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Malin 795e84d438 feat: rename VMs to zamolxis(900)/decebal(901), raise RAM to 24GB/30GB, decebal to 6vCPU, innodb_buffer_pool 26G

2026-05-29 08:45:19 +02:00

README.md

feat: rename VMs to zamolxis(900)/decebal(901), raise RAM to 24GB/30GB, decebal to 6vCPU, innodb_buffer_pool 26G

2026-05-29 08:45:19 +02:00

README.md

Sibiu Independent — Stack Migration

May 2026

Migration of sibiuindependent.ro from Debian 12 + AApanel to FreeBSD 14.x minimal stack.

Current Architecture

[internet] → [Nginx Proxy Manager] → [dracula, Tailscale] → [transilvan, Tailscale]

Node	Role	OS	Specs
dracula	Web	Debian 12	16 vCPU, 32GB RAM, 245GB disk
transilvan	Database	Debian 12	4 vCPU, 32GB RAM, 245GB disk

Both nodes are VMs running on separate bare-metal hosts within the same datacenter (~1ms RTT). All inter-service traffic runs over Tailscale (WireGuard). The NPM node handles TLS termination and public exposure. The web and DB nodes have no public-facing ports other than what Tailscale exposes.

Current Stack Audit

dracula (web)

Component	Version / Detail
OS	Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
Web server	nginx 1.30.1
PHP	8.5.2 (AApanel custom build) + FPM
CMS	WordPress, single site: `sibiuindependent.ro`
Theme	Newspaper / TagDiv (td-cloud-library, td-composer, td-standard-pack)
Caching	W3 Total Cache + Memcached (page + object cache)
Sessions	PHP file sessions
Media	wp-content/uploads 6.5GB on disk, S3-compatible offload active
Cache on disk	4.8GB (W3TC page cache — throwaway)
WP code	~700MB (core + plugins + themes)
DB connection	`DB_HOST=transilvan` resolved via /etc/hosts → Tailscale IP
Monitoring	Telegraf, Beszel agent, Wazuh agent, Five Nines agent (all dropped in migration)
Security	Fail2ban, SSHGuard, sshguard
Mail	Postfix + MTA-STS (SMTP plugin used, local MTA not needed)
Panel	AApanel (btpanel)
Tailscale IP	100.99.157.56

Active PHP extensions: bcmath, curl, exif, fileinfo, gd, imagick, intl, json, mbstring, memcached, mysqli, mysqlnd, opcache, openssl, pcntl, pdo, pdo_mysql, pdo_sqlite, posix, soap, sockets, sodium, xml, xmlreader, xmlwriter, xsl, zip

transilvan (db)

Component	Version / Detail
OS	Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
Database	MariaDB 10.11.14 LTS
Database name	`sql_sibiuindepen`
DB user	`sql_sibiuindepen`
Data directory	/www/server/data (~9.6GB raw)
Config	/etc/mysql/mariadb.cnf + conf.d/
Monitoring	Telegraf, Beszel agent, Wazuh agent, Five Nines agent (all dropped in migration)
Panel	AApanel (btpanel)
Binlog	Active (mysql-bin.*, high sequence numbers)

OS Evaluation

Candidates assessed: OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Gentoo, Alpine Linux

OpenBSD

Security: Best in class — pledge(2), unveil(2), W^X enforced, secure malloc, pf
PHP 8.5: Not in packages (ports have 8.4). Source build possible but complex dependency tree
php-memcached: Problematic (libmemcached issues on OpenBSD)
MySQL 8.x: Not in packages (MariaDB only)
PHP JIT: Conflicts with W^X; must disable (negligible for WordPress)
Monitoring agents: Wazuh: no official support. Telegraf: community build
Verdict: Excellent security philosophy, but too much friction for this specific stack (PHP 8.5, MySQL 8.x, imagick). Viable only if stripping monitoring stack and accepting PHP 8.4 + Redis instead of memcached

FreeBSD

Security: pf, Capsicum, jails, strong defaults
PHP 8.5: Available in ports (lang/php85). All extensions in ports
MySQL 8.4 LTS: Available as databases/mysql84-server
imagick, intl, soap, redis: All in ports
ZFS: Native. Game-changer for database node (atomic snapshots, checksumming, lz4 compression)
Monitoring: Telegraf official package. Tailscale official package. Beszel: Go binary works
Wazuh: Community source build only — dropped per requirements
Verdict: Strongest all-round candidate. PHP 8.5 + all extensions + MySQL 8.4 + ZFS + pf + official Tailscale

