OpenBSD server: maintenance
In the previous parts of this series we did a base install of the server, installed a web server with certificates, set up the server to host git repositories and configured a mail server from scratch.
This part is about maintaining an OpenBSD server day-to-day.
Update the base system
syspatch installs patches for the base system components.
doas syspatch
Package management
Show all packages installed on the system:
pkg_info -q
Show information for a specific package:
pkg_info dovecot
Update all installed packages:
doas pkg_add -Uu
Services
Show all services enabled at boot:
doas rcctl ls on
Show all running services:
doas rcctl ls started
Show all stopped services:
doas rcctl ls stopped
Check a specific service:
doas rcctl check dovecot
Logs
General system logs:
doas tail -50 /var/log/messages
Authentication logs (SSH, failed su or doas):
doas tail -50 /var/log/authlog
Show the last logins to the server:
last
Check daemon/service logs:
doas tail -50 /var/log/daemon
Web logs:
doas tail -50 /var/www/logs/access.log
doas tail -50 /var/www/logs/error.log
General system metrics
Check filesystem usage:
df -h
Check the size of a directory:
doas du -xh -d 0 /var
System load:
uptime
The 3 numbers at the end show the load average for the last 1, 5 and 15 minutes.
Memory usage:
vmstat
To see the most important metrics at a glance use:
top
Mail-related commands
Show the SMTP log:
doas tail -50 /var/log/maillog
Spam-Filter logs:
doas tail -50 /var/log/rspamd/rspamd.log
To troubleshoot IMAP-client issues:
doas doveadm log errors
Show the mails currently in the queue:
doas smtpctl show queue
You might get an output like:
ae22a4e44b59c55e|inet4|mta|auth|bob@domain.net|alice@domain.net|alice@domain.net|1779712757|1779712757|0|16|pending|217|Network error on destination MXs
Get more detail on a message:
doas grep ae22a4e44b59c55e /var/log/maillog
View the contents of a message:
doas smtpctl show message ae22a4e44b59c55e
Retry all items in the queue:
doas smtpctl schedule all
Delete one queued message:
doas smtpctl remove ae22a4e44b59c55e