Blog

Centralized Logging for Proxmox VE Clusters with PegaProx

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

PegaProx for Proxmox VE clusters continues to evolve from a simple idea into a more complete solution that addresses real world needs in enterprise virtualization environments. One of the most frequently requested features has been a centralized logging capability, and this is exactly what is now being introduced. Instead of having to manually collect logs from individual nodes, administrators can ...

PegaProx Adds CIS Benchmarking and CVE Scanning for Proxmox

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Security has become one of the most critical aspects of operating modern virtualization infrastructures. With the introduction of version 0.9.1.1 , PegaProx now includes integrated CIS Benchmark auditing and CVE vulnerability scanning , bringing automated security visibility directly into the virtualization management layer. By combining infrastructure management with continuous security assessment, PegaProx helps administrators detect misconfigurations, identify vulnerabilities, and maintain ...

PegaProx Adds XCP-ng Support for Multi-Hypervisor Management

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

PegaProx was originally designed as a centralized control platform for Proxmox VE based infrastructures. Pegaprox's goal has always been to bring together complex virtualization environments into a single management interface that simplifies daily operations and reduces administrative overhead. While the last upgrades added support for additional features, like EntraID / OIDC support , the latest development milestone of version 0.9.1, ...

ProxPatch: Zero-Downtime Updates for Proxmox Clusters

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Running a Proxmox VE cluster is fantastic for virtualization — until patch day arrives. Then it becomes a repetitive routine: migrate VMs, update packages, reboot nodes, wait for quorum, and repeat for every server. On clusters with more than a handful of nodes, this process is not only time-consuming, it is also easy to get wrong. A missed migration or ...

Stalwart Mail HA Cluster with FoundationDB

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Setting up a reliable mail infrastructure is no longer limited to large organizations. With modern components like Stalwart Mail Server and FoundationDB, it is possible to run a highly available and distributed mail platform without relying on a single machine or a fragile storage backend and I became a pretty huge fan of this setup. The goal of this setup ...

PegaProx for Proxmox: AD + OIDC Support

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The evolution of PegaProx from a promising management tool to a powerhouse datacenter manager (often also mentioned as the alternative of vCenter/vSphere for Proxmox environemnts) has reached a major milestone today. With the release of version 0.6.6 , the development team has delivered on one of the most vocal requests from the enterprise community: the integration of centralized, industry-standard authentication. ...

FOSDEM 2026: Open Source and Digital Sovereignty

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

FOSDEM , the Free and Open Source Developers’ European Meeting, is an annual pilgrimage for open source enthusiasts from all over the world. What started as a small gathering in 2000, originally named the Open Source Developers of Europe Meeting (OSDEM), has grown into one of the most significant conferences dedicated to free and open source software. In 2026, FOSDEM ...

PegaProx: Datacenter Manager for Proxmox

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

PegaProx is designed to be the central control point for modern Proxmox VE based datacenters. It brings together everything administrators need to manage complex infrastructures in a single, clear interface, similar to what many operators already know from established enterprise virtualization platforms. Instead of switching between clusters, nodes, storage views, and monitoring tools , PegaProx provides a real unified platform ...

bhyve Prometheus exporter for Sylve on FreeBSD

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This post describes how to export metrics from bhyve based virtual machines and Jails managed by Sylve on FreeBSD by my Prometheus exporter. The focus is on collecting reliable data from the host system without relying on tooling that was primarily designed for Linux hypervisors or assumes the existence of hypervisor level counters. Monitoring bhyve workloads on FreeBSD is different ...

ProxSnap: Snapshot Management for Proxmox

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Snapshots are one of the most useful safety mechanisms in virtualized environments. They make it easy to roll back changes, reduce risk during upgrades, and provide confidence when testing or migrating workloads. Proxmox VE supports snapshots for both virtual machines and containers, and on a single guest level this works well and reliably. The problem starts once a setup grows ...

ProxLB and credativ: Expanding Proxmox Integration

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Two years ago I started working on a project called ProxLB because something essential was missing in my daily work with Proxmox VE based clusters. At that time I was deeply involved in my BoxyBSD project which provides free VPS instances for people who are interested in BSD systems. Running such an environment made it very clear that a DRS ...

ProxLB 1.1.11: Intelligent Load Balancing for Proxmox VE

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

ProxLB is a lightweight load-balancing and placement helper designed for Proxmox VE environments, helping operators make smarter scheduling and availability decisions for virtual machines and containers. It provides advanced features such as pinning, affinity and anti-affinity rules, maintenance mode, and intelligent node selection to keep workloads where they belong. With a strong focus on simplicity and native integration, ProxLB enhances ...