Gentoo

Minimalism: Genuine — USE flags compile exactly what is needed, OpenRC available
PHP 8.5: In portage (rolling release guarantees latest)
MySQL 8.4: In portage
All agents: Still Linux, everything works natively
Maintenance: High ongoing cost — every update is a compile run. Production liability
Verdict: Philosophically compelling, operationally expensive for a production news site

Alpine Linux

Minimalism: musl libc + busybox, ~130MB base
PHP 8.5: Community repos, most extensions packaged
Init: OpenRC, no systemd
Migration effort: Lowest — still Linux, apk replaces apt, paths similar
Verdict: Best minimal Linux option; easier than FreeBSD but fewer operational benefits (no ZFS, no jails)

Decision: FreeBSD 15.0 on both nodes

Tiebreaker: ZFS native on the DB node. zfs snapshot before any migration step, before any MySQL upgrade, before any schema change — this alone justifies the choice.

FreeBSD 15.0 over 14.x specifically because PHP 8.5 is a binary package on 15.0 — pkg install php85 and all extensions install directly, no ports compilation required. FreeBSD 15.0 was released December 2, 2025 and has 6 months of production use. MySQL 8.4 LTS, Redis 8.x, and all required PHP extensions are in the binary package tree. pf is simpler and more powerful than nftables. Tailscale has official FreeBSD support.

Target Stack Versions

Component	Version	Source	Notes
OS	FreeBSD 15.0	Release Dec 2, 2025	Production Release, 6 months in production
nginx	1.30.x	`pkg install nginx`
PHP	8.5.6	`pkg install php85`	Binary pkg on FreeBSD 15 — no compilation
MySQL	8.4.9 LTS	`pkg install mysql84-server`	LTS branch. 9.0 and 9.1 both EOL and removed from ports
Redis	8.6.3	`pkg install redis`	Redis 8.x is current major version
Tailscale	latest	`pkg install tailscale`	Official FreeBSD package

Target Architecture

[internet] → [NPM node, Tailscale] → [zamolxis FreeBSD 15.0, Tailscale] → [decebal FreeBSD 15.0, Tailscale]

zamolxis (FreeBSD 15.0)            decebal (FreeBSD 15.0)
──────────────────────────            ─────────────────────────────
nginx (pkg)                           ZFS pool → /var/db/mysql
PHP 8.5.6 (pkg)                         recordsize=16K (InnoDB optimal)
  gd, imagick, intl, mbstring,           compression=lz4
  opcache, pdo_mysql, redis,             primarycache=metadata
  soap, sockets, sodium,              MySQL 8.4 LTS (ports)
  xml, zip, exif, fileinfo            pf: 3306 from dracula Tailscale IP only
nginx fastcgi_cache (filesystem)      Tailscale
Redis (pkg, unix socket)              SSH on Tailscale only
pf: 80 from NPM Tailscale IP only     Proxmox native monitoring
Tailscale
SSH on Tailscale only
Proxmox native monitoring

What is dropped

Component	Reason
AApanel / btpanel	Replaced by direct config management
W3 Total Cache	Replaced by nginx fastcgi_cache + Redis Object Cache plugin
Memcached	Replaced by Redis (unix socket, faster, simpler)
Fail2ban / SSHGuard	No public SSH port, Tailscale-only
Postfix / sendmail	SMTP plugin in use, no local MTA needed
Wazuh agent	Not required
Five Nines agent	Not required
Beszel agent	Not required — Proxmox native monitoring covers VM metrics
Telegraf	Not required — Proxmox native monitoring covers VM metrics
memory-cleanup.sh	Linux /proc hack, was on wrong server anyway
ngxblocker	Not applicable to new stack
AApanel cron scripts	acme renewal, site_total, backup.py — all panel-specific

Caching architecture change

Layer	Old	New
Page cache	W3TC on-disk (4.8GB, PHP-generated)	nginx fastcgi_cache (filesystem, PHP bypassed entirely on HIT)
Object cache	W3TC + Memcached (TCP)	Redis Object Cache plugin + Redis (unix socket)
Bytecode cache	OPcache	OPcache (unchanged, JIT disabled — no benefit for WordPress)
Sessions	PHP file sessions	Redis via session.save_path unix socket

Host Hardware

Host	CPU	Logical CPUs	RAM	Storage	Available to VMs	VM
dracula host	Xeon E5-1620 v2 @ 3.70GHz	8 (4 cores + HT)	64GB	Datacenter HDD	~full	zamolxis / ID 900 (web)
transilvan host	Xeon E5-1620 v2 @ 3.70GHz	8 (4 cores + HT)	32GB	SSD 160GB (~130GB free)	130GB	decebal / ID 901 (db) — sole VM

Both hosts run Proxmox VE (confirmed via qemu-guest-agent on current VMs). Decebal's host is dedicated — no other VMs share it.

