Figuring things out, to get it done!
Do you use WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) and do development using technologies such as Docker and Ansible? If you are using VS Code, you can develop in Linux directly from Windows using the Visual Studio Code Remote – WSL extension.
This extension is installed on the Windows end within VS Code. You can then open up VS Code within your WSL terminal with the command code . which will open VS Code on the Windows side.
Check out more here: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/wsl
This guide is meant as a general guide to set up a Windows machine with a suite of DevOps tools. This guide assumes the user has a working knowledge of these tools. It is not meant for a novice.
This setup is being performed on a brand new Windows 11 Home Intel Core i9 with 32MB RAM.
Python is an open source programming language that can run on many different architectures. It has a syntax that is easy to learn and is notable as a learning language,
Head over to https://www.python.org/downloads/ and download the latest version of Python. As of this writing, version 3.10.1 is available.
Run the installer an make sure you add python to PATH. Open a command prompt and test with:
python –version
My preference is VS Code. A good IDE is a MUST for any DevOps engineer.
Visual Studio Code is a source-code editor made by Microsoft for Windows, Linux and macOS. Features include support for debugging, syntax highlighting, intelligent code completion, snippets, code refactoring, and embedded Git.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Studio_Code
Free and is very customizable. Head on over to https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/?dv=win to download the installer. Version 1.63 is available as of this writing.
alternative, Python specific
The goal of any successful engineer is to have repeatable and reproducible methods. This goal can be achieved by storing all work in a repository. Git is the most common SCM at this point in time.
Store your source for free on github or gitlab. Download the git CLI from https://git-scm.com/download/win
Git is easy to learn and has a tiny footprint with lightning fast performance. It outclasses SCM tools like Subversion, CVS, Perforce, and ClearCase with features like cheap local branching, convenient staging areas, and multiple workflows.
https://git-scm.com/
VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2. See “About VirtualBox” for an introduction.
https://www.virtualbox.org/
As of this writing, version 6.1.30 is available. Download the Windows installer here: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
vagrant plugin install vagrant-disksizedownload here https://www.terraform.io/downloads
Alternately install with chocolatey:
choco install terraform
https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop
uh oh for WSL 2
Chocolatey is a software management solution unlike anything else you’ve ever experienced on Windows. Chocolatey brings the concepts of true package management to allow you to version things, manage dependencies and installation order, better inventory management, and other features.
https://chocolatey.org/
Bypass to bypass the policy to get things installed or AllSigned for quite a bit more security.Get-ExecutionPolicy. If it returns Restricted, then run Set-ExecutionPolicy AllSigned or Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process.Now run the following command:choco or choco -? now, or see Getting Started for usage instructions.mRemoteNG is a fork of mRemote: an open source, tabbed, multi-protocol, remote connections manager for Windows. mRemoteNG adds bug fixes and new features to mRemote and allows you to view all of your remote connections in a simple yet powerful tabbed interface.
https://mremoteng.org/
This is a tool for all remote connections. Supports VNC, RDP, SSH, and others, all in a single GUI Interface. PuTTY is used in the backend for SSH connections. Download the latest version here: https://mremoteng.org/download
I am an active contributor to a local retro gaming community located on Long Island in NY. The organization has been putting on a yearly show, The Long Island Retro Gaming Expo, for five years now. I started actively contributing in 2016, and am now leading a team of individuals that maintain and operate all free play offerings for the organization. Free play consists of all sorts of retro gaming home consoles from companies such as Atari, Coleco, Nintendo, Sega, and NEC. It is a large list! In 2018 we started offering PC gaming as a free play option. This currently includes Mac and DOS gaming. In late 2019 we started planning for the 6th annual LI Retro Gaming Expo. Unfortunately the COVID-19 pandemic hit and we, as an organization, had a tough choice. Should we cancel the 2020 expo? We ultimately cancelled the annual Expo in March of 2020, but decided to forge ahead and offer a virtual convention. This turned out to be UPLINK, which took place on the second weekend in August of 2020.