Self-Hosted S3 Storage for Proxmox Backup Server

Sat, 27 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

With Proxmox Backup Server 4 , a long-awaited feature has finally arrived: native support for S3-compatible object storage as a datastore. This fundamentally expands how backups can be designed, stored, and scaled in Proxmox environments. Until now, Proxmox Backup Server required local disks or locally attached storage to host datastores. With version 4, this limitation is gone. Datastores can now ...

Fix Proxmox VE Live Migration Issues with ProxCLMC

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Live migration is one of the most powerful and frequently used features in a Proxmox VE cluster, but it relies on a prerequisite that is often underestimated: consistent CPU compatibility across all nodes. In real-world environments, clusters rarely consist of identical hardware where we could simply use the host type. Nodes are added over time, CPU generations differ, and feature ...

BoxyBSD – Why Switching the Virtualization Hypervisor

Sun, 14 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

BoxyBSD started as a simple idea. Lowering the barrier of entry into the BSD world. What began in late 2022 on spare hardware has grown into a globally distributed, fully automated, free VPS platform that allows beginners and newcomers to explore BSD systems without needing a credit card, prior infrastructure knowledge, or their own hardware. Where was the talk given? ...

Proxmox Datacenter Manager - Central View Without Central Control

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Proxmox Datacenter Manager 1.0 brings something many administrators have wanted for a long time. A single place where all Proxmox VE clusters, individual nodes and Proxmox Backup Server instances come together. Instead of jumping through different interfaces, everything appears in one central cockpit. You get a clear and consistent overview of hosts, VMs, containers and datastores, even when they ...

ProxWall - Integration into your Proxmox VE cluster

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Creating a highly secure Proxmox cluster with proper micro segmentation has become one of the most frequent topics in my discussions with users and customers. Almost every organization that migrates from another virtualization platform asks the same question early on. How can network segments be defined and enforced directly inside Proxmox in a simple and centralized way? For a long ...

IncusOS – Secure and Immutable Virtualization Platform

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

IncusOS is an immutable operating system created with one clear goal: To run Incus safely, predictably and efficiently. Every part of its design focuses on providing a hardened, consistent and fully automated foundation for container and virtual machine management. Built on Debian 13, IncusOS includes its own kernel and Incus builds to maintain full control over the complete software stack. ...

Sylve: bhyve Virtualization and Clustering on FreeBSD

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Let me spoiler, it's the best I've seen so far for bhyve and FreeBSD! When Stefano told me about Sylve , I just had a quick look at the GitHub project and thought, "okay, just another of thousands jail manager just with a better web ui, similar to the Proxmox one" and I got completely wrong while giving it a ...

CBSD on FreeBSD – bhyve Virtualization with VXLAN and Stretched Layer-2 Networking

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In today's globalized IT landscape the term "cloud" dominates conversations about infrastructure, applications, and deployment strategies. Public cloud providers promise scalability, flexibility, and resilience but yet many organizations still operate their own infrastructure for reasons of control, cost, and compliance. In these environments, FreeBSD continues to play an important role as a robust, secure, and versatile operating system. CBSD as ...

Kanidm OIDC with Proxmox VE – Configuration Guide

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In this HowTo we install and configure Kanidm on Linux Debian Trixie and use it for authentication with Proxmox by OIDC (OpenID Connect). In previous articles, I’ve already shown another example in how to integrate Proxmox VE with external identity providers such as Authentik and Keycloak, using them as realms to centralize authentication. Both of these solutions are powerful in ...

How to Create a Proxmox Offline Repository Mirror for Air-Gapped Environments

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Running your own package mirror (such as for Proxmox products) may seem like an advanced setup, but it addresses challenges that are increasingly relevant in modern infrastructures. At its core, a mirror is simply a local copy of selected repositories, yet the advantages extend far beyond faster downloads. By keeping a local mirror, organizations can reduce external bandwidth usage because ...

Debian 13 (Trixie) LXC Template for Proxmox 8 and 9 – Download

Sun, 24 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

It has now been several weeks since the release of Debian 13 (Trixie), yet Proxmox still does not provide an official LXC container template for it. While Debian 13 was still in its final freeze phase, I had already created an early beta template ( debian-13-standard_13.x-beta_lxc_proxmox_amd64.tar.gz ) so both I and others could start testing early. Since then, many of you have ...

