This is part of my weekend fun. Coffee stains included.
The two Raspberry Pis are powered by NetBSD, the mini PC by illumos/SmartOS, and the two APU boards by FreeBSD.

#NetBSD #FreeBSD #illumos #SmartOS #IT #SysAdmin #HomeLab #RaspberryPI

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A top-down shot of a small computer setup on a tan surface with some visible coffee stains. In the upper left, a silver mini-PC is partially visible, with a black USB stick plugged into its side. Below the mini-PC, a black USB to TTL serial adapter is connected to and powering a Raspberry Pi A+. The Raspberry Pi Zero W is connected to and driving a 2-relay module. The Raspberry Pis are running NetBSD, the mini-PC is running llumos/SmartOS, and the two, slightly visible APU devices are running FreeBSD.

#Homelab 2022 Part 2 - #Samba on #SmartOS #Illumos using delegated datasets : https://thetooth.name/blog/homelab-2022-part-2-samba-on-smartos-using-delegated-datasets/

The #eurobhyvecom will be streamed here https://youtube.com/live/623VvrCDf7o

#EuroBSDCon #bhyve #FreeBSD #illumos #OmniOS #SmartOS #OpenIndiana #Tribblix

Preparing to join the #EurobhyeCon by @dexter
Zagreb is beautiful, but bhyve is bhyve and can't miss it.
For those who are interested, the event will be streamed

#EuroBSDCon #EuroBSDCon2025 #FreeBSD #illumos #OmniOS #SmartOS #OpenIndiana #Tribblix

I am not well versed in #SmartOS so can somebody explain what is the difference between the Triton Datacenter and Triton SmartOS?

I have installed the latest SmartOS listed here: https://us-central.manta.mnx.io/Joyent_Dev/public/SmartOS/smartos.html#20250918T000550Z but the latest Datacenter relase is 20250918T031847Z. Hmm....

The #illumosCafe VM has been updated to #SmartOS 20250918T000550Z

#illumosCafeUpdates #illumosCafeServices

Erarlier than expected...

FreeBSD vs. SmartOS: Who's Faster for Jails, Zones, and bhyve VMs?

https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/09/19/freebsd-vs-smartos-whos-faster-for-jails-zones-bhyve/

#FreeBSD #illumos #SmartOS #bhyve #kvm #Virtualization #IT #SysAdmin #jails #zones

FreeBSD vs. SmartOS: Who's Faster for Jails, Zones, and bhyve VMs?

https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/09/19/freebsd-vs-smartos-whos-faster-for-jails-zones-bhyve/

#FreeBSD #illumos #SmartOS #bhyve #kvm #Virtualization #IT #SysAdmin #jails #zones

Setting up a NetBSD 11.0_BETA VM for some testing, and nice to see I no longer have to disable xhci to get it to boot.

#netbsd #smartos #bhyve

The #illumosCafe #SmartOS has been upgraded to joyent_20250904T002931Z

#illumosCafeUpdates #illumosCafeAnnouncements

One of my plans for the next few weeks is to take a nice "dip" back into #OpenIndiana, which I haven't tried in a while. I currently have installations of both #SmartOS and #OmniOS, each with its own specific target. I also want to try installing #Tribblix on a PC that's not exactly new, but still perfectly functional.

#illumos

I broke my FreeBSD home server - it's now running on SmartOS 😃

https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@stefano/115096681908613819

#SmartOS #illumos

Tonight I made a simple, yet destructive (or at least partly) mistake: when I told FreeBSD which disk to destroy, I accidentally gave it the system disk of my little home server. This happened because it had the same size as the external SSD I had just plugged in, and I got confused.

I lost some reproducible configurations (the server’s name was in fact tempfbsd01), but I took the chance to run an experiment. My home server runs FreeBSD in read-only mode (that's the part I destroyed). From there, I manually enable the external drives (encrypted with GELI) and, in turn, the ZFS pools. Then I start the various jails and the (single, Proxmox Backup Server) VM.

Since I also have another test box running SmartOS, I decided to experiment: I connected the disks to it, created a FreeBSD bhyve VM on SmartOS, and passed the entire disks through to the VM. I reconfigured the FreeBSD VM with the bare minimum and booted it all up. The jails with BastilleBSD started without any issues - obviously the Proxmox Backup Server VM itself is still missing, but I’ll deal with that later.

I’m tempted to leave everything like this for a while.

And yes, for anyone wondering: I had fun 🙂

#FreeBSD #RunBSD #illumos #SmartOS #DisasterRecovery #IT #SysAdmin #Homelab

The #illumosCafe server has been updated to #SmartOS 20250821T002042Z

#illumosCafeUpdates #illumosCafeAnnouncements

SmartOS works perfectly on @upcloud VMs
I'll also try with #OmniOS in the coming days.

#SmartOS #illumos #OmniOS

I needed an Alpine (Linux) zone on my #SmartOS server. I just created a new zone. Then, I wanted to see how much memory that zone was using: 2996K
Less than 3 MB for an "entire" Alpine Linux zone.
Efficiency, #illumos style!

...and we're on Phoronix!

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Illumos-Cafe

#illumosCafe #illumos #OmniOS #OpenIndiana #SmartOS #Tribblix

I don't know why but I never looked at the illumos based operating systems. I think I will change that and try out either OpenIndiana or SmartOS and compare them with Linux and BSD.

Areas I want to compare:
- Availability of software
- Simplicity of system management
- General system usage
- Security and Storage features

Are there any illumos users or admins out there with an idea on which things I should try out?

#illumos #smartos #openindiana #unix #opensolaris

My friends, I'm so excited and happy to introduce a new project: the illumos Cafe!

The positive and constructive spirit of the BSD Cafe, created and maintained by all the friends who participated from day one in building a strong and friendly community, deserves to spread to other operating systems. Because there are other OSes that deserve attention, certainly more than they're getting right now.

Operating systems based on illumos (like SmartOS, OmniOS, Tribblix, OpenIndiana, etc.) are mature, stable, secure, and perfectly usable for a wide range of tasks. ZFS is native, zones are an excellent method for containerization, and bhyve and kvm coexist beautifully - and so much more, too much to list in a single post.

So from today, the illumos Cafe will stand alongside the BSD Cafe in creating a positive, respectful, and growth-oriented (but also relaxing!) environment, starting right here in the Fediverse with a Mastodon instance and a snac one.

I've written an introductory article about the project, including some technical details. I invite everyone interested to read it: https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/08/18/introducing-the-illumos-cafe/

Choose your table, take a seat and enjoy your time at the illumos Cafe!

#SysAdmin #IT #BSDCafe #illumosCafe #Community #OpenSource #OSS #illumos #SmartOS #OpenIndiana #ZFS #bhyve #kvm #Fediverse #Mastodon #snac #ITNotes

I think it's time to write an #introduction for this account as well!

I'm Stefano Marinelli, Barista of the illumos Cafe and the BSD Cafe. I'm a technology and open source enthusiast, a strong advocate for #OwnYourData, and against computer monoculture, even when it comes to open source solutions.

I've been active in the #Fediverse for years and am a firm believer in it. I decided to found this Cafe to bring the positive spirit of the BSD Cafe to curious and passionate users of #illumos based operating systems (#OmniOS, #SmartOS, #Tribblix, #OpenIndiana, etc.).

I'll mainly use this account for content related to this instance and illumos-based operating systems, while my account at the BSD Cafe - @stefano@bsd.cafe - remains my primary one.

For more information about the illumos Cafe, you can read the introductory post here: https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/08/18/introducing-the-illumos-cafe/

#illumosCafe #BSDCafe

Ceci n'est pas Linux.

#illumos #SmartOS #Debian #Linux

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The default Apache Debian index.html - but actually running inside a LX zone on SmartOS

I've never hidden my admiration for #illumos-based systems. I have a few setups based on #OmniOS and #SmartOS, and they're solid as a rock. I like them both: OmniOS is more "malleable", while SmartOS is more of a hypervisor like #xcp-ng or #xen - meaning you install it on the host and delegate everything else to the zones.

I also love #FreeBSD jails, but zones sometimes cover use cases that jails can't (and vice versa). For example, imposing RAM limits in jails works, but it effectively "denies more ram" to a process when it requests more memory. The end user doesn't see this directly. On illumos, the user sees everything. I have some `lx` zones with Debian and Virtualmin, and users have never noticed that they aren't really on #Linux. A free or top will show only the assigned RAM.

And that's one of the biggest problems with open-source operating systems: they all have something good, and I always feel the urge to use them all! 🙂

#OpenSource #IT #SysAdmin

Doing something crazy before going out - and it works. It involves SmartOS and Linux zones - more about this later.

36 degrees outside, 31 inside.

#SmartOS #illumos