Puppet is an amazing configuration management system as I have previously written, but one downfall is that no system exists where you check in code, it runs, and if it fails, it alerts. Continuous Integration is a very important thing to have. It saves dev and production environments from being destroyed or otherwise screwed up. After searching all over the web, I was unable to find anyone who has done a full CI system for puppet, so I developed my own.
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Puppet Continuous Integration
August 13, 2010 // Posted in Linux, Puppet | No Comments
Cron Job to Ensure Your Puppet Clients Stay Happy
July 22, 2010 // Posted in Linux, Puppet | No Comments
I wrote a Perl script which is used in combination with cron to make sure that puppet clients don’t stray too far from their master. The script can be found here and is available under the GPL v3.
Adding VMNet’s in VMWare Fusion 3
February 10, 2010 // Posted in Mac, Virtualization | 4 Comments
This problem has come up a couple times and I figured out how to do it. It isn’t a pretty thing to do, but it works.
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How to Upgrade a Cisco Pix 515 with Serial Failover from 6.3 -> 8.0
October 3, 2009 // Posted in Networking (Tags: Cisco, Pix, Pix 6.3 7.2 8.0, Pix Failover, Pix Upgrade) | No Comments
Well it sounds simple doesn’t it? Cisco says you reload the OS, you make a couple changes and voila, you have a working Pix 515 running the latest and greatest code (which by the way is the same code those ASA’s run which cost quite a bit more). Well, not so fast. Read the rest of this entry »
Dance puppets, DANCE!
May 4, 2009 // Posted in Linux (Tags: Configuration Management, Puppet, System Administration) | No Comments
What an odd title? What has to deal with puppets and system administration? Well, in fact there is a program called puppet. What is puppet? Puppet is a client/server software system put out by Reductive Labs which allows for simplistic management of *Nix (OS X included).
Where has the time gone…
April 14, 2009 // Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments
Wow, I certainly have not updated this in forever. I should get back to this, most likely with a better theme soon. I need to update the resume as well. Stay tuned…
Restricting Login in Linux
May 8, 2008 // Posted in Linux (Tags: Linux, PAM) | No Comments
When we talk about forcing a user to log off, what we’re really talking about is time restrictions on certain account system access and services. The easiest way I’ve found to implement time restrictions is by using software called Linux-PAM.
Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) is a mechanism for authenticating users. Specifically, we’re going to use the pam_time module to control timed access for users to services.
Why Linux?
May 8, 2008 // Posted in Linux (Tags: Linux) | No Comments
Linux is now rapidly becoming the operating system of choice in many core areas of business. It is transforming information technology in many exciting ways from being used in products ranging from cell phones and PDAs to cars and mainframe computers. In addition to being cost-effective, it is constantly being updated and refined with the latest technologies. As Linux gains greater acceptance in todays Information and Communication Technology, more and more companies are supporting Linux both application and hardware compatibility. Read the rest of this entry »
Clustering in VMware
May 7, 2008 // Posted in Virtualization (Tags: clustering, mscs, vmware, windows) | No Comments
Ever wonder if you could try playing with clustering, but without all the expense? Well you are in luck. It is pretty simple to do.
This guide is for Windows Server 2003 or earlier, it will NOT work in Server 2008. The reason this won’t work in Server 2008 is that Microsoft has removed the ability for Microsoft Clustering Service (MSCS) to use shared storage. This will work in all other versions of Windows Server that have MSCS.