Proxmox Storage Management with Ansible via proxmox_storage Module

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Managing Proxmox storage resources at scale has traditionally been a cumbersome task. In clustered environments where consistency, reliability, and speed are critical, manually adding or removing storage definitions on each node wastes valuable time and introduces the risk of human error. Imagine configuring NFS shares, CephFS mounts, iSCSI targets or Proxmox Backup Server repositories across dozens or even hundreds of ...

Proxmox Automation in 2025 – Building Fully Automated, Scalable Clusters with Ansible

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Proxmox ecosystem has grown massively in recent months – and one of the key reasons behind this growth is the strong and active community that continues to push the project forward after the VMware aquisition by Broadcom. You can really feel the momentum. There is a lot happening around Proxmox, and the pace is only picking up. I see ...

ProxLB at Dutch Proxmox Day 2025 – Automated Load Balancing for Proxmox

Tue, 29 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

On September 25th, 2025, the Dutch Proxmox Day returns to Ede, Netherlands—bringing together Proxmox users, operators, and developers from across Europe. This community-driven conference focuses entirely on Proxmox VE, real-world cluster operations, and modern virtualization workflows. Organized by Tuxis B.V., a long-time contributor to the Proxmox ecosystem, the event is completely free to attend thanks to its sponsors CT and ...

Proxmox VE 9 Beta 1 – Debian 13 and Block Storage Snapshots

Sat, 19 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Proxmox VE 9 Beta 1 has been released and represents a major step forward for the Proxmox virtualization platform. For the first time, Proxmox VE is built on Debian 13 “Trixie”, providing a modern and future-proof operating system base while preserving the stability and predictability Proxmox is known for. This beta release introduces several long-requested features, most notably native virtual ...

Proxmox Cloud Image and Bare-Metal Auto Installation for Proxmox VE

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Over the last few months, I’ve repeatedly been asked how I test my Ansible modules and ProxLB setup in a fully automated and reproducible way. When developing new features or debugging complex behavior, having a clean, quickly deployable Proxmox instance is essential. The same question usually follows: how can Proxmox be deployed without walking through the ISO installer step by ...

Automate Proxmox Subscriptions, Nodes, and Certificates with Ansible

Sat, 12 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Managing Proxmox VE subscription licenses at scale is a long-standing pain point for administrators. In enterprise environments, manually assigning licenses across dozens or hundreds of nodes is slow, error-prone, and nearly impossible to audit properly. With the new proxmox_node Ansible module, Proxmox license and node management can now be automated end-to-end using the official API—bringing subscriptions, power control, and certificates ...

NFSv3 vs NFSv4 on Proxmox – Latency, IOPS with Real-World Benchmarks

Fri, 04 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When it comes to virtualization, many administrators still believe that NFS is not suitable for serious enterprise workloads and that protocols like iSCSI or Fibre Channel are required to achieve acceptable performance. While this assumption may have been true years ago, modern infrastructure tells a very different story. With fast networking becoming the norm, protocol efficiency and latency matter far ...

Build Your Own PKI with Step-CA and Proxmox ACME Integration

Sun, 29 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Running your own on-prem PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) can be a game-changer and it’s not just for enterprises, but also for advanced homelabs. Whether it’s about securing internal services, managing client certificates for S/MIME email encryption, or just having full control over certificate issuance, operating your own root CA brings a lot of flexibility and independence. There are many ways ...

Automating Proxmox VE Cluster Creation with Ansible

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Automating Proxmox VE cluster creation has long meant fragile shell scripts, manual SSH steps, and hard-to-debug Ansible hacks. With the new native Ansible modules proxmox_cluster and proxmox_cluster_info , you can now create and join Proxmox clusters cleanly via the official API—fully idempotent, error-aware, and ready for real-world automation. Both modules use the official Proxmox VE API, allowing reliable and fully ...

How BoxyBSD Boosted the Proxmox Ecosystem with Free VPS Hosting

Fri, 06 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When I first started BoxyBSD, I had a fairly straightforward goal in mind: Build a completely free VPS hosting platform with full IPv6 support aimed at beginners and small open-source projects. Something simple, lightweight, and accessible. But as the project evolved, I realized it was becoming much more than just a small personal project and BoxyBSD started giving back - ...

Proxmox VE Authentication with Authentik OIDC – Configuration Guide

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When exploring secure and efficient authentication options for a Proxmox setup, Authentik paired with OpenID Connect (OIDC) emerges as a compelling choice, particularly for those who prioritize open-source tools and in-house data control. Authentik, an open-source identity provider, empowers administrators to customize authentication flows without the constraints of proprietary systems, avoiding escalating costs or rigid limitations. By integrating OIDC, it ...

