Blog
Create virtual machines with a grain of salt
Salt [1] is not only useful for configuration management or infrastructure automation in general but also a flexible platform to build your own specialized solutions on top. This blog post shows how easy it is to leverage Salt from within your own Python code and how it helped us to simplify and enhance a complex deployment process based on Xen-Hypervisors [5] and virtual machines.
From Docker to podman: On the why and how
When Docker was released it felt like a revelation to developers and admins. For the first time a user space utility combined some old but very nifty kernel features in an easy-to-use package. But after some time, weaknesses of the Docker architecture were observed and alternatives to it emerged. In this article, we take a quick look at one of these alternatives and showcase its use with a popular internal use case at B1 Systems.
Check tcp connections and firewall rules across networks using nc
Larger companies have a big network with different network segments. Often they have active components like routers and firewalls inside the network to avoid bad traffic and unauthorized connections. If you now like to implement a new (open source) software, which needs a connection to another server, you have to ensure that the connection is possible. You have two options for solving this problem. We’ll look into both of them.
How to make git show information in your bash prompt
In a previous blogpost we learned how to use git and bash aliases and also use bash completion. Another nifty feature is showing some git information in your bash prompt. This blogpost will show you how.
How to use bash completion for your own git aliases
If you are like me, you will likely work on several different projects on a daily basis – and all of them will be stored in git.
Sure, git is easy to use. But typing the same set of commands multiple times, every day, can be quite annoying. Fortunately, using bash and git together allows to create some user-defined shortcuts.
Zeit- und Selbstmanagement – Schließlich hat der Arbeitstag nur acht Stunden
Größer könnten die Unterschiede nicht sein zwischen Admin und Manager. Während letzterer seine KPIs, den Durchsatz und die Deadlines nicht aus dem Auge verliert, konzentriert sich der Admin meist auf das operative Ergebnis. Dass seine Ziele und die seines Managers nicht immer zueinander passen liegt nahe – gerade in Bezug auf das Zeitmanagement. Doch wie funktioniert Zeitmanagement eigentlich? Wie kannst du deine Arbeitszeit sinnvoll planen? Dieser Artikel gibt dir einige Möglichkeiten an die Hand.
Refactoring Part 3 – Spring Cleaning
As hinted in the second part of the series, code smells can be used as an indicator for a corresponding refactoring strategy. Some of these strategies seem like common knowledge, but shouldn’t be ignored as this is often the main cause of software issues.
Refactoring Part 2 – When code starts to smell fishy
After establishing the advantages and disadvantages of refactoring in my previous post, the next step is to understand when and where to begin the progress. Refactoring should be best applied to the regular programming workflow, to support the programmers in their everyday work routine:
Refactoring Part 1 – A Collyer’s Mansion of code
It’s a common problem in software development that – all best intentions aside – the once clean and structured code base gets more and more complicated and messy over time. There are plenty of reasons for even the most cared for code to get to this state, e.g. technical debt. At this stage the designated developer is faced with at least two options to proceed further: Recreating the code from scratch or refactoring the code base over time.
BigBlueButton – Selbst gehostete Videokonferenzen
Videokonferenzen erfreuen sich gerade in Coronazeiten großer Beliebtheit, passen aber auch so ins 21. Jahrhundert, in dem Meetings auch online abgehalten werden können. Die Open Source Videokonferenzplattform BigBlueButton zeigt, wie dies auch mit eigenem Hosting unabhängig und datenschutzkonform möglich ist.
