Make YAML as easy as it looks
If you’ve ever tried writing YAML, you may have been initially pleased with how apparently easy it looks. At first glance, the YAML that’s often used for configuration files, Ansible playbooks, and flat-file databases looks more or less as intuitive as a shopping list. However, there’s a lot of nuance in YAML’s structure, and it conceals a dangerous secret: YAML is actually a highly precise, structured, and...
How I use Ansible and anacron for automation
Automation is the great IT and DevOps ideal, but in my experience, anything that’s not immediately convenient may as well not exist at all. There have been many times when I’ve come up with a pretty good solution for some task, and I’ll even script it, but I stop short of making it literally automated because the infrastructure for easy automation doesn’t exist on the machine I’m working on. read more...
Using Ansible with REST APIs
Ansible is a top open source project which, on the surface, looks to provide a simple way to standardize your existing automation and allow it to run in parallel across multiple hosts, and it does this very successfully. Yet, in reality, Ansible has the capabilities to extend what your existing automation does to incorporate other systems and really simplify tasks across all aspects of your daily routine. read more Powered by...
How I keep my file folders tidy with Ansible
I try to use Ansible often, even for tasks that I know how to do with a shell script because I know that Ansible is easy to scale. Even though I might develop an Ansible playbook just for my personal workstation, sometimes it ends up being a lot more useful than intended, and it’s easy to apply that same playbook to all the computers on my network. And besides, sometimes the greatest enemy of getting really good at something is...
Manage CentOS Stream with Foreman
In December 2021, CentOS 8 will reach end of life and be replaced by CentOS Stream. One of the major changes between previous iterations of CentOS and CentOS Stream is the lack of minor versions. Centos Stream has adopted a continuous release cycle. From the beginning of this year, developers in the Foreman community started to see the benefits of earlier bug detection and patching that CentOS Stream offers as a result of the...
Install Java manually on Linux
It is easy to use your Linux distribution’s package management tool to install the Java software packages. However, sometimes you need to do a manual installation of Java. This is of particular importance to administrators of Java-based application servers such as Tomcat or JBoss. Many open source and proprietary software products rely on these services. Developer or Runtime kit? The Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is provided in two...
