| [0.00 --> 3.52] Coming up on today's show, we cover our favourite LastPass alternative,
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| [4.14 --> 7.50] we talk about why more boxes might be better than one,
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| [7.72 --> 10.98] and we confess our undying love for Arch.
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| [11.86 --> 12.46] I'm Alex.
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| [12.76 --> 15.28] And I'm Chris, and this is Self-Hosted 39.
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| [30.00 --> 45.44] I, too, I, too, Alex, have been worshipping at the altar of Arch recently.
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| [45.58 --> 47.84] After experimenting with various different distributions,
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| [48.52 --> 50.80] I like that I can set up a minimal system,
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| [50.80 --> 56.46] and I actually have been enjoying using Arch as my base application server.
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| [56.84 --> 58.42] I don't run apps directly on Arch,
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| [58.42 --> 61.96] but in containers or VMs, I find it to be a fantastic platform.
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| [62.06 --> 63.04] I've been doing it for a while now.
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| [63.64 --> 66.16] This comes hot off the heels of this week's Linux Unplugged,
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| [66.24 --> 70.40] where I think it's fair to say you got in your soapbox and preached the Arch gospel.
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| [70.74 --> 71.70] I don't know.
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| [71.94 --> 75.22] I think what I got in my soapbox about was
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| [75.22 --> 77.96] it's become kind of a joke or a meme,
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| [77.96 --> 82.26] oh, Arch users, people are just trying to flex and talk about how elite they are,
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| [82.76 --> 85.14] when the reality is that's not it at all.
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| [85.14 --> 89.42] I simply just want something that makes it really quick to get software deployed or up and running,
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| [89.54 --> 92.96] and maybe have the most minimal Linux install before I run an application.
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| [93.14 --> 96.96] And I find it great for that, without sort of all of the upfront work
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| [96.96 --> 99.62] that something like Gen 2 or Linux from scratch takes.
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| [100.08 --> 100.88] Hey, bro, bro, bro.
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| [101.50 --> 102.52] I run Arch, by the way.
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| [103.02 --> 103.40] Yeah.
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| [103.74 --> 105.16] Well, that's kind of how it started.
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| [105.60 --> 109.18] And then it became, it kind of grew from there, didn't it?
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| [109.32 --> 109.72] It did.
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| [109.72 --> 111.50] Yeah, I definitely feel the shame.
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| [111.50 --> 114.22] Like, when you say to people, I run Arch,
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| [114.32 --> 118.34] it's not because you want to flex, or at least I don't want to flex.
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| [118.76 --> 121.74] It's because I just love it so gosh darn much,
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| [121.74 --> 124.78] and I think other people would too if they just gave it a chance.
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| [125.14 --> 126.04] Well, why is that?
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| [126.08 --> 128.36] I think we should talk about, maybe just really briefly,
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| [128.52 --> 129.88] why it is you love it so much.
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| [129.90 --> 132.02] Because it's not the forms, right?
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| [132.04 --> 134.94] It's not the Arch user base, necessarily.
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| [135.14 --> 136.96] It's the practicality of it, right?
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| [137.38 --> 137.78] It is.
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| [137.78 --> 142.88] I am one command away from pretty much any piece of software that I want.
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| [143.72 --> 146.28] Yay-S, everything, literally.
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| [147.16 --> 150.44] You know, the AUR is Arch's secret sauce.
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| [151.08 --> 151.98] Think of anything.
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| [152.14 --> 153.06] Think of a custom kernel.
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| [153.36 --> 156.86] You know, VFIO stuff is pretty complex to get into.
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| [157.46 --> 159.46] There is a custom kernel already compiled,
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| [159.68 --> 163.16] or there's a package build to compile a custom kernel already there for you,
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| [163.18 --> 163.66] ready to go.
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| [164.36 --> 167.00] You want some esoteric piece of software that,
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| [167.00 --> 168.96] on Ubuntu would be a PPA,
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| [169.30 --> 171.26] or on Fedora would be a copper repo.
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| [171.78 --> 173.32] I don't have to worry about any of that.
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| [173.38 --> 175.28] It's just yay-s install,
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| [175.56 --> 176.56] and off you go.
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| [177.54 --> 180.34] And besides that, you know, as a new user,
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| [180.46 --> 183.06] when I was getting into Linux in 2013,
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| [183.38 --> 184.64] 14 sort of time period,
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| [185.46 --> 186.38] the Arch documentation
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| [186.38 --> 189.48] is just the best around,
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| [189.48 --> 191.82] and it's crowdsourced.
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| [192.02 --> 193.98] It's not always completely accurate
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| [193.98 --> 195.80] and always completely totally up to date,
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| [195.86 --> 196.82] but it's good enough
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| [196.82 --> 200.24] that even an idiot like me can pick it up
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| [200.24 --> 200.96] and get going
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| [200.96 --> 202.94] when I knew basically nothing.
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| [203.60 --> 204.36] And at that point,
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| [204.40 --> 206.50] that was when Arch had just transitioned to Systemd.
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| [206.50 --> 210.52] So I kind of credit Arch and Systemd and Docker
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| [210.52 --> 212.44] as being the three kind of pillars
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| [212.44 --> 213.84] of what got me into Linux
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| [213.84 --> 216.82] and being able to get me over that initial new user
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| [216.82 --> 218.58] not knowing what I'm doing hump.
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| [218.84 --> 220.26] Those three things together,
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| [220.46 --> 223.24] for me, were just game-changing.
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| [223.84 --> 225.22] There really is a Linux for every type.
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| [225.34 --> 227.02] Obviously, there's benefits
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| [227.02 --> 228.54] to running something like Debian
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| [228.54 --> 232.46] or CentOS or Ubuntu LTS on a server
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| [232.46 --> 234.40] that make just a ton of sense for most people.
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| [234.92 --> 235.94] I'm the type of user,
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| [236.04 --> 238.16] I don't mind logging in at least once a week,
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| [238.78 --> 240.02] doing a package update
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| [240.02 --> 242.90] and seeing what needs to be installed.
|
| [243.38 --> 245.62] I don't always have time for that.
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| [245.62 --> 247.68] I don't always get to do it weekly,
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| [247.86 --> 249.38] but I generally am able to do it
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| [249.38 --> 250.46] at least once a month,
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| [250.50 --> 251.40] if not twice a month.
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| [251.40 --> 254.00] And that seems to be all it's taken for me
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| [254.00 --> 255.60] to keep these systems up and running.
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| [255.66 --> 256.78] And the benefit that I get
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| [256.78 --> 258.52] from a self-hosting standpoint
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| [258.52 --> 261.72] is my operating system is continuously updated.
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| [261.84 --> 264.08] I don't have this event
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| [264.08 --> 265.80] that comes up every few years
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| [265.80 --> 267.80] where I kind of brace myself
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| [267.80 --> 270.42] and do this massive upgrade.
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| [271.10 --> 272.54] Instead, I take my medicine
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| [272.54 --> 274.10] kind of on a weekly basis
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| [274.10 --> 276.78] and it kind of stretches out the changes
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| [276.78 --> 278.00] so that they're just more minor.
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| [278.12 --> 278.70] They're more frequent,
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| [278.86 --> 280.06] but they're more minor.
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| [280.06 --> 281.44] I prefer that.
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| [281.44 --> 282.64] And then when you add something
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| [282.64 --> 283.36] like Alex was saying,
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| [283.46 --> 283.94] the AUR,
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| [284.32 --> 286.42] with the package management system,
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| [286.60 --> 289.40] I can get something up and running
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| [289.40 --> 291.68] in moments on Arch
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| [291.68 --> 294.38] that would take a bit of fiddling around,
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| [294.48 --> 295.44] maybe adding a package repository,
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| [296.36 --> 298.14] following a guide to add the keys
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| [298.14 --> 299.24] and all that kind of stuff
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| [299.24 --> 300.50] to a machine.
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| [300.62 --> 302.08] And then I have the joy
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| [302.08 --> 303.76] of watching that repo go by
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| [303.76 --> 305.30] every time I do an apt update
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| [305.30 --> 306.38] or a DNF update.
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| [306.50 --> 308.44] And I'm not a huge fan of that system.
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| [308.44 --> 308.90] It works.
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| [309.54 --> 310.78] And for some people,
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| [310.82 --> 311.46] it works really well.
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| [311.60 --> 312.82] For me, I just like to have it
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| [312.82 --> 314.66] all integrated with a single package manager,
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| [315.22 --> 316.80] single set of updates that I do.
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| [317.08 --> 319.60] And it's always guaranteed to be
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| [319.60 --> 320.94] at least close to guaranteed,
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| [321.06 --> 321.62] I should say,
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| [321.88 --> 322.74] the latest version
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| [322.74 --> 323.62] when I install something.
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| [323.82 --> 325.18] So I know the security stuff's
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| [325.18 --> 325.68] taken care of,
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| [325.72 --> 326.36] the feature stuff
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| [326.36 --> 327.36] that I've been reading about online,
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| [327.40 --> 328.58] I know it's already landed.
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| [329.12 --> 330.86] And then anything that's more complex
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| [330.86 --> 332.78] than a basic system level tool,
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| [333.02 --> 335.44] I'm already loading in a container anyways.
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| [335.44 --> 337.68] Anyways, and those are often based on Alpine
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| [337.68 --> 338.98] or Ubuntu, et cetera.
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| [339.12 --> 340.56] And it kind of doesn't really matter
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| [340.56 --> 341.72] what the host OS is running
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| [341.72 --> 343.30] as long as it's secure and up to date.
|
| [343.64 --> 345.88] I kind of view Arch a little bit like
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| [345.88 --> 347.42] stock Android.
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| [347.96 --> 349.86] You know, like on a Pixel phone
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| [349.86 --> 351.48] or, well, not OnePlus anymore,
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| [351.76 --> 353.10] but definitely on the Pixel phones.
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| [353.28 --> 355.10] Like, it has no opinion.
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| [355.42 --> 356.68] There's no opinionation really
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| [356.68 --> 357.54] in how it does stuff.
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| [357.60 --> 358.62] It just gives you stuff
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| [358.62 --> 360.08] and lets you figure it out by yourself.
|
| [360.72 --> 361.86] And for that reason,
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| [361.98 --> 363.58] it makes a really great
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| [363.58 --> 364.66] minimum viable server.
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| [365.38 --> 366.32] It also makes
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| [366.32 --> 367.94] a really great workstation.
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| [368.36 --> 370.70] It could make a great cloud box
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| [370.70 --> 371.82] because you can only install
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| [371.82 --> 373.48] very, very minimal numbers of packages.
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| [373.74 --> 375.08] So from a security perspective,
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| [375.72 --> 377.40] there's a smaller attack surface.
