Explore every episode of the podcast 2.5 Admins
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.5 Admins 315: Hot Bus Adapter | 03 Sep 2026 | 00:27:24 | |
What to read into a study of long-term Backblaze hard drive failure data, why the difference between TB and TiB matters, and what to do about an overheating host bus adapter.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes ZFS vs Ceph: Choosing the Right Storage Architecture
News/discussion Changing Language for Storage Capacity
Free consulting We were asked about an overheating host bus adapter.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 314: 50 PBS TBS | 27 Aug 2026 | 00:28:27 | |
A TV station struggles to retrieve its data from the data centre company that a defunct intermediary used, why we don’t want AI to manage our networks (even if Microsoft thinks we should), and understanding vdevs, and datasets in ZFS.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes OpenZFS User and Developer Summit 2026 CfP is open until September 11 FreeBSD Security in Production: Vulnerability Response and Operational Best Practices
News/discussion Nine PBS sues Iron Mountain over blocked access to archival data Judge sets framework for Nine PBS to retrieve archival data The patch window is collapsing: Why security needs a new control plane
Free consulting We were asked about pools, vdevs, and datasets in ZFS.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 313: Cooking with NVMe | 20 Aug 2026 | 00:27:56 | |
Microsoft claims that Windows 11 will work well with 8GB of RAM, some of the innovations coming to high end SSDs, the arguments for TP-Link Omada over Ubiquiti UniFi.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes FreeBSD Support: Greatest Hits
Discussion Microsoft says 8 GB of RAM should be enough for anyone running Windows 11 Windows quality: an update on the commitment we made in March
Free consulting We were asked about the arguments for TP-Link Omada over Ubiquiti UniFi.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 312: Bus Factor | 13 Aug 2026 | 00:26:47 | |
In a world where photos can no longer be trusted, Jim argues that we should move to a default distrust model where images are signed at every stage of the process of creation. We get into some of the potential issues. Plus how to ensure continuity for your clients in the event of your demise, and setting up a system to demonstrate ZFS replication capabilities.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes
Discussion Google Earth risked ruin with retracted AI tool for making fake satellite pics Apple is working on a way to authenticate that a photo came from an iPhone camera
Free consulting We were asked about how to ensure continuity for your clients in the event of your demise, and setting up a system to demonstrate ZFS replication capabilities.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 311: Couch Cushions | 06 Aug 2026 | 00:28:12 | |
Microsoft restored an account including files that it initially claimed wasn’t possible, Apple might lock down phones if people don’t keep up their lease payments, ZFS scrubs shouldn’t be painful, and accessing another network from a locked-down work machine.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes ZFS vs Ceph: Do You Actually Need Ceph?
News/discussion Microsoft restores player’s 25-year-old account following widespread backlash iOS 27 code suggests Apple could restrict leased devices after missed payments If Scrubs Hurt, Your ZFS Design Is Broken
Free consulting We were asked about accessing another network from a locked-down work machine.
Linux After Dark – Episode 120
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 310: GPLFreeBSD | 30 Jul 2026 | 00:29:11 | |
Google wants you to use a selfie video for account recovery, LG will stop apps turning their smart TVs into residential proxy nodes, we disagree about how serious OpenAI’s agent hacking Hugging Face is, FreeBSD removes the last bits of GPL software and suffers an embarrassing git flub , and backing up to an encrypted NAS without ZFS.
Plug Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes
News/discussion Introducing selfie for sign-in: a new, easy way to access your Google Account LG to Ban Residential Proxies from Smart TV Apps OpenAI says its AI agent broke out of testing sandbox to hack Hugging Face FreeBSD 16 Retires The Last Of Its GPL Code From Its Base System
Free consulting We were asked about backing up to an encrypted NAS without ZFS.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 309: Orbital Sauron | 23 Jul 2026 | 00:24:01 | |
A new HTTP caching standard looks promising but might struggle to get adopted, a terrible space mirror idea is actually happening, cars will spy on us all, and picking a VPN for use with an IP that doesn’t change very often.
