Lipkowski Says Hello

[lipkowski]

Hello people.
I have been using EFA for MANY MANY years as a spam filter for incoming mail and as a smarthost relay for outgoing mail and it has worked VERY well in these capacities fronting for my VERY old FreeBSD mail server.
Thanks so much for it it is SO awesome and works so well.
You rock Shawn. Such solid work you have here.
Just saw that there is a new EFA 5 release in BETA.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
Anyways just wanted to say HI!
I am not much of a programmer so I am not sure I would actually be of much help to the project, but I do have a 200/200 dedicated pro network on FIOS with a couple of unused IP addresses so if there is any need for you people to up any test servers, I would be willing to host them here and also up the hardware that I have much of here.
I have nice low power (10 watt) quad core intel j1900 machines that can have 8 Gigabytes of DDR3 memory so they would likely make nice test chassis.
Dunno if that serves anyone's purposes here but I wanted to toss it out there as well as thanking everyone involved in this project cause it works so well.
Thanks!

Lip Lip Lip

[shawniverson]

[lipkowski]

Hello. With the status of Linux 7's distribution being at EOL what is the future of EFA 4?
Are there plans for open source Devs to keep the CentOS 7 Distro patched into the future?
Also, will EFA 5 be based on a STREAM distro?
I am unfamiliar with the whole stream vs binary patching.
Does STREAM continuously change out your binaries according to what is on the distro's list of approved patched binaries?
Is EFA 5 based on one of the STREAM CentOS distros?
Thanks for all your great work.
DONATE PEOPLE!!!!
God bless Shawn and any other devs working on this software.
It is awesome and thanks!!

[shawniverson]

eFa 4 users on 7 will need to move to 8 or consider eFa 5 on 9. eFa 4 on CentOS 7 will no longer be maintained.

eFa 5 should work on any Red Hat Linux 9 compatible distribution. You don't have to use CentOS 9 Stream. You could opt for Rocky, AlmaLinux, Oracle, or even Red Hat.

CentOS 9 Stream tracks ahead of Red Hat Linux 9. It means that the wider community contributes to CentOS 9 Stream, after which Red Hat reviews packages for inclusion into Red Hat Linux 9. For that reason many folks are not comfortable using Stream for production.

[lipkowski]

So I am assuming that I can somehow take this EFA4 on CentOS 7 I am using now, and move it to 5 by taking the configuration from 4 and moving it to a fresh EFA5 box running on one of the suggested operating systems?

So there must be a configuration export routine somewhere?

Thanks!

[shawniverson]

Yes.

https://wiki.efa-project.org/doku.php?i ... tion_guide

[lipkowski]

OH MY GOD THANKS!!!
YOUR LINK IS GIVING ME A STIFFY AND MAKING ME WANT TO DONATE!!!!!
NOW I JUST NEED SOME MONEY!!!!

8)

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!!

I AM GOING TO COOK UP A BOX ASAP WITH ONE OF THE PREFERED OS'ES

DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE / SUGGESTION OF WHICH TO USE?

OPENBSD WOULD NOT BE A GOOD CHOICE I WOULD ASSUME...

IT IS SO SECURE AND STABLE IN PRODUCTION BUT IT IS NOT WELL SUPPORTED FOR STUFF LIKE THIS I ASSUME.

IF YOU COULD LET ME KNOW A FAVORITE / SUGGESTION FOR OS I WOULD BE GREATFUL.

THANK YOU!

/ME WORSHIP BOWS IN GEST.

I'M NOT WORTHY!!!!
I'M NOT WORTHY!!!!

8)

HERE IS MY CUSTOM EMOTICON I ALWAYS USE TO DENOTE MISCHEVIOUS GLEEFUL FUN LOVING HAX0R SPIRIT!!!

}8^) M.O.S.H!!!


GOD BLESS YOU FOR YOUR EFFORTS!

[pdwalker]

> eFa 5 should work on any Red Hat Linux 9 compatible distribution. You don't have to use CentOS 9 Stream. You could opt for Rocky, AlmaLinux, Oracle, or even Red Hat.

I would pick one of the above. I am going with AlmaLinux 9 to replace my eFa4/Centos 7 box.

[lipkowski]

Thanks a lot, pdwalker!

I have become VERY unfamiliar with the distros the last bunch of years.
Don't know what is good or bad like I used to 10 years ago.

Have two kids now, 11 and 16 so keeping them on the straight and narrow and keeping them getting good schooling (home schooled during the scamdemic) and grades the 11 year old got 97.8 average for 6th grade and the 16 year old got 96 average for 10th grade and the school system in the town I am in has not gone slack yet it is still a good school system AND I AM IN NEW YORK STATE IF YOU CAN BELIEVE IT!!!

My time is largely spent on keeping them doing well on their studies and now I am teaching the 16 year old how to drive so your advice on a distro is GREATELY appreciated.
I will spin up a box with AlmaLinux 9 and check it out right away.
Thank you!!
God bless!

> eFa 5 should work on any Red Hat Linux 9 compatible distribution. You don't have to use CentOS 9 Stream. You could opt for Rocky, AlmaLinux, Oracle, or even Red Hat.

I would pick one of the above. I am going with AlmaLinux 9 to replace my eFa4/Centos 7 box.

[lipkowski]

So I have a 9.4 install going on right now of AlmaLinux.
But I read your post here and you said 9 straight up.
Until I hear from you whether or not you think straight up 9 or the 9.4 AlmaLinux is ok I will wait to proceed.
Very much value your opinion as I am largely ignorant of the distros these days as I have mentioned.
Please let me know if 9 or 9.4 would be better for a production machine and thanks.

Lip Lip Lip

> eFa 5 should work on any Red Hat Linux 9 compatible distribution. You don't have to use CentOS 9 Stream. You could opt for Rocky, AlmaLinux, Oracle, or even Red Hat.

I would pick one of the above. I am going with AlmaLinux 9 to replace my eFa4/Centos 7 box.

[pdwalker]

Always go with the latest version.

When I mention the major version and not the minor version, it means the latest minor version which is 9.4 at the time of this post.