[tor-relays] Request for Feedback on Relay Node Update Management

Tue Mar 26 12:49:43 UTC 2024

   Relays do restart for different reasons. For example, two of my relays
   (the upgrade process is automated on both) were restarted on March
   23rd, practically at the same time.

   Different OS versions on different machines from different ISP for both
   relays.

   One was restarted because some libraries needed to be upgraded on the
   system:

   ```

   The following packages will be upgraded:

    libbsd0 libc-bin libc6 libxslt1.1 locales

   5 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

   [...]

   Restarting services...

   [...] tor at default.service [...]

   ```

   The server even needed to be rebooted afterward.

   The other one had a very different reason, as you can see from the
   syslog:

   ```

   Mar 23 03:07:43 leslie kernel: [849147.801728] Out of memory: Killed
   process 930 (tor) total-vm:850180kB, anon-rss:620800kB, file-rss:0kB,
   shmem-rss:0kB, UID:111 pgtables:1652kB oom_score_adj:0

   Mar 23 03:07:43 leslie systemd[1]: tor at Leslie.service: A process of
   this unit has been killed by the OOM killer.

   Mar 23 03:07:44 leslie systemd[1]: tor at Leslie.service: Main process
   exited, code=killed, status=9/KILL

   Mar 23 03:07:44 leslie systemd[1]: tor at Leslie.service: Failed with
   result 'oom-kill'.

   Mar 23 03:07:44 leslie systemd[1]: tor at Leslie.service: Consumed 2d 5h
   54min 39.122s CPU time.

   Mar 23 03:07:44 leslie systemd[1]: tor at Leslie.service: Scheduled
   restart job, restart counter is at 1.

   Mar 23 03:07:44 leslie systemd[1]: Stopped Anonymizing overlay network
   for TCP (instance Leslie).

   Mar 23 03:07:44 leslie systemd[1]: tor at Leslie.service: Consumed 2d 5h
   54min 39.122s CPU time.

   Mar 23 03:07:44 leslie systemd[1]: Starting Anonymizing overlay network
   for TCP (instance Leslie)...

   ```

   That was the last time both relays were restarted (~ 3 days ago)

   Denny

   On 03/26/2024 04:54 AM Alessandro Greco via tor-relays wrote ..

     Dear Tor-Relays Mailing List Members, I hope this email finds you
     well. I'm reaching out to share some observations and pose some
     questions regarding the management of relay node updates,
     particularly concerning their impact on stability and security of
     the service provided. Recently, I've noticed an interesting pattern
     with my relay node (ID: 47B72187844C00AA5D524415E52E3BE81E63056B
     [1]). I've followed TorProject's recommendations [2] and configured
     automatic updates, which has led to frequent restarts of the node to
     keep the Tor software up-to-date. While this practice ensures high
     security by keeping the software updated, it seems to compromise the
     stability of the node itself. The Uptime value of my node has
     remained at a maximum of a few hours. This situation has prompted me
     to reflect on what might be the best strategy to adopt. On one hand,
     frequent updates ensure optimal security, while on the other hand,
     continuous restarts may affect the user experience for those relying
     on the node's stability for their Tor activities. As such, I'd like
     to pose some questions to the community to gather feedback and
     assess best practices: 1. In your opinion, is it preferable to
     maintain automatic updates to ensure maximum security, even if
     frequent restarts may compromise the node's stability? 2. Or would
     it be more sensible to adjust the update frequency, perhaps
     performing them once or twice a week, to ensure greater stability of
     the node without excessively compromising security? 3. Have you had
     similar experiences with your relay nodes? How have you addressed
     this challenge and what were the outcomes? Thank you in advance for
     your time and cooperation. Best regards, Aleff. [1]
     https://metrics.torproject.org/rs.html#details/47B72187844C00AA5D524
     415E52E3BE81E63056B [2]
     https://community.torproject.org/relay/setup/guard/debian-ubuntu/upd
     ates/ --- Browse my WebSite: aleff-gitlab.gitlab.io Use my PGP
     Public Key: pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x7CFCE404A2168C85
     Join to support: - Free Software Foundation!
     (my.fsf.org/join?referrer=6202114) - Electronic Frontier Foundation!
     (eff.org) - Tor-Project (torproject.org) - Signal (signal.org)
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