Plug Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes
News/discussion HTTP gets a QUERY method so complex searches can stop pretending to be POST FCC grants approval for sun-reflecting space mirror that’s been widely criticized by astronomers
Free consulting We were asked about picking a VPN for use with an IP that doesn’t change very often.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 308: Sloppy Shims | 16 Jul 2026 | 00:27:37 | |
Microsoft really wants your Windows settings data, secure boot has been useless for a decade, our thoughts on (the idea of) Incus and IncusOS, and configuring ZFS for a Lightning Memory Mapped Database.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Jails, Not Containers: FreeBSD Isolation Done Right
News/discussion Microsoft flips Windows Backup to on by default unless you’re in the EU Microsoft’s Secure Boot has been broken for a decade and no one noticed until now
Free consulting We were asked about configuring ZFS for a Lightning Memory Mapped Database.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 307: One Big Pool | 09 Jul 2026 | 00:26:37 | |
Follow-up on rebooting to update, portable power stations, glass storage, and objective news sources. Plus whether to use one ZFS pool per vdev, or just one large pool.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes
Feedback Anker SOLIX EV Charger Adapter (For F3000, J1722 only) EcoFlow EV Charger to Portable Power Station Adaptor (SAE J1772 to 5P8 Port, 50A) WattCycle First-to-Market: WattLINK – EcoFlow Delta 2/3 Series PPS E
Free consulting We were asked about whether to use one ZFS pool per vdev, or just one large pool.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 306: WiFi Cable | 02 Jul 2026 | 00:28:04 | |
Why setting up commercial email and VPN services is incredibly hard, avoiding TrueNAS’s move from FreeBSD to Linux, why we avoid virtualising storage systems, and bridging WiFi to an external building.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Using Object Storage with OpenZFS and SeaweedFS
Discussion Jeff Moss explains why setting up private email and VPN services are so difficult
Feedback
Free consulting We were asked about bridging WiFi to an external building. Point-to-point Wi-Fi bridging between buildings—the cheap and easy way
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 305: Short Two | 25 Jun 2026 | 00:07:17 | |
The one tool in our IT tool belt that we value the most. This is a short episode because Joe is having a summer break.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 304: Wiring a House | 18 Jun 2026 | 00:30:21 | |
Wiring up a house for networking including cables, access points, connectors, and racks. Plus Google is found liable for what its AI overviews say.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Managing Cache and DirectIO for Databases on ZFS Webinar: June 30th @ 11am EDT: FreeBSD After Hours AMA
News/discussion
Free consulting We were asked about wiring up a house for access points etc. Jim’s guide to Wi-Fi AP placement Monoprice 24-port Cat5e Patch Panel
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 303: Denial of Secrets | 11 Jun 2026 | 00:29:30 | |
People were locked out of their password managers to stop a brute force attack, Coreutils come to Windows, a FreeBSD PR effort backfires, and the best simple consumer WiFi gear.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Why ZFS Is the Ideal Filesystem for Multi-User/Department Media Production Webinar: June 30th @ 11am EDT: FreeBSD After Hours AMA
News/discussion Password manager Dashlane suspends customer accounts amid brute-force attacks Microsoft Announces Coreutils For Windows: Derived From Rust Coreutils FreeBSD Foundation Executive Director Tries Daily Driving FreeBSD On Laptop
Free consulting We were asked about the best simple consumer WiFi gear.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 302: ClawPilot | 04 Jun 2026 | 00:32:44 | |
Microsoft threatens a security researcher for disclosing vulnerabilities publicly, bricks old versions of Office, and announces their version of OpenClaw. Plus keeping up with the latest technology.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Which ZFS Storage Metrics Matter for Database Performance Webinar: June 25th @ 11am EDT: Understanding AnyRAID with Jon from HexOS
News/discussion Microsoft under fire for threatening security researcher with criminal investigation The researcher is a former MS employee says Krebs Microsoft reaches for olive branch after public dustup with 0-day researcher Microsoft is intentionally bricking all Office for Mac 2019/2021 installations Introducing Microsoft Scout: Your always-on personal agent
Free consulting We were asked about keeping up with the latest technology.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 301: F(OSS) Consulting | 28 May 2026 | 00:29:17 | |
