Lessons from the CFT Lab by Michael Dexter
Channel: EuroBSDcon
Date: 2021-09-27

The CallForTesting.org web site and accompanying lab are a direct product of EuroBSDcon and will celebrate their 10th anniversary in 2021. The lab has grown from a few second hand ThinkPads to a network of over 25 systems of all sizes that have helped exercise bhyve and various ZFS platforms in preparation for production readiness, tracked down lib.c-level performance issues, proven that binary upgrades are feasible for FreeBSD STABLE and CURRENT via up.bsd.lv, and other explorations big and small. This talk will provide a brief history and tour of the CFT Lab, strategies for building a budget-driven home lab, strategies for quickly running tests for other contributors, and hopefully inspiring you to maintain a home lab of your own, regardless of your physical or budgetary constraints.

Michael Dexter has a vocal fondness for BSD hypervisors and OpenZFS, and has organized the Portland Linux/Unix Group (PLUG) since 2009, among other community activities around the world.

Michael Dexter                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Michael has used Unix systems since just prior to the announcement of the Linux kernel and collapse of the Soviet Union. He has helped raise money for various BSD development efforts and usher the bhyve hypervisor into the FreeBSD operating system. Michael lives in Portland, Oregon where he provides commercial OpenZFS and FreeNAS support, hosts the Portland Linux/Unix Group, and lives with his wife and three children.