Run FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD VMs in Incus

Mon, 05 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Incus has quickly established itself as a modern, powerful alternative for managing containers and virtual machines. In a previous article, I covered what Incus is, how it works, and how to build an Incus cluster. After publishing that guide and sharing it on social media, one question kept coming up again and again: can you easily run BSD virtual machines ...

Incus Containers and VMs – Cluster, HA and Proxmox Comparison

Sun, 04 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Incus is a versatile and efficient tool for managing both system containers and virtual machines, offering a unified way to run full Linux systems. It supports a wide range of Linux distributions and relies on a simple but powerful REST API. Whether you’re running a single machine or scaling across a full data center, Incus adapts easily to your needs. ...

ProxLB 1.1: Next-Level Load Balancing for Proxmox

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

April, April! No, even it’s the first of April – this is real! After months of development, I’m thrilled to announce the release of ProxLB 1.1.0 – thanks to my company credativ GmbH for sponsoring this project where I could work on this during my work time! It’s been quite the journey since I started this project in mid-2024, and ...

Proxmox and Windows VMs: Why Native CPU Could Backfire

Sun, 23 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Running Windows virtual machines on Proxmox Virtual Environment (PVE) has improved dramatically over the past few years. Still, Windows guests occasionally suffer from noticeable performance issues that rarely affect Linux VMs. In almost all real-world cases, these problems can be traced back to three root causes. Missing or outdated Windows guest drivers and tools Suboptimal VM configuration (for example legacy ...

Proxmox Backup Server Monitoring with Prometheus and Grafana

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Proxmox Backup Server is an essential component for anyone running Proxmox Virtual Environment (PVE) or managing backups in a modern virtualized infrastructure. It delivers a high-performance, deduplication-enabled backup solution that ensures reliable data protection while keeping storage usage efficient. Like any critical infrastructure service, continuous monitoring of its performance and health is crucial to guarantee stable operations and fast troubleshooting. ...

Matrix Synapse FreeBSD or Debian: SSO Made Simple with Azure

Mon, 10 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When deploying an open-source chat solution like Matrix Synapse, authentication is a critical component. Many organizations rely on centralized identity providers to manage access securely and efficiently. This is where OpenID Connect (OIDC) comes into play, enabling seamless integration with enterprise identity platforms such as Microsoft Azure Active Directory, now known as Microsoft Entra ID. By leveraging OIDC, Matrix Synapse ...

Kleene on FreeBSD: Docker-Like Container Management with Jails and ZFS

Fri, 14 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Kleene is a container management (jail manager) platform designed specifically for FreeBSD, bringing familiar concepts from Docker while fully embracing FreeBSDs native tools and philosophy. Instead of reinventing the wheel, Kleene follows the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principle, leveraging FreeBSD’s built-in features to simplify application deployment, maintenance, and upgrades without unnecessary complexity or abstraction. By using FreeBSD’s core technologies ...

Deploy a Kubernetes Cluster with Talos Linux in 10 Minutes

Tue, 04 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Creating and managing a Kubernetes cluster from scratch can be challenging and there’re definitely a way too many possibilities to do so in 2025. With Talos Linux, this can be done in less than 10 minutes! What is Talos Linux? Talos Linux is an operating system built specifically for Kubernetes, focusing on security, immutability, and minimalism. It is designed to ...

FOSDEM 2025 – Reflections on the Worlds Largest Open Source Conference

Sat, 01 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

FOSDEM, the Free and Open Source Developers’ European Meeting, is an annual pilgrimage for open-source enthusiasts from all over the world. What started as a small gathering in 2000, originally named the Open Source Developers of Europe Meeting (OSDEM), has grown into one of the most significant conferences dedicated to free and open-source software. The event was founded by Raphael ...

ActivityPub Relay: Connect the Fediverse

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Fediverse is an interconnected world of diverse platforms, brought together by the ActivityPub protocol. At its heart lies a fundamental concept: decentralized, federated communication. In this environment, relays play a significant role by enhancing the reach and visibility of servers (instances) within the network. To understand why relays matter, it’s important to explore how a relay works and what ...

DNS64 and NAT64 Gateway on Debian – IPv6-Only Internet Access Explained

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

As part of my BoxyBSD project, which is designed to operate on IPv6 only network connectivity, I recently implemented and provided DNS64 and NAT64 gateway support to bridge the gap between IPv6 and the legacy IPv4 world. This solution ensures that users can easily access important resources, like GitHub, which – even in 2025 – remains accessible only over the ...

