DevOps

Docker: Jenkins Build Server on Windows Server Core Big fan of Jenkins! I've really enjoyed the flexibility that this CI server provides. While it's easy to run a Linux container with Jenkins and do .NET Core builds it's not possible to build traditional ASP.NET projects... unless you install Mono.. but I could never get that to work. After contemplating my...

HashiCorp Packer Packer is a really awesome modern tool for automating the process of provisioning images. This in conjunction with source control (preferably Git) and Vagrant can mean that your portable Hyper-V, VirtualBox or VMWare images are maintainable and immutable. Through provisioners, Packer can build in many different environments including cloud infrastructure. There's a lot of good documentation out there...

Mounting Volumes in Docker with Visual Studio This technique is ideal for local development within Visual Studio. You can easily mount local files into a docker container by modifying the MSBuild commands of the project. Project File's MSBuild Commands This code came from a .NET Core 3.1 project. Using MSBuild Variables Another way to do this is to use the MSBuild Variable $(MSBuildStartupDirectory). Since...

SSH Tunneling When you need to access a server/client behind a firewall that doesn't allow port forwarding you can use SSH tunneling to bypass that if an SSH server is running. Pivoting is a sneaky technique that hackers use to access computers, servers, and services behind firewalls. These examples will use OpenSSH. I think most examples don't explain this well...

Docker Compose: WORDPRESS_CONFIG_EXTRA The Docker image for WordPress contains a property called "WORDPRESS_CONFIG_EXTRA", this allows code to be passed directly to the wp-config.php file. This is great because you can fully customize your WordPress wp-config.php file. Queryable Variable for Enabling Debug My normal PHP code will not work: The trick to getting this code to work is escaping the "$" in Docker. This...

Must Haves for the IT Professionals Over the years I've used some really cool devices and services and I find these all to be very useful tools that I personally must own. DeepCool So, I was a hacker party once and my friend was like, "You have to try this.". This product sits beneath your laptop while circulating air and improving the...

Running Terraform in Docker Locally Here are some quick tips on how to run Terraform locally in Docker. To get started pull the Docker image of Terraform. This image is built on the golang/alpine image. Running a Script There's a couple of things here worth noting. I'm mapping in my scripts using the volume command in Docker. The entry point script executes Terraform...

Setting up TeamSpeak 3 with Docker on DigitalOcean Setting up TeamSpeak 3 on DigitalOcean with Docker is incredibly easy. This provides a cheap ($5/month) dedicated server for gamers. There are some amazing benefits to using DigitalOcean such as the ability to quickly create a droplet and use of their floating IP addresses. The default TeamSpeak 3 license will allow...

DigitalOcean Zabbix (SSL) with NGINX and Certbot The default Zabbix image from DigitalOcean installs Zabbix on CentOS without an SSL. This tutorial will show you how to set up an SSL using Let's Encrypt Certbot. I expect that you are comfortable in Vim and general Linux administration. Install Vim Install Let's Encrypt Certbot Modify NGINX Config for Certbot This will be needed to...