https://peter.czanik.hu/ Recent content on Random thoughts of Peter 'CzP' Czanik Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us Thu, 04 Jun 2026 14:01:40 +0200 https://peter.czanik.hu/other/syslog-ng-the-status-of-openssl-4-0-support/ Thu, 04 Jun 2026 14:01:40 +0200 https://peter.czanik.hu/other/syslog-ng-the-status-of-openssl-4-0-support/ OpenSSL 4.0 was released just over a month ago. So, how is its support progressing in syslog-ng? Well, Git master already supports it, and the patch is easy to backport to earlier releases. At the same time, version 4.12 will support OpenSSL 4.0 out of the box. A month ago, someone from Gentoo Linux reached out to the syslog-ng team about OpenSSL 4.0 support. I asked the community about their expectations, knowing that version 4. https://peter.czanik.hu/other/syslog-ng-nightly-containers-based-on-alma-linux/ Tue, 26 May 2026 14:02:31 +0200 https://peter.czanik.hu/other/syslog-ng-nightly-containers-based-on-alma-linux/ For many years, the syslog-ng project provided container images based on Debian. Most of our users run syslog-ng on RHEL & compatibles, and have asked for an RPM-based container. So, nightly containers based on Alma Linux are now also available. A while ago, I prepared a small test project to run syslog-ng in an Alma Linux container: https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/experimental-syslog-ng-container-image-based-on-alma-linux However, that was only an experiment which I never updated. Fast forward to today: nightly syslog-ng containers based on the latest syslog-ng git snapshot package builds are now available on the Docker Hub! https://peter.czanik.hu/other/syslog-ng-learning/ Tue, 19 May 2026 13:15:16 +0200 https://peter.czanik.hu/other/syslog-ng-learning/ How can you learn syslog-ng? There are many possibilities, depending on your time and budget. Possibilities range from tutorial series through reading the documentation to instructor-led training. Find out which one is for you! Read more at https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/learning-syslog-ng syslog-ng logo https://peter.czanik.hu/other/syslog-ng-insider-2026-05-otel-compliance-mac/ Thu, 14 May 2026 13:46:57 +0200 https://peter.czanik.hu/other/syslog-ng-insider-2026-05-otel-compliance-mac/ Dear syslog-ng users, This is the 140th issue of syslog-ng Insider, a monthly newsletter that brings you syslog-ng-related news. Streaming syslog-ng data to your lakehouse using OTEL Version 4.11.0 of syslog-ng contains contributions from Databricks related to OAuth2 authentication. Recently, they published a blog about how this enables their customers to send logs to their data lake using syslog-ng and the OpenTelemetry protocol. https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/streaming-syslog-ng-data-to-your-lakehouse-using-opentelemetry Central log collection - more than just compliance I often hear, even at security conferences that “no central log collection here” or “we have something due to compliance”. https://peter.czanik.hu/other/fedora-44-centos-7-amazon-linux-questions/ Wed, 06 May 2026 13:28:09 +0200 https://peter.czanik.hu/other/fedora-44-centos-7-amazon-linux-questions/ Fedora 44 was announced last week: syslog-ng 4.11 is part of it. While checking the Fedora Copr build service for Fedora 44, I realized that CentOS 7 and Amazon Linux 2023 packages are also there. I have a few questions about those for you! syslog-ng logo Fedora 44 The availability of the Fedora 44 release was announced last week. Vesion 4.11 of syslog-ng, the current latest release, is part of it. https://peter.czanik.hu/other/syslog-ng-support-for-openssl-4-0/ Tue, 28 Apr 2026 15:20:56 +0200 https://peter.czanik.hu/other/syslog-ng-support-for-openssl-4-0/ Although OpenSSL 4.0 released just two weeks ago, the syslog-ng project has already received a GitHub issue complaining that we do not support it. So, before we would allocate too much effort on it: what should we expect? OpenSSL 4.0 was announced on April 14: https://openssl-library.org/post/2026-04-14-openssl-40-final-release/ However, this announcement mentions that it is NOT a long-term support (LTS) release. This raises the question that if it is not an LTS release, then can we stay on version 3. https://peter.czanik.hu/other/syslog-ng-new-performance-tuning-possibilities/ Wed, 22 Apr 2026 12:57:45 +0200 https://peter.czanik.hu/other/syslog-ng-new-performance-tuning-possibilities/ On April’s fool’s day, I shared that syslog-ng can reach 7 million EPS. This test lab result was in part possible thanks to a few performance enhancements coming to syslog-ng version 4.12. How 7 million EPS is possible? Before diving deeper, let me repeat it: 7 million EPS is just a lab testing result, not (yet) possible in the real world. However, the technologies enabling this are already available on the development branch of syslog-ng, or have been available for ages, just not tested or promoted enough. https://peter.czanik.hu/posts/genesi-rto/ Thu, 16 Apr 2026 09:58:48 +0200 https://peter.czanik.hu/posts/genesi-rto/ This Monday I talked to a couple of friends about work while wearing my Genesi t-shirt. A teacher going back to school after Spring break and an IT guy explaining the nightmare of RTO threat. I love coincidences :-) Why do I say that? Genesi t-shirt As I wrote a few years ago about working from home: “After graduating from university, I worked from home for a small US-based company. I never met my boss while working there and met only one of my colleagues at a conference in Brussels. https://peter.czanik.hu/other/syslog-ng-streaming-data-to-your-lakehouse-using-opentelemetry/ Wed, 15 Apr 2026 14:12:22 +0200 https://peter.czanik.hu/other/syslog-ng-streaming-data-to-your-lakehouse-using-opentelemetry/ Version 4.11.0 of syslog-ng contains contributions from Databricks related to OAuth2 authentication. Recently, they published a blog about how this enables their customers to send logs to their data lake using syslog-ng and the OpenTelemetry protocol. The syslog-ng project received two contributions from Databricks in the last weeks of 2025. The first one turned the already existing OAuth2 support generic and extensible, so it can be used anywhere, not just with Microsoft Azure (but of course, Azure compatibility was preserved). https://peter.czanik.hu/posts/new-toy-1st-of-april-syslog-ng-performance-tests/ Wed, 01 Apr 2026 12:35:28 +0200 https://peter.czanik.hu/posts/new-toy-1st-of-april-syslog-ng-performance-tests/ Almost 15 years ago, Balabit had a campaign, stating that syslog-ng could process 650k messages a second. Now I am happy to present 7 million EPS (events per second). Timing the announcement to April 1 is not a coincidence :-) While the 650k EPS measurement was true, it was misleading. This value was measured right after syslog-ng 3.2 introduced multi-threading, in lab environment, under optimal circumstances, using synthetic log messages. However, there was no fine print explaining this, just the statement that syslog-ng could process 650k EPS. https://peter.czanik.hu/posts/new-toy-back-to-high-end-audio/ Tue, 31 Mar 2026 10:12:38 +0200 https://peter.czanik.hu/posts/new-toy-back-to-high-end-audio/ My AI mini workstation from HP has seen some non-AI workloads this weekend. I installed Capture One for photo editing and a couple of software synthesizers. And realized along the way that while built-in speakers are nice, high-end audio is a lot better! :-) For months, I have been listening to music on devices that are designed for speech: a pair of Jabra headphones and the speakers of my various laptops. https://peter.czanik.hu/posts/new-toy-openwebui-first-steps/ Thu, 26 Mar 2026 13:42:45 +0100 https://peter.czanik.hu/posts/new-toy-openwebui-first-steps/ Once I got hardware-accelerated AI working under Linux on my AI mini workstation from HP, my next goal was to make it easier to use. From this blog, you can read about my initial experiments with Open WebUI on Fedora Linux. Open WebUI talking about central log collection :-) Everything in containers As Open WebUI is not yet available as a package in Fedora, my initial approach was to use containers. https://peter.czanik.hu/other/syslog-ng-compiling-on-an-old-mac/ Wed, 25 Mar 2026 15:43:49 +0100 https://peter.czanik.hu/other/syslog-ng-compiling-on-an-old-mac/ I have an aging, but fully functional MacBook. I bought it for syslog-ng testing, but I also use for watching movies. Homebrew no more fully supports old, Intel-based Macs. This blog helps to compile the latest syslog-ng release on these old, but otherwise functional machines. Read more at https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/compiling-syslog-ng-on-an-old-mac syslog-ng logo https://peter.czanik.hu/posts/new-toy-first-steps-with-ai-on-linux/ Wed, 25 Mar 2026 12:48:34 +0100 https://peter.czanik.hu/posts/new-toy-first-steps-with-ai-on-linux/ Ever since I bought my AI mini workstation from HP, my goal was to run hardware accelerated artificial intelligence workloads in a Linux environment. Read more to learn how things turned out on Ubuntu and Fedora! I have been using various AI tools for a while now. Generating pictures about some impossible situations, like a dinosaur climbing the Hungarian parliament building, finding information where a simple web search is useless, or explaining syslog-ng code to me. https://peter.czanik.hu/posts/new-toy-freebsd-on-the-hp-z2-mini-revisited/ Thu, 19 Mar 2026 10:43:33 +0100 https://peter.czanik.hu/posts/new-toy-freebsd-on-the-hp-z2-mini-revisited/ Last week, I wrote about my initial FreeBSD experiences on my new toy, an AI workstation from HP. FreeBSD runs lightning fast on it, but the desktop was somewhat problematic. Well, I made lots of improvements this week! A bit of debugging While there are still some rough edges, there have been tons of improvements since last week. I do not have plans to use FreeBSD on the desktop in the long term, but still, I just could not believe that the FreeBSD GUI is this problematic on this device. https://peter.czanik.hu/other/syslog-ng-central-log-collection-more-than-just-compliance/ Wed, 18 Mar 2026 16:10:37 +0100 https://peter.czanik.hu/other/syslog-ng-central-log-collection-more-than-just-compliance/ I often hear, even at security conferences that “no central log collection here” or “we have something due to compliance”. Central logging is more than just compliance. It makes logs easier to use, available and secure, thus making your life easier in operations, security, development, but also in marketing, sales, and so on. What are logs and what is central log collection? Most operating systems and applications keep track of what they are doing. https://peter.czanik.hu/posts/new-toy-ai-first-steps-on-the-hp-z2-mini/ Tue, 17 Mar 2026 14:40:33 +0100 https://peter.czanik.hu/posts/new-toy-ai-first-steps-on-the-hp-z2-mini/ In the past few weeks, I installed five different operating systems on my latest toy: an AI workstation from HP. I love playing with OSes, but my main goal with the new machine is to learn various aspects of AI. I took my first steps in this adventure on Windows. Of course, you might ask: why on Windows? Well, it’s easy: because it’s easy… :-) There is nothing to install or configure there, as Windows has multiple built-in apps that support AI and can utilize the NPU (hardware-accelerated AI) support of the AMD Ryzen 395 chip. https://peter.czanik.hu/other/syslog-ng-insider-2026-03-4110-release-opensearch-elasticsearch/ Wed, 11 Mar 2026 13:01:47 +0100 https://peter.czanik.hu/other/syslog-ng-insider-2026-03-4110-release-opensearch-elasticsearch/ The March syslog-ng newsletter is now on-line: Version 4.11.0 of syslog-ng is now available Using OpenSearch data streams in syslog-ng Changes in the syslog-ng Elasticsearch destination It is available at https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/the-syslog-ng-insider-2026-03-4-11-0-release-opensearch-elasticsearch syslog-ng logo https://peter.czanik.hu/posts/new-toy-installing-freebsd-on-hp-z2-mini/ Tue, 10 Mar 2026 13:13:13 +0100 https://peter.czanik.hu/posts/new-toy-installing-freebsd-on-hp-z2-mini/ Finally, I also installed FreeBSD on my new AI focused mini workstation from HP. I even managed to install GNOME on the machine with minimal effort. However, I also ran into many problems. So far it’s a mixed experience. Installation went smoothly, FreeBSD 15.0 was up and running in no time. However, FreeBSD is not found by any of the Linux boot managers I use (different flavors of GRUB), and it’s not in the EFI boot menu either. https://peter.czanik.hu/posts/new-toy-installing-fedora-on-hp-z2-mini/ Wed, 04 Mar 2026 12:56:13 +0100 https://peter.czanik.hu/posts/new-toy-installing-fedora-on-hp-z2-mini/ The data sheet of my new AI-focused mini workstation from HP does not mention Fedora, but I could install it just fine. I expected this though, because when I asked around about Linux support and hardware AI acceleration for AMD Ryzen 39X chips, all responses came from Fedora users… :-) Installing Fedora on the HP Z2 Mini was a smooth experience, even though I hadn’t used the graphical installer for ages.