VM Sizing

Rationale for 200 concurrent users

With nginx fastcgi_cache, the vast majority of requests never invoke PHP. On a news site, traffic concentrates on recent articles — the hot working set is small and stays warm in FreeBSD's unified buffer cache (UBC) regardless of underlying disk speed.

Metric	Value	Notes
Expected cache HIT rate	~85–90%	News sites have concentrated traffic on recent content
Concurrent PHP requests at peak	~20–30	200 users × ~15% miss rate
PHP-FPM workers (pm.max_children)	40	Headroom above expected peak
RAM per PHP-FPM worker	~35MB RSS	WordPress with active plugins
PHP-FPM peak RAM	~1.4GB	40 workers × 35MB
nginx HIT response time	<5ms	Served from UBC, no PHP involved
nginx MISS response time	100–400ms	WP query + render
InnoDB buffer pool hit rate	>99%	26GB pool, 9.6GB dataset fits entirely in RAM with 16GB to spare
Active DB connections	≤ 40	One per active PHP-FPM worker

zamolxis (web VM on HDD host)

Parameter	Value
vCPU	6
RAM	24GB
Disk	80GB single virtual disk (HDD-backed)
Balloon	Enabled (web VM, acceptable)

RAM breakdown: PHP-FPM peak 1.4GB + Redis ~150MB + nginx + OS ~1GB + ~20GB available for UBC page cache. With 20GB of UBC headroom, the entire nginx fastcgi_cache working set lives in RAM regardless of what is on disk — HDD latency becomes irrelevant for cached pages. Cold cache startup and log writes (sequential) are the only HDD operations that matter.

decebal (DB VM on SSD host — sole VM)

Parameter	Value
vCPU	6
RAM	30GB
Disk 1 — OS	20GB virtual (SSD-backed)
Disk 2 — ZFS data pool	100GB virtual (SSD-backed)
Total disk	120GB — fits within 130GB available, 10GB buffer for Proxmox overhead
Balloon	Disabled — memory ballooning must not reclaim InnoDB buffer pool RAM

RAM breakdown: innodb_buffer_pool_size 26GB + MySQL overhead ~2GB + OS ~2GB. Decebal is the sole VM on its host — 30GB allocation leaves 2GB for the Proxmox host OS, which is the practical minimum.

6 vCPU (from 8 logical CPUs on host) gives MySQL adequate threads for InnoDB background I/O, parallel queries, and connection handling while leaving 2 threads for Proxmox.

Disk sizing rationale: FreeBSD base installs to ~2GB; 20GB for the OS disk is generous for binaries, ports tree fragments, and logs. The 100GB ZFS data pool provides: 9.6GB current dataset (likely 6–7GB after lz4 compression), 7 days of compressed mysqldumps (~4GB each = ~28GB), binlog rotation buffer (expire_logs_days = 3), and substantial growth headroom at the current data trajectory.

Both virtual disks originate from the same physical SSD pool in Proxmox. Separation is logical: independent sizing, clean zpool create data /dev/da1, ZFS snapshots on the data disk without touching the OS disk, and straightforward future migration if a dedicated physical disk is added to the host.

VM Provisioning (Proxmox)

1. Download FreeBSD 15.0 ISO on each Proxmox host

wget -P /var/lib/vz/template/iso/ \
  https://download.freebsd.org/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/15.0/FreeBSD-15.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso

2. Create zamolxis / ID 900 (run on the HDD host)

Via CLI:

qm create 900 \
  --name zamolxis \
  --memory 24576 \
  --balloon 24576 \
  --cores 6 \
  --cpu host \
  --machine q35 \
  --bios ovmf \
  --efidisk0 local:1,format=raw \
  --net0 virtio,bridge=vmbr0 \
  --ostype other \
  --scsihw virtio-scsi-single \
  --scsi0 local:80,format=raw \
  --cdrom local:iso/FreeBSD-15.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso \
  --boot order=ide2;scsi0 \
  --agent enabled=1

Via UI:

General   → Name: zamolxis
OS        → FreeBSD (other), ISO: FreeBSD-15.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso
System    → Machine: q35, BIOS: OVMF (UEFI), Qemu Agent: ✓
Disks     → VirtIO SCSI, 80GB, Cache: None
CPU       → 6 cores, Type: host
Memory    → 24576 MB
Network   → VirtIO, vmbr0

3. Create decebal / ID 901 (run on the SSD host — sole VM)

# VM with OS disk
qm create 901 \
  --name decebal \
  --memory 30720 \
  --balloon 0 \
  --cores 6 \
  --cpu host \
  --machine q35 \
  --bios ovmf \
  --efidisk0 local:1,format=raw \
  --net0 virtio,bridge=vmbr0 \
  --ostype other \
  --scsihw virtio-scsi-single \
  --scsi0 local:20,format=raw,discard=on,ssd=1 \
  --cdrom local:iso/FreeBSD-15.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso \
  --boot order=ide2;scsi0 \
  --agent enabled=1

# Add second disk for ZFS data pool
qm set 901 --scsi1 local:100,format=raw,discard=on,ssd=1

--balloon 0 disables memory ballooning on the DB VM. This is required — ballooning can silently reclaim pages from the InnoDB buffer pool under host memory pressure.

