Pallas and SSL Update

Posted on February 6, 2011 by independence

I’m going to remove the Pallas SSH server since it’s not used very much, only a couple of users are logging in. I guess this means people are not bothered very much by any delays to Sweden. It was nice as a backup service when Triton was down, but it’s a bit to expensive for just that.

Instead, I’m going to spend some money on a “real” SSL certificate. The new certificate for HTTPS etc should be accepted by default in all major desktop browsers. You can browse this blog, the wiki, the webmail and phpmyadmin with the new SSL certificate.

Update 2011-02-11: Pallas is now offline!

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Snapshots and Wiki updates

Posted on January 16, 2011 by independence

I’ve enabled a feature of ZFS called snapshots for all supporter accounts. This allows for you to recover deleted or changed files from the last 7 days. More details on the Wiki.

I’ve also updated many other pages on the wiki to reflect some changes and to clearify. There is also a new howto on Process Management in a Linux shell, with some details about memory management on Blinkenshell.

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Keeping up to date

Posted on January 5, 2011 by independence

I have set up synchronizations from this blog to Twitter and Facebook, so people who are not using RSS will have an easier time keeping up to date with news regarding Blinkenshell. I also print the latest blog entry in the login message when you log in to the shell.

Blinkenshell on Twitter

Blinkenshell on Facebook pages

I also want to thank everyone who responded to the survey. I’m going to close the survery now, but if you have any more feedback or suggestions feel free to PM or email me!

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Downtime

Posted on December 30, 2010 by independence

We’re currently experiencing some downtime on the main SSH server Triton. Seems to be a software bug related to NFS. I’ll update some software, so it will be a couple of minutes until we’re back up again.

Update1: Triton is now back online with a new kernel and some updated software.

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Survey

Posted on December 29, 2010 by independence

Please take a moment to fill out this survey about Blinkenshell (closed), to help make this an even better shell provider! You will get 100MB extra quota if you PM me a code at the end of the survey before the end of 2010, or you can skip that step if you want to stay anonymous.

You can also help new users find their way to Blinkenshell by writing a review or rate Blinkenshell at shells.red-pill.eu

Happy holidays!

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US SSH Server (beta)

Posted on December 5, 2010 by independence

There is now another SSH server connected to Blinkenshell, using the same account/password database: pallas.blinkenshell.org. The new server is located in California, USA. The idea is that users in the America/Australia will have lower latency to the server which should make SSH more responsive. It could also be used to offload the main server, and provide some backup-service if the main server is offline.

You can start using the new server right away if you want, but it’s still not fully tested. There might be some unexpected reboots or other changes. If you’re interested you’re very welcome to try it out and send me some feedback!

You can decide what server is closest to you (network-wise) by pinging triton.blinkenshell.org and pallas.blinkenshell.org, the one with lower latency is the closest to you.

You can use the same username and password as the main SSH server, and you connect to port 2222 as usual. Because of the latency between the new server in the US and the server that hosts your home directory, you have a local home on Pallas. You can also access your normal (networked) home directory via: ~/nethome. If you want to have your current irssi settings on the new server, you can copy the settings from nethome or create a symlink to nethome: ln -s nethome/.irssi .irssi

I hope some of you find this new server useful! If it turns out that very few people are using this server I’m probably going to remove it again, but now we know it’s possible atleast 🙂

Blinkenshell SSH Servers

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Server reboot

Posted on October 16, 2010 by independence

The server rebooted this morning at 09.30 CET. It was just a stupid mistake by me, nothing wrong with the server 🙂 Everything should be back up and running since 10.30 or so.

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Maintenance done

Posted on October 2, 2010 by independence

The server maintenance is now done. It was delayed a bit, and also took a bit longer to complete than I expected. But Triton is up since about 15.00 CET. Mail and web was up about half an hour earlier.

I’ve upgraded some software on the server, mostly system programs and the kernel. Some user programs like weechat (now at version 0.3.3) has also been upgraded. Bitlbee is also upgraded and should now have support for twitter.

I’ve also introduced a new limit on memory usage for each user based on the new cgroup feature in Linux. A user can not use more than 32MB RSS memory for all processes. Memory can still be shared, so if you’re just using some standard programs you probably won’t use very much RSS memory. This should make the resource sharing a bit more fair, since a single user can not use up all memory. Compiling programs etc might become an issue though, but there are things you can do about that. You can show your current memory usage with the command: showmem

Please contact me if you’re still experiencing problems.

Posted in downtime, software | 1 Comment

Server maintenance October 2

Posted on September 27, 2010 by independence

I’m planning to take the server down for maintenance October 2, at around 12.00 13.00 CET.

Edit: Maintenance done!

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