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| [378.16 --> 380.44] The downside is that the industry,
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| [380.64 --> 382.40] and I use air quotes around industry,
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| [383.32 --> 384.20] in the cloud at least,
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| [384.36 --> 386.52] does seem to be settling on Ubuntu.
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| [386.52 --> 387.84] Like if you look at market share
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| [387.84 --> 388.68] and stuff like that.
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| [389.20 --> 391.00] So you are kind of
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| [391.00 --> 393.20] trailblazing your own path
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| [393.20 --> 394.28] by going with Arch.
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| [394.48 --> 397.06] But I would argue that
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| [397.06 --> 398.22] what distro you run
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| [398.22 --> 399.56] doesn't really matter
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| [399.56 --> 400.38] that much anymore.
|
| [400.74 --> 402.36] I mean, I do feel pretty strongly
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| [402.36 --> 403.02] that, you know,
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| [403.06 --> 404.50] all my systems will just run Arch.
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| [405.28 --> 406.38] You know, if it's a laptop
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| [406.38 --> 407.30] or a desktop or whatever.
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| [407.46 --> 408.22] But if it's a server,
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| [408.94 --> 410.32] I'll probably put Ubuntu on it.
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| [410.88 --> 412.22] Even though everything
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| [412.22 --> 412.98] we've just said,
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| [413.10 --> 416.08] because it has canonical behind it
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| [416.08 --> 417.12] doing a bunch of testing,
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| [417.58 --> 418.80] especially when it comes to ZFS
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| [418.80 --> 420.08] and the licensing there.
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| [420.34 --> 421.20] That's a tricky one,
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| [421.20 --> 421.96] even on Arch.
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| [422.48 --> 423.44] Just a bunch of stuff,
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| [423.52 --> 424.04] a bunch of testing
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| [424.04 --> 425.04] and things like that
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| [425.04 --> 427.04] mean that I don't run Arch
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| [427.04 --> 428.16] absolutely everywhere,
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| [428.68 --> 429.60] just most places.
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| [430.08 --> 431.28] I have found that for the cloud,
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| [431.40 --> 433.06] I'm sticking with Ubuntu LTS
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| [433.06 --> 434.12] for the most part.
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| [434.32 --> 435.54] I find that works really well.
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| [435.88 --> 437.06] And for my Raspberry Pis
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| [437.06 --> 438.66] that are at the RV
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| [438.66 --> 440.44] on an LTE connection,
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| [440.84 --> 442.98] I'm also running Ubuntu LTS there
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| [442.98 --> 444.48] in part because they've done
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| [444.48 --> 445.56] a really good job
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| [445.56 --> 447.48] with their Pi support.
|
| [447.48 --> 450.16] But also, less updates
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| [450.16 --> 451.74] is a feature when you're on cellular.
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| [452.26 --> 452.66] Yeah.
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| [453.02 --> 454.34] And I'm already updating
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| [454.34 --> 455.70] my laptop enough as it is.
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| [456.18 --> 457.72] So there's those elements of it.
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| [457.86 --> 459.24] But when I have an opportunity
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| [459.24 --> 460.58] to run local physical hardware,
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| [460.66 --> 461.72] like I do here at the studio,
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| [461.80 --> 462.38] it's all Arch.
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| [462.80 --> 463.80] It works fantastic.
|
| [464.24 --> 465.72] I do have one Arch box
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| [465.72 --> 466.56] up in the cloud
|
| [466.56 --> 468.22] that is like an example
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| [468.22 --> 469.72] of Arch in the cloud gone wrong,
|
| [469.86 --> 473.02] where the vendor tried to pin
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| [473.02 --> 474.72] to a certain version of the kernel.
|
| [474.82 --> 475.14] And of course,
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| [475.16 --> 475.76] that just doesn't work
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| [475.76 --> 476.44] very well with Arch.
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| [476.86 --> 478.14] So I think it is a little trickier
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| [478.14 --> 478.54] in the cloud.
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| [478.60 --> 479.84] And it's not a 100% solution.
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| [480.42 --> 481.86] And what I was just advocating
|
| [481.86 --> 482.92] now, I guess, here
|
| [482.92 --> 483.66] and in that episode
|
| [483.66 --> 484.68] of Linux Unplugged
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| [484.68 --> 487.90] is let's not mock people
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| [487.90 --> 489.06] for their choice of distribution.
|
| [489.24 --> 489.96] There's functionality
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| [489.96 --> 491.34] behind everything
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| [491.34 --> 493.38] and like perfectly good reasons
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| [493.38 --> 494.44] to run SUSE as well.
|
| [494.96 --> 496.54] My buddy on Coda Radio, Mike,
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| [496.92 --> 498.30] that's what he prefers to run.
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| [498.40 --> 499.86] He likes SUSE in the enterprise.
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| [500.08 --> 501.70] He runs Pop! OS on his desktop
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| [501.70 --> 503.42] and SUSE in the rack.
|
| [503.60 --> 504.96] And that works really well for him.
|
| [505.40 --> 506.46] It's not like we're trying
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| [506.46 --> 507.38] to create a
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| [507.38 --> 509.08] this distribution is better debate.
|
| [509.36 --> 510.46] What we're trying to say is
|
| [510.46 --> 511.84] let's include everybody
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| [511.84 --> 512.72] in the conversation
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| [512.72 --> 513.76] and not mock people
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| [513.76 --> 515.58] for their choice of distribution.
|
| [516.00 --> 517.26] And as a couple
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| [517.26 --> 518.28] of counter-narrative guys,
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| [518.36 --> 519.74] I guess we happen to find Arch
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| [519.74 --> 520.70] actually works pretty well
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| [520.70 --> 521.88] if you're willing to maintain it.
|
| [523.62 --> 525.94] Linode.com slash SSH.
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| [526.04 --> 527.14] Go there to get a $100
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| [527.14 --> 528.14] 60-day credit
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| [528.14 --> 528.88] towards a new account.
|
| [529.00 --> 530.86] Yeah, $100 in credit
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| [530.86 --> 531.38] to play with.
|
| [531.72 --> 532.12] And of course,
|
| [532.12 --> 533.08] you're supporting the show
|
| [533.08 --> 535.50] by going to linode.com slash SSH.
|
| [535.70 --> 536.70] That's where we set up
|
| [536.70 --> 537.58] all of our infrastructure
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| [537.58 --> 538.68] for JB 3.0.
|
| [538.80 --> 539.62] If we're playing around
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| [539.62 --> 541.22] for something like SSH,
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| [541.30 --> 542.52] like segment work or something,
|
| [542.94 --> 544.54] yeah, we do that up on Linode.
|
| [544.64 --> 545.84] And speaking of Arch,
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| [545.88 --> 546.74] one of the great things
|
| [546.74 --> 547.46] about Linode
|
| [547.46 --> 548.48] is they let you pick
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| [548.48 --> 549.40] just about any distribution
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| [549.40 --> 549.92] you want.
|
| [549.98 --> 550.56] They have Arch.
|
| [550.94 --> 551.52] They got, I mean,
|
| [551.52 --> 552.04] they got everything.
|
| [552.16 --> 553.18] Alpine, Debian,
|
| [554.08 --> 554.86] CentOS, SUSE,
|
| [555.30 --> 556.18] Ubuntu's, of course.
|
| [556.46 --> 557.08] I mean, they got like
|
| [557.08 --> 558.06] everything up there.
|
| [558.44 --> 559.52] Even some Fedora
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| [559.52 --> 561.02] for you crazy kids out there.
|
| [561.14 --> 562.58] You can run it up on Linode.
|
| [562.66 --> 563.66] They've been in this game
|
| [563.66 --> 564.70] since 2003.
|
| [564.88 --> 566.32] They've learned what works
|
| [566.32 --> 567.40] and they've learned
|
| [567.40 --> 568.34] what doesn't work.
|
| [568.38 --> 569.40] And they were doing that
|
| [569.40 --> 571.10] years before everybody else.
|
| [571.26 --> 572.58] And they've really managed
|
| [572.58 --> 573.44] to modernize it
|
| [573.44 --> 575.30] with a beautiful cloud dashboard
|
| [575.30 --> 576.22] that makes it approachable
|
| [576.22 --> 576.60] to somebody
|
| [576.60 --> 577.88] who's brand new to servers
|
| [577.88 --> 579.56] or maybe you're like
|
| [579.56 --> 580.28] a longtime pro.
|
| [580.68 --> 581.22] You're going to love
|
| [581.22 --> 582.40] the way this dashboard works.
|
| [582.52 --> 582.76] Of course,
|
| [582.80 --> 584.44] they have native SSD storage,
|
| [584.54 --> 585.48] 40 gigabit connections
|
| [585.48 --> 586.56] coming into the machines.
|
| [586.96 --> 588.30] It's all super fast.
|
| [588.56 --> 589.38] And because they've been around
|
| [589.38 --> 590.34] since 2003,
|
| [590.52 --> 592.46] they've got some great locations.
|
| [592.62 --> 593.72] Like, think about that, right?
|
| [593.74 --> 594.50] They can leverage
|
| [594.50 --> 595.28] their experience,
|
| [595.40 --> 596.08] their relationships
|
| [596.08 --> 597.94] in a way that nobody else can
|
| [597.94 --> 598.82] because they've been
|
| [598.82 --> 599.62] in cloud computing
|
| [599.62 --> 600.94] before it was cloud computing.
|
| [601.20 --> 602.10] 11 data centers
|
| [602.10 --> 602.88] around the world.
|
| [603.12 --> 603.76] We got an email
|
| [603.76 --> 604.88] into the show from James.
|
| [605.76 --> 606.10] He said,
|
| [606.16 --> 606.92] I wanted to set up
|
| [606.92 --> 608.56] an SMTP relay
|
| [608.56 --> 610.08] at my previous
|
| [610.08 --> 611.70] VPS provider,
|
| [612.30 --> 614.20] but because they were
|
| [614.20 --> 615.28] kind of, you know,
|
| [615.48 --> 617.00] trying to be competitive
|
| [617.00 --> 617.58] in the market,
|
| [617.72 --> 618.78] they ended up
|
| [618.78 --> 619.66] with not the best
|
| [619.66 --> 620.66] IP reputation
|
| [620.66 --> 621.76] and they ended up
|
| [621.76 --> 622.28] getting blocked
|
| [622.28 --> 622.92] by Microsoft.
|
| [623.20 --> 624.10] And so then he spun up
|
| [624.10 --> 625.60] another box on their system
|
| [625.60 --> 626.68] and that also got blocked
|
| [626.68 --> 627.42] by Microsoft.
|
| [629.12 --> 629.62] He's like,
|
| [629.64 --> 630.54] I couldn't even find them
|
| [630.54 --> 631.58] on any public blacklist.