It looks like Bitlocker had a back door in it, how a listener accidentally broke Gitea for users of the snap version, Google accidentally published an unpatched exploit for Chromium-based browsers, why people are starting to ditch Bitwarden, and moving a tech stack away from large corporations.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes How Klara and TrueNAS fixed ZFS’s longest standing limitation Webinar: June 25th @ 11am EDT: Understanding AnyRAID with Jon from HexOS
News/discussion YellowKey Bitlocker Bypass Vulnerability Microsoft shares mitigation for YellowKey Windows zero-day How I Broke Gitea for Everyone Google publishes exploit code threatening millions of Chromium users The Quiet Renovation at Bitwarden
Free consulting We were asked about moving a tech stack away from large corporations.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 300: IPvWot? | 21 May 2026 | 00:28:24 | |
Why a proposal for an alternative to IPv6 is unlikely to be viable, Microsoft really doesn’t want you to run Exchange Server on-prem, Google will finally stop being a proper search engine, setting up an email server for internal use, and mitigating DDoS attacks without Cloudflare.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Webinar: May 27th at 11am EDT: Database Performance on ZFS with Tom Lawrence
News/discussion Veteran network architect proposes IPv8 – to improve IPv4, not leapfrog v6 Exchange Server zero-day vulnerability can be triggered by opening a malicious email Google Search as you know it is over
Free consulting We were asked about setting up an email server for internal use, and mitigating DDoS attacks without Cloudflare.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 299: RMAggravation | 14 May 2026 | 00:27:41 | |
People trying to return defective hard drives and RAM are finding out why consumer protection laws would be good, GoDaddy accidentally gave someone’s domain name away, and when and how to fix ZFS fragmentation.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Fast Dedup Economics: When Deduplication Beats Buying New Disks
News/discussion GoDaddy Gave a Domain to a Stranger Without Any Documentation
Free consulting We were asked about when and how to fix ZFS fragmentation.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 298: Windows Postdate | 07 May 2026 | ||
Microsoft is encouraging employees with the most experience to leave the company and letting users pause Windows updates forever, some of the best features you’ll get in the version of ZFS that ships with the new Ubuntu LTS, and backing up data from cloud services.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Extending ZFS Performance Without Hardware Upgrades
News/discussion Your Windows update experience just got updated
Free consulting We were asked about backing up data from cloud services.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 297: Jraphics | 30 Apr 2026 | 00:32:43 | |
Hitting the limit for hard links, a parent struggles to get back into their teen’s compromised Discord account, the demise of tower PCs and general purpose computing in general, and changing the properties of existing ZFS pools.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Compensating for RAM Constraints with L2ARC on ZFS
News/discussion How Jennifer Aniston and Friends Cost Us 377GB and Broke ext4 Hardlinks Dad stuck in support nightmare after teen lied about age on Discord Apple’s last tower topples… and the others will follow
Free consulting We were asked about changing the properties of existing ZFS pools.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 296: Beware of the Leopard | 23 Apr 2026 | 00:30:32 | |
Microsoft locks devs out of important accounts, the foreign router ban exemptions make even less sense, Backblaze shows that “unlimited” never means that, and attempting to avoid software that’s written with AI.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Do More with Less: Cost-Efficient Storage on the New TrueNAS with Enhanced Fast Dedup The Hidden Value of CPU-Intensive Compression on Modern Hardware
News/discussion Microsoft locks out VeraCrypt and WireGuard devs, blames verification process Action Required: Account Verification for Windows Hardware Program Begins October 16, 2025 FCC exempts Netgear from ban on foreign routers, doesn’t explain why Backblaze has quietly stopped backing up your data
Free consulting We were asked about avoiding software that’s written with AI.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 295: Orbital Meltdown | 16 Apr 2026 | 00:28:19 | |
Why putting data center satellites in orbit is a terrible idea, Google might show people a made-up version of your website, and ZFS on really old Dell servers.
