web01.fireside.fm Fri, 17 Apr 2026 01:22:27 -0500 Fireside (https://fireside.fm) TechSNAP - Episodes Tagged with “Snapshots” https://techsnap.systems/tags/snapshots Fri, 20 Mar 2020 00:15:00 -0700 Systems, Network, and Administration Podcast. Every two weeks TechSNAP covers the stories that impact those of us in the tech industry, and all of us that follow it. Every episode we dedicate a portion of the show to answer audience questions, discuss best practices, and solving your problems. en-us episodic Systems, Network, and Administration Podcast. Jupiter Broadcasting Systems, Network, and Administration Podcast. Every two weeks TechSNAP covers the stories that impact those of us in the tech industry, and all of us that follow it. Every episode we dedicate a portion of the show to answer audience questions, discuss best practices, and solving your problems. no Jupiter Broadcasting chris@jupiterbroadcasting.com 425: Ryzen Gets Real https://techsnap.systems/425 fc127e6a-cc96-408c-ae38-8049074a8f34 Fri, 20 Mar 2020 00:15:00 -0700 Jupiter Broadcasting full Jupiter Broadcasting We take a look at AMD's upcoming line of Ryzen 4000 mobile CPUs, and share our first impressions of Ubuntu 20.04's approach to ZFS on root. 32:53 no We take a look at AMD's upcoming line of Ryzen 4000 mobile CPUs, and share our first impressions of Ubuntu 20.04's approach to ZFS on root. Plus Let's Encrypt's certificate validation mix-up, Intel's questionable new power supply design, and more. Let's Encrypt, Boulder, Go, HTTPS, TLS, CAA, DNS, ACME, automation, Intel, AMD, Ryzen, Ryzen 4000, laptop, mobile processors, CPU, GPU, computer hardware, gaming, integrated graphics, graphics, battery life, Lenovo, Ryzen Mobile, ATX12VO, power supply, PSU, motherboard, electronics, iXsystems, TrueNAS, FreeNAS, TrueNAS Core, ZFS, fusion pools, storage, zsys, 20.04, Ubuntu, Canonical, snapshots, APT, sanoid, DevOps, TechSNAP, Jupiter Broadcasting, A Cloud Guru, Linux Academy, sysadmin podcast, We take a look at AMD's upcoming line of Ryzen 4000 mobile CPUs, and share our first impressions of Ubuntu 20.04's approach to ZFS on root.

Plus Let's Encrypt's certificate validation mix-up, Intel's questionable new power supply design, and more.

Links:

]]> We take a look at AMD's upcoming line of Ryzen 4000 mobile CPUs, and share our first impressions of Ubuntu 20.04's approach to ZFS on root.

Plus Let's Encrypt's certificate validation mix-up, Intel's questionable new power supply design, and more.

Links:

]]> 414: Rooting for ZFS https://techsnap.systems/414 890ebb60-fe73-476d-bd48-1bcb93c016ba Fri, 18 Oct 2019 04:15:00 -0700 Jupiter Broadcasting full Jupiter Broadcasting We dive into Ubuntu 19.10's experimental ZFS installer and share our tips for making the most of ZFS on root.  42:27 no We dive into Ubuntu 19.10's experimental ZFS installer and share our tips for making the most of ZFS on root.  Plus why you may want to skip Nest Wifi, and our latest explorations of long range wireless protocols. LoRa, LoRaWAN, Sigfox, amazon sidewalk, wifi, 2g, RF Chirp, spread spectrum, low bandwidth, SureFi, wireless, wireless networking, google wifi, nest wifi, mesh wifi, unifi, tp-link, zfs, copy on write, btrfs, boot environments, freebsd, zsys, Canonical, ubuntu, 19.10,5.3, snapshots, backups, data integrity, eoan, DevOps, TechSNAP, Jupiter Broadcasting We dive into Ubuntu 19.10's experimental ZFS installer and share our tips for making the most of ZFS on root. 

Plus why you may want to skip Nest Wifi, and our latest explorations of long range wireless protocols.

