Apache ActiveMQ is a modern, open source messaging platform. For years now, the community has been working on the successor to the venerable ActiveMQ - now sometimes referred to as ActiveMQ classic.
The new project is named ActiveMQ Artemis, at least until the time that it will be re-branded as ActiveMQ 6.0. Apparently that will happen once ActiveMQ Artemis has all features of ActiveMQ, but since no one knows if and when this feature parity is achieved lets take a ... [continue reading]
This is not the place to tell anyone why Infrastructure as Code is a good idea. For that I can point the potential readers to a blog by my colleague Yngve about that: Why code your infrastructure?
I a short series of blogs, I intend to demonstrate building infrastructure in AWS in steps, where I will be building upon previous entries. Basic knowledge of network and VPC is assumed.
Note that following these instructions can and will incur costs ... [continue reading]
I’m sure everybody is aware you can have PostgreSQL fetch data live across the internet (or locally of course) as part of your queries and use the data directly. In fact there are a large number of drivers available to access different kinds of data for download. But in the simplest case, we can also just use the file_fdw wrapper that’s included in the standard PostgreSQL packages, together with everybody’s http-swiss-army-knife, curl.
In attempting to adapt this ... [continue reading]
When we introduced the network configuration using Ansible and AWX at a customer, we gradually extended the configuration scope. Over time, more and more configuration got added into the configuration pool and this lead to longer and longer run-times for the playbooks.
While the job-execution got really simple by using AWX instead of the plain CLI method for Ansible, the time to finish drew heavily on that benefit.
A complete job-run over the network infrastructure took at least ... [continue reading]
We’ve been to FOSDEM in Belgium this year. A couple of Many of Redpill’s Agents (so called: Consultants) have made the trip to Belgium to join the annual conference taking place at Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB).
This year the conference was held during the first weekend in February, at the 1st and 2nd.
For those who don’t know: FOSDEM is a free software developer conference where you can attend talks about various different tools, processes and ideas and ... [continue reading]
While the AWS console gives you a nice point and click interface, and really helps you explore the vast service catalog of AWS, the use of the CLI should not be neglected.
Some of the advantages of the CLI:
This year we intend to upgrade all the routers in our network backbone to a brand new platform based on open networking devices from Edge-Core running Cumulus Linux. In this post - replete with pictures - we will take a close look at the new routers and the topology of our new network backbone.
Our network backbone is today based on the Juniper MX 240 routing platform. Each of them occupy 5 ... [continue reading]
Sometimes I need to quickly remove one of our data centre switches from production. Typically this is done in preparation of scheduled maintenance, but it could also be necessary if I suspect that it is misbehaving in some way. Recently I stumbled across an undocumented feature in Cumulus Linux that significantly simplified this procedure.
The key is the file /cumulus/switchd/ctrl/shutdown_linkdown. This file does normally not exist, but if it is created with the contents 1, it changes ... [continue reading]
(Update: This post has been updated to reflect changing backup tool from WAL-E to WAL-G. WAL-G is a more modern and faster implementation of cloud backups for postgreSQL)
Several Redpill Linpro customers are now in the kubernetes way of delivery. Kubernetes has changed the way they work, and is acting as an effective catalyst empowering their developers. For these customers, the old-school way of running PostgreSQL is becoming a bit cumbersome:
The typical PostgreSQL installation has been based on bare ... [continue reading]
Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) is a technology that uses cryptographic signatures to make the Domain Name System (DNS) tamper-proof, safeguarding against DNS hijacking. If your ISP or network operator cares about your online security, their DNS servers will validate DNSSEC signatures for you. DNSSEC is widely deployed: here in Scandinavia, about 80% of all DNS lookups are subject to DNSSEC validation (source). Wondering whether or not your DNS server validates DNSSEC signatures? www.dnssec-or-not.com ... [continue reading]
