prioritization of critical patches, real-time monitoring and reporting, customizable policies and scheduling, and seamless integration with existing systems. The integration with QualvoSec provides centralized control over patch deployment, allowing users to .... [read more]

QualvoSec - A Minimalistic Security Patch Management Tool

(2024-03-06):
QualvoSec is a robust open-source (based on GPLv3) security patch management tool designed for unattended upgrades on a variety of systems, encompassing mainstream Linux distributions (like Debian, Ubuntu, Garden Linux, RedHat, CentOS, RockyLinux etc.) and BSD-based systems like FreeBSD. This tool empowers operators to exercise control over client systems' patch integration, offering flexibility in managing updates, particularly for crucial components like kernels or glibc. They key features of QualvoSec consists of: * Not running as root * Only specific commands allowed by sudo * Clients pulling information from server * Server provides only a static manifest * Holding the patch windows of clients * No remote code executions * A potential compromised server could not be able to execute code on clients * Health monitoring endpoint on clients * Minimalistic design * Admin tool for creating, deleting and looking up of client patch windows * Fully written in Python3 * .... [read more]

Howto Run Proxmox 8 VE on the ARM64 Hardware Architecture

(2024-02-29):
In the ever-evolving landscape of virtualization and server management, one name has consistently stood out for its reliability, versatility, and innovation – Proxmox. Especially now, just after Broadcom dropped the free ESXi solution, Proxmox might be the real gamechanger. Traditionally associated with x86 architectures, Proxmox has been a stalwart companion for enterprises and enthusiasts alike, providing a robust platform for virtualization and container orchestration. However, as technology progresses and the demand for diversity in hardware options surges, the spotlight is now turning towards alternative architectures, with ARM64 emerging as a formidable contender. This blog post aims to unravel the untapped potential of running Proxmox on non-traditional hardware architectures, with a special focus on the ARM64 architecture. As we delve into the benefits, challenges, and the transformative impact of this choice, we invite you on a journey that explores the boundaries of what Proxmox can achieve beyond its familiar x86 habitat. .... [read more]

Howto Run Proxmox 8 VE on the ARM64 Hardware Architecture

VirtualBox with KVM Hypervisor Backend Support

(2024-02-08):
One of the standout features is the automatic utilization of modern virtualization functionalities supported by KVM, such as Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller virtualization (APICv). This integration ensures that users benefit from cutting-edge virtualization capabilities, potentially enhancing the performance and responsiveness of their VMs. A noteworthy advantage lies in the fact that KVM is an integral part of the Linux kernel. This implies that users can access KVM directly with every kernel update, ensuring compatibility and optimal performance without the need for additional configurations or driver installations. The streamlined integration with the Linux kernel positions VirtualBox KVM as a robust and reliable choice for virtualization enthusiasts within the Linux ecosystem. It's essential to acknowledge that, due to the shift in the underlying hypervisor from VirtualBox to KVM, there may be variations in guest performance. The extent of these differences is contingent upon the specific workload of the guest VM. Virtualization enthusiasts .... [read more]

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