Plug Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes
News/discussion Orbital data centers, part 1: There’s no way this is economically viable, right? 11 mins edited Datacenters in space are a terrible, horrible, no good idea Google Just Patented The End Of Your Website
Free consulting We were asked about ZFS on really old Dell servers.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 294: Oh, R2 | 09 Apr 2026 | 00:22:24 | |
Arm announces its first CPU, Anthropic accidentally leaks the source for Claude Code and it’s terrible, and setting up a backup for a friend’s photos.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes FreeBSD and OpenZFS in the Quest for Technical Independence: A Storage Architect’s View
News/discussion Arm expands compute platform to silicon products in historic company first Anthropic exposes Claude Code source by accident
Free consulting We were asked about setting up a backup for a friend’s photos.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 293: Reduced Flicker | 02 Apr 2026 | 00:27:20 | |
Microsoft says Windows 11 is getting less rubbish but we are skeptical, vehicles with alcohol interlocks won’t start because the manufacturer’s server is down, and whether you should virtualise a router or a NAS.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Five‑Year Storage Design with OpenZFS: Media Refresh, Rebalancing, and Hardware Independence
News/discussion Our commitment to Windows quality Microsoft fixes broken Windows update days after vowing fewer broken updates Cyberattack on vehicle breathalyzer company leaves drivers stranded across the US
Free consulting We were asked about whether you should virtualise a router or a NAS.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 292: Trivyally Infected | 26 Mar 2026 | 00:27:12 | |
The US government is drumming up fear about foreign routers, a pretty serious supply chain attack might be state-sponsored, and the safety of filesystems inside VMs.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes The Real Cost of Technology Dependence: Building Independence with Open-Source Storage
News/discussion US bans any new consumer-grade routers not made in America National Security Determination on the Threat Posed by Routers Produced by Foreign Countries (pdf) 1K+ cloud environments infected following Trivy supply chain attack Self-propagating malware poisons open source software and wipes Iran-based machines
Free consulting We were asked about the safety of filesystems inside VMs.
Automox Turnkey Results Endpoint management tailored to your specific environment. Know the plan. Trust the result. Learn more at www.automox.com
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 291: UPS for LiFePO4 | 19 Mar 2026 | 00:28:43 | |
Why passkeys aren’t the right solution to everything, Allan tells us why he loves his new Lithium Iron Phosphate UPS, Btrfs vs ZFS on root, and restricting Internet access for IoT devices on your network.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Designing OpenZFS Storage for Independence
News/discussion Please, please, please stop using passkeys for encrypting user data Allan’s new Anker SOLIX C1000 Gen 2 Portable Power Station
Free consulting We were asked about restricting Internet access for IoT devices on your network.
Automox Turnkey Results Endpoint management tailored to your specific environment. Know the plan. Trust the result. Learn more at www.automox.com
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 290: Tired of Tracking | 12 Mar 2026 | 00:28:33 | |
Microsoft Authenticator will delete Entra credentials on phones that aren’t running stock ROMs, Jim’s nightmare experience trying to get a user back into their MS account, tracking vehicles via tire pressure monitors, using a ZFS pool in a degraded state, and keeping cold ZFS storage dataset snapshots in sync.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes
News/discussion Microsoft Authenticator to nuke Entra creds on rooted and jailbroken phones Jailbreak/root detection in Microsoft Authenticator Vehicle Tire Pressure Sensors Enable Silent Tracking
Free consulting We were asked about purposely using a ZFS pool in a degraded state, and keeping cold ZFS storage dataset snapshots in sync.
Automox Turnkey Results Endpoint management tailored to your specific environment. Know the plan. Trust the result. Learn more at www.automox.com
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 289: Hunter2 | 05 Mar 2026 | 00:27:02 | |
An exciting new cold storage technology seems to be getting closer, Nvidia seemingly wants a slice of the laptop hardware action, why you (and your users) should definitely not use LLMs to “generate” passwords , and whistleblowing when sensitive customer data isn’t being taken seriously.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes ARC and L2ARC Sizing on Proxmox
News/discussion Data stored in glass could last over 10,000 years, Microsoft says Nvidia plans a Windows PC SoC, setting up direct competition with Qualcomm, Intel, and AMD Vibe Password Generation: Predictable by Design
Free consulting We were asked about whistleblowing when sensitive customer data isn’t being taken seriously.