4. FreeBSD installer settings (same for both VMs)

Welcome screen   → Install
Keymap           → your preference
Hostname         → zamolxis  (or decebal)
Distribution     → base, kernel  (nothing else)
Partitioning     → Auto (ZFS)
  Pool type      → stripe (single disk)
  Disk           → da0  (the OS disk)
  Swap           → 2GB
  Compress       → lz4
  Encrypt        → No
Network          → vtnet0, configure with a temporary IP for initial pkg bootstrap
                   (Tailscale will take over; this IP can be removed afterwards)
Mirror           → closest region
Root password    → set strong password
SSHD             → enable

5. First boot — both VMs

# Update base system
freebsd-update fetch install

# Bootstrap pkg and install essentials
pkg update && pkg upgrade -y
pkg install -y qemu-guest-agent tailscale sudo curl wget

# Verify package versions available
pkg search php85 | head -3      # should show 8.5.6+
pkg search mysql84-server       # should show 8.4.9
pkg search redis | grep "^redis" # should show 8.6.x

# Enable QEMU guest agent (so Proxmox can see VM IP, issue graceful shutdowns)
sysrc qemu_guest_agent_enable=YES
service qemu-guest-agent start

# Join Tailscale network
sysrc tailscaled_enable=YES
service tailscaled start
tailscale up --hostname=zamolxis    # or decebal

# Note the assigned Tailscale IP — plug into pf.conf and wp-config placeholders
tailscale ip -4

After both VMs have Tailscale IPs, replace all <zamolxis Tailscale IP> and <decebal Tailscale IP> placeholders throughout this document and in all config files.

Migration Data Inventory

Component	Size	Action
WordPress core + plugins + themes	~700MB	rsync
wp-content/uploads	6.5GB	rsync then cleanup (S3 is source of truth)
wp-content/cache	4.8GB	Skip — regenerates automatically
w3tc-config	40KB	Skip — W3TC removed
Database (sql_sibiuindepen)	9.6GB raw / ~3-4GB compressed dump	mysqldump → import

Cron Inventory

Kept and migrated

Schedule	Script	Notes
`/5 * * *`	wp-cron.php trigger	Unchanged
`0 3 * * *`	cache-warmer.sh	Rewritten for nginx fastcgi_cache
`0 15 * * *`	cache-warmer.sh	Rewritten for nginx fastcgi_cache
`0 3 * * 1`	JS asset refresh (OneSignal, FB SDKs)	Unchanged

Dropped

Script	Reason
ngxblocker update	Not using ngxblocker
analyze-nginx-attacks.sh	Panel-specific monitoring
analyze-php-slow.sh	Panel-specific monitoring
monitor-php-fpm.sh	Panel-specific monitoring
memory-cleanup.sh	Linux /proc, wrong server
AApanel acme_v2.py	Panel SSL renewal
AApanel site_total_check.py	Panel metric
AApanel backup.py	Replaced by custom mysqldump script

New on new stack

Schedule	Script
`0 2 * * *`	mysqldump → /var/backups + optional S3 upload
`0 0 * * 0`	ZFS snapshot rotation (keep last 4 weeks)

Phase 0 — Preparation (live servers, non-disruptive)

# Capture configs before touching anything
scp -i /root/.ssh/id_ed25519 -P 79 \
  root@dracula:/www/wwwroot/sibiuindependent.ro/wp-config.php ./wp-config.php.bak

scp -i /root/.ssh/id_ed25519 -P 79 \
  root@dracula:/root/cache-warmer.sh ./cache-warmer.sh.original

# Test dump on transilvan — confirms dump works before migration day
ssh -i /root/.ssh/id_ed25519 -p 79 root@transilvan \
  "mysqldump -S /tmp/mysqld.sock --single-transaction \
   --routines --triggers --events sql_sibiuindepen \
   | gzip > /tmp/testdump.sql.gz && ls -lh /tmp/testdump.sql.gz"

# Record current NPM upstream for rollback reference
# Old dracula Tailscale IP: 100.99.157.56

Phase 1 — DB Node (decebal)

