Data storage finally outgrew the 1Gb network’s capacity to effectively back it up in a timely manner. Then Solarwinds effectively demonstrated how vulnerable users of commercial software are. The nefarious n’er-do-well cyber vector is officially un-constrained. Remote users may not appreciate it, but the site is now hosted on a beefy 2nd gen Ryzen with plenty of RAM, running nothing but open-source software. Moving things off the old Synology NAS was a week-long project fraught with bumps in the sysadmin road and learning updates aplenty.
The video-monitor project mentioned in the last post yesterday was a 3-day debacle, due mostly to my own rusty admin skills. There were import issues with the WordPress site, so look for missing images and broken links until I go back and fix everything. I’ve yet to have a WordPress site of any size import correctly.
The Synology stuff is great kit, but aimed more at corporate customers with deep pockets on the high end, with minimal performance and capability on the low end. My DS418play is a great little mid-tier 4-pocket raid machine that served well for several years, performing all the typical LAMP duties associated with a web site like this. But it’s mine in name alone, with no OS/application control. Can’t trust it anymore, and it contains spinning disks. Pretty sure I never trusted the DSL router either, but at least it’s a throwaway item.
Planned new topology will be a 10Gb edge behind a proper stateful firewall. Activating a 2nd interface on this machine will be the day it moves into pure server status and I start building a new workstation. That last portion of the project awaits funding.
The 5712 Trumpomania silver lining: Build Back Better!
Late Update 8 Jan: Turns out every local WordPress link is off by the same .php value and there’s ALOT of missing carriage returns. I’ve been displeased with the direction WordPress is heading – this just confirms my fears. I believe this is actually the first time I’ve run the latest version. Synology is always versions behind and even runs an ancient kernel. I’m sure i’ts been securely Synolygized, but…
I have a feeling alot more software licences are going to soon be re-written, or alot less COTS is gonna be found in the networks. Can’t trust ’em.