Saltstack: Master Setup

What can I say about Saltstack but, WOW! After only using it a couple of days I already have a working CM implementation and not only is it easy to use and incredibly powerful but it is FAST! This is not to say I still dont want to spend more time with Chef but after using Saltstack I find it very hard to peel myself away! As with anything I enjoy I thought it would be a good idea to build out some walkthrough’s for my own reference as well as to help anyone else getting started. To begin I thought I would …

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Chef: Workstation Quick Setup

While there are plenty of Chef tutorials out there I still found myself hunting around for one or two things when setting up my environment so I decided to write this article… Well, it is also for my own selfish reasons as writing these doc’s help to ensure that I learn and provide a reference when I need to set things up again. So! I have been getting started with Chef for configuration management and after building a local server or using Opscode hosted chef you will need to setup your workstation for knife and create a repository to store …

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Python: Amazon Glacier Storage Archiver

As part of my drive to get comfortable with Python I decided to build a script to easily archive files to Amazon Glacier. Since I am cautious and perhaps a little paranoid, I wanted to make sure that the archives were encrypted. Next, since Glacier is cheap to send files too but expensive to restore from I wanted to make sure I could bring back my archives in smaller chunks as well as keep an inventory of what I have uploaded. So my script allows you to do the following: Create Glacier Vaults Delete Glacier Vaults Inventory / View the …

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Netbackup Cloud Storage Server and Amazon S3

Recently I was playing around with Netbackup’s cloud server integration and after reading through their manual and the related doc’s I thought that the subject could use a much simpler explanation and perhaps a walk-through. So far from what I have seen the Netbackup Cloud Storage Server seems to work quite well. The setup wizard is relatively straight-forward and I was definitely impressed with how quickly data was backed up to S3. Basically, after everything is all said and done, backing up to S3 should behave pretty much the same way as backing up to a local tape or disk. …

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Discovering the Chromebook

As I have been beginning to explore the Chromebook I have started building a list of different commands and thought it may be useful to publish them. I will try to keep this updated as I go. About Commands The following will give you a listing of different about: pages that you can get to by typing them in the browser. There seemed to be some good areas for basic networking information, system information and access to experimental features. about:about To access/enable experimental features type the following into the url bar. These commands may change over time. about:flags Keyboard Shortcuts …

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Chromebook Enterprise?

This last week I was given a very nice surprise by a guy I work with when he presented me with a Chromebook. He had been trying to use it for a while but found that he tended to favor his iPad and it really wasnt getting the miles to make it useful. So here we are….. Sitting here writing this article with this Chromebook in my lap I guess I am thinking, now what?… From what I have heard this seems to be peoples first opinion but I am convinced that it wont be my only opinion. First of …

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Category Archives

Cloud

Cloud based technologies have made a lot of things much simpler for me as well as some things a bit more complex. It has lowered the bar for most entry level business systems and has given us a great many choices when building infrastructure.

These days the most difficult thing I find with cloud technologies is explaining that not everything is cheaper.

I make no promises/warranties regarding any of this information. The following information contains my opinions from my own experience. The following documentation is provided for educational purposes only and should be used at your own risk.