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1123 discussions

Re: 2024-05-23 ~20:25Z – ~20:50Z: Networking issue on host "jack"

by Maria Blackmore

> > I will do some more investigation of this failure mode but in light of > doing away with bonding being the direction we are already going, I don't > think I want to alter how bonding is done on what will soon be a legacy > setup. Shouldn't this failure mode have been caught by LACPDUs? -- Maria Blackmore

10 months, 1 week

Oddity with one UBUNTU 22.04 VPS

by Ian

I am responsible for several VPSes, here and elsewhere. Five of them are running Ubuntu 22.04, three Debians. The script I use to update them checks, at the end, for the existence of /var/run/reboot-required If it finds it, it offers to reboot the VPS. It does this happily on all but one VPS, one of the Ubuntu ones here. The Ubuntu version of apt-get on all of the Ubuntu ones recognises that a reboot is required after a kernel update etc and will popup a message saying so, but it looks like only on this single machine, that file doesn't exist afterwards. I have no idea why not. Anyone got any ideas? Ian

10 months, 3 weeks

Upgrade from Ubuntu Jammy to Noble - lost networking

by Ian

Andy said on the announce list: "As usual with this sort of thing though, all the complexity is in the packages you have installed, so that is no promise that it would be plain sailing for you." Having just tried, I am left with a VPS with no external networking. Looking at the launchpad bug tracker, there have been problems with this. I have tried one of the solutions there via logging in through the xen console without getting it to work, but it is complicated by trying this on my phone in terms of sorting it out. Fortunately, it wasn't doing anything much - almost no additional packages were installed - so at the moment, I have turned it off and will wait for the installer to do a fresh install. Ian

11 months, 1 week

The impending release of Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble Numbat)

by Andy Smith

Hi, As you may be aware, the next LTS release of Ubuntu is supposed to be ready in a couple of days. I've tested a do-release-upgrade from a basic 22.04 cloud image (what you get when you install 22.04 at BitFolk) and it seemed to go fine. As usual with this sort of thing though, all the complexity is in the packages you have installed, so that is no promise that it would be plain sailing for you. We will try to get a Xen Shell installer option added for 24.04 as soon after release as we can, but in the mean time just installing 22.04 and then typing "sudo do-release-upgrade -d" should get you there. I *think* it is the case that you need the "-d" as do-release-upgrade normally doesn't like doing it until the first point release. Thanks, Andy Ubuntu 24.04 LTS debtest1.vps.bitfolk.space hvc0 debtest1 login: ubuntu Password: Welcome to Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (GNU/Linux 6.8.0-31-generic x86_64) * Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com * Management: https://landscape.canonical.com * Support: https://ubuntu.com/pro System information as of Tue Apr 23 13:31:00 UTC 2024 System load: 0.07 Memory usage: 6% Processes: 131 Usage of /: 14.6% of 19.20GB Swap usage: 0% Users logged in: 0 Expanded Security Maintenance for Applications is not enabled. 0 updates can be applied immediately. Enable ESM Apps to receive additional future security updates. See https://ubuntu.com/esm or run: sudo pro status ubuntu@debtest1:~$ uname -a Linux debtest1.vps.bitfolk.space 6.8.0-31-generic #31-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Sat Apr 20 00:40:06 UTC 2024 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux -- https://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting

11 months, 1 week

Thoughts on tightening up Xen Shell's SSH (not yours - that's your business!)

by Andy Smith

Hi, In light of the recent XZ/lzma backdoor we should perhaps think harder about how complex sshd is and the wisdom of exposing that to the entire Internet. At BitFolk, this currently needs to be exposed to the Internet so that you can connect to your Xen Shell (console). More info on the Xen Shell for those new to it: https://tools.bitfolk.com/wiki/Xen_Shell When thinking about ways to tighten this up, they are all going to involve taking away your ability to just SSH to you(a)you.console.bitfolk.com. There's a couple of ways this could go: 1. Remove direct SSH capability, replace with web All current Xen Shell features to be put on a web interface. Console to be used from a web interface. I don't relish this, but I have seen some pretty nifty web terminals so maybe it wouldn't be that bad. 2. Firewall off SSH from the Internet, poke holes temporarily You'd have to supply to the Panel some list of net blocks that you will SSH from and then there'd be a button to punch holes in the firewall for SSH from those net blocks for 6 hours (for example). There would have to be a limit on the size of the net blocks. Let's say a /16 for IPv4 and a /32 for IPv6. Option (2) is lots easier to implement so could happen fairly quickly, but it is more fiddly to use: You're in an arbitrary place and you suddenly need to connect to your Xen Shell; you've then got to log in to Panel, work out your IP address¹, add it to the allow list, then hit the button. Finally you can SSH. Option (1) will require a lot of work but maybe it's less friction to use a web-based terminal if you have to visit a web site anyway? Option (2) does not preclude option (1). Providing a web-based terminal that doesn't need the "allow SSH" button to be pressed can be implemented after option (2) is done, as a sort of stretch goal. Or maybe the web terminal is such an attractive and required feature that it should be done first, before option (2) would be enacted? I am disregarding the idea of flipping the default to having password auth disabled. It is currently by default enabled but you can disable it on a per-VM basis. I do recommend that you do that, but what I am really more concerned about is an(other) exploit in sshd, and that doesn't really have to be anything to do with authentication (the XZ thing wasn't). Yes it would be a very bad day for you if someone got in to your Xen Shell, but that's as far as that goes, so I am still okay with leaving that determination up to the customer. I can't see a way of avoiding there having to be a list of net blocks. With 50+ VMs on a host, if SSH is opened up from anywhere for any one of them then it is open for all so really even with a timeout it would be open a lot of the time. I guess something interesting could be done for those not on legacy Internet: assign unique IPv6 console address that can only be used for connecting to that VM's Xen Shell. 😀 I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on this. Thanks, Andy ¹ Which you may not know because you might be behind one or more layers of NAT. -- https://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting

11 months, 2 weeks

Thoughts on disk-image-based backups

by Andy Smith

Hi, We had a customer ask about backups of images of their VM disk. This is not currently a service that we offer. It has some advantages, so it could be a service that we offer. The main advantage being: - High degree of confidence that the VM is just able to be one-click restored and is then bootable and working, as it's an exact image of the disk It does of course also have a heap of disadvantages such as: - Granularity of backup is "the entire disk". No way to pick and choose what is backed up except by putting things on different OS disks. - It's based off a disk snapshot so nothing in memory gets preserved; a restore event will be similar to a "boot after unexpected power cut" event to the restored VM. Though doing the snapshot while the VM is powered off for a few seconds would be an option. - This obviously uses a lot of disk space which we'd charge for at our archive storage rate: £0.40+VAT/50GB/month. If preferred this could go onto third party cloud storage but bear in mind that Amazon S3 is about 3 times the cost of BitFolk's archive storage. - Limited differential backups are possible though I'm yet to fully understand how well that works. All I can say right now is that a differential would use less, but I'm not sure really how much less. So, there would be "some charge" for the service itself and definitely a charge at archive storage rates for the actual amount of storage involved. If this sounds like a service that you think you'd actually want, please get in touch off-list and we'll see if we can develop it. As it's more the BitFolk way for customers to do this sort of thing themselves I don't really expect this to be widely desired, but I am working on it for one customer anyway so if I can make it more generally applicable then I will. Thanks, Andy -- https://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting

11 months, 2 weeks

Additional BitFolk chat options on Telegram (and soon, Matrix)

by Andy Smith

Hi, What I got from the recent survey¹ was that most people reading this just like email and IRC, so possibly this is doomed to failure, but there was reasonably strong showing for Telegram and Matrix so… There's a BitFolk Telegram group at https://t.me/+hRAT7UOOJFc1MDE0 which anyone is welcome in. I will make a Matrix room as well on the same basis. I have to say though that I personally don't enjoy using Matrix very much and so the majority of my personal casual waffling goes to either Fedi or Telegram, and I do not see that changing unless Matrix becomes a better product. All (that goes for IRC and email too) subject to a reasonable code of conduct that will have to be fleshed out at some point. If they see no use, so be it. 😀 Thanks, Andy -- https://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting

1 year

OggCamp '24

by Andy Smith

Hi, OggCamp '24 is in Manchester, UK on 12/13 October. https://oggcamp.org/ I'll 99% be going, so hope to see some of you there! Thanks, Andy -- https://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting

1 year

Re: Where's the Chat At?

by Andy Smith

[And now with some copy-paste errors fixed] Hi, On Mon, Mar 25, 2024 at 01:32:17AM +0000, Andy Smith via BitFolk Users wrote: > So, if you do actually engage in online chat for any projects or > communities please would you fill in this short questionnaire to let > us know about it? > > https://forms.gle/cYyP2QFZzpDWdJ9T6 Responses seem to have stopped now, so here's a summary. There were 35 responses - thanks! ## Prefer 1. IRC: 15 2. Telegram: 9 3. Discord: 7 4. Matrix: 4 5. Slack: 3 6. Mattermost: 1 ## It's OK 1. Slack: 16 2. IRC: 14 2. Telegram: 14 3. Discord: 11 4. Matrix: 9 5. Mattermost: 3 ## Dislike 1. Discord: 15 2. Slack: 14 3. Matrix: 6 4. IRC: 5 5. Telegram: 4 6. Mattermost: 2 ## Never used 1. Mattermost: 29 2. Matrix: 16 3. Telegram: 8 4. Discord: 2 4. Slack: 2 5. IRC: 1 Looking for the positives, if I award 1 point for "prefer" and half a point for "it's ok" then: ## Arbitrary scores 1. IRC: 22 2. Telegram: 16 3. Discord: 12½ 4. Slack: 11 5. Matrix: 8½ 6. Mattermost: 2½ However, opinions seem quite polarised about some. e.g. if we also deduct a point for "Dislike" then: ## Arbitrary scores including haters 1. IRC: 17 2. Telegram: 12 3. Matrix: 2½ 4. Mattermost: ½ 5. Discord: -2½ 6. Slack: -3 I will take a little time to consider these results. Thanks, Andy -- https://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting

1 year

Where's the Chat At?

by Andy Smith

Hi, This mail is about BitFolk's customer chat which is currently the IRC channel #BitFolk on Libera, and maybe expanding it to other chat platforms. If that doesn't interest you then you can safely just ignore this email. I realised recently that despite there being around 45 actual people present in BitFolk's customer chat, for a while now it's been basically silent. I'm prepared to accept that it's become an idle zone, but if it's the case that people are chatting elsewhere then I'd consider going where the users are before giving up on it. So, if you do actually engage in online chat for any projects or communities please would you fill in this short questionnaire to let us know about it? https://forms.gle/cYyP2QFZzpDWdJ9T6 I've intentionally made it so that it doesn't capture any personal details and requires no sign-in, so please don't abuse it by submitting it multiple times. 😀 If it still bothers you that it's a Google property then you can just email me your thoughts off-list. I'm not planning to close down the IRC channel as I expect the people who idle there do so just so that they can ask what is up if they ever need to. There isn't any actual chat there though, and I don't see that changing now. I'm also not promising to set something up on whichever platform comes out top (this is not a vote!). It would be very interesting to me to find out where people are, though. Thanks, Andy -- https://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting

1 year

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