Links:

  • Decoding LoRa: Realizing a Modern LPWAN with SDR — LoRa is an emerging Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN), a type of wireless communication technology suitable for connecting low power embedded devices over long ranges. This paper details the modulation and encoding elements that comprise the LoRa PHY, the structure of which is the result of the author’s recent blind analysis of the protocol. It also introduces grlora, an open source software defined implementation of the PHY that will empower wireless developers and security researchers to investigate this nascent protocol.
  • Nest Wifi announced at Made by Google 2019 | Ars Technica — Google says that a two-piece Nest Wifi kit—one Nest Router and one Nest Point—should cover up to 3,800 square feet and 85% of homes. This claim, like most arbitrary claims of Wi-Fi coverage with no real detail, should be taken with several grains of salt.
  • TP-LINK EAP series Business Wi-Fi Solution — The EAP Series Business Wi-Fi Solution incorporates EAP Series hardware, which provides a smooth, reliable wireless internet experience, and a powerful centralized management platform.
  • Bloody Stupid Johnson | Discworld Wiki — Although evidently able in certain fields, Johnson is notorious for his complete inability to produce anything according to specification or common sense, or (sometimes) even the laws of physics.
  • A Quick Look At EXT4 vs. ZFS Performance On Ubuntu 19.10 With An NVMe SSD — For those thinking of playing with Ubuntu 19.10's new experimental ZFS desktop install option in opting for using ZFS On Linux in place of EXT4 as the root file-system, here are some quick benchmarks looking at the out-of-the-box performance of ZFS/ZoL vs. EXT4 on Ubuntu 19.10 using a common NVMe solid-state drive.
  • ubuntu/zsys: zsys daemon and client for zfs systems — It allows running multiple ZFS systems in parallel on the same machine, get automated snapshots, managing complex zfs dataset layouts separating user data from system and persistent data, and more.
  • Ubuntu ZFS support in 19.10: ZFS on root · ~DidRocks — We are shipping ZFS On Linux version 0.8.1, with features like native encryption, trimming support, checkpoints, raw encrypted zfs transmissions, project accounting and quota and a lot of performance enhancements.
  • Ubuntu ZFS support in 19.10: introduction · ~DidRocks — We want to support ZFS on root as an experimental installer option, initially for desktop, but keeping the layout extensible for server later on.
  • A detailed look at Ubuntu’s new experimental ZFS installer | Ars Technica — If you're new to the ZFS hype train, you might wonder why a new filesystem option in an OS installer is a big deal. So here's a quick explanation: ZFS is a copy-on-write filesystem, which can take atomic snapshots of entire filesystems.
]]> We dive into Ubuntu 19.10's experimental ZFS installer and share our tips for making the most of ZFS on root. 

Plus why you may want to skip Nest Wifi, and our latest explorations of long range wireless protocols.

Links:

  • Decoding LoRa: Realizing a Modern LPWAN with SDR — LoRa is an emerging Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN), a type of wireless communication technology suitable for connecting low power embedded devices over long ranges. This paper details the modulation and encoding elements that comprise the LoRa PHY, the structure of which is the result of the author’s recent blind analysis of the protocol. It also introduces grlora, an open source software defined implementation of the PHY that will empower wireless developers and security researchers to investigate this nascent protocol.
  • Nest Wifi announced at Made by Google 2019 | Ars Technica — Google says that a two-piece Nest Wifi kit—one Nest Router and one Nest Point—should cover up to 3,800 square feet and 85% of homes. This claim, like most arbitrary claims of Wi-Fi coverage with no real detail, should be taken with several grains of salt.
  • TP-LINK EAP series Business Wi-Fi Solution — The EAP Series Business Wi-Fi Solution incorporates EAP Series hardware, which provides a smooth, reliable wireless internet experience, and a powerful centralized management platform.
  • Bloody Stupid Johnson | Discworld Wiki — Although evidently able in certain fields, Johnson is notorious for his complete inability to produce anything according to specification or common sense, or (sometimes) even the laws of physics.
  • A Quick Look At EXT4 vs. ZFS Performance On Ubuntu 19.10 With An NVMe SSD — For those thinking of playing with Ubuntu 19.10's new experimental ZFS desktop install option in opting for using ZFS On Linux in place of EXT4 as the root file-system, here are some quick benchmarks looking at the out-of-the-box performance of ZFS/ZoL vs. EXT4 on Ubuntu 19.10 using a common NVMe solid-state drive.
  • ubuntu/zsys: zsys daemon and client for zfs systems — It allows running multiple ZFS systems in parallel on the same machine, get automated snapshots, managing complex zfs dataset layouts separating user data from system and persistent data, and more.
  • Ubuntu ZFS support in 19.10: ZFS on root · ~DidRocks — We are shipping ZFS On Linux version 0.8.1, with features like native encryption, trimming support, checkpoints, raw encrypted zfs transmissions, project accounting and quota and a lot of performance enhancements.
  • Ubuntu ZFS support in 19.10: introduction · ~DidRocks — We want to support ZFS on root as an experimental installer option, initially for desktop, but keeping the layout extensible for server later on.
  • A detailed look at Ubuntu’s new experimental ZFS installer | Ars Technica — If you're new to the ZFS hype train, you might wonder why a new filesystem option in an OS installer is a big deal. So here's a quick explanation: ZFS is a copy-on-write filesystem, which can take atomic snapshots of entire filesystems.
]]> 408: Apollo's ARC https://techsnap.systems/408 2577b50c-e740-46c8-a75b-14f074cb812a Fri, 26 Jul 2019 00:15:00 -0700 Jupiter Broadcasting full Jupiter Broadcasting We take a look at the amazing abilities of the Apollo Guidance Computer and Jim breaks down everything you need to know about the ZFS ARC. 35:13 no We take a look at the amazing abilities of the Apollo Guidance Computer and Jim breaks down everything you need to know about the ZFS ARC. Plus an update on ZoL SIMD acceleration, your feedback, and an interesting new neuromorphic system from Intel. virtualization, openzfs, zfs, kvm, qemu, vhd, qcow, qcow2, ARC, memory, page cache, caching, ZFS on Linux, ZoL, SIMD, floating point, fpu, apollo, apollo anniversary, nasa, retro computing, magnetic core, core rope, AGC, apollo guidance computer, intel, dancing demon, kernel module, loihi, neuromorphic computing, text adventure, punch cards, Margaret Hamilton, neural networks, machine learning, ai, pohoiki, snapshots, sysadmin, trs-80, cloud, Chris Siebenmann, DevOps, TechSNAP We take a look at the amazing abilities of the Apollo Guidance Computer and Jim breaks down everything you need to know about the ZFS ARC.

Plus an update on ZoL SIMD acceleration, your feedback, and an interesting new neuromorphic system from Intel.

Links:

  • ZFS On Linux Has Figured Out A Way To Restore SIMD Support On Linux 5.0+ — Those running ZFS On Linux (ZoL) on post-5.0 (and pre-5.0 supported LTS releases) have seen big performance hits to the ZFS encryption performance in particular. That came due to upstream breaking an interface used by ZFS On Linux and admittedly not caring about ZoL due to it being an out-of-tree user. But now several kernel releases later, a workaround has been devised.
  • ZFS On Linux Runs Into A Snag With Linux 5.0
  • NixOS Takes Action After 1.2GB/s ZFS Encryption Speed Drops To 200MB/s With Linux 5.0+ — A NixOS developer reports that the functions no longer exported by Linux 5.0+ and previously used by ZoL for AVX/AES-NI support end up dropping the ZFS data-set encryption performance to 200MB/s where as pre-5.0 kernels ran around 1.2GB/s
  • Linux 5.0 compat: SIMD compatibility · zfsonlinux/zfs@e5db313 — Restore the SIMD optimization for 4.19.38 LTS, 4.14.120 LTS, and 5.0 and newer kernels. This is accomplished by leveraging the fact that by definition dedicated kernel threads never need to concern themselves with saving and restoring the user FPU state. Therefore, they may use the FPU as long as we can guarantee user tasks always restore their FPU state before context switching back to user space.
  • no SIMD acceleration · Issue #8793 · zfsonlinux/zfs — 4.14.x, 4.19.x, 5.x all have no SIMD acceleration, it is like a turtle. very slow.
  • Chris's Wiki :: ZFS on Linux still has annoying issues with ARC size — One of the frustrating things about operating ZFS on Linux is that the ARC size is critical but ZFS's auto-tuning of it is opaque and apparently prone to malfunctions, where your ARC will mysteriously shrink drastically and then stick there.
  • Software woven into wire, Core rope and the Apollo Guidance Computer — One of the first computers to use integrated circuits, the Apollo Guidance Computer was lightweight enough and small enough to fly in space. An unusual feature that contributed to its small size was core rope memory, a technique of physically weaving software into high-density storage.
  • Virtual Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) software — Since you are looking at this README file, you are in the "master" branch of the repository, which contains source-code transcriptions of the original Project Apollo software for the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) and Abort Guidance System (AGS), as well as our software for emulating the AGC, AGS, and some of their peripheral devices (such as the display-keyboard unit, or DSKY).
  • The Underappreciated Power of the Apollo Computer - The Atlantic — Without the computers on board the Apollo spacecraft, there would have been no moon landing, no triumphant first step, no high-water mark for human space travel. A pilot could never have navigated the way to the moon, as if a spaceship were simply a more powerful airplane. The calculations required to make in-flight adjustments and the complexity of the thrust controls outstripped human capacities.
  • Brains scale better than CPUs. So Intel is building brains | Ars Technica — Neuromorphic engineering—building machines that mimic the function of organic brains in hardware as well as software—is becoming more and more prominent. The field has progressed rapidly, from conceptual beginnings in the late 1980s to experimental field programmable neural arrays in 2006, early memristor-powered device proposals in 2012, IBM's TrueNorth NPU in 2014, and Intel's Loihi neuromorphic processor in 2017. Yesterday, Intel broke a little more new ground with the debut of a larger-scale neuromorphic system, Pohoiki Beach, which integrates 64 of its Loihi chips.
  • Dancing Demon - YouTube — Written in 1979 by Leo Christopherson for the Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I computer. This is the best game ever for at that time.
]]> We take a look at the amazing abilities of the Apollo Guidance Computer and Jim breaks down everything you need to know about the ZFS ARC.