Automox Turnkey Results Endpoint management tailored to your specific environment. Know the plan. Trust the result. Learn more at www.automox.com
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 288: HDD Tourism | 26 Feb 2026 | 00:28:38 | |
Hardware scarcity and price hikes spread to hard drives, the Bcachefs dev thinks his AI is ‘fully conscious’, an agent might have gone after a FOSS maintainer, Jim is disappointed with an Ars author, and ZFS and VMs in the homelab.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Pool and VDEV Topology for Proxmox Workloads
News/discussion AI blamed again as hard drives are sold out for this year Bcachefs creator claims his custom LLM is ‘fully conscious’ An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me – More Things Have Happened An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me – Forensics and More Fallout An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me – The Operator Came Forward Editor’s Note: Retraction of article containing fabricated quotations
Free consulting We were asked about ZFS and VMs in the homelab.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 287: Dual Arguators | 19 Feb 2026 | 00:32:44 | |
Jim and Allan disagree on how new hard drive tech is likely to work, more on storage and compute in the same box, and how we set up disk encryption on laptops.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes OpenZFS Monitoring and Observability
News/discussion
Free consulting We were asked about how we set up disk encryption on laptops. A quick-start guide to OpenZFS native encryption – Ars Technica Keeping Data Safe with OpenZFS: Security, Encryption, and Delegation
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 286: Windows Crashed | 12 Feb 2026 | 00:25:41 | |
Notepad++ falls victim to a state-sponsored attacker, AI agents talk nonsense to each other on an insecure vibe coded social network, and backing up a laptop properly.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes ZFS vs Btrfs: Architecture, Features, and Stability
News/discussion Notepad++ Hijacked by State-Sponsored Hackers AI agents now have their own Reddit-style social network, and it’s getting weird fas Hacking Moltbook: AI Social Network Reveals 1.5M API Keys
Free consulting We were asked about backing up a laptop properly.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 285: example.com.oops | 05 Feb 2026 | 00:27:41 | |
Outlook’s autodiscover feature is leaking data again, our thoughts on the cycle of cloud and on-prem (centralised and local computing), and why you probably shouldn’t use NMVe to SATA adapters.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes ZFS in Production: Real-World Deployment Patterns and Pitfalls Modern VDI on Proxmox: ZFS Reliability and GPU Acceleration at Lower Cost
News/discussion Why has Microsoft been routing example.com traffic to a company in Japan?
Free consulting We were asked about SATA to PCIe adapters.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 284: BooTooth | 29 Jan 2026 | 00:26:08 | |
Why you might not want your Windows encryption keys to be backed up to Microsoft, some Bluetooth devices are vulnerable to snooping and tracking, a lesson in the need for backups, and the best practices and stack for setting up a mail server.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Klara’s Expert Perspective on OpenZFS in 2026 and What to Expect Next Modern VDI on Proxmox: ZFS Reliability and GPU Acceleration at Lower Cost
News/discussion Microsoft Gave FBI Keys To Unlock Encrypted Data, Exposing Major Privacy Flaw How to encrypt your PC’s disk without giving the keys to Microsoft WhisperPair: Hijacking Bluetooth Accessories Using Google Fast Pair When two years of academic work vanished with a single click
Free consulting We were asked about the best practices and stack for setting up a mail server.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 283: FSOD | 22 Jan 2026 | 00:25:10 | |
The last method to activate Windows without the Internet has gone away, malware that tricks users with a fake blue screen of death, and recovering from bad RAM with ZFS.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Understanding ZFS Scrubs and Data Integrity
News/discussion Windows activation by phone is seemingly dead How Fake BSODs and Trusted Build Tools Are Used to Construct a Malware Infection
Free consulting We were asked about recovering from bad RAM with ZFS.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 282: Fragile DNS | 15 Jan 2026 | 00:28:51 | |
Cisco network gear fell over when it shouldn’t have, yet another security flaw is found in Microsoft Copilot, the US military is letting Grok into all its networks, and managing LVM snapshots.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Unwrapping ZFS: Gifts from the Open Source Community A New Year, A New ZFS: What 2.4 Brings to the Table
News Cisco routers knocked out due to Cloudflare DNS change Reprompt: The Single-Click Microsoft Copilot Attack that Silently Steals Your Personal Data Musk’s AI tool Grok will be integrated into Pentagon networks, Hegseth says
Free consulting We were asked about managing LVM snapshots.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 281: Lead The Target | 08 Jan 2026 | 00:26:37 | |
The many reasons why email shouldn’t be trusted. Plus how to stop your kids accessing inappropriate content online, and why the answer probably isn’t a technical one.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes What We Built: Top ZFS Capabilities Delivered by Klara in 2025
Discussion
Free consulting We were asked about blocking adult content at the network level.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 280: Bad Parking | 01 Jan 2026 | 00:26:25 | |
Why you should probably keep paying for your old domains, the perpetual problem of typo squatting, a machine learning expert’s take on BS from LLMs, and whether to separate compute and storage in a home setup.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Can You Have Too Many VDEVs? A Practical Guide to ZFS Scaling
News/discussion Digital Trust in Danger: When Authorities Forget Their Old Domains Most Parked Domains Now Serving Malicious Content LLMs are bullshitters. But that doesn’t mean they’re not useful
Free consulting We were asked about whether to separate compute and storage in a home setup.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 279: Short One | 25 Dec 2025 | 00:07:21 | |
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.
