One of the things I often tell people is, “Use the right tool for the job.” As technologists, we shouldn’t get so locked onto any one technology or product that we can’t see when other technologies or products might solve a particular problem more effectively. It’s for this reason that I recently made VirtualBox—not VMware Fusion—my primary virtualization provider for Vagrant environments.
I know it seems odd for a VMware employee to use/prefer a non-VMware product over a competing VMware product. I’ve been a long-time Fusion user (since 2006 when I was part of the original “friends and family” early release). Since I started working with Vagrant about two years ago, I really tried to stick it out with VMware Fusion as my primary virtualization provider. I had a ton of experience with Fusion, and—honestly—it seemed like the right thing to do. After a couple of years, though, I’ve decided to switch to using VirtualBox as my primary provider for Vagrant.
Why? There’s a few different reasons:
Greater manageability: VirtualBox comes with a really powerful CLI tool, vboxmanage
, that lets me do just about anything from the command line. In fact, the VirtualBox documentation refers to Continue reading
In this post, I’m going to show you how to install a specific version of the Docker Engine package on Ubuntu. While working on a side project (one that will hopefully bear fruit soon), I found myself in need of installing a slightly older version of Docker Engine (1.11 instead of 1.12, to be specific). While this task isn’t hard, it also wasn’t clearly spelled out anywhere, and this post aims to help address that shortcoming.
If you’ve followed the instructions to add the Docker Apt repos to your system as outlined here, then installing the Docker Engine (latest version) would be done something like this:
apt-get install docker-engine
If you do an apt-cache search docker-engine
, though, you’ll find that the “docker-engine” package is a metapackage that refers to a variety of different versions of the Docker Engine. To install a specific version of the Docker Engine, then, simply append the version (as described by the results of the apt-cache search docker-engine
command) to the end, like this:
apt-get install docker-engine=1.11.2-0~trusty
This will install version 1.11.2 of the Docker Engine.
You’ll use the same syntax when you need to install a specific Continue reading
If you’re going to be in Barcelona for either VMworld EMEA (running the week of October 17) or the fall 2016 OpenStack Summit (running the week of October 24), then I recommend you plan for your spouse/partner/girlfriend/boyfriend/whatever to join you for what I believe are some pretty spectacular Spousetivities.
First, let’s have a quick look at the activities planned around VMworld EMEA. What’s in store? Here’s a quick sneak peek (check out the registration page for full details):
Tickets for all these events are available now. These events were sponsored by VMware NSX, Veeam, VMUG, and TVP Strategy.
If you’re coming to Barcelona for the OpenStack Summit instead (or perhaps staying over Continue reading
In this post, I’d like to describe how to use Vagrant with AWS, as well as provide a brief description of why this combination of technologies may make sense for some use cases. In some respects, this post is similar to my posts on using Docker Machine with OpenStack and using Vagrant with OpenStack in that combining Vagrant with AWS creates another clean “provider/consumer” model that makes it easy for users to consume infrastructure.
If you aren’t already familiar with Vagrant, I’d highly recommend first taking a look at my introduction to Vagrant, which provides an overview of the tool and how it’s used.
Naturally, you’ll need to first ensure that you have Vagrant installed. This is really well-documented already, so I won’t go over it here. Next, you’ll need to install the AWS provider for Vagrant, which you can handle using this command:
vagrant plugin install vagrant-aws
Once you’ve installed the vagrant-aws
plugin, you’ll next need to install a box that Vagrant can use. Here, the use of Vagrant with AWS is a bit different than the use of Vagrant with a provider like VirtualBox or VMware Fusion/VMware Workstation. In those cases, the box Continue reading
This post is a follow-up on my earlier post on using an SSH bastion host. Since that article was published, I’ve gotten some additional information that I wanted to be sure to share with my readers. It’s possible that this additional information may not affect you, but I’ll allow you to make that determination based on your use case and your specific environment.
You may recall that my original article said that you needed to enable agent forwarding, either via the -A
command-line switch or via a ForwardAgent
line in your SSH configuration file. This is unnecessary. (Thank you to several readers who contacted me about this issue.) I tested this several times using AWS instances, and was able to transparently connect to private instances (instances without a public IP address) via a bastion host without enabling agent forwarding. This is odd because almost every other tutorial I’ve seen or read instructs readers to enable agent forwarding. I’ve not yet determined why this is the case, but I’m going to do some additional testing and I’ll keep readers posted as I learn more.
Note that I’ve updated the original article accordingly.
The Continue reading
Welcome to Technology Short Take #71! As always, I have a list of links related to various data center technologies found below; hopefully something here proves useful.
This is a liveblog of the day 2 general session here at VMworld 2016 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, NV. Today, VMware is expected to talk more about containers, end-user computing, and other topics not covered in yesterday’s general session (which focused heavily on Cross-Cloud Services, VMware’s new set of SaaS-based offerings for multi-cloud management).
The general session kicks off with Sanjay Poonen taking the stage. Poonen is an energetic speaker who’s generally very entertaining and lively. He starts his discussion with a nod to VMware’s strong customer loyalty and community, which fosters lifelong learning. That quickly transitions into a discussion of “digital transforamtion”—how technology is affecting many different areas of our lives and our society.
VMware’s proposition in digital transformation is two-fold:
Poonen re-iterates VMware’s vision of “any cloud, any device, any application,” focusing primarily on Workspace ONE and the broad ecosystem that has formed/is forming around Workspace ONE. Poonen’s discussion of Workspace ONE will focus on three layers:
This is a liveblog of the day 1 keynote at VMworld 2016 in Las Vegas, NV. I managed to snag a somewhat decent seat in the massive bloggers/press/analysts area, though it filled up really quickly. Based on the announcements made this morning, it should be a great general session, and I’m really interested to see how its received by the community.
The keynote starts with a high-energy percussion/DJ session, followed by a talk about tomorrow—from where tomorrow will emerge, what tomorrow will look like, and what tomorrow will care about. Don’t stand in line for tomorrow; you are tomorrow, because tomorrow is about people. Which way will you face? What will you do to bring about tomorrow? All of this lines up, naturally, with VMworld’s “be_Tomorrow” theme.
After that talk Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMware, takes the stage. He talks briefly about his foot injury, then thanks the 21 “Alumni Elite” who have attended every single VMworld. Gelsinger then moves into a discussion of buzzwords and “digital transformation,” claiming that all businesses are digital businesses, and therefore all businesses need to worry about the challenges that face digital businesses. Gelsinger talks about a couple companies that have Continue reading
VMworld is upon us, and if you’ve been to the conference before you know it can sometimes be challenging to catch up with folks. (If this is your first time, now you know it can sometimes be challenging to catch up with folks.) This post is an effort to help make it a bit easier if you’re interested in meeting up with me at VMworld.
In years past, I published my schedule so that others could see what sessions I was attending, find times we could meet, etc. Now that I’m a VMware employee, registering for sessions is not permitted (customers first, as it should be!). However, it may still be helpful to show my schedule, so I’m listing it below. You can also view a read-only version of my calendar here.
6:00 pm to sometime - vBeers at Ri Ra Irish Pub
1:30 pm to 3:15 pm - VMworld TAM Day Ask the Experts
5:00 pm to 7:30 pm - Welcome reception in the Solutions Exchange
7:30 pm to sometime - VMUG member party
7:45 am - Prayer time (see here)
9:00 am to Continue reading
For the last couple of years, I’ve helped organize a gathering of Christians for a brief time of prayer while at VMworld. This year, I’d like to again offer fellow believers attending VMworld 2016 the same opportunity to gather together for a time of prayer before starting the day. If you’re interested in attending, here are the details.