Plus an update on ZoL SIMD acceleration, your feedback, and an interesting new neuromorphic system from Intel.

Links:

  • ZFS On Linux Has Figured Out A Way To Restore SIMD Support On Linux 5.0+ — Those running ZFS On Linux (ZoL) on post-5.0 (and pre-5.0 supported LTS releases) have seen big performance hits to the ZFS encryption performance in particular. That came due to upstream breaking an interface used by ZFS On Linux and admittedly not caring about ZoL due to it being an out-of-tree user. But now several kernel releases later, a workaround has been devised.
  • ZFS On Linux Runs Into A Snag With Linux 5.0
  • NixOS Takes Action After 1.2GB/s ZFS Encryption Speed Drops To 200MB/s With Linux 5.0+ — A NixOS developer reports that the functions no longer exported by Linux 5.0+ and previously used by ZoL for AVX/AES-NI support end up dropping the ZFS data-set encryption performance to 200MB/s where as pre-5.0 kernels ran around 1.2GB/s
  • Linux 5.0 compat: SIMD compatibility · zfsonlinux/zfs@e5db313 — Restore the SIMD optimization for 4.19.38 LTS, 4.14.120 LTS, and 5.0 and newer kernels. This is accomplished by leveraging the fact that by definition dedicated kernel threads never need to concern themselves with saving and restoring the user FPU state. Therefore, they may use the FPU as long as we can guarantee user tasks always restore their FPU state before context switching back to user space.
  • no SIMD acceleration · Issue #8793 · zfsonlinux/zfs — 4.14.x, 4.19.x, 5.x all have no SIMD acceleration, it is like a turtle. very slow.
  • Chris's Wiki :: ZFS on Linux still has annoying issues with ARC size — One of the frustrating things about operating ZFS on Linux is that the ARC size is critical but ZFS's auto-tuning of it is opaque and apparently prone to malfunctions, where your ARC will mysteriously shrink drastically and then stick there.
  • Software woven into wire, Core rope and the Apollo Guidance Computer — One of the first computers to use integrated circuits, the Apollo Guidance Computer was lightweight enough and small enough to fly in space. An unusual feature that contributed to its small size was core rope memory, a technique of physically weaving software into high-density storage.
  • Virtual Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) software — Since you are looking at this README file, you are in the "master" branch of the repository, which contains source-code transcriptions of the original Project Apollo software for the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) and Abort Guidance System (AGS), as well as our software for emulating the AGC, AGS, and some of their peripheral devices (such as the display-keyboard unit, or DSKY).
  • The Underappreciated Power of the Apollo Computer - The Atlantic — Without the computers on board the Apollo spacecraft, there would have been no moon landing, no triumphant first step, no high-water mark for human space travel. A pilot could never have navigated the way to the moon, as if a spaceship were simply a more powerful airplane. The calculations required to make in-flight adjustments and the complexity of the thrust controls outstripped human capacities.
  • Brains scale better than CPUs. So Intel is building brains | Ars Technica — Neuromorphic engineering—building machines that mimic the function of organic brains in hardware as well as software—is becoming more and more prominent. The field has progressed rapidly, from conceptual beginnings in the late 1980s to experimental field programmable neural arrays in 2006, early memristor-powered device proposals in 2012, IBM's TrueNorth NPU in 2014, and Intel's Loihi neuromorphic processor in 2017. Yesterday, Intel broke a little more new ground with the debut of a larger-scale neuromorphic system, Pohoiki Beach, which integrates 64 of its Loihi chips.
  • Dancing Demon - YouTube — Written in 1979 by Leo Christopherson for the Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I computer. This is the best game ever for at that time.
]]> 402: Snapshot Sanity https://techsnap.systems/402 fbd74a16-dc81-4558-b87a-ff25a23a3669 Thu, 25 Apr 2019 16:45:00 -0700 Jupiter Broadcasting full Jupiter Broadcasting We continue our take on ZFS as Jim and Wes dive in to snapshots, replication, and the magic on copy on write. 31:33 no We continue our take on ZFS as Jim and Wes dive in to snapshots, replication, and the magic on copy on write. Plus some handy tools to manage your snapshots, rsync war stories, and more! zfs, openzfs, zfs on linux, ZoL, snapshots, replication, sanoid, syncoid, policy based, snapshot management, copy on write, functional filesystem, toml, linked list, data integrity, crash consistent, atomic, atomic snapshot, rsync, cron, filesystems, warstories, SysAdmin podcast, DevOps, TechSNAP We continue our take on ZFS as Jim and Wes dive in to snapshots, replication, and the magic on copy on write.