Virtualization in 2024: Opportunities and Top Solutions

Tue, 10 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The year 2024 marked a turning point for the virtualization industry. Following Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, significant changes to VMware’s licensing model and pricing structure set off a wave of responses across the market. These changes had a profound impact on the virtualization landscape, altering long-held assumptions and forcing enterprises to re-evaluate their strategies. VMware had long been a leader ...

BoxyBSD: Powering 500+ Free BSD VPS for Open-Source

Sat, 07 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This weekend marks an incredible milestone for BoxyBSD : the provisioning of our 500th free VPS instance . What started as a small passion project to support the open-source community has grown into a global platform helping learners, enthusiasts, and open-source contributors gain real-world experience with BSD systems. Building a Bridge to BSD and Beyond BoxyBSD was founded with a ...

Effortless FreeBSD VM Control with bhyve and vm-bhyve

Sat, 26 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The bhyve hypervisor on FreeBSD is an impressive tool that brings lightweight, efficient virtualization capabilities directly into the FreeBSD ecosystem. It’s a powerful type 2 hypervisor that allows FreeBSD users to run virtual machines with minimal overhead, making it an excellent choice for those who value performance and stability. I find bhyve especially compelling for running various Unix-like operating systems ...

bhyve on FreeBSD and VM Live Migration – Quo vadis?

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

When I think about bhyve Live Migration, it’s something I encounter almost daily in my consulting calls. VMware’s struggles with Broadcom’s licensing issues have been a frequent topic, even as we approach the end of 2024. It’s surprising that many customers still feel uncertain about how to navigate this mess. While VMware has been a mainstay in enterprise environments for ...

Run Linux Containers on FreeBSD 14 with Podman

Sun, 06 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In one of my recent blog posts, I shared my journey as a long-time FreeBSD user. I talked about how I’ve been incredibly happy with the system, appreciating its rock-solid stability, flexibility, and performance. But, like every OS, FreeBSD had its gaps, especially when it came to some modern developments – one of which has been a pain point for ...

FreeBSD: How Can We Make It More Attractive to New Users?

Wed, 02 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

For nearly 15 years, FreeBSD has been at the core of my personal infrastructure, and my passion for it has only grown over time. As a die-hard fan, I’ve stuck with BSD-based systems because they continue to deliver exactly what I need—storage, networking, and security—without missing a beat. The features I initially fell in love with, like ZFS, jails, and ...

Automate FreeBSD VMs on Proxmox with Terraform and ProxLB

Sun, 01 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In today’s fast-paced IT environments, automation is essential for maintaining efficiency and staying competitive. Whether you’re managing a small-scale infrastructure or an enterprise-level system, the ability to deploy virtual machines (VMs) quickly, consistently, and with minimal manual intervention can be transformative. This is where tools like ProxLB and Terraform come into play, offering a powerful solution for automating the deployment ...

Use a USB Network Adapter for XCP-ng Management Easily

Sat, 27 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

When you connect an external USB network (Ethernet) dongle to a node running XCP-ng, you might encounter an issue where the device appears as a "side-NUMBER-eth0" interface. This interface, however, is not connected and cannot be used for any management interfaces within XCP-ng. You may still be able to manually configure it and to assign IP addresses but it will ...

XCP-ng: Lightweight, Powerful Xen Virtualization

Sat, 20 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

After Broadcom increased the license fees, other virtualization solutions than VMware ESXi become very popular. I already talked about other solutions like CBSD, running on FreeBSD using bhyve for virtual machines (VM) workloads or Harvester, as an HCI solution that also allows you to run VM in a different approach. However, we mostly hear Proxmox in one of the first ...

ProxLB: Maximize Proxmox Cluster Performance Easily

Sat, 06 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

ProxLB (PLB) is an open-source Proxmox loadbalancer, but different! ProxLB is an application created to optimize the distribution of virtual machines (VMs) across Proxmox cluster nodes for significantly enhancing efficiency and performance. Utilizing the Proxmox API, ProxLB gathers and analyzes a comprehensive set of resource metrics from both the cluster nodes and the running VMs, including CPU usage, memory consumption, ...