What: A brief time of prayer
Where: Mandalay Bay Convention Center, level 1 (same level as the food court), at the bottom of the escalators heading upstairs
When: Monday 8/29 through Thursday 9/1 at 7:45am (this should give everyone enough time to grab breakfast before the keynotes start at 9am)
Who: All courteous attendees are welcome, but please note that this will be a distinctly Christian-focused and Christ-centric activity. (I encourage believers of other faiths/religions to organize equivalent activities.)
Why: To spend a few minutes in prayer over the day, the conference, and the attendees
As in previous years, there’s no need to RSVP or let me know that you’ll be there, although you’re welcome to do so if you’d like. There’s also no need to bring anything except an open heart and a willingness to display your faith in front Continue reading
Welcome to Technology Short Take #70! In this post you’ll find a collection of links to articles discussing the major data center technologies—networking, hardware, security, cloud computing, applications, virtualization…you name it! (If there’s a topic you think I’m missing, I’d love to hear from you.)
--allowed_address_pairs
extension to build a highly-available proxy server instead of using LBaaS.News emerged today that Open vSwitch (OVS) has formally moved over to the Linux Foundation. This is something that has been discussed within the OVS community for a while, and I for one am glad to see it happen.
Why am I glad to see it happen? The project can finally shed itself of the (unfair) claims that the governance under Nicira (and later VMware) wasn’t “open enough.” These accusations persisted despite numerous indications otherwise. Thomas Graf, an OVS committer—who does not work for VMware, for the record—came to this conclusion in his OVSCon 2015 presentation:
OVS is one of the most effective and well governed open source projects I’ve worked on.
Moving to the Linux Foundation allows OVS to continue to grow and flourish without continued accusations of unfair governance. The project intends to continue to use its existing governance model, in which technical leadership of the project is determined by the committers, and committer status is determined by your involvement in the project via code contributions and code reviews.
For more information, refer to the official Linux Foundation press release.
Many of you have asked, and here’s the answer: Yes, there will be Spousetivities at VMworld 2016 in Las Vegas, NV! For those of you who may be new to the VMworld scene, Spousetivities started in 2008 when my wife got together with a small group of spouses and partners traveling with the conference attendees. From there, it’s become a staple of the VMworld community events. Read on for more details on what’s planned this year at VMworld 2016!
Welcome to Technology Short Take #69! In this post, I’ve collected a variety of links related to major data center technology areas. This episode is a bit long; sorry about that!
Welcome to Technology Short Take #68, my erratically-published collection of links, articles, and posts from around the web—all focused on today’s major data center technologies. I’ve been trying to stick to a schedule that has these posts published on a Friday, but given the pending holiday weekend I wanted to get this out a bit early. As always, I hope that something I’ve included here proves useful to you.
I had a reader contact me recently with some questions regarding the use of Open vSwitch (OVS) on Debian “Jessie” 8.5 and using the OVS integration with the Debian network scripts. For those of you that might be unfamiliar with this functionality, it’s the ability to configure OVS via instructions and directives found in the /etc/network/interfaces
file. As I was helping this reader, I came across a couple potential “gotchas” that I wanted to point out here.
First, I’ll point you to the documentation for the Debian network scripts integration, which is found in this file in the “Debian network scripts integration” section. This documentation provides the complete breakdown of the various commands that can be used in /etc/network/interfaces
to configure OVS.
Based on that documentation, you could create an OVS bridge and add a physical port to that bridge by including the following stanzas in /etc/network/interfaces
:
allow-ovs ovsbr0
iface ovsbr0 inet manual
ovs_type OVSBridge
ovs_ports eth1
allow-ovsbr0 eth1
iface eth1 inet manual
ovs_bridge ovsbr0
ovs_type OVSPort
Now for the gotchas…
The Debian “Jessie” repos include version 2.3.0 of OVS; the latest release in the 2.3.x train is 2.3.3. As it turns Continue reading
While at DockerCon 2016 in Seattle today, I took some time on the expo floor to talk to a number of different vendors, mostly focused on networking solutions. Here are some notes from these discussions. I may follow up with additional posts on some of these technologies; it will largely depend on time and the ease by which the technologies/products may be consumed.
