When it is planned to automate deploying and configuring complex insfrastructure setups, Chef is a mighty tool. Focussing the Infrastructure as Code (IaC) manifesto, it offers more than conventional Configuration Management and can be used to replace manual tasks with faster, repeatable and measurable automatisms. When …

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Recently, I stumbled upon the following issue while installing a Python utility on an older CentOS system: 1# python setup.py install 2Traceback (most recent call last): 3 File "setup.py", line 102, in 4 'katprep_snapshot=katprep.snapshot:cli', 5 File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/distutils/core.py", …

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Doing a recent Puppet agent upgrade from version 3.x to 4.x I stumbled upon the following errors: 1Puppet (warning): Unable to fetch my node definition, but the agent run will continue: 2Puppet (warning): Could not find terminus rest for indirection node 3/File[/var/lib/puppet/lib] (err): Failed to generate additional …

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VirtualBox enjoys great popularity where it is required to virtualize common operating systems for conventional use-cases at no cost. In comparison with other hypervisors such as VMware Workstation, VirtualBox only offers basic graphics acceleration - which is sufficient for classic desktop applications. During a …

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Leveraging SNMP is often a pain when appropriate MIB files (Management Information Base) are missing - e.g. because the manufacturer did not document them or only offer them at fee. When utilizing a Perl program recently, I stumbled upon the following issue: Cannot find module (SNMPv2-SMI): After ensuring that missing …

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Recently I needed access to a HP Management Processor (MP) without knowing the appropriate IP address. A possibility is to utilize a serial connection to the MP - but this is kinda complicated if you don't have any physical system access. A smarter approach is to find out the IP address using the running operating …

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Recently I had the problem that my homelab's Linux machines managed by Puppet were generating dozens of error messages when updating the catalog: 1# puppet agent --test 2Error: /File[/var/lib/puppet/lib/puppet/parser/functions/load_module_metadata.rb]/ensure: change from absent to file failed: Could not set …

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It is a common procedure to use templates ("golden images") when deploying virtual machines. Recently I had an issue when deploying SLES machines - newly registered systems within SUSE Manager replaced older one. The management agent was installed within the template. For classic systems (registered via RHNSD …

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Readers of my blog know that I have been maintaining a homelab for a couple of years. I really like leveraging products I'm focussing on in my working hours also at home. In other words: I like gaining hands-on experience and learning things from scratch. To access my lab remotely, I have been using a VPN solution in …

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With FirewallD, some Linux distributions introduce a new default firewall differing heavily from previous interfaces. This post focusses the basic concept and some practical examples. A major difference is that the firewall now supports changes in realtime without dropping active connections. FirewallD integrates …

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