2.5 Admins

The Late Night Linux Family

2.5 Admins is a podcast featuring two sysadmins called Allan Jude and Jim Salter, and a producer/editor who can just about configure a Samba share called Joe Ressington. Every week we get together, talk about recent tech news, and answer some of your admin-related questions.

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30 episodes
weekly
Avg 27 min
English

Episodes 30

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Thursday · 28 min
2.5 Admins 321: Backup Strategy
Why batteries in homes could benefit everyone involved, why we didn’t bring up wake-on-LAN when someone asked about keeping a NAS powered on as little as possible, building a router vs buying one, and ways to manage ssh connections. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Biggest ZFS Misconfigurations and How to Fix Them: Part 1 News/discussion How I kept cool with NYC’s free battery program for window AC units See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
October 8 · 29 min
2.5 Admins 320: Dining on Goose
Google offers a few pennies to web publishers to make up for stealing their content and not sending them any traffic, the tech we’d try to use after the apocalypse, why Jim doesn’t virtualise his clients’ desktops, and setting up Volume Shadow Copy so your users can restore their own files. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes FreeBSD: The Hidden Cost of Upgrading in Production News/discussion Google’s early attempt to pay websites for AI answers is struggling See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
October 1 · 30 min
2.5 Admins 319: Funding Open Source
The challenges of funding open source software projects, how Netflix uses FreeBSD in a positive way, why you shouldn’t try to complicate your monitoring, and running servers in a small residence. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Why Is Everyone Stuck on FreeBSD 13? Discussion Netflix Case Study See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
September 24 · 31 min
2.5 Admins 318: End of Exchange
Microsoft really wants you to update your Exchange server, our thoughts on immutable distros, more on Jim’s approach to internet access for his kids, restricting access to servers on a corporate network, and cloning and backing up operating systems with ZFS. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes OpenZFS User and Developer Summit 2026: October 27-30 News Microsoft to bounce mail from outdated Exchange servers See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
September 17 · 26 min
2.5 Admins 317: Need Less
Some of the ways you can mitigate the ridiculous hardware prices, and designing a small business LAN. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes FreeBSD’s Release Cycle: What It Means for Your Upgrade Schedule Free consulting We were asked about designing a small business LAN. See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
September 10 · 27 min
2.5 Admins 316: BGP Clipboard Hijack
A BGP hijack involved some basic errors, Microsoft teaches people to ignore warnings in Windows, Zoom appears to be reading the clipboard on X11, why a non-US open certificate authority is feasible in theory, and keeping a NAS powered on as little as possible. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with some early episodes Send us an email News/discussion BGP hijack infecting networks caused by a comedy of errors that’s not funny at all Windows bug incorrectly tells users that Microsoft Defender Antivirus is turned off I noticed today that an update to the #Linux #Zoom client has made it start proactively reading _everything_ written to the X11 clipboard Free consulting We were asked about keeping a NAS powered on as little as possible. See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
September 3 · 27 min
2.5 Admins 315: Hot Bus Adapter
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 Peer-reviewed study of 443,000 Backblaze hard drives ranks HGST most reliable and Toshiba the least — Analysis of 1.66 million drive-years finds Seagate and Toshiba HDDs fail at roughly twice the rate of WD and HGST 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.
August 27 · 28 min
2.5 Admins 314: 50 PBS TBS
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.
August 20 · 27 min
2.5 Admins 313: Cooking with NVMe
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.
August 13 · 26 min
2.5 Admins 312: Bus Factor
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 Piss up at The Shipwrights Arms (just next to London Bridge station) on Saturday 5th September from 5pm until late 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.
August 6 · 28 min
2.5 Admins 311: Couch Cushions
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. Teleport Community Apache Guacamole® Linux After Dark – Episode 120 See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
July 30 · 29 min
2.5 Admins 310: GPLFreeBSD
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 Ports Repository Freeze Free consulting We were asked about backing up to an encrypted NAS without ZFS. See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
July 23 · 24 min
2.5 Admins 309: Orbital Sauron
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 Feels like all of us need to pay way more attention to the new rules affecting EU and US folk, requiring all new cars to include a driver monitoring camera aimed at your face 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.
July 16 · 27 min
2.5 Admins 308: Sloppy Shims
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 IncusOS Incus Free consulting We were asked about configuring ZFS for a Lightning Memory Mapped Database. See our contact page for ways to get in touch.
July 9 · 26 min
2.5 Admins 307: One Big Pool
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 Native inotify in FreeBSD 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.
July 2 · 28 min
2.5 Admins 306: WiFi Cable
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 XigmaNAS 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.
June 25 · 7 min
2.5 Admins 305: Short Two
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.
June 18 · 30 min
2.5 Admins 304: Wiring a House
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 Landmark German ruling declares Google’s AI Overviews are Google’s own words and makes it liable for false answers 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.
June 11 · 29 min
2.5 Admins 303: Denial of Secrets
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 Coreutils for Windows 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.
June 4 · 32 min
2.5 Admins 302: ClawPilot
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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