Plus some handy tools to manage your snapshots, rsync war stories, and more!

Links:

]]> We continue our take on ZFS as Jim and Wes dive in to snapshots, replication, and the magic on copy on write.

Plus some handy tools to manage your snapshots, rsync war stories, and more!

Links:

]]> 401: Everyday ZFS https://techsnap.systems/401 ea1f89db-e748-47fd-b288-833a330704ce Thu, 11 Apr 2019 22:15:00 -0700 Jupiter Broadcasting full Jupiter Broadcasting Jim and Wes sit down to bust some ZFS myths and share their tips and tricks for getting the most out of the ultimate filesystem. 47:35 no Jim and Wes sit down to bust some ZFS myths and share their tips and tricks for getting the most out of the ultimate filesystem. Plus when not to use ZFS, the surprising way your disks are lying to you, and more! zfs, vdez, filesystems, sun microsystems, backups, snapshots, copy on write, throughput, iops, linux, GPL, CDDL, ZFS on Linux, ZoL, ashift, SSD, techSNAP, sysadmin podcast, DevOps, data integrity, checksum, ECC, hard drives, hard disks, FreeBSD, OpenZF S, Solaris, RAID, raidz, zfs on root, ubuntu, copyleft Jim and Wes sit down to bust some ZFS myths and share their tips and tricks for getting the most out of the ultimate filesystem.

Plus when not to use ZFS, the surprising way your disks are lying to you, and more!

Links:

  • ZFS - Ubuntu Wiki — ZFS is a combined file system and logical volume manager designed and implemented by a team at Sun Microsystems led by Jeff Bonwick and Matthew Ahrens.
  • Performance tuning - OpenZFS — Make sure that you create your pools such that the vdevs have the correct alignment shift for your storage device's size. if dealing with flash media, this is going to be either 12 (4K sectors) or 13 (8K sectors).
]]> Jim and Wes sit down to bust some ZFS myths and share their tips and tricks for getting the most out of the ultimate filesystem.

Plus when not to use ZFS, the surprising way your disks are lying to you, and more!

Links:

  • ZFS - Ubuntu Wiki — ZFS is a combined file system and logical volume manager designed and implemented by a team at Sun Microsystems led by Jeff Bonwick and Matthew Ahrens.
  • Performance tuning - OpenZFS — Make sure that you create your pools such that the vdevs have the correct alignment shift for your storage device's size. if dealing with flash media, this is going to be either 12 (4K sectors) or 13 (8K sectors).
]]>