|
| [631.64 --> 632.88] Yet Microsoft just started
|
| [632.88 --> 634.78] blacklisting all of these IPs.
|
| [634.78 --> 635.70] So I decided I'd go over
|
| [635.70 --> 636.24] to Linode
|
| [636.24 --> 638.44] and try a Linode over there
|
| [638.44 --> 639.14] and support the show.
|
| [639.22 --> 639.88] So he goes to
|
| [639.88 --> 641.56] linode.com slash SSH.
|
| [641.70 --> 642.94] He spins up a system
|
| [642.94 --> 643.34] on Linode
|
| [643.34 --> 643.86] and he discovers,
|
| [644.06 --> 644.34] oh,
|
| [644.34 --> 646.44] Linode has a policy
|
| [646.44 --> 647.16] where they block
|
| [647.16 --> 648.66] all SMTP related ports
|
| [648.66 --> 649.32] by default.
|
| [649.46 --> 650.06] Oh, well,
|
| [650.36 --> 651.20] I guess I'll email support
|
| [651.20 --> 652.14] and see what they say.
|
| [652.28 --> 652.92] So he sends off
|
| [652.92 --> 653.88] a quick email to support.
|
| [654.06 --> 655.48] He gets a prompt response
|
| [655.48 --> 656.06] later
|
| [656.06 --> 657.66] and they open up the ports
|
| [657.66 --> 658.52] and everything
|
| [658.52 --> 659.80] is working perfectly.
|
| [660.42 --> 660.86] He goes,
|
| [661.44 --> 663.04] then a few days later,
|
| [663.04 --> 664.18] I finally got a response
|
| [664.18 --> 665.38] from my original provider
|
| [665.38 --> 666.54] with some canned email
|
| [666.54 --> 667.52] that didn't help it at all.
|
| [667.58 --> 668.38] I reply to that.
|
| [668.58 --> 670.46] I got another canned email response
|
| [670.46 --> 671.44] and that was it.
|
| [671.44 --> 672.24] I just gave up
|
| [672.24 --> 673.32] and I'm moving everything
|
| [673.32 --> 674.18] over to Linode.
|
| [674.44 --> 676.14] They're genuinely just great
|
| [676.14 --> 678.34] and I've gotten so many notes
|
| [678.34 --> 678.68] into the show
|
| [678.68 --> 679.80] that talk about Linode support.
|
| [679.96 --> 680.50] It's not an aspect
|
| [680.50 --> 681.32] I touch on a lot
|
| [681.32 --> 682.32] but it really matters
|
| [682.32 --> 683.24] once you get up and running,
|
| [683.38 --> 684.72] especially if you've got
|
| [684.72 --> 685.66] some important infrastructure
|
| [685.66 --> 686.08] on there.
|
| [686.34 --> 686.98] So go check them out.
|
| [687.08 --> 689.16] Linode.com slash SSH.
|
| [689.16 --> 692.22] Now I know you covered
|
| [692.22 --> 693.58] some stuff about LastPass
|
| [693.58 --> 695.24] in Linux Unplugged.
|
| [695.28 --> 697.60] This is like Linux Unplugged Plus
|
| [697.60 --> 698.58] this episode, isn't it?
|
| [699.68 --> 701.60] But LastPass have been doing
|
| [701.60 --> 702.52] some shenanigans
|
| [702.52 --> 704.28] with their free tiers and stuff.
|
| [704.40 --> 705.76] I think we've all been expecting this
|
| [705.76 --> 706.80] for quite a long time
|
| [706.80 --> 709.16] since they were acquired.
|
| [709.82 --> 711.46] Now they are limiting
|
| [711.46 --> 713.84] the access
|
| [713.84 --> 715.90] to unlimited devices
|
| [715.90 --> 716.86] of one type.
|
| [717.36 --> 718.72] So to clarify what that means
|
| [718.72 --> 720.26] is you can access
|
| [720.26 --> 721.36] LastPass free
|
| [721.36 --> 723.30] on an unlimited number
|
| [723.30 --> 723.98] of computers
|
| [723.98 --> 725.74] or an unlimited number
|
| [725.74 --> 727.00] of mobile devices
|
| [727.00 --> 728.20] but not both
|
| [728.20 --> 729.14] on their free tier.
|
| [729.86 --> 730.72] I say enough.
|
| [731.04 --> 732.14] I say that stinks.
|
| [732.44 --> 733.50] And we have a recommendation
|
| [733.50 --> 734.14] for you.
|
| [734.64 --> 735.00] I agree.
|
| [735.20 --> 736.12] I mean the price right now
|
| [736.12 --> 737.06] is kind of reasonable.
|
| [737.30 --> 738.04] It's like what?
|
| [738.20 --> 739.04] Four bucks a year
|
| [739.04 --> 739.60] or something?
|
| [740.16 --> 741.16] It's not outrageous
|
| [741.16 --> 742.70] for a year.
|
| [742.92 --> 743.18] I mean
|
| [743.18 --> 744.72] but it stinks
|
| [744.72 --> 745.80] the way it's going about.
|
| [746.54 --> 747.14] And I agree.
|
| [747.38 --> 748.40] It's time to look
|
| [748.40 --> 749.04] at an alternative
|
| [749.04 --> 749.94] and this is
|
| [749.94 --> 751.04] the self-hosted podcast
|
| [751.04 --> 752.98] and I think both of us
|
| [752.98 --> 754.52] landed on Bitwarden
|
| [754.52 --> 755.38] pretty quickly.
|
| [755.96 --> 757.36] I have some trepidation
|
| [757.36 --> 757.82] here though.
|
| [757.82 --> 758.52] Hold on a minute.
|
| [758.64 --> 759.50] I think LastPass
|
| [759.50 --> 761.08] is $27 a year.
|
| [761.74 --> 763.76] It's $2.25 a month
|
| [763.76 --> 764.54] billed annually.
|
| [765.46 --> 766.38] Oh you're kidding me.
|
| [766.72 --> 766.86] Yeah.
|
| [767.08 --> 767.88] Oh jeez.
|
| [767.98 --> 768.18] Okay.
|
| [769.20 --> 771.02] Ah yeah you're right.
|
| [771.12 --> 771.46] So that's
|
| [771.46 --> 772.36] that's not nearly
|
| [772.36 --> 773.34] the deal I thought it was.
|
| [773.40 --> 774.06] That's a bad deal.
|
| [774.06 --> 775.84] Especially when
|
| [775.84 --> 776.94] Bitwarden is only
|
| [776.94 --> 778.28] $10 a year.
|
| [778.52 --> 779.06] That's if you
|
| [779.06 --> 780.38] buy an annual plan.
|
| [781.08 --> 781.90] But if you don't
|
| [781.90 --> 783.00] even want to do that
|
| [783.00 --> 784.86] you can self-host
|
| [784.86 --> 785.98] the Bitwarden
|
| [785.98 --> 786.76] server
|
| [786.76 --> 787.78] which is just
|
| [787.78 --> 788.96] so cool.
|
| [789.38 --> 789.56] Yeah.
|
| [789.70 --> 791.20] I really love seeing this
|
| [791.20 --> 791.72] and
|
| [791.72 --> 793.08] I know it's a little
|
| [793.08 --> 793.94] complicated.
|
| [794.22 --> 795.12] I think it requires
|
| [795.12 --> 795.60] SQL
|
| [795.60 --> 796.98] among other things.
|
| [797.14 --> 798.10] So the community
|
| [798.10 --> 798.68] has come up
|
| [798.68 --> 799.46] with an alternative.
|
| [799.46 --> 800.58] Yeah there's a project
|
| [800.58 --> 801.94] called Bitwarden RS
|
| [801.94 --> 803.42] which is written in Rust.
|
| [804.42 --> 805.10] Where's Wes
|
| [805.10 --> 805.68] when you need him?
|
| [806.98 --> 808.44] And this is a
|
| [808.44 --> 810.50] Bitwarden server
|
| [810.50 --> 811.04] that can run
|
| [811.04 --> 811.66] in a container
|
| [811.66 --> 813.16] that will essentially
|
| [813.16 --> 815.06] perform the same role
|
| [815.06 --> 816.34] as the $10 a year
|
| [816.34 --> 817.80] hosted service.
|
| [818.04 --> 818.94] The difference being
|
| [818.94 --> 819.62] is you own
|
| [819.62 --> 820.26] all the data
|
| [820.26 --> 821.48] it remains
|
| [821.48 --> 822.40] on your servers
|
| [822.40 --> 823.18] or your VPS
|
| [823.18 --> 823.60] or whatever.
|
| [824.18 --> 824.74] So there's a couple
|
| [824.74 --> 825.32] of ways you could
|
| [825.32 --> 826.14] go about doing this.
|
| [826.38 --> 827.38] The first and most
|
| [827.38 --> 828.28] obvious way is to
|
| [828.28 --> 829.04] spin up a Linode
|
| [829.04 --> 829.96] or something like that
|
| [829.96 --> 831.14] and throw Bitwarden
|
| [831.14 --> 831.58] on there
|
| [831.58 --> 833.58] and just call it good.
|
| [833.84 --> 834.54] And because it's
|
| [834.54 --> 835.58] your password manager
|
| [835.58 --> 836.42] I would probably
|
| [836.42 --> 837.82] caution against
|
| [837.82 --> 839.14] running this
|
| [839.14 --> 840.16] on a shared
|
| [840.16 --> 841.36] cloud VPS.
|
| [841.56 --> 842.18] You know if you're
|
| [842.18 --> 843.34] hosting a ton of websites
|
| [843.34 --> 844.98] and it's a very
|
| [844.98 --> 845.50] public
|
| [845.50 --> 846.96] you know VPS
|
| [846.96 --> 848.02] I probably wouldn't
|
| [848.02 --> 848.96] put your password manager
|
| [848.96 --> 850.08] on that same system.
|
| [850.36 --> 851.04] I would put it
|
| [851.04 --> 852.14] on a separate system
|
| [852.14 --> 853.28] just so you're
|
| [853.28 --> 854.20] reducing the blast
|
| [854.20 --> 855.32] radius of any bots
|
| [855.32 --> 855.74] or anything
|
| [855.74 --> 856.68] doing something crazy
|
| [856.68 --> 857.92] with the web servers.
|
| [857.92 --> 859.36] The other thing
|
| [859.36 --> 860.00] you can do
|
| [860.00 --> 860.98] is run it
|
| [860.98 --> 861.90] on your LAN
|
| [861.90 --> 862.48] and I think
|
| [862.48 --> 863.58] the running
|
| [863.58 --> 864.18] it on a separate
|
| [864.18 --> 864.88] system becomes
|
| [864.88 --> 865.70] less important
|
| [865.70 --> 866.24] when it's on
|
| [866.24 --> 867.46] your network.
|
| [868.08 --> 868.82] And the idea
|
| [868.82 --> 869.80] of running it
|
| [869.80 --> 870.58] on your LAN
|
| [870.58 --> 871.08] of course
|
| [871.08 --> 872.58] is that your data
|
| [872.58 --> 873.48] never leaves
|
| [873.48 --> 874.36] your house
|
| [874.36 --> 875.00] right?
|
| [875.18 --> 875.84] And that will
|
| [875.84 --> 876.20] hopefully
|
| [876.20 --> 877.64] reduce
|
| [877.64 --> 878.50] the risk
|
| [878.50 --> 879.16] even further.
|
| [879.66 --> 880.56] Now the downside
|
| [880.56 --> 881.70] of running your own
|
| [881.70 --> 882.46] password manager
|
| [882.46 --> 882.86] backend
|
| [882.86 --> 883.68] is you've got to
|
| [883.68 --> 884.54] configure secure
|
| [884.54 --> 885.34] access to it.
|
| [885.34 --> 886.50] So that could be
|
| [886.50 --> 887.46] using WireGuard
|
| [887.46 --> 889.10] or some other
|
| [889.10 --> 890.08] kind of authentication
|
| [890.08 --> 890.84] through SSH
|
| [890.84 --> 891.70] or something like that.
|
| [892.04 --> 892.72] But ultimately
|
| [892.72 --> 893.18] you're going to want
|
| [893.18 --> 893.92] to be really careful
|
| [893.92 --> 894.74] and really sure
|
| [894.74 --> 895.28] you know what you're
|
| [895.28 --> 896.18] doing from a security
|
| [896.18 --> 896.74] perspective
|
| [896.74 --> 898.00] before you start
|
| [898.00 --> 898.70] going and storing
|
| [898.70 --> 899.32] all your passwords
|
| [899.32 --> 900.80] on a public system.
|
| [901.50 --> 901.82] That's where you
|
| [901.82 --> 902.56] could make the argument
|
| [902.56 --> 903.36] that it could just
|
| [903.36 --> 904.12] be worth paying
|
| [904.12 --> 904.82] for their
|
| [904.82 --> 906.18] hosted service.
|
| [906.92 --> 907.82] And this is where
|
| [907.82 --> 908.82] I'm currently
|
| [908.82 --> 909.76] experiencing my
|
| [909.76 --> 910.32] trepidation.
|
| [910.52 --> 912.44] I 100% know
|
| [912.44 --> 913.66] I could self-host it.
|
| [913.66 --> 914.90] And the nice thing
|
| [914.90 --> 915.54] about this Rust
|
| [915.54 --> 916.38] version of their
|
| [916.38 --> 917.00] server is
|
| [917.00 --> 918.32] really minimal
|
| [918.32 --> 918.84] resources.
|
| [918.84 --> 919.40] So you could
|
| [919.40 --> 919.90] really run it
|
| [919.90 --> 920.66] on anything.
|
| [920.82 --> 921.62] So I could run
|
| [921.62 --> 922.56] it on my Raspberry Pi
|
| [922.56 --> 923.30] or I could run it
|
| [923.30 --> 924.00] easily here on the
|
| [924.00 --> 924.70] server at the studio.
|
| [925.22 --> 926.84] But I'm not sure
|
| [926.84 --> 927.78] I want to.
|
| [928.30 --> 928.44] You know,
|
| [928.48 --> 928.96] there's something
|
| [928.96 --> 930.02] about the
|
| [930.02 --> 931.26] master password
|
| [931.26 --> 931.70] vault.
|
| [932.06 --> 932.80] It's such a
|
| [932.80 --> 934.00] sacred responsibility
|
| [934.00 --> 936.76] that I almost
|
| [936.76 --> 937.40] trust an
|
| [937.40 --> 938.18] organization like
|
| [938.18 --> 939.58] Bitwarden to be
|
| [939.58 --> 940.58] more focused on
|
| [940.58 --> 941.12] securing that
|
| [941.12 --> 942.10] platform than I am.
|
| [942.18 --> 943.28] Not that I really
|
| [943.28 --> 944.06] have no concerns
|
| [944.06 --> 944.76] about our security.
|
| [945.00 --> 945.42] Really?
|
| [946.30 --> 946.78] But there's
|
| [946.78 --> 947.52] something that
|
| [947.52 --> 948.18] still gives me
|
| [948.18 --> 948.70] pause.
|
| [949.12 --> 949.48] They've got one
|
| [949.48 --> 950.28] job to do.
|
| [950.42 --> 951.60] And I've actually
|
| [951.60 --> 952.50] paid Bitwarden
|
| [952.50 --> 953.44] the $10 a year
|
| [953.44 --> 954.68] for two or three,
|
| [954.82 --> 955.48] maybe four years
|
| [955.48 --> 955.94] at this point.
|
| [956.38 --> 956.94] I've been very,
|
| [957.06 --> 957.44] very happy.
|
| [957.64 --> 958.50] It just does the
|
| [958.50 --> 958.78] job.
|
| [958.94 --> 959.62] I never have to
|
| [959.62 --> 960.36] think about it.
|
| [960.68 --> 961.06] All of the
|
| [961.06 --> 962.10] autofill stuff on
|
| [962.10 --> 962.88] Android and iOS
|
| [962.88 --> 963.50] just works
|
| [963.50 --> 964.58] fantastically well.
|
| [965.34 --> 965.58] You know,
|
| [965.64 --> 966.88] $10 is that kind
|
| [966.88 --> 968.34] of screw it
|
| [968.34 --> 969.36] amount of money
|
| [969.36 --> 969.92] when it's spread
|
| [969.92 --> 970.86] over an entire year.
|
| [971.00 --> 971.14] You know,
|
| [971.18 --> 971.68] it's less than a
|
| [971.68 --> 972.28] dollar a month.
|
| [972.28 --> 973.72] And to just
|
| [973.72 --> 974.56] not have to worry
|
| [974.56 --> 975.20] about it and to
|
| [975.20 --> 975.74] just not have to
|
| [975.74 --> 976.48] think about it for
|
| [976.48 --> 978.00] what, 80, 90 cents
|
| [978.00 --> 978.44] a month,
|
| [978.88 --> 979.82] that's worth it for me.
|
| [980.06 --> 981.22] It reminds me of
|
| [981.22 --> 982.20] why I kind of like
|
| [982.20 --> 983.74] supporting Nebukasa
|
| [983.74 --> 985.14] and how supporting
|
| [985.14 --> 986.66] Nebukasa goes into
|
| [986.66 --> 987.10] home assistant
|
| [987.10 --> 987.62] development and
|
| [987.62 --> 988.22] makes home assistant
|
| [988.22 --> 988.56] better.
|
| [988.88 --> 990.16] By subscribing to
|
| [990.16 --> 990.90] Bitwarden, you're
|
| [990.90 --> 991.88] helping them come up
|
| [991.88 --> 992.40] with a sustainable
|
| [992.40 --> 993.38] business model that
|
| [993.38 --> 994.36] encourages them to
|
| [994.36 --> 995.00] make the password
|
| [995.00 --> 996.16] manager better and
|
| [996.16 --> 996.92] keep their service
|
| [996.92 --> 997.32] secure.
|
| [997.32 --> 999.14] So it incentivizes
|
| [999.14 --> 1000.14] the right things
|
| [1000.14 --> 1001.56] and on top of that
|
| [1001.56 --> 1002.02] it means I don't
|
| [1002.02 --> 1002.56] have to host it
|
| [1002.56 --> 1002.86] myself.
|
| [1003.04 --> 1003.56] I haven't actually
|
| [1003.56 --> 1004.40] made my decision
|
| [1004.40 --> 1006.24] because I have
|
| [1006.24 --> 1007.40] kept a lot of
|
| [1007.40 --> 1008.38] business stuff in
|
| [1008.38 --> 1009.30] LastPass for a
|
| [1009.30 --> 1009.52] while.
|
| [1009.66 --> 1010.16] I know I like
|
| [1010.16 --> 1010.88] Bitwarden so I've
|
| [1010.88 --> 1011.46] always thought that's
|
| [1011.46 --> 1012.08] what I would jump
|
| [1012.08 --> 1012.36] to.
|
| [1013.20 --> 1013.74] And so I went over
|
| [1013.74 --> 1015.18] to their subscription
|
| [1015.18 --> 1016.50] pricing page and
|
| [1016.50 --> 1017.26] they also offer
|
| [1017.26 --> 1018.80] team plans for as
|
| [1018.80 --> 1019.46] little as like $3
|
| [1019.46 --> 1020.58] per user and that's
|
| [1020.58 --> 1021.74] still pretty reasonable.
|
| [1022.54 --> 1023.22] So I think that might
|
| [1023.22 --> 1023.96] be the direction I
|
| [1023.96 --> 1024.50] end up going.
|
| [1024.70 --> 1025.28] I'm going to research
|
| [1025.28 --> 1025.96] more about how
|
| [1025.96 --> 1026.92] they host it first
|
| [1026.92 --> 1029.08] because I know a
|
| [1029.08 --> 1030.24] big use case for me
|
| [1030.24 --> 1031.52] a really big use
|
| [1031.52 --> 1032.06] case for me is
|
| [1032.06 --> 1032.82] mobile access.
|
| [1033.40 --> 1034.08] It's such a
|
| [1034.08 --> 1034.84] crapshoot with me.
|
| [1034.96 --> 1035.88] I don't just connect
|
| [1035.88 --> 1036.96] from one machine.
|
| [1037.20 --> 1038.28] It's just ridiculous
|
| [1038.28 --> 1039.00] especially when you
|
| [1039.00 --> 1040.04] bring in like
|
| [1040.04 --> 1041.38] traveling or setting
|
| [1041.38 --> 1042.08] up family member
|
| [1042.08 --> 1042.80] systems or.
|
| [1043.18 --> 1043.64] And hosts.
|
| [1043.98 --> 1044.62] Yeah it's just
|
| [1044.62 --> 1045.34] it's ridiculous.
|
| [1045.62 --> 1047.56] So I kind of like
|
| [1047.56 --> 1048.40] the idea of something
|
| [1048.40 --> 1048.94] where I'm not
|
| [1048.94 --> 1050.06] handing out WireGuard
|
| [1050.06 --> 1051.18] connections to 15
|
| [1051.18 --> 1052.02] different people so
|
| [1052.02 --> 1052.58] that way they can
|
| [1052.58 --> 1053.38] access the central
|
| [1053.38 --> 1054.34] password database.
|
| [1054.34 --> 1055.80] And don't forget
|
| [1055.80 --> 1056.48] as well generally
|
| [1056.48 --> 1057.28] the time when you
|
| [1057.28 --> 1058.22] need Bitwarden the
|
| [1058.22 --> 1059.00] most is when your
|
| [1059.00 --> 1060.08] device is completely
|
| [1060.08 --> 1061.50] brand new or empty.