Harvester - A More Modern Alternative to Proxmox As a HCI

Tue, 25 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

After Broadcom increased the license fees, other virtualization alternatives become very popular. While I previously already evaluated various virtualization platforms, including Proxmox, as well as other solutions that are based on FreeBSD, such as bhyve-webadmin (BVCP), and ClonOS there are of course also several other ones and it is worth noting another noteworthy option in the landscape of hyperconverged infrastructure ...

ClonOS - An Alternative to Proxmox Based on FreeBSD

Fri, 21 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In the realm of virtualization, there are already several robust and well-established platforms like Proxmox and OpenStack. These solutions have paved the way for efficient and comprehensive management of virtual environments, primarily on Linux-based systems. However, for those who appreciate the power and elegance of FreeBSD, there has been a notable absence of a comparable tool that leverages this operating ...

Howto Monitor SSL Certificates Expiration in Grafana

Thu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In today's digital landscape, ensuring the security of online communications is paramount, and SSL certificates play a crucial role in this process. Monitoring these certificates to prevent unexpected expirations is essential for maintaining uninterrupted service and trust. This HowTo guide provides a step-by-step approach to setting up monitoring for SSL certificates, ensuring you receive timely alerts before they expire. By ...

Howto build Freedive - A FreeBSD GUI Management Tool

Thu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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 ...

Cheap Multi-Site High Availability via WireGuard Tunnel

Sun, 12 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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 ...

Matrix and Grafana: Alert Integration Made Easy

Tue, 07 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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 ...

BoxyBSD: FreeBSD VM Hosting with a Non-Profit Mission

Mon, 08 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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 ...

Proxmox Import Wizard: Live VM Migration from VMware ESXi

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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 ...

QualvoSec - Fantastic and easy Security Patch Management

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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 ...

QualvoSec - A Minimalistic Security Patch Management Tool

Wed, 06 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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 ...

Howto Run Proxmox 8 VE on the ARM64 Hardware Architecture

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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 ...

VirtualBox with KVM Hypervisor Backend Support

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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. ...

The perfect RISC-V Board for Ubuntu

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The VisionFive2 board, built on the innovative RISC-V hardware architecture, has found a powerful ally in Ubuntu. The exceptional support that Ubuntu provides for VisionFive2, offering the latest packages for RISC-V architecture, even in current releases down to 24.04 is mind blowing. This stands in stark contrast to other operating systems like Debian and FreeBSD, where integration is still catching ...

Install snac2 on FreeBSD: Fediverse ActivityPub instance

Fri, 05 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This HowTo guides you through the setup process of snac2 on a minimalistic FreeBSD (FreeBSD 14) system to run and serve your own ActivityPub instance within the Fediverse. snac2 is also compatible with Mastodon instances for further interactions. snac2 is a simple, minimalistic ActivityPub instance written in portable C and can run on all Linux and BSD systems. Within this ...

CSSHX tmpnam in File::Temp Issue

Thu, 28 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In homebrew and macPorts, still an older version is included when it comes to csshx . Unfortunately, this version does not work out of the box anymore with newer macOS installations like macOS 14.5 (Ventura) or macOS 14.6 (Sonoma) and needs some adjustments. csshX (Cluster SSH for macOS) is a command-line utility designed to facilitate managing multiple SSH sessions simultaneously. ...

BoxyBSD - Free FreeBSD Jail/VM Hosting

Sun, 03 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

BoxyBSD is an innovative service hosted and developed by gyptazy that provides a unique opportunity for enthusiasts, developers, and curious minds to explore the powerful FreeBSD operating system in a risk-free and hassle-free environment. BoxyBSD offers free FreeBSD virtual machines (VMs) served as jails, allowing users to immerse themselves in the FreeBSD experience without the need for complex setups or ...

BSD Cafe - The Community for BSD Based Systems

Sun, 19 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The BSD Cafe is a thriving community that goes beyond being just a gathering of BSD enthusiasts; it serves as a comprehensive repository of knowledge and experiences shared by its members. The platform features in-depth reviews of BSD-related software and hardware, providing valuable insights into real-world experiences and hardware compatibility. The community aims to assist individuals in making informed decisions ...

I Just rejoined the NTP Pool Project

Fri, 17 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Finally, I rejoined the ntppool.org project again. Several years ago, I already contributed with several Stratum 1 systems which were connected to a Stratum 0 (GPS). Nowadays, most ones do not care about NTP and time synchronization anymore but it gets more important than ever when it comes to encryption, authentication and logging. Therefore, I took my old Stratum 0 ...

manpageblog - A Small and Lightweight Blog Engine

Sat, 11 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

manpageblog - a small, lightweight blog engine written in Python and offers several advantages in a look of a man page (Unix like manual page). Firstly, it provides simplicity and ease of use, making it accessible even for users with limited technical knowledge. The lightweight nature ensures quick installation and minimal resource consumption, making it suitable for various hosting environments. ...

