6. Maintenance

While WPf2b needs no routine maintenance, from time to time there are changes that will require modifying your configuration.

6.1. Updating Filters

Keeping your fail2ban filters up-to-date is critical for the correct operation of WPf2b.

6.1.1. When to Update

Knowing when to update your filters has changed since 4.4.x. The release notes, as always, still say whether updating is necessary, but now that WPf2b uses Semantic Versioning (SemVer) it’s trivial to determine when an update is needed. In addition, the WordPress Site Health tool now checks if the filters are up-to-date.

6.1.1.1. SemVer

From v5.0.1 to v5.0.x
You will never need to update the filters.
From v5.0.x to v5.1.0
You may need to update the filters to enable new features; existing configurations will continue to work as before.
From v5.x.y to v6.0.0
You may need to update the filters for existing features to work.

6.1.2. How to Update

The new filter files can be found in your WordPress install: /wp-content/plugins/wp-fail2ban/filters.d or /wp-content/plugins/wp-fail2ban-premium/filters.d.

The old filter files can be found in the filter.d directory in your fail2ban install.

It’s usually a good idea to take a backup of the old filters.

Then, copy the new filter files to the filter.d directory, and reload the fail2ban jails:

# fail2ban-client reload

Tip

fail2ban can usually be found in:

  • /etc/fail2ban/
  • /usr/local/etc/fail2ban/

but may live somewhere else on your system.

If you’re running Windows and know where fail2ban usually lives, please submit a PR for this page.