|
| [1062.16 --> 1062.26] Right.
|
| [1062.66 --> 1063.48] And so you've always
|
| [1063.48 --> 1064.26] got that awkward
|
| [1064.26 --> 1065.30] first 10 minutes
|
| [1065.30 --> 1065.88] where you're getting
|
| [1065.88 --> 1066.94] you know your two
|
| [1066.94 --> 1067.96] factor auth set up
|
| [1067.96 --> 1068.86] again and your
|
| [1068.86 --> 1069.86] Bitwarden whatever
|
| [1069.86 --> 1070.60] set up again.
|
| [1071.18 --> 1071.74] And once you've got
|
| [1071.74 --> 1072.40] those two things
|
| [1072.40 --> 1072.98] you're good to go
|
| [1072.98 --> 1074.54] generally but yeah I
|
| [1074.54 --> 1075.08] can see you don't
|
| [1075.08 --> 1075.50] want to be handing
|
| [1075.50 --> 1076.50] that out to randos.
|
| [1077.04 --> 1077.50] If you do want to
|
| [1077.50 --> 1078.06] self host it though
|
| [1078.06 --> 1079.22] Alex like somebody
|
| [1079.22 --> 1079.86] in our audience who
|
| [1079.86 --> 1080.36] may have a different
|
| [1080.36 --> 1081.74] use case it's easier
|
| [1081.74 --> 1082.70] than ever now because
|
| [1082.70 --> 1083.74] the Bitwarden
|
| [1083.74 --> 1084.80] Rust server has a
|
| [1084.80 --> 1086.12] Docker image fully
|
| [1086.12 --> 1087.64] up to date as of
|
| [1087.64 --> 1088.82] like 19 hours ago as
|
| [1088.82 --> 1089.50] we record this.
|
| [1089.98 --> 1091.16] It's like the old
|
| [1091.16 --> 1092.52] proverb if something
|
| [1092.52 --> 1093.56] isn't Dockerized at
|
| [1093.56 --> 1094.20] this point does it
|
| [1094.20 --> 1094.82] even exist?
|
| [1095.78 --> 1096.74] Now another nice
|
| [1096.74 --> 1097.60] thing that I do with
|
| [1097.60 --> 1098.30] Bitwarden is I
|
| [1098.30 --> 1098.72] actually share
|
| [1098.72 --> 1099.54] passwords with my
|
| [1099.54 --> 1099.84] wife.
|
| [1100.06 --> 1100.92] She has a Bitwarden.
|
| [1101.30 --> 1101.80] I don't think she
|
| [1101.80 --> 1102.64] pays the premium I
|
| [1102.64 --> 1103.30] think she just has the
|
| [1103.30 --> 1104.94] basic free account but
|
| [1104.94 --> 1105.64] we created an
|
| [1105.64 --> 1107.14] organization and when
|
| [1107.14 --> 1107.86] you create a
|
| [1107.86 --> 1109.26] particular login you
|
| [1109.26 --> 1110.52] can assign that login
|
| [1110.52 --> 1111.72] to an organization and
|
| [1111.72 --> 1112.52] share it with that
|
| [1112.52 --> 1113.14] organization.
|
| [1113.92 --> 1114.90] So certain passwords
|
| [1114.90 --> 1115.94] for us like Amazon,
|
| [1116.44 --> 1117.88] eBay, you know stuff
|
| [1117.88 --> 1118.36] that you want to
|
| [1118.36 --> 1120.10] share goes into that
|
| [1120.10 --> 1122.04] shared area if you
|
| [1122.04 --> 1122.64] like that shared
|
| [1122.64 --> 1123.52] organization and we've
|
| [1123.52 --> 1124.58] both got access to it.
|
| [1124.70 --> 1125.38] I find that really
|
| [1125.38 --> 1125.74] useful.
|
| [1126.24 --> 1126.86] There's of course other
|
| [1126.86 --> 1127.72] solutions out there.
|
| [1127.84 --> 1128.70] Another beloved one in
|
| [1128.70 --> 1129.38] the audience is
|
| [1129.38 --> 1130.70] KeePass and KeePassX
|
| [1130.70 --> 1132.36] and there's several
|
| [1132.36 --> 1134.06] solutions to this but
|
| [1134.06 --> 1135.08] Bitwarden is the one we
|
| [1135.08 --> 1136.10] both landed on I think
|
| [1136.10 --> 1137.60] in part because of the
|
| [1137.60 --> 1138.56] UI, the browser
|
| [1138.56 --> 1140.24] integration, the ability
|
| [1140.24 --> 1142.12] to self-host and the
|
| [1142.12 --> 1143.00] quality of the mobile
|
| [1143.00 --> 1144.20] apps all kind of come
|
| [1144.20 --> 1145.02] together to make it our
|
| [1145.02 --> 1145.62] favorite choice.
|
| [1146.16 --> 1146.80] So whilst we're sort of
|
| [1146.80 --> 1147.86] kind of on the topic of
|
| [1147.86 --> 1149.44] security, why don't we
|
| [1149.44 --> 1151.70] discuss the Plex hoopla
|
| [1151.70 --> 1152.68] that's been going on as
|
| [1152.68 --> 1155.42] well about this botnet
|
| [1155.42 --> 1156.26] thing that's been
|
| [1156.26 --> 1157.70] amplifying stuff across
|
| [1157.70 --> 1158.16] the internet?
|
| [1158.16 --> 1159.50] It just stinks because
|
| [1159.50 --> 1160.86] you know you got a Plex
|
| [1160.86 --> 1162.28] server going, you've
|
| [1162.28 --> 1163.02] opened it up to the
|
| [1163.02 --> 1163.74] internet so that way you
|
| [1163.74 --> 1164.40] can share it.
|
| [1164.78 --> 1165.94] Some scanner finds your
|
| [1165.94 --> 1167.74] server, indexes it and
|
| [1167.74 --> 1168.84] then some botnet author
|
| [1168.84 --> 1170.88] figures out a way to
|
| [1170.88 --> 1171.78] take advantage of a
|
| [1171.78 --> 1172.98] vulnerability in Plex to
|
| [1172.98 --> 1174.86] amplify by a factor of
|
| [1174.86 --> 1177.28] five their DDoS traffic.
|
| [1177.50 --> 1179.48] They kind of corral all of
|
| [1179.48 --> 1180.36] these different Plex
|
| [1180.36 --> 1182.54] installs together to kind
|
| [1182.54 --> 1183.90] of do this amplified
|
| [1183.90 --> 1185.30] attack against a single
|
| [1185.30 --> 1186.64] source and just happened
|
| [1186.64 --> 1187.50] the last week as we're
|
| [1187.50 --> 1188.20] recording this.
|
| [1188.60 --> 1189.90] NetScout said that there
|
| [1189.90 --> 1191.02] was a DDoS for hire
|
| [1191.02 --> 1192.62] service that recently
|
| [1192.62 --> 1194.16] turned misconfigured Plex
|
| [1194.16 --> 1195.34] media servers into
|
| [1195.34 --> 1196.74] amplifying attack servers.
|
| [1196.74 --> 1198.72] Rut roll.
|
| [1199.20 --> 1200.26] Yeah, not only does it
|
| [1200.26 --> 1201.20] suck up all of your
|
| [1201.20 --> 1202.40] bandwidth and attack
|
| [1202.40 --> 1203.50] somebody but it also
|
| [1203.50 --> 1204.64] runs your server like
|
| [1204.64 --> 1205.06] crazy.
|
| [1205.38 --> 1206.50] It's just bad.
|
| [1206.98 --> 1207.90] Yeah, what really kind
|
| [1207.90 --> 1209.30] of, I don't want to use
|
| [1209.30 --> 1210.90] the word scared me, but
|
| [1210.90 --> 1212.06] I suppose so, you know,
|
| [1212.26 --> 1213.38] gave me cause for a
|
| [1213.38 --> 1215.80] concern at least was just
|
| [1215.80 --> 1218.78] opening port 32400,
|
| [1218.96 --> 1222.52] 32400 on TCP, just
|
| [1222.52 --> 1224.26] opening that port alone is
|
| [1224.26 --> 1225.58] enough to be vulnerable
|
| [1225.58 --> 1226.30] because it's such a
|
| [1226.30 --> 1226.94] common port.
|
| [1227.64 --> 1228.68] People will scan it and
|
| [1228.68 --> 1229.58] find it and then be like,
|
| [1229.64 --> 1230.34] oh, this guy's running
|
| [1230.34 --> 1230.74] Plex.
|
| [1231.10 --> 1231.24] Yeah.
|
| [1231.48 --> 1233.14] So what I've done since
|
| [1233.14 --> 1234.38] this vulnerability to
|
| [1234.38 --> 1235.62] kind of remove myself
|
| [1235.62 --> 1239.06] from the risk factor is
|
| [1239.06 --> 1239.96] I've closed that port in
|
| [1239.96 --> 1241.10] my firewall and I have
|
| [1241.10 --> 1242.74] started to define a
|
| [1242.74 --> 1244.66] custom server URL in my
|
| [1244.66 --> 1245.68] Plex server settings.
|
| [1245.68 --> 1248.04] And I set a DNS entry in
|
| [1248.04 --> 1248.56] Cloudflare.
|
| [1249.24 --> 1251.00] That then points to my
|
| [1251.00 --> 1251.64] WAN IP.
|
| [1252.60 --> 1254.20] From there, that then
|
| [1254.20 --> 1256.00] points to a traffic
|
| [1256.00 --> 1257.12] instance that's running on
|
| [1257.12 --> 1257.94] the same server as
|
| [1257.94 --> 1258.28] Plex.
|
| [1259.00 --> 1260.22] And from there, it does a
|
| [1260.22 --> 1261.72] standard reverse proxy
|
| [1261.72 --> 1263.54] thing and just does the
|
| [1263.54 --> 1265.32] remote access as if I was
|
| [1265.32 --> 1267.16] going through port 32400
|
| [1267.16 --> 1269.08] like I was last month.
|
| [1269.56 --> 1271.78] Very easy fix and I highly
|
| [1271.78 --> 1272.76] recommend you take a look
|
| [1272.76 --> 1273.16] into that.
|
| [1273.16 --> 1274.06] That's a great idea
|
| [1274.06 --> 1275.36] because Netscout said that
|
| [1275.36 --> 1276.30] after a scan they
|
| [1276.30 --> 1277.20] conducted, they found
|
| [1277.20 --> 1279.26] about 27,000 servers on
|
| [1279.26 --> 1280.06] the internet that can be
|
| [1280.06 --> 1281.08] abused this way.
|
| [1281.80 --> 1283.16] So it doesn't mean you
|
| [1283.16 --> 1284.00] have to shut off remote
|
| [1284.00 --> 1286.46] Plex, but it does mean
|
| [1286.46 --> 1287.18] you should probably take
|
| [1287.18 --> 1287.96] some steps to protect
|
| [1287.96 --> 1288.30] yourself.
|
| [1288.72 --> 1289.50] Yeah, just put it behind
|
| [1289.50 --> 1290.24] a reverse proxy.
|
| [1290.40 --> 1291.00] I mean, it doesn't have
|
| [1291.00 --> 1291.46] to be traffic.
|
| [1291.62 --> 1292.28] It could be Nginx.
|
| [1292.38 --> 1292.84] It could be whatever.
|
| [1293.22 --> 1296.02] But just don't open any
|
| [1296.02 --> 1296.84] ports in your firewall.
|
| [1296.96 --> 1297.96] You absolutely don't
|
| [1297.96 --> 1298.44] need to.
|
| [1298.92 --> 1300.18] Which actually brings me
|
| [1300.18 --> 1301.62] very nicely onto a very,
|
| [1301.76 --> 1302.48] very quick bit of
|
| [1302.48 --> 1303.14] follow up about the
|
| [1303.14 --> 1304.36] WireGuard rant I had
|
| [1304.36 --> 1306.08] last week on OpenSense.
|
| [1307.24 --> 1308.94] Turns out, like an
|
| [1308.94 --> 1312.02] idiot, I set a slash 16
|
| [1312.02 --> 1313.96] subnet in my DHCP server.
|
| [1314.82 --> 1315.48] Now for those that don't
|
| [1315.48 --> 1316.60] know, what that means is
|
| [1316.60 --> 1319.96] every address from 192.168.0
|
| [1319.96 --> 1323.70] all the way up to 192.168.255
|
| [1323.70 --> 1326.56] was within my DHCP range.
|
| [1326.70 --> 1328.74] So I had 65,000 or whatever
|
| [1328.74 --> 1330.24] DHCP addresses available.
|
| [1331.24 --> 1332.92] The upshot of that was when
|
| [1332.92 --> 1334.24] I was trying to route through
|
| [1334.24 --> 1337.50] WireGuard, I was doing a 192.168.13
|
| [1337.50 --> 1338.54] subnet.
|
| [1339.16 --> 1341.54] And so the remote servers were
|
| [1341.54 --> 1343.64] hearing that were receiving the
|
| [1343.64 --> 1344.88] commands from my laptop or my
|
| [1344.88 --> 1345.42] phone or whatever.
|
| [1345.92 --> 1347.66] But they didn't know how to route
|
| [1347.66 --> 1349.68] back to the client device because
|
| [1349.68 --> 1351.14] as far as they were concerned, the
|
| [1351.14 --> 1352.70] slash 16 overrode everything and
|
| [1352.70 --> 1353.72] it just thought everything was on
|
| [1353.72 --> 1354.08] the LAN.
|
| [1354.08 --> 1357.02] So what I did was I changed the
|
| [1357.02 --> 1360.12] subnet of the WireGuard VPN to a
|
| [1360.12 --> 1361.12] 10.something.
|
| [1361.74 --> 1362.94] So it was a completely different
|
| [1362.94 --> 1365.14] subnet and I reduced my slash 16
|
| [1365.14 --> 1367.14] down to a more manageable slash 20.
|
| [1367.62 --> 1368.92] So I've only got a few thousand, like
|
| [1368.92 --> 1370.98] 4,000 addresses now instead of
|
| [1370.98 --> 1371.96] 65,000.
|
| [1372.08 --> 1373.38] I think that should tie me over for a
|
| [1373.38 --> 1373.72] bit, right?
|
| [1374.08 --> 1374.60] Nicely done.
|
| [1375.02 --> 1376.58] I definitely always suggest if
|
| [1376.58 --> 1379.30] people can, different subnets for
|
| [1379.30 --> 1381.68] the different VPN endpoints makes it
|
| [1381.68 --> 1383.90] so much simpler, you know, and I've
|
| [1383.90 --> 1385.40] tried, I've tried to do that myself
|
| [1385.40 --> 1387.84] so many times because it can solve
|
| [1387.84 --> 1390.76] you just a few simple problems and
|
| [1390.76 --> 1392.74] keeps it a little clear in your
|
| [1392.74 --> 1393.02] head.
|
| [1393.18 --> 1396.12] Like I know that the studio is .4
|
| [1396.12 --> 1399.84] and home is .7 and the WireGuard
|
| [1399.84 --> 1401.42] network is actually a .10 network.
|
| [1401.54 --> 1402.50] It's all separated out.
|
| [1402.86 --> 1402.96] Yeah.
|
| [1403.02 --> 1404.20] So I just wanted to be absolutely
|
| [1404.20 --> 1406.16] clear that the problem was the user
|
| [1406.16 --> 1408.50] not OpenSense or WireGuard.
|
| [1408.60 --> 1409.80] It was totally my fault.
|
| [1409.80 --> 1412.92] And I owe a huge debt of gratitude to
|
| [1412.92 --> 1414.18] one of our listeners who reached out
|
| [1414.18 --> 1418.04] to me on Discord and did a screen
|
| [1418.04 --> 1419.16] share with me and walked me through
|
| [1419.16 --> 1420.40] it for half an hour because he works
|
| [1420.40 --> 1423.32] in security down in Charlotte in
|
| [1423.32 --> 1423.88] North Carolina.
|
| [1424.56 --> 1426.12] And he sort of taught me some new
|
| [1426.12 --> 1427.88] stuff about, you know, networking and
|
| [1427.88 --> 1428.88] triage and that kind of stuff.
|
| [1428.94 --> 1429.56] So that was pretty cool.
|
| [1429.62 --> 1431.70] So huge thank you to that listener.
|
| [1432.24 --> 1434.06] Sounds like somebody we should buy a
|
| [1434.06 --> 1436.78] beer for when community events happen
|
| [1436.78 --> 1437.10] again.
|
| [1437.44 --> 1437.88] One day.
|
| [1438.68 --> 1439.08] Yeah.
|
| [1439.80 --> 1442.06] Well, if you'd like to learn
|
| [1442.06 --> 1444.18] networking or anything else, ACG has
|
| [1444.18 --> 1447.16] 20% off annual plans right now.
|
| [1447.28 --> 1448.56] We'll have a link in the show notes
|
| [1448.56 --> 1450.10] or just go to cloudguru.com.
|
| [1450.16 --> 1451.80] And when you sign up, use the promo
|
| [1451.80 --> 1454.00] code springintocloud21.
|
| [1454.24 --> 1455.86] You know that cloud is growing.
|
| [1455.96 --> 1457.48] There's lots of new services and
|
| [1457.48 --> 1459.62] systems more every day, it seems.
|
| [1459.98 --> 1461.50] And that also means the demand for
|
| [1461.50 --> 1463.16] skilled cloud professionals is growing
|
| [1463.16 --> 1463.48] too.
|
| [1463.84 --> 1465.98] 82% of hiring managers say a cloud
|
| [1465.98 --> 1468.30] certification makes a candidate more
|
| [1468.30 --> 1468.80] attractive.
|
| [1468.80 --> 1471.36] So go grow your skills with hands-on
|
| [1471.36 --> 1472.08] labs and learning.
|
| [1472.42 --> 1473.72] Keep up with change and develop the
|
| [1473.72 --> 1475.38] skills you need with a cloud guru.
|
| [1475.62 --> 1478.32] To get that 20% off, sign up for an
|
| [1478.32 --> 1480.22] annual plan and use that promo code
|
| [1480.22 --> 1482.54] springintocloud21.
|
| [1482.54 --> 1485.32] 95% of learners say that a cloud guru's
|
| [1485.32 --> 1487.08] tools and content directly help them
|
| [1487.08 --> 1488.22] advance their careers.
|
| [1488.54 --> 1489.72] Spring into cloud21.
|
| [1489.90 --> 1490.82] Link in the show notes or go to
|
| [1490.82 --> 1492.20] cloudguru.com.
|
| [1494.48 --> 1496.98] Ryan writes in with an IGPU question.
|
| [1497.46 --> 1498.00] Hey there, friends.
|
| [1498.08 --> 1499.12] I'm a big fan of the show.
|
| [1499.72 --> 1501.50] I currently am in the process of building
|
| [1501.50 --> 1503.10] an off-grid house in New Zealand.
|
| [1503.42 --> 1504.88] Oh, that's the dream.
|
| [1504.88 --> 1505.44] I know.
|
| [1506.00 --> 1506.40] Right?
|
| [1506.66 --> 1507.04] Amazing.
|
| [1507.32 --> 1508.10] Can we come visit?
|
| [1509.06 --> 1510.26] Self-hosted on tour.
|
| [1511.08 --> 1513.32] Power consumption is key, so I want a
|
| [1513.32 --> 1514.82] small box to run basically everything
|
| [1514.82 --> 1516.62] I need, which thankfully isn't going to
|
| [1516.62 --> 1517.36] be that much.
|
| [1517.80 --> 1520.24] My question is, is it possible to run a
|
| [1520.24 --> 1522.44] Linux server and pass through an IGPU to
|
| [1522.44 --> 1525.42] a Windows VM for Blue Iris, while still
|
| [1525.42 --> 1527.32] using the IGPU for containerized
|
| [1527.32 --> 1528.60] applications like Plex?
|
| [1529.24 --> 1531.26] I can't seem to see any problem with
|
| [1531.26 --> 1533.08] this in theory, but wonder if you have
|
| [1533.08 --> 1533.72] any ideas.
|
| [1534.16 --> 1534.92] Love your work.
|
| [1535.22 --> 1535.58] Ryan.
|
| [1536.62 --> 1537.88] What do you think about this one?
|
| [1537.98 --> 1539.90] I have also contemplated, is there a
|
| [1539.90 --> 1541.52] way I can have my cake and eat it too
|
| [1541.52 --> 1544.10] when it comes to an IGPU and a low
|
| [1544.10 --> 1544.66] power system?
|
| [1545.08 --> 1546.58] I thought I'd solve this problem.
|
| [1546.64 --> 1547.94] I thought I had the answer.
|
| [1548.46 --> 1551.50] And it was a technology called GVT-G,
|
| [1551.50 --> 1555.20] which is a virtual graphics card kind
|
| [1555.20 --> 1557.84] of slicing thing that basically lets you
|
| [1557.84 --> 1561.58] take an Intel GPU built into your CPU
|
| [1561.58 --> 1564.62] and slice it up into two slices and give
|
| [1564.62 --> 1566.14] one to one VM and one to another.