1.1 FreeBSD base + ZFS

# During FreeBSD 14.x install: enable ZFS, create OS pool on first disk
# Add second disk for database isolation after install

zpool create -o ashift=12 data /dev/da1
zfs create -o mountpoint=/var/db/mysql data/mysql
zfs set recordsize=16K data/mysql        # InnoDB optimal block size
zfs set primarycache=metadata data/mysql # InnoDB manages its own buffer pool
zfs set compression=lz4 data/mysql       # free performance, transparent

1.2 MySQL 8.4 LTS

MySQL 8.4.9 is the correct choice. MySQL 9.0 was removed from FreeBSD ports (EOL). MySQL 9.1 expired March 2026 (EOL). The 9.x series is Oracle's "innovation" track with no long-term support guarantee. MySQL 8.4 is the current LTS branch.

pkg install mysql84-server
sysrc mysql_enable=YES
sysrc mysql_dbdir=/var/db/mysql

/usr/local/etc/mysql/my.cnf:

[mysqld]
bind-address             = <decebal Tailscale IP>
datadir                  = /var/db/mysql
socket                   = /tmp/mysql.sock
innodb_buffer_pool_size  = 26G
innodb_log_file_size     = 1G
innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit = 1
innodb_flush_method      = O_DIRECT
max_connections          = 150
character-set-server     = utf8mb4
collation-server         = utf8mb4_unicode_ci
skip-name-resolve

1.3 pf firewall

/etc/pf.conf:

ext_if = "vtnet0"
ts_if  = "tailscale0"
web_ts = "<zamolxis Tailscale IP>"

set skip on lo0
block all
pass in  on $ts_if proto tcp from $web_ts to any port 3306
pass in  on $ts_if proto tcp to any port 22
pass out all

sysrc pf_enable=YES
service pf start

1.4 Tailscale

pkg install tailscale
sysrc tailscaled_enable=YES
service tailscaled start
tailscale up --hostname=decebal

1.5 DB restore

# Dump from old transilvan, import to new
# Run from a machine with access to both nodes or pipe via SSH
ssh root@transilvan \
  "mysqldump -S /tmp/mysqld.sock --single-transaction \
   --routines --triggers --events sql_sibiuindepen" \
  | ssh root@decebal "mysql -u root sql_sibiuindepen"

# Create app user (use same password as current DB_PASSWORD in wp-config)
mysql -u root -e "
  CREATE USER 'sql_sibiuindepen'@'<zamolxis Tailscale IP>'
    IDENTIFIED BY '<password>';
  GRANT ALL ON sql_sibiuindepen.* TO
    'sql_sibiuindepen'@'<zamolxis Tailscale IP>';
  FLUSH PRIVILEGES;"

1.6 DB backup cron

/root/db-backup.sh:

#!/bin/sh
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M)
DEST=/var/backups
mkdir -p $DEST
mysqldump -u root --single-transaction \
  --routines --triggers --events sql_sibiuindepen \
  | gzip > ${DEST}/db-${DATE}.sql.gz
find $DEST -name "*.sql.gz" -mtime +7 -delete

Crontab:

0 2 * * *  root  /root/db-backup.sh
0 0 * * 0  root  zfs snapshot data/mysql@weekly-$(date +%Y%m%d) && \
                  zfs list -t snapshot -o name | tail -n +6 | xargs -I{} zfs destroy {}

Phase 2 — Web Node (zamolxis)

2.1 Base packages

Redis 8.x (currently 8.6.3 in ports) is the current major version.

pkg install -y nginx redis git curl wget
sysrc nginx_enable=YES redis_enable=YES
service redis start

2.2 PHP 8.5 from binary packages

On FreeBSD 15.0, PHP 8.5 and all extensions are available as binary packages — no ports compilation required.

# Base PHP 8.5 + FPM
pkg install -y php85 php85-extensions

# Extensions needed for WordPress
pkg install -y \
  php85-bcmath \
  php85-curl \
  php85-exif \
  php85-fileinfo \
  php85-gd \
  php85-imagick \
  php85-intl \
  php85-mbstring \
  php85-mysqli \
  php85-opcache \
  php85-pcntl \
  php85-pdo_mysql \
  php85-posix \
  php85-redis \
  php85-soap \
  php85-sockets \
  php85-sodium \
  php85-xml \
  php85-xmlreader \
  php85-xmlwriter \
  php85-xsl \
  php85-zip

pkg install -y ImageMagick7

sysrc php_fpm_enable=YES

2.3 PHP-FPM pool

/usr/local/etc/php-fpm.d/sibiuindependent.conf:

[sibiuindependent]
user  = www
group = www
listen = /var/run/php-fpm-si.sock
listen.owner = www
listen.group = www
pm                   = dynamic
pm.max_children      = 40
pm.start_servers     = 8
pm.min_spare_servers = 4
pm.max_spare_servers = 16
pm.max_requests      = 500

/usr/local/etc/php/php.ini (relevant):

opcache.enable                = 1
opcache.memory_consumption    = 256
opcache.interned_strings_buffer = 16
opcache.max_accelerated_files = 20000
opcache.validate_timestamps   = 0
opcache.jit                   = 0
session.save_handler          = redis
session.save_path             = "unix:///var/run/redis/redis.sock"

2.4 nginx with fastcgi_cache

/usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf:

worker_processes auto;
events { worker_connections 4096; }

http {
    include       mime.types;
    default_type  application/octet-stream;
    sendfile      on;
    tcp_nopush    on;
    server_tokens off;

    fastcgi_cache_path /var/cache/nginx/si
        levels=1:2
        keys_zone=si_cache:64m
        max_size=4g
        inactive=24h
        use_temp_path=off;

    fastcgi_cache_key "$scheme$request_method$host$request_uri";

    server {
        listen 80;
        server_name sibiuindependent.ro www.sibiuindependent.ro;
        root /var/www/sibiuindependent.ro;
        index index.php;

        set $skip_cache 0;
        if ($request_method = POST)        { set $skip_cache 1; }
        if ($query_string != "")           { set $skip_cache 1; }
        if ($request_uri ~* "/wp-admin/|/wp-login|/xmlrpc|/feed|sitemap") {
                                             set $skip_cache 1; }
        if ($http_cookie ~* "comment_author|wordpress_[a-f0-9]+|wp-postpass|wordpress_logged_in") {
                                             set $skip_cache 1; }

        location / {
            try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
        }

        location ~ \.php$ {
            fastcgi_pass   unix:/var/run/php-fpm-si.sock;
            fastcgi_index  index.php;
            include        fastcgi_params;
            fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;

            fastcgi_cache         si_cache;
            fastcgi_cache_valid   200 301 302 24h;
            fastcgi_cache_bypass  $skip_cache;
            fastcgi_no_cache      $skip_cache;
            add_header            X-Cache-Status $upstream_cache_status;
        }

        location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|svg|ico|woff2)$ {
            expires    1y;
            add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
            access_log off;
        }
    }
}

mkdir -p /var/cache/nginx/si
chown www:www /var/cache/nginx/si
service nginx start

2.5 pf

/etc/pf.conf:

ext_if = "vtnet0"
ts_if  = "tailscale0"
npm_ts = "<NPM node Tailscale IP>"

set skip on lo0
block all
pass in  on $ts_if proto tcp from $npm_ts to any port 80
pass in  on $ts_if proto tcp to any port 22
pass out all

sysrc pf_enable=YES
service pf start

2.6 Tailscale

pkg install tailscale
sysrc tailscaled_enable=YES
service tailscaled start
tailscale up --hostname=zamolxis

2.7 rsync web files

# Exclude cache — does not migrate, regenerates on first request
rsync -avz --progress \
  -e "ssh -i /root/.ssh/id_ed25519 -p 79" \
  --exclude="wp-content/cache/" \
  --exclude="wp-content/w3tc-config/" \
  root@dracula:/www/wwwroot/sibiuindependent.ro/ \
  /var/www/sibiuindependent.ro/

chown -R www:www /var/www/sibiuindependent.ro

2.8 wp-config.php changes

Two changes on the new node only:

// 1. Update DB_HOST to new transilvan Tailscale IP
define( 'DB_HOST', '<decebal Tailscale IP>' );

// 2. WP_CACHE stays true for Redis Object Cache drop-in
//    Remove the W3TC comment, keep the constant:
define( 'WP_CACHE', true );

Remove W3TC plugin and its drop-ins:

rm -rf /var/www/sibiuindependent.ro/wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache
rm -f  /var/www/sibiuindependent.ro/wp-content/advanced-cache.php
rm -f  /var/www/sibiuindependent.ro/wp-content/object-cache.php

Install Redis Object Cache plugin (Till Krüss), activate, configure:

// In wp-config.php, before "That's all, stop editing":
define( 'WP_REDIS_PATH', '/var/run/redis/redis.sock' );
define( 'WP_REDIS_SCHEME', 'unix' );

2.9 Crons

*/5  * * * *  www   curl -s -o /dev/null https://sibiuindependent.ro/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron
0    3 * * *  root  /root/cache-warmer.sh >> /root/cache-warmer.log 2>&1
0   15 * * *  root  /root/cache-warmer.sh >> /root/cache-warmer.log 2>&1
0    3 * * 1  root  /root/js-refresh.sh >> /root/js-refresh.log 2>&1

Cache Warmer (rewritten for nginx fastcgi_cache)

/root/cache-warmer.sh:

#!/bin/sh
# Incremental cache warmer for nginx fastcgi_cache.
# Checks X-Cache-Status header: skips HITs, warms MISSes.
# Requires curl >= 7.84 (FreeBSD 14 ships curl 8.x — compatible).

