If you are in charge of any site with SSL/TLS conenctions enabled you are always in the chase to get the best possible and most secure configuration. This isn’t always the case and the lack of time does take its toll on many administrators. Those individuals are always asked to do more with less and […]
How to test SSL/TLS configurations
How to install Matomo 4 on FreeBSD
Why would anyone need to install Matomo 4 on FreeBSD? Because you’re the admin of a website, or a few of them, and you want/need to count the visitors, how long do the stay looking at the content and some other fancy stuff. This is what Matomo does. But it also does this without you […]
How to install the ELK stack on CentOS 8
The ELK stack stands for Elasticsearch, Logstash and Kibana. These three pieces of software are very useful since each brings a powerful capability that in combination is just great to use. Elasticsearch is a search and analytics engine. Logstash can process data from multiple sources. Kibana allows to visualize data in a graphic manner. These […]
Live monitoring with Netdata
Netdata is a real time monitoring software that allows administrators, developers and architects have a visual representation of a system’s performance live. In short, porn for system’s tuners and other masochists but also a great tool to check system’s behaviour under load giving all members of a team to look at their part while the […]
Linus on ZFS
Disclaimer: What you are about to read may contain inaccuracies. Feel free to discuss them somewhere else. This is also my opinion and as such it may change through time, maybe tomorrow, next month, next year, next decade or never. I do also make very few reviews (if any) of what I write here so […]
How to install Drupal 9 on FreeBSD 13.0
Drupal 7 is approaching its original EOL (End of Life) date (Nov. 2021) which has been extended to November 2022 due to COVID’s impact. Most companies are using Linux already and have their upgrade plans in the works or are thinking about them. This is a good time to switch platform and use Drupal 9 […]
How to secure the ELK stack on CentOS 8
This is a follow up of the ‘how to install the ELK stack on CentOS 8’. That is a basic setup with no security at all. There is no encryption, no username and password setup, nothing. Not even firewall rules to filter ports. And as it’s known security can’t only rely on one factor but […]
SSH keys
SSH or how to remotely control a UNIX system in a secure manner. The SSH keys is a secure method to interact with a UNIX system remotely. They are also used to transfer data between different systems. Using clever cryptography anyone can use them. As their name state it is a pair of keys, one […]
Abandon Linux. Move to FreeBSD or Illumos.
If you use GNU/Linux and you are only on opensource, you may be doing it wrong. Here’s why. Is your company based on opensource based software only? Do you have a bunch of developers hitting some kind of server you have installed for them to “do their thing”? Being it for economical reasons (remember to […]
How to detect a WAF – Web Application Firewall
From a penetration testing perspective to identify if a Web Application Firewall (WAF) is in place is essential. The next question is, does an administrator need to know this? My view is, anyone who is in charge of any system that has implemented some sort of WAF needs to verify this tool is working, at […]