|
| [1566.34 --> 1569.04] So the obvious use case for that is to
|
| [1569.04 --> 1571.66] give one slice to a Windows VM for Blue
|
| [1571.66 --> 1574.14] Iris and then give the other slice to
|
| [1574.14 --> 1576.84] another Linux VM for Plex and then keep
|
| [1576.84 --> 1578.06] the host as clean as possible.
|
| [1578.72 --> 1578.78] Yeah.
|
| [1579.30 --> 1581.58] However, and I've written a blog post about
|
| [1581.58 --> 1582.36] this this week.
|
| [1583.22 --> 1586.54] Unfortunately, the performance of GVT-G is
|
| [1586.54 --> 1587.78] horrible.
|
| [1589.58 --> 1593.38] I found it to be anywhere from 58 to 82%
|
| [1593.38 --> 1595.56] slower than Quicksync being run natively
|
| [1595.56 --> 1596.54] on the bare metal host.
|
| [1597.16 --> 1598.16] Holy smokes.
|
| [1598.46 --> 1599.92] I did not expect that at all.
|
| [1600.34 --> 1600.46] Yeah.
|
| [1600.52 --> 1602.12] So my test that I did was it was pretty
|
| [1602.12 --> 1604.54] unscientific, but it was a very real
|
| [1604.54 --> 1605.56] world use case for me.
|
| [1605.56 --> 1608.76] So I used the Plex sync for offline
|
| [1608.76 --> 1612.22] playback feature and I chose a high bit
|
| [1612.22 --> 1612.50] rate.
|
| [1612.62 --> 1615.78] So about a 38 megabyte a second.
|
| [1616.44 --> 1617.54] Was it megabit?
|
| [1617.62 --> 1618.52] I always get confused.
|
| [1618.96 --> 1622.62] Video file encoded with MPEG-4 and H.264
|
| [1622.62 --> 1626.52] with a DTS master audio soundtrack.
|
| [1626.92 --> 1631.04] And I used the four megabytes a second 720p
|
| [1631.04 --> 1634.00] sync for offline playback option within Plex.
|
| [1634.00 --> 1636.36] And I did that on an iPad.
|
| [1636.90 --> 1637.90] You know, that was the client.
|
| [1638.02 --> 1639.48] I don't think that bit really mattered too
|
| [1639.48 --> 1641.56] much, but I did a few different tests.
|
| [1641.68 --> 1642.86] So I did a software render.
|
| [1643.04 --> 1647.76] So this is using the Intel i5-8500 CPU.
|
| [1648.24 --> 1650.20] I picked that up for about a hundred dollars
|
| [1650.20 --> 1650.88] used on eBay.
|
| [1651.04 --> 1652.32] So it's a pretty good value.
|
| [1652.68 --> 1653.44] Four gigahertz.
|
| [1653.54 --> 1656.44] I think 4.1 gigahertz, six core CPU.
|
| [1657.20 --> 1661.60] With CPU rendering only, I saw a 1.1 times
|
| [1661.60 --> 1662.32] speed.
|
| [1662.32 --> 1665.96] The best I saw running it natively in QuickSync
|
| [1665.96 --> 1668.00] on the host was 10.2.
|
| [1668.52 --> 1671.22] And then on a sliding scale between those two
|
| [1671.22 --> 1676.86] numbers of 1 times and 10 times, with the GVTG stuff set
|
| [1676.86 --> 1682.78] into two slice mode, I saw only about a 1.8, 1.9 times.
|
| [1683.32 --> 1687.68] So it was faster than CPU software encoding, you know, twice as fast
|
| [1687.68 --> 1695.28] actually, but it was 80, what, something, 82% slower than running it on the
|
| [1695.28 --> 1695.96] bare metal host.
|
| [1695.96 --> 1702.70] So the other problem that I ran into, besides, you know, leaving 80 plus percent performance
|
| [1702.70 --> 1705.44] on the table, was stability.
|
| [1705.86 --> 1708.76] Unfortunately, that wasn't a great story either.
|
| [1709.18 --> 1715.52] The problems I ran into were, so I was running Proxmox as the base OS because the Proxmox
|
| [1715.52 --> 1720.86] wiki actually has a really great entry about enabling GVTG and QuickSync and pass through
|
| [1720.86 --> 1721.64] and all that kind of stuff.
|
| [1721.64 --> 1723.58] And it was really painless to get going.
|
| [1723.68 --> 1726.52] It only took me an hour or so to figure it all out and get it going.
|
| [1727.38 --> 1729.50] But the stability was just not there.
|
| [1730.02 --> 1731.92] My evidence is only anecdotal, though.
|
| [1732.34 --> 1736.12] Because of the instability, I couldn't really get the log files that I needed
|
| [1736.12 --> 1741.68] because the system either had to be hard reset or it was just hanging and processes were just
|
| [1741.68 --> 1743.48] hanging or I was getting kernel panics.
|
| [1743.48 --> 1745.24] It was just a mess.
|
| [1745.80 --> 1748.32] And, you know, at the end of the day...
|
| [1748.32 --> 1751.92] Just not something you could just let run and just not have to think about it.
|
| [1752.06 --> 1753.70] No, unfortunately, it wasn't.
|
| [1753.80 --> 1759.76] And, you know, things worked fine until I powered on the Windows VM that was running Blue Iris.
|
| [1760.00 --> 1763.54] And that system has six 4K cameras going into it.
|
| [1763.58 --> 1765.38] So it's got a decent amount of load.
|
| [1765.38 --> 1772.26] Now, I know for a fact that the i5 CPU can handle that load because it's been running in my HP 290 Slim
|
| [1772.26 --> 1776.72] for six months just fine, handling everything perfectly.
|
| [1777.24 --> 1784.86] But for some reason, when it's in the GVTG mode, it just, I guess, because the performance is so poor
|
| [1784.86 --> 1791.04] with the emulation, whatever they're doing to slice the GPU up, however they're doing it in the Intel drivers,
|
| [1791.04 --> 1799.72] it just meant that as soon as I powered up Blue Iris, within 30 minutes, the whole Proxmox system was just unhappy.
|
| [1800.06 --> 1804.30] You know, like the web UI wouldn't load sometimes or you actually go and reboot the system
|
| [1804.30 --> 1810.78] and you'll see SystemD printing out waiting on Kimu guest to shut down for like 30 minutes.
|
| [1811.32 --> 1815.62] So it wasn't just guest stability issues, but the entire host.
|
| [1815.82 --> 1816.14] Uh-huh.
|
| [1817.06 --> 1817.90] Ooh, yeah.
|
| [1818.18 --> 1819.56] Well, that's just a deal breaker.
|
| [1819.56 --> 1822.18] Oh, man, Alex.
|
| [1822.36 --> 1824.98] At the end of the day, you want it to be on and functional.
|
| [1825.24 --> 1831.26] And yes, this is a hobby, and I do enjoy messing about with servers, but there comes a point.
|
| [1831.34 --> 1832.34] It's not a full-time job.
|
| [1832.50 --> 1833.24] No, exactly.
|
| [1833.58 --> 1837.70] There comes a point where you're like, this S just needs to work now.
|
| [1838.04 --> 1838.26] Yeah.
|
| [1838.64 --> 1839.98] And it just didn't, unfortunately.
|
| [1840.26 --> 1844.58] I think you crossed the threshold of devoting more time to this than most folks quite a while ago.
|
| [1844.58 --> 1848.36] I mean, even taking a pass at the different encoding options, that's good insight.
|
| [1848.36 --> 1854.76] And it really shows you that you're, I mean, yeah, it's almost twice as fast if you use GVT.
|
| [1854.76 --> 1860.42] When you consider the stability issues, I would rather just use CPU encoding.
|
| [1860.42 --> 1869.42] CPU encoding with QuickSync, because that's only pulling down about 10 watts when it's doing a full 1080p stream, and it's running at 10x real time.
|
| [1869.92 --> 1874.70] So it actually, you know, in terms of performance per watt is the best thing out there.
|
| [1874.94 --> 1879.18] I actually also, just for giggles, use my 1080 Ti to run one of these transcodes.
|
| [1879.76 --> 1881.62] So QuickSync is running at 10x.
|
| [1882.02 --> 1888.02] A 1080 Ti, which is pulling down 18 times the amount of power, is running at 17 times.
|
| [1888.20 --> 1889.98] So 10x versus 17x.
|
| [1890.08 --> 1890.50] Wow.
|
| [1890.70 --> 1897.44] It's a good way to see the performance discrepancy between Intel's GPU and the NVIDIA GPU right there, isn't it?
|
| [1897.46 --> 1897.96] You can really.
|
| [1898.28 --> 1900.82] And then, of course, CPU with its measly 1.1x.
|
| [1901.24 --> 1901.40] Yeah.
|
| [1902.02 --> 1905.70] Performance per watt of the NVIDIA card was just hilariously bad.
|
| [1906.06 --> 1906.58] Well, sure.
|
| [1906.98 --> 1907.30] Sure.
|
| [1907.30 --> 1914.94] So what I've ended up doing, actually, and this is to go back to Ryan's question now, is I've ended up splitting things back out into physical boxes.
|
| [1915.56 --> 1920.04] The Blue Iris box is an HP290 Slim that I already had.
|
| [1920.44 --> 1927.58] I've put the i5 back into there, and I bought another i5 to put into my server, so I have two now, which is a shame, but hey-ho.
|
| [1928.06 --> 1932.36] I was doing some testing on the HP290 for average power usage.
|
| [1932.36 --> 1938.12] When I say idle, what I mean by that is Blue Iris is running with its normal sort of load.
|
| [1938.30 --> 1945.72] So an average sort of power usage I see on that box is anywhere from sort of 10 to 25 watts, depending on what it's doing.
|
| [1945.72 --> 1951.08] Which, for the performance I'm getting, you know, that kind of power usage is fantastic, really.
|
| [1951.82 --> 1960.20] And then my main server is pulling it anywhere with, you know, it's got, I think, 12 hard drives in it, anywhere from 40 to 80 watts at idle.
|
| [1960.20 --> 1967.36] So, you know, it's all pretty good, pretty low, you know, to have all that performance for under 100 watts at idle is, I'm pretty happy with that.
|
| [1967.90 --> 1969.64] Yeah, thanks for sharing the details with us.
|
| [1969.68 --> 1970.86] You mentioned the blog in there.
|
| [1970.96 --> 1973.38] Well, Sam actually writes in with our next question.
|
| [1973.46 --> 1981.38] He's a new listener, and he says, I'd love to hear more about what Alex uses for building his blog, and if you've experimented with any other options and what you thought.
|
| [1981.56 --> 1982.24] Thanks for the great show.