SITE='https://sibiuindependent.ro'
CONCURRENCY=4
LOG='/root/cache-warmer.log'
URL_FILE='/tmp/cache-warmer-urls.txt'
DONE_FILE='/tmp/cache-warmer-done.txt'

echo "[$(date)] Starting cache warmer (incremental, nginx fastcgi_cache)" | tee -a "$LOG"

: > "$URL_FILE"
SITEMAPS=$(curl -sk "${SITE}/sitemap_index.xml" | \
  grep -oE 'https?://[^<]+\.xml' | grep -v image)
echo "[$(date)] Sub-sitemaps: $(echo "$SITEMAPS" | wc -l)" | tee -a "$LOG"

for SMAP in $SITEMAPS; do
    curl -sk "$SMAP" | grep -oE 'https?://[^<]+' | grep -v '\.xml' >> "$URL_FILE"
    sleep 0.3
done

TOTAL=$(wc -l < "$URL_FILE")
echo "[$(date)] Total URLs from sitemap: $TOTAL" | tee -a "$LOG"

: > "$DONE_FILE"
WARMED=0
SKIPPED=0
COUNT=0

while IFS= read -r URL; do
    (
        RESULT=$(curl -sk -o /dev/null \
          -w '%{http_code} %header{x-cache-status}' \
          -A 'Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36' \
          -H 'Accept-Encoding: gzip' \
          --max-time 20 "$URL")
        echo "$RESULT $URL" >> "$DONE_FILE"
    ) &
    COUNT=$((COUNT + 1))
    if [ $((COUNT % CONCURRENCY)) -eq 0 ]; then
        wait
    fi
    sleep 0.05
done < "$URL_FILE"
wait

WARMED=$(grep -vc 'HIT' "$DONE_FILE" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
SKIPPED=$(grep -c 'HIT' "$DONE_FILE" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
echo "[$(date)] Done. Warmed: $WARMED, Skipped (HIT): $SKIPPED" | tee -a "$LOG"

Key difference from original

	Original (W3TC)	New (nginx fastcgi_cache)
Cache check method	Stat filesystem for `_index_slash_ssl.html`	HTTP `X-Cache-Status: HIT` header
Cache path	`/www/wwwroot/.../cache/page_enhanced/...`	`/var/cache/nginx/si/` (hashed, not human-readable)
Logic	Skip if file exists	Skip if header is `HIT`
Concurrency	Background subshells	Background subshells (unchanged)
Sitemap parsing	Unchanged	Unchanged

JS Asset Refresh Cron

/root/js-refresh.sh:

#!/bin/sh
# Weekly refresh of self-hosted third-party JS assets
WEBROOT=/var/www/sibiuindependent.ro

curl -s https://cdn.onesignal.com/sdks/OneSignalSDK.js \
  | sed 's|//# sourceMappingURL=.*||' \
  > ${WEBROOT}/onesignal.js

curl -s https://cdn.onesignal.com/sdks/OneSignalPageSDKES6.js \
  | sed 's|//# sourceMappingURL=.*||' \
  > ${WEBROOT}/onesignal-es6.js

curl -s https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js > ${WEBROOT}/fb-sdk.js
curl -s https://connect.facebook.net/ro_RO/sdk.js  > ${WEBROOT}/fb-sdk-ro.js

Phase 3 — Zero-downtime Cutover

Pre-cutover checklist (run on zamolxis before touching NPM)

# 1. Site responds via new stack directly
curl -sk -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" \
  http://<zamolxis Tailscale IP>/ \
  -H "Host: sibiuindependent.ro"
# Expected: 200

# 2. DB connection live
mysql -h <decebal Tailscale IP> \
  -u sql_sibiuindepen -p sql_sibiuindepen \
  -e "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM wp_posts WHERE post_status='publish';"

# 3. Redis object cache connected
wp --path=/var/www/sibiuindependent.ro --allow-root redis-cache status

# 4. PHP extensions present
php85 -m | grep -E "imagick|redis|pdo_mysql|opcache|intl|soap|sodium"

# 5. nginx fastcgi_cache working — second request should be HIT
curl -sI http://<zamolxis Tailscale IP>/ -H "Host: sibiuindependent.ro" \
  | grep X-Cache-Status
# First request: MISS, second request: HIT