My first stop was the Plumgrid booth. I’d heard of Plumgrid, but wanted to take this time to better understand their architecture. As it turns out, their architecture is quite interesting. Plumgrid is one of the primary commercial sponsors behind the IO Visor project, a Linux Foundation project, which leverages the extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) subsystem in the Linux kernel. Using eBPF, Plumgrid has created in-kernel virtual network functions (VNFs) that do things like bridging, routing, network address translation (NAT), and firewalling. Combined with a scale-out central control plane and leveraging the Linux kernel’s built-in support for VXLAN, this enables Plumgrid to create overlay networks and apply very granular security policies to attached workloads (which could be VMs or containers).
Next, I stopped by the Calico booth. Unlike many of the networking Continue reading
This is a liveblog for the day 2 keynote of DockerCon 2016, which wraps up today in Seattle, WA. While today’s pre-keynote warm-up doesn’t include laser-equipped kittens, the music is much more upbeat and energetic (as opposed to yesterday’s more somber, dramatic music). If the number of laptops on the podium is any indicator (yesterday it was a cue to the number of demos planned), then today’s keynote will include a few demos as well.
Ben Golub kicks off the day 2 keynote—with the requisite coffee shot that is a sacrifice to the “demo gods”—and offers up some thanks to the supporters of last night’s party at the Space Needle. Golub quick reviews the key announcements and demos from the day 1 keynote (see my liveblog here). Today, though, will be focused on democratizing Docker in the enterprise. In referring to Docker’s adoption in the enterprise, Golub shares some numbers that vary widely, and admits that it’s really difficult to know what the real adoption rate is. He points to multiple “critical transformations” occurring within the enterprise: application modernization, cloud adoption, and DevOps (process/procedure/culture changes).
This leads Golub into a discussion of anti-patterns, or fallacies. The first fallacy he Continue reading
This is a liveblog for the day 1 keynote of DockerCon 2016, taking place over the next couple of days in Seattle, WA. Before the keynote starts in earnest, Gordon the Turtle entertains attendees with some “special” Docker containers that affect the display on the main stage: showing butterflies, playing sounds, launching a Docker-customized version of Pac-Man, or initiating a full-out battle of laser-shooting kittens.
The keynote starts with Ben Golub taking the stage to kick things off. Golub begins his portion with a quick “look back” at milestones from previous Docker events and the history of Docker (the open source project). Golub calls out a few particular sessions—protein folding, data analysis in sports, and extending a video game—and then unveils that these sessions are being presented by kids under the age of 13.
This leads Golub into a review of the efforts of Docker (the company) to democratize containers:
Golub gives a “shout out” to the technologies underpinning modern Linux containers (namespaces, cgroups, etc., and their predecessors) and calls out the 2,900+ contributors to the open source Docker project. He then spends the next several minutes talking about various metrics—pull requests, containers Continue reading
This is a liveblog for the day 2 keynote of DockerCon 2016, which wraps up today in Seattle, WA. While today’s pre-keynote warm-up doesn’t include laser-equipped kittens, the music is much more upbeat and energetic (as opposed to yesterday’s more somber, dramatic music). If the number of laptops on the podium is any indicator (yesterday it was a cue to the number of demos planned), then today’s keynote will include a few demos as well.
Ben Golub kicks off the day 2 keynote—with the requisite coffee shot that is a sacrifice to the “demo gods”—and offers up some thanks to the supporters of last night’s party at the Space Needle. Golub quick reviews the key announcements and demos from the day 1 keynote (see my liveblog here). Today, though, will be focused on democratizing Docker in the enterprise. In referring to Docker’s adoption in the enterprise, Golub shares some numbers that vary widely, and admits that it’s really difficult to know what the real adoption rate is. He points to multiple “critical transformations” occurring within the enterprise: application modernization, cloud adoption, and DevOps (process/procedure/culture changes).
This leads Golub into a discussion of anti-patterns, or fallacies. The first fallacy he Continue reading