|
| [1982.24 --> 1995.84] Well, several years ago, when I was launching LinuxServer.io, I actually had a personal blog, blog.katz.me, that got turned into LinuxServer's blog and eventually the LinuxServer website, and that kind of took over and became its own thing.
|
| [1996.26 --> 2004.84] So we used to use WordPress, and then we moved to Ghost on LinuxServer, and this would be, I dread to think how long ago, like five years ago?
|
| [2004.84 --> 2013.84] We moved to Ghost, and it's been so solid, I then ended up spinning up Ghost for my own personal blog to do, like, travel writing and all that kind of stuff as well.
|
| [2014.58 --> 2022.22] So I use Ghost almost exclusively for blogging, and then the Perfect Media Server website is written in mkdocs.
|
| [2022.70 --> 2024.66] I live vicariously through you on Ghost.
|
| [2024.90 --> 2032.26] That was the route I thought I might go if I were going to set up a blog again, and I'm going to put a link to that in the show notes because I think that's worth checking out.
|
| [2032.26 --> 2035.50] Although they've changed their model a lot since I first originally found them.
|
| [2035.54 --> 2041.38] Now they seem like they're really focused on them hosting the blog, but you can still self-host and all that?
|
| [2041.78 --> 2050.02] Self-host out of a container, yeah, and I've actually got a custom theme, so I spent quite a bit of time before the Perfect Media Server 2020 edition came out,
|
| [2050.02 --> 2058.02] making sure that my blog had search and a few other different, you know, like fav icons and social media icons, all that kind of crap.
|
| [2058.02 --> 2064.52] So you can customize the theme relatively easily, and all of that stuff is open source in GitHub.
|
| [2064.80 --> 2067.60] So, you know, I have no complaints about Ghost at all.
|
| [2067.66 --> 2069.02] It just does exactly what I need.
|
| [2069.20 --> 2073.60] It looks pretty good, and you see it all over the place on the internet, really.
|
| [2073.80 --> 2077.14] So I think that's kind of, you know, proof is in the pudding.
|
| [2077.40 --> 2080.38] How many blogs do you see that are in Ghost?
|
| [2080.72 --> 2081.46] Quite a few.
|
| [2081.56 --> 2082.72] So yeah, it must be okay.
|
| [2082.72 --> 2088.10] All right, so I think our final question for today, Tamo writes in about user account management.
|
| [2088.90 --> 2091.92] Hi guys, I'm a new listener, and this show is perfect for me.
|
| [2091.98 --> 2093.18] I started at episode one.
|
| [2093.36 --> 2093.88] Well, thank you.
|
| [2094.58 --> 2099.44] I was wondering if you have done a podcast about how you manage different servers and user accounts.
|
| [2099.62 --> 2102.74] Do you have LDAP or some kind of centralized authentication?
|
| [2103.70 --> 2110.68] I'm finding creating unique user accounts for every server and saving their credentials every time to be a bit of a pain in the bum.
|
| [2110.68 --> 2113.14] I was wondering if you have any thoughts.
|
| [2113.66 --> 2116.42] Looking through the episode descriptions, I didn't find anything about this.
|
| [2116.64 --> 2117.92] Thanks, Tamo.
|
| [2118.24 --> 2120.92] Good question, because it's been on my mind a lot.
|
| [2121.58 --> 2128.86] Recently, Linux distributions like Fedora and Ubuntu added checkbox Active Directory support to their installers.
|
| [2129.66 --> 2137.60] And that got me thinking, yeah, almost wouldn't mind having like an Active Directory setup here on the LAN,
|
| [2137.60 --> 2142.56] either actual Active Directory or some Samba Frankenstein version of it.
|
| [2142.78 --> 2148.06] But truthfully, what I have landed on is standardized accounts.
|
| [2148.16 --> 2152.38] So we have a standardized Studio account, and I have an account on all the systems.
|
| [2153.06 --> 2156.76] And the people who work here at the Studio, we know those logins.
|
| [2156.76 --> 2159.68] And then for our server logins, we use SSH keys.
|
| [2160.36 --> 2169.94] But I do long term have my eye on Systemd HomeD as a potential way to solve this, at least here on the LAN at the studio.
|
| [2170.68 --> 2172.42] And I'll have a link to that in the show notes.
|
| [2172.50 --> 2179.16] But essentially, it takes your home directory and all of your user information and puts it into JSON.
|
| [2179.16 --> 2185.72] And then you can drop this home directory bundle into a Systemd HomeD enabled system.
|
| [2186.06 --> 2191.94] And not only does your home directory show up there, but you also then become a user on the system.
|
| [2192.56 --> 2195.82] That's obviously me giving you the short version.
|
| [2196.06 --> 2197.28] But it has some potential.
|
| [2197.52 --> 2202.68] So you could see here in the studio where perhaps we'd keep our master HomeD directories on the server
|
| [2202.68 --> 2208.72] and then R-sync them down to the studio machines in my workstation, I don't know, every hour, every 24 hours.
|
| [2208.80 --> 2209.16] I don't know.
|
| [2209.48 --> 2210.48] I haven't really looked into it yet.
|
| [2210.94 --> 2213.84] But if we did that, it would also sync down our user credentials.
|
| [2214.50 --> 2219.26] Early days, just something that's on my horizon, kind of keeping on my radar as a possibility
|
| [2219.26 --> 2221.42] because I don't need something too advanced.
|
| [2221.72 --> 2226.10] I've managed large LDAP single sign-on installations in the past as part of my job.
|
| [2226.10 --> 2228.90] And it worked surprisingly well for a long time.
|
| [2228.94 --> 2230.88] And I just don't really have an interest in doing that anymore.
|
| [2230.88 --> 2233.18] I mean, you could spin up LDAP.
|
| [2233.26 --> 2234.40] You could do free IPA.
|
| [2234.48 --> 2235.54] You could do a lot of things.
|
| [2235.90 --> 2236.90] You could do Active Directory.
|
| [2237.08 --> 2238.28] It sounds kind of fun.
|
| [2238.32 --> 2238.66] I don't know.
|
| [2239.36 --> 2239.76] Yeah.
|
| [2239.94 --> 2245.72] But I don't know about you, but I've got to the point over the last decade where I'm managing so many different systems.
|
| [2246.02 --> 2249.54] Some of them are in different houses or different cloud providers or stuff like that,
|
| [2249.62 --> 2256.72] that having them sync back to a central authentication would just be so complicated.
|
| [2256.72 --> 2263.14] I've kind of got, I feel like, half-decent context switching between the different servers and knowing,
|
| [2263.28 --> 2266.32] oh, right, I don't have that particular setup on this one.
|
| [2266.42 --> 2271.92] And any files I do need to sync between various things, I have my NAS, and I just mount that via Samba.
|
| [2272.82 --> 2275.44] And I don't really worry too much about the home directory.
|
| [2275.54 --> 2278.72] Anything that's in there, in my opinion at least, is ephemeral.
|
| [2279.36 --> 2282.30] It goes in Git or it goes in Samba or it gets lost.
|
| [2282.42 --> 2283.52] That's kind of how I treat it.
|
| [2283.52 --> 2284.00] Yeah.
|
| [2284.40 --> 2294.16] I think in part it's because I have, in full disclosure, I've accepted a security practice on the LAN of the studio that probably you shouldn't do,
|
| [2294.24 --> 2299.00] and that is we don't rotate passwords very often, maybe once every couple of years.
|
| [2299.18 --> 2300.00] But then again…
|
| [2300.00 --> 2300.46] It's convenient.
|
| [2300.74 --> 2301.34] I'll give you that.
|
| [2301.62 --> 2301.82] Yeah.
|
| [2301.86 --> 2305.24] And as far as physical access goes, it's a real small handful of people.
|
| [2305.70 --> 2308.92] It's not like an organization with an office of 20 here.
|
| [2308.92 --> 2318.34] And then for the servers, it's pretty much all down to SSH keys, and all remote login is usually done with that.
|
| [2318.46 --> 2322.80] Any access to the LAN is done with WireGuard, and that has its own set of keys.
|
| [2323.20 --> 2324.74] So there's some layers there.
|
| [2325.24 --> 2327.66] Every now and then, I still think it's a fair question.
|
| [2327.74 --> 2331.16] I still think to myself, I could do this a little better.
|
| [2331.16 --> 2339.02] And I do fantasize about a future where I deploy everything pragmatically, and then everything has central sign-on and central storage.
|
| [2339.72 --> 2343.04] But I think I'd have to clone myself to get there.
|
| [2344.08 --> 2345.94] But this goes back to the point at the beginning, right?
|
| [2346.02 --> 2348.56] You use Arch because you just want to get stuff done.
|
| [2348.78 --> 2354.20] And I think we don't use a central authentication system because we just want to get stuff done.
|
| [2354.20 --> 2364.50] We don't want to spend the week or two figuring it out and setting it up, and then every time we reinstall a box, attaching it to a domain controller or whatever it is.
|
| [2364.82 --> 2364.94] Right.
|
| [2365.34 --> 2368.84] I think it's just pragmatism, isn't it, that means we're lazy and don't do it.
|
| [2370.32 --> 2371.40] Maybe that's a bit of it.
|
| [2371.66 --> 2372.54] We've gotten old.
|
| [2372.74 --> 2378.12] What we need is a young SSH intern to come into the studio and whip us together and get a single sign-on going.
|
| [2378.52 --> 2379.72] Yeah, maybe, maybe.
|
| [2379.72 --> 2385.10] Thank you to our members over at selfhosted.show.sre.
|
| [2385.22 --> 2386.40] Thank you for supporting the show.
|
| [2386.58 --> 2394.36] As a thank you, we supply you a limited ad version of the show, and you also in that feed get extra content the post show.
|
| [2394.52 --> 2397.80] Thank you very much to our members at selfhosted.show.sre.
|
| [2398.28 --> 2402.86] We're going to have a little bit of a 3D printing hoedown in the post show today, I think.
|
| [2403.24 --> 2407.00] Yeah, I look forward to that, and I also have a bit of a confession to make.
|
| [2407.00 --> 2409.20] Just a little bit of business before we go.
|
| [2409.20 --> 2412.04] Everything we talk about is over at selfhosted.show.
|
| [2412.18 --> 2416.28] As always, you can go to selfhosted.show.com for all the ways to get in touch with us.
|
| [2416.72 --> 2418.84] And you can find me on Twitter at Ironic Badger.
|
| [2419.04 --> 2423.50] I'm there too, at Chris Elias, and the show at selfhosted.show.
|
| [2423.84 --> 2426.18] On Discord, I'm at AlexKTZ.
|
| [2426.72 --> 2427.46] Thanks for listening.
|
| [2427.74 --> 2429.10] That was selfhosted.show.com.
|
| [2429.10 --> 2430.02] Slash 39.
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| [2430.02 --> 2430.10] Slash 39.
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