Cutover sequence

T-0   Disable cache warmer crons on OLD dracula (comment out both lines)

T-1   Final rsync of uploads (incremental delta only):
        rsync -avz --progress \
          -e "ssh -i /root/.ssh/id_ed25519 -p 79" \
          --exclude="wp-content/cache/" \
          root@dracula:/www/wwwroot/sibiuindependent.ro/wp-content/uploads/ \
          /var/www/sibiuindependent.ro/wp-content/uploads/

T-2   Final DB dump and import:
        ssh root@transilvan \
          "mysqldump -S /tmp/mysqld.sock --single-transaction \
           --routines --triggers --events sql_sibiuindepen" \
          | ssh root@decebal "mysql -u root sql_sibiuindepen"

T-3   Switch NPM upstream:
        old: 100.99.157.56 (dracula Tailscale IP)
        new: <zamolxis Tailscale IP>
        (single upstream change in NPM — no DNS TTL involved, instant)

T-4   Smoke test:
        - Homepage loads
        - An article page loads
        - wp-admin accessible
        - Second page load shows X-Cache-Status: HIT

T-5   Enable cache warmer on new dracula

Rollback: Revert NPM upstream to 100.99.157.56. Old stack is untouched throughout. No DNS change required. Instant.

Old VMs: Keep powered on (no traffic) for 48 hours. Decommission after confirmed stable.

Post-cutover

# Run cache warmer immediately on new node
bash /root/cache-warmer.sh

# Monitor
tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log
tail -f /var/log/php-fpm.log

# ZFS snapshot of DB post-migration
zfs snapshot data/mysql@post-migration-$(date +%Y%m%d)

Open Items at Time of Planning

Confirm new Tailscale hostnames for both nodes (determines pf rules and wp-config DB_HOST)
Confirm NPM node Tailscale IP (determines pf rule on zamolxis)
PHP 8.5 — binary package on FreeBSD 15.0, pkg install php85. No compilation. All extensions confirmed available.
Redis Object Cache plugin — already in plugins dir or fresh install needed
W3TC features in use beyond caching: minify? If yes, switch to standalone nginx-based minification or keep W3TC minify only with nginx page cache
ZFS pool disk — confirm second disk available on decebal VM
MySQL 8.4 vs MariaDB 11.4 LTS — plan targets MySQL 8.4; revisit if preferred
Beszel and Telegraf — dropped. Proxmox native VM monitoring is sufficient.
Redis placement — local to zamolxis (unix socket). No 3rd host. WordPress object cache uses 50–150MB RAM; a dedicated VM would cost more resources than Redis itself consumes. A separate Redis host is only justified when scaling to multiple web nodes sharing a single cache.

README.md Unescape Escape

Sibiu Independent — Stack Migration

May 2026

Current Architecture

Current Stack Audit

dracula (web)

transilvan (db)

OS Evaluation

Candidates assessed: OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Gentoo, Alpine Linux

OpenBSD

FreeBSD

Gentoo

Alpine Linux

Decision: FreeBSD 15.0 on both nodes

Target Stack Versions

Target Architecture

What is dropped

Caching architecture change

Host Hardware

VM Sizing

Rationale for 200 concurrent users

zamolxis (web VM on HDD host)

decebal (DB VM on SSD host — sole VM)

VM Provisioning (Proxmox)

1. Download FreeBSD 15.0 ISO on each Proxmox host

2. Create zamolxis / ID 900 (run on the HDD host)

3. Create decebal / ID 901 (run on the SSD host — sole VM)

4. FreeBSD installer settings (same for both VMs)

5. First boot — both VMs

Migration Data Inventory

Cron Inventory

Kept and migrated

Dropped

New on new stack

Phase 0 — Preparation (live servers, non-disruptive)

Phase 1 — DB Node (decebal)

1.1 FreeBSD base + ZFS

1.2 MySQL 8.4 LTS

1.3 pf firewall

1.4 Tailscale

1.5 DB restore

1.6 DB backup cron

Phase 2 — Web Node (zamolxis)

2.1 Base packages

2.2 PHP 8.5 from binary packages

2.3 PHP-FPM pool

2.4 nginx with fastcgi_cache

2.5 pf

2.6 Tailscale

2.7 rsync web files

2.8 wp-config.php changes

2.9 Crons

Cache Warmer (rewritten for nginx fastcgi_cache)

Key difference from original

JS Asset Refresh Cron

Phase 3 — Zero-downtime Cutover

Pre-cutover checklist (run on zamolxis before touching NPM)

Cutover sequence

Post-cutover

Open Items at Time of Planning

README.md