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
Learn how I seamlessly access and manage containers without SSH using nsenter and docker-enter on CentOS 7, making DevOps simpler.

Connecting to Docker Containers

I have been installing and exposing SSH on most of the containers I have deployed, which I know is wrong. As I have been trying to do things in a more “devops” way I decided to do a little reading on how I can enter and leave running containers on my CentOS 7 instance without having to expose SSH or configure users. This is when I came across nsenter↗ & docker-enter↗ ....

August 25, 2014 · 1 min · Russ Mckendrick
Discover how I effortlessly stay updated with the latest blogs using Feedly and Reeder 2, and how it fuels my reading list.

Reading List

At least once a day I skim through a large number of blogs in my Feedly↗ feed using Reeder 2↗ , when I see something which catches my eye I send it over to Pocket↗ so it is sync’ed to all of my devices. Here are some of the posts I have saved for further reading …. Docker / PaaS PaaS for Realists↗ Why is Docker the new craze in virtualization and cloud computing?...

August 17, 2014 · 1 min · Russ Mckendrick
Learn how to manage dotfiles to customize your computing environment using with pre-built collections and forking Bashstrap.

Dotfiles

For the last few years I have been grabbing some we documented dotfiles from GitHub↗ but most of them have either ended up reconfigured my Mac to the point of it being unrecognisable or they have just been a collection of useful aliases. The I came across Bashstrap↗ , it was close enough to what I wanted so I forked it↗ …. You can install them using the following commands;...

August 10, 2014 · 1 min · Russ Mckendrick
Unlock the secrets of Google's HTTPS ranking signal and SNI! Learn how to secure your site for maximum visibility.

Google promotes HTTPS everywhere

Google announced earlier this week that they are going to use HTTPS as a ranking signal↗ : We want to go even further. At Google I/O a few months ago, we called for “HTTPS everywhere” on the web. We’ve also seen more and more webmasters adopting HTTPS (also known as HTTP over TLS, or Transport Layer Security), on their website, which is encouraging. For these reasons, over the past few months we’ve been running tests taking into account whether sites use secure, encrypted connections as a signal in our search ranking algorithms....

August 10, 2014 · 3 min · Russ Mckendrick
As an experienced Linux user, I discuss why I prefer CentOS for my servers, comparing it to Fedora and Ubuntu.

Am I an Operating System snob?

Last week I posted about upgrading my servers to CentOS 7, one of the main factors about upgrading to CentOS 7 was the jump in kernel version (from 2.6.x to 3.10.x). Also, it was so that I could use more modern versions core of software without having to worry about installing numerous additional repos. The funny thing is that all of the software I have been waiting to use have been available in both Fedora↗ and Ubuntu↗ for quite a while, so why have I waited?...

August 3, 2014 · 2 min · Russ Mckendrick
Learn about the process of upgrading servers from CentOS 6 to CentOS 7, including updates for Puppet Master server, Apache configuration, and Docker server.

Upgrading my servers to CentOS 7

==PLEASE NOTE: THESE INSTRUCTIONS ARE NOW OUTDATED, SEE THIS POST FOR AN UPDATE== After I dabbled with CentOS 7 a few weeks ago I decided to take the plunge and upgrade the few servers I run at DigitalOcean↗ to CentOS 7. I run two machines, one is a Puppet and Salt Master, the second runs Docker. Puppet Master Server A while back I added a few bash scripts to deploy both a Puppet Master & Agent↗ to GitHub, as Puppet provide a repo for CentOS 7 I decided to just update the installation script to use this repo and then give ago....

July 27, 2014 · 3 min · Russ Mckendrick