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| 2.5 Admins 278: XXXfil | 18 Dec 2025 | 00:26:06 | |
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 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.
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| 2.5 Admins 277: Battering RAM | 11 Dec 2025 | 00:28:34 | |
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.
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| 2.5 Admins 276: Very Prudish Network | 04 Dec 2025 | 00:26:16 | |
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 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.
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| 2.5 Admins 275: G-word | 27 Nov 2025 | 00:25:51 | |
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.
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| 2.5 Admins 274: Go Go Gadget Windows | 20 Nov 2025 | 00:27:15 | |
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.
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| 2.5 Admins 273: Reliability Tracking | 13 Nov 2025 | 00:25:58 | |
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.
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| 2.5 Admins 272: NVMe Surprise | 06 Nov 2025 | 00:24:34 | |
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
Free consulting We were asked about using multiple partitions on disks with ZFS.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 271: Dead Internet | 30 Oct 2025 | 00:27:54 | |
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.
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| 2.5 Admins 270: Storage Shortage | 23 Oct 2025 | 00:27:46 | |
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
Free consulting We were asked about setting up a server for virtualization and containers.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 269: End of 10? | 16 Oct 2025 | 00:25:27 | |
Windows 10 is officially end of life but Microsoft extends free updates for Windows 10 in Europe, it gets even harder to use a local account in Windows 11, and whether repurposing old server hardware is worth it.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes What the Future Brings – ZFS Features, Roadmap, and Innovations
News/discussion Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without an online account
Free consulting We were asked about repurposing old server hardware.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 268: The Salter Philosophy | 09 Oct 2025 | 00:23:27 | |
A Red Hat breach leads to a leak of lots of sensitive customer data, Synology backs down on allowing third-party drives but they are removing features, and managing ZFS properties during replication.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Optimizing ZFS for High-Throughput Storage Workloads
News Red Hat fesses up to GitLab breach after attackers brag of data theft Red Hat breach escalates as Crimson Collective recruits help International Cyber Digest Twitter thread Synology caves, walks back some drive restrictions on upcoming NAS models Synology Removes Graphics Drivers and HEVC & H.264 HW Transcoding Support
Free consulting We were asked about managing ZFS properties during replication.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 267: Hoarding Cache | 02 Oct 2025 | 00:26:11 | |
The weird errors you see when your root partition is full, TikTok uses a lot of bandwidth by preloading videos, and dealing with a ZFS pool that won’t import.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Keeping Data Safe with OpenZFS: Security, Encryption, and Delegation
News/discussion Dark patterns killed my wife’s Windows 11 installation TikTok video pre-loads cause ‘massive data wastage’
Free consulting We were asked about dealing with a ZFS pool that won’t import. Importing corrupted pool causes PANIC Klara also has a work-around to get past the errors, but it is likely to result in data loss if there are overlapping segments, or the leaking of free space when segments are not entirely removed (not to be attempted without a developer present)
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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| 2.5 Admins 266: Jiggawatts of Hallucinations | 25 Sep 2025 | 00:31:17 | |
Intel and Nvidia are teaming up for multiple reasons, Open AI are planning to build data centers and use a ludicrous amount of power, LLM hallucinations aren’t going away, and how long we keep servers and hard drives in production.
Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Troubleshooting ZFS – Common Issues and How to Fix Them
News Nvidia, Intel to co-develop “multiple generations” of chips as part of $5 billion deal Nvidia and Intel’s $5 billion deal is apparently about eating AMD’s lunch OpenAI and Nvidia’s $100B AI plan will require power equal to 10 nuclear reactors Nvidia adds more air to the AI bubble with vague $100B OpenAI deal The AI-energy apocalypse might be a little overblown OpenAI’s Stargate project to pave the world with AI datacenters announces five new US locations OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws
Free consulting We were asked about how long we keep servers and hard drives in production.
See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
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