Howto install Ansible SemaphoreUI on Debian 12

Sun, 05 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This mini How-To guide describes how to install Semaphore UI 2.8.75 in addition to Ansible 8.5 on Linux Debian 12 (Bookworm). Semaphore provides a modern and responsive webUI for running Ansible playbooks as an alternative to Ansible AWX (Tower) and the new Automation Platform. Semaphore is an open-source project written in GoLang and easy to use, install & to maintain. ...

Released Changelog Fragments Creator V1.3

Sun, 15 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Changelog Fragments Creator just got released in V1.3. Changelog Fragments Creator (a changelog generator in Python) may be used in development setups where working on a single CHANGELOG.md file might result in ongoing merge conflicts due to too many changes on the same file. This is where Changelog Fragments Creator steps in to solve this by creating YAML based files ...

Collection of Vagrant Boxes for Apple Silicon on ARM64

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This overview offers you an insight into my self-created Vagrant compatible boxes and images of different Linux and BSD operating systems for Apple Silicon based Macs. Apple Silicon's hardware architecture is based on ARM64 (AARCH64) which is incompatible with the AMD64 (x86_64) hardware architecture. The following boxes provide further virtualization support and can run as a virtual machine (VM) on ...

Tech Talk RPM and DEB Packaging with CMake and CPack

Fri, 22 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Creating packages for Debian (Ubuntu), RedHat (CentOS, Fedora) & FreeBSD can easily be done by CMake’s CPacks feature. This provides great possibilities to create packages from sources but also to ship just configuration files with a single config for one or more distributions. In general, it also supports creating packages from different distributions. My tech talk provides a short examples ...

Digital Detox – An Example Approach

Sat, 26 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In an era where our lives are increasingly intertwined with technology, the concept of a digital detox has gained significant traction. A digital detox refers to consciously and temporarily disconnecting from digital devices and online platforms in order to find balance, regain focus, and reconnect with the physical world around us. This practice has become an essential remedy for the ...

AI: Different LLMs With Custom Content – Does it work?

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

AI is on everyone’s mind but what happens when we use our own and custom content like documents on different LLMs (Large Langauge Models)? Let’s have a short look at different LLMs like llama2, falcon and gpt. Within this case we do not just want to use the pre-trained data from the models but also process our own content. Here, ...

Released Changelog Fragments Creator

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Changelog Fragments Creator (a changelog generator in Python) may be used in development setups where working on a single CHANGELOG.md file might result in ongoing merge conflicts due to too many changes on the same file. This is where Changelog Fragments Creator steps in to solve this by creating YAML based files for each PR according to its planned release ...

Ansible yum_versionlock Supports Versions for Pinning

Thu, 13 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Ansible’s yum_versionlock module has been available in Ansible for several years. Since my initial release this module has also been tweaked and forked as dnf_versionlock. However, there has been a new feature request for supporting specific package versions to pin and lock. Starting with community general version 7.2, yum_versionlock is also able to handle specific versions instead of just plain ...

Vagrant, Virtualization and Apple Silicon on ARM64 in 2023

Sat, 25 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Many DevOps used Vagrant together with VirtualBox (Box) in their default setups to quickly spawn new VMs. However, when switching from AMD64 (Intel architecture) to Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3) there was a lack of unsupported tools which broke many workflows. Currently, there’s an ARM64 supported build of Virtual Box but it doesn’t support ARM64 guests at all. This makes it necessary ...

Password Rotation Policy Nowadays

Wed, 08 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Unfortunately, many companies still have security policies according to frequently password changes for endusers. Which first sounds like a good idea may fastly result in a less better security – I also often call this security by obscurity. So, why is password rotation a bad idea nowadays? First, let us have a look at the past before year 2000, where ...

Ansible Packet Filter Module for BSD Systems

Tue, 17 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

My new module pf (packet filter) allows managing the BSD’s packet filter (pf – as a firewall) which is compatible with FreeBSD, OpenBSD etc. When running in dry_run mode a generated rule set file will be validated and printed within Ansible’s meta output (json). Rulesets can be loaded by filters (e.g. filter, options or nat) and tested in dry_run mode. ...

