Solved a perplexing issue where static files weren't updating in Vagrant due to a long-standing VirtualBox bug with 'sendfile'.

Annoying Virtual Box bug

I am in the process of building a Vagrant↗ Box for work↗ . All was going great until I ended up having to spend the best part of two days trying to figure out why static files (css, javascript etc) were not being served after being updated on the host file system. Turns out that VirtualBox↗ has had a “bug” for around three years where if “sendfile↗ ” is enabled in the web server you are running it won’t serve a file after it has been changed on the file system mounted from the host machine....

November 2, 2014 · 1 min · Russ Mckendrick
Successfully upgraded to Docker 1.3 with process injection feature on CentOS, bypassing outdated repos with a manual install.

Installing Docker 1.3.x on CentOS 7

When Docker 1.3↗ was released a few weeks ago I was interested in using the process injection docker exec functionality. Unfortunately, all of the repos which provide RPMs for Docker are out of date, the documentation suggests a manual installation↗ of the binary which is turns out to be straight forward: Installing Docker 1.3.x on CentOS 7 1/2 # Download the binary & set the permissions curl -L https://get.docker.com/builds/Linux/x86_64/docker-latest > /usr/bin/docker; chmod +x /usr/bin/docker # Download the systemd files curl -L https://raw....

November 2, 2014 · 2 min · Russ Mckendrick
Exciting weeks with a surge in Twitter favorites from a Docker-related tweet and mentions in Docker Weekly News and by CenturyLink Labs.

Whats going on?

Its been an interesting few weeks. I woke up one morning to find around 70 emails, most of them from Twitter saying a tweet I had been mentioned in had been favorited, this was the source …. .@docker, Fig, @nginx Reverse Proxies and #CentOS 7 https://t.co/Eenl8b1g9r by @RussMckendrick via @mediaglasses — Docker: Build 39X Faster (@Docker) October 13, 2014 …. yay. After spending a fews months talking about Docker↗ at work↗ it was good to get a mention....

November 2, 2014 · 1 min · Russ Mckendrick
Reflecting on my smoothest MacOS upgrade experience with Yosemite: a journey from backup to clean installation and setting up my essentials.

Yosemite Installation

This could be the most straight forward MacOS update I have ever performed (I have been doing them since System 7.5↗ ). This time all three machines (iMac, MBP and MBA) worked first time with no dramas. As always the first thing I did was a full TimeMachine back-up (I have been burnt before) and then downloaded a copy of the Yosemite install from the AppStore. Rather than do an in-place upgrade I always do a clean installation, for the last three releases I have used the excellent DiskMaker X (or Lion Disk Maker as it used to be known)↗ ....

October 20, 2014 · 2 min · Russ Mckendrick
Exploring CoreOS on DigitalOcean: From setting up a single instance with familiar tools to configuring a powerful container-oriented OS.

Very basic CoreOS

On Friday DigitalOcean announced the availability↗ of CoreOS↗ on their platform. CoreOS is a very optimized Operating System which is designed to just run containers. While it has some very powerful clustering elements made up of …. etcd↗ fleet↗ systemmd↗ …. I decided my first step should be to do the opposite of every blog post I have read about CoreOS and run a single instance with the tools I am used to using....

September 7, 2014 · 2 min · Russ Mckendrick
Sharing a captivating collection of music documentaries I discovered on YouTube, from Factory Records to Prog Rock legends.

Music Documentaries

While bored the other day I stumbled across some great music documentaries on YouTube, here are some of the best …. Enjoy

September 7, 2014 · 1 min · Russ Mckendrick
Exploring Docker's rapid updates and the ecosystem, including using Fig for container orchestration and setting up an NGINX reverse proxy.

Docker, Fig, NGINX Reverse Proxies and CentOS 7

I have been writing a lot about Docker↗ and how I have used it over the last several months so why another another post? Well, for a start it has a lot of momentum. Since Docker went 1.0 in June↗ there have been two further↗ releases↗ . Also, the ecosystem which has sprung up around Docker is keeping up the same pace as well. This means that there is always a lot of new shinny things to play with such as …....

August 31, 2014 · 4 min · Russ Mckendrick
Reflecting on a year of blogging: celebrating the first post's anniversary, layout changes, and the evolution of my blogging journey.

One Year On

I just noticed that the first post on this blog was made exactly a year ago today. While the layout and blogging engine has changed and I have not posted for extended periods of time happy birthday to me.

August 31, 2014 · 1 min · Russ Mckendrick