Since UPLINK is an entirely online experience, there was a need to engage the audience in a virtual free play experience. Free play is one of the core offerings of the Expo. You get to sit down and play Space Invaders on genuine Atari hardware, play through the first levels of DOOM on a physical PC, and wander the Oregon Trail on a Macintosh.
Fast forward to today, UPLINK was a success, and it opened additional options for this local retro gaming community to spread the word on how gaming is a community experience.
em_dosbox
other blog posts
compiling in vagrant
releasing to docker
todo: shrink image, frontend
This is a continuation of my previous post: Create an HTPC Stack With Docker Things. I will introduce docker-compose to bring up an environment with both containers used previously, sabnzbd and sickbeard.
I installed docker-compose using the instructions found here: Install Compose. I am using Mac OS X.
First make sure boot2docker is running, boot2docker up. Then create the following file named docker-compose.yml.
sickbeard: image: maxexcloo/sickbeard ports: - "8081:8081" name: - "sickbeard" sabnzbd: image: maxexcloo/sabnzbd ports: - "8080:8080" name: - "sabnzbd"
This is setting up the environment with two images, exposing the ports the application will run on and naming the image to something meaningful. each directive in the yml file map to the same docker run command.
Once this file has been created, simply run docker-compose up, and the images will be started.
Running out of disk space on your Docker host? Here is a quick one liner to remove all unused Docker images:
docker images -q |xargs docker rmi
It will error on images that a running container is using, and won’t delete it.
I found this little gem in the Docker forums here:
This will be a mess until I figure it all out. In this article, I will demonstrate using tools such as packer, docker client, docker-machine to build out a Docker host with an HTPC stack. The following applications will be used:
I will be using the latest Ubuntu 14.04 server distribution. This is being developed on Mac OSX Yosemite 10.10.2.
This is a WIP and will be complete when it is complete. Some of these tools I have not used yet and am learning as I go!
Expect many changes as I figure this out!
You will need the following tools to start:
This article assumes you have installed, and are familiar with the above tools.
I have created a root directory named htpc where all project files will reside.
First create a new Docker host with the docker-machine command:
docker-machine create --driver virtualbox htpc
Now, point your docker client at the new Docker host:
$(docker-machine env htpc)
Docker hub contains thousands of community made images. Searching the hub for a Sickbeard image returns many results. I chose maxexcloo/sickbeard for this example. It is Debian based. First, we need to pull the image.
docker pull maxexcloo/sickbeard
Now run it:
docker $(docker-machine config htpc) run -d -p 8081:8081 --name="sickbeard" maxexcloo/sickbeard
This command will expose port 8081 and run the image in daemon mode (detached).
the –name”” argument provides a nice name that will show up in the NAME column from the output of docker ps. If this argument is not suppled, a random name will be generated.
We are almost finished. To find the IP of the Docker host:
docker-machine ip
Finally, you can point your browser at http://<docker host ip>:8081.
As with Sickbeard, this container will be run similarly.
docker pull maxexcloo/sabnzbd
docker $(docker-machine config htpc) run -d -p 8080:8080 –name=”sabnzbd” maxexcloo/sabnzbd
Running docker ps will show something like this:
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
b432e5cbf6df maxexcloo/sabnzbd:latest "/bin/sh -c /config/ 5 seconds ago Up 4 seconds 0.0.0.0:8080->8080/tcp pensive_ritchie
dbcd9f132908 maxexcloo/sickbeard:latest "/bin/sh -c /config/ 5 minutes ago Up 5 minutes 0.0.0.0:8081->8081/tcp suspicious_tesla
We now have a Docker host running two images!
If this all works out as intended, possibly use vagrant-managed-servers to build out a server that already has an OS on it.
Make my own images.
http://kappataumu.com/articles/creating-an-Ubuntu-VM-with-packer.html
https://www.packer.io/docs/builders/virtualbox-iso.html
https://registry.hub.docker.com/u/maxexcloo/sickbeard/