FreeBSD – HA Firewall Cluster w/ CARP and Pfsync

Thu, 12 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

FreeBSD is even in year 2022 and 2023 a popular open-source operating system that is used as the basis for many different types of servers, including web servers, email servers, and database servers. One of the key features of FreeBSD is its support for the Common Address Redundancy Protocol (CARP), which provides high availability for network services. CARP is a ...

Plutono – Grafana 7.5 Fork with Apache 2.0 License

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Plutono is an interactive visualization web application that provides graphs, charts and also alerts. It is based on a Grafana 7.5 fork, maintained by credativ GmbH ( NetApp GmbH ), under the Apache 2.0 license which is limited to maintenance and security updates. In 2021, Grafana switched the licensing of its core products from the Apache License 2.0 to the ...

Released Monkey Switcher V1.2

Sat, 19 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Monkey Switcher just got released in V1.2. witch your Bluetooth capable devices like Magic Keyboard 2, Track Pad, AirPods, etc. between multiple Macs (e.g. personal & business) with a single click for macOS. This can especially be helpful to avoid connecting you wired USB-C to Lightning cable to your Magic Keyboard to establish a peering session to another Mac and ...

Garden Linux with Firecracker Support

Fri, 07 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Now, Garden Linux comes with Firecracker (microVM) images for running heavy workloads. You may also find some more information on Firecracker within my last post. Thanks to nkraetzschmar for adding Firecracker support within the Garden Linux feature system. Next to this, the Pytest pipeline needed further adjustments as well as a new IAAS type to perform tests on microVMs. With ...

Garden Linux with SELinux Support

Thu, 01 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

While Garden Linux was running with SELinux all the time, Garden Linux finally supports running SELinux in enforcing mode. Within the last few weeks I made several adjustments to make sure we could switch from permissive mode to enforcing. By pushing the last commit , the gardenlinux-selinux-module gets reactivated in synergy with the patched refpolicy package within the Garden Linux ...

Garden Linux with macOS Build Support

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Finally, my Garden Linux PR feature(build): Add support for macOS #1013 got merged which allows building Garden Linux images on macOS regarding the underlying hardware architecture (Intel and Apple Silicon are supported). As a result, no further Linux virtual machines are needed to create artifacts. This is a big step forwards for all macOS users in usability and also speeds ...

Monitorix behind Nginx reverse proxy

Fri, 13 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Introducing Monitorix , a versatile, open-source, and lightweight system monitoring tool that excels in overseeing a wide array of services and system resources. Originally crafted for production environments on Linux/UNIX servers, its adaptability extends seamlessly to embedded devices due to its simplicity and compact size. While Monitorix remains a stalwart choice, contemporary implementations may pose challenges. The conventional practice of ...

Garden Linux – A CoreOS Replacement

Thu, 05 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Garden Linux is a Debian GNU/Linux derivate that aims to provide small and auditable Linux images for most cloud providers (e.g. Ali, AWS, Azure, GCP etc.) and bare-metal systems. Garden Linux is the best Linux for Gardener nodes to increase you cloud platform and replaces the legacy and discontinued CoreOS system. Garden Linux provides great possibilities for customizing and provides ...

helloSystem – FreeBSD with a modern desktop

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

helloSystem is a new desktop system for creators with a focus on simplicity, elegance, usability and a modern design based on FreeBSD. It follows the “less, but better” philosophy and is purely welcoming users from Mac systems. However, it has been several years since I have used FreeBSD as my daily desktop system – so I worked with another BSD ...

Ansible java_cert Module Featuring Trust CA Cert Option

Wed, 04 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

With Ansible 2.10 my patch got integrated by upstream. Therefore, the Ansible module java_cert provides a new option for trusting imported CA certificates. This comes handy when you are running an infrastructure with a self signed root CA (Certificate Authority). As a result, you may define your own imported root CA as trusted which directly allows secure SSL/TLS connections between ...

Ansible msteams Module for MS Teams Notifications

Fri, 03 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

With the new ‘msteams’ Ansible callback module you may send notification to a desired Microsoft Teams chat room. This includes the start of a triggered Playbook run, as well as of the final result with more details about the executed run. This may become handy when multiple playbooks are executed periodically as a status update for the DevOp team. This ...

IMAP2Telegram - Forward Emails to Telegram

Sat, 25 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

There may be some corner cases where you just want to forward your email(s) to a Telegram group or just to yourself. This can be very handy when it comes to monitoring solutions in DevOps related scenarios or for smarthome. However, this script allows you to define a dedicated IMAP box and to forward all received mails to Telegram messaging ...