Hi Alessandro, It's good to hear from you. I have a relay in a somewhat similar situation[1], although I've only just clocked it. If you're using Debian or one of its derivatives, then you can configure the unattended-upgrades package to perform a restart at a specific time if required. This means that your relay won't restart every time an upgrade is required, but will keep itself up to date. I think configuring a time for a daily restart (if upgrade required) would be a fairly good balance between stability and reliability.
See what other people say or from your own experience, as Tor circuits are generally quite resilient and as long as you aren't a guard node I believe connections won't die because your relay is restarting. I would also note that Tor recommends [2] an uptime or 24/7 is nice, but not required and that restarts to the daemon or node are fine. Because of this, it might not be worth worrying too much about this issue. I hope you find some of this useful, Seth [1] https://metrics.torproject.org/rs.html#details/5FEB80D4DCC63180CB4D87C1222177BB099E55AE [2] https://community.torproject.org/relay/relays-requirements/ -------- Original Message -------- On 26/03/2024 08:54, Alessandro Greco via tor-relays <tor-relays@lists.torproject.org> 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/47B72187844C00AA5D524415E52E3BE81E63056B > [2] https://community.torproject.org/relay/setup/guard/debian-ubuntu/updates/ > > --- > > 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)_______________________________________________ > tor-relays mailing list > tor-relays@lists.torproject.org > https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays > _______________________________________________ tor-relays mailing list tor-relays@lists.torproject.org https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays
