Moving from Windows to Linux – Freedom and Happiness
New week at work, opening my laptop and Windows system greets me with well known and hated information: “Configuring Windows Updates, 30% Complete, Don’t turn off your computer”, hanging on the screen for another 20 minutes. Just perfect…
I work with Linux operating systems throughout my professional life, but I’ve never had it installed as my main operating system on my workstation. Time to change it! Here is my experience of switching from Windows to Linux as well a brief mention of applications I work with on Linux.
The type of work I do involves pretty wide range of tasks. I’m working with IT infrastructures, network appliances, Linux & Windows servers, databases and application servers. I use an office suite to create presentations, write documentations or create designs. I also use multiple e-mail service providers and follow multiple agendas.
This post is not to discuss pros and cons of working with Windows or Linux. As a matter of fact I’m working with all major operating systems; Linux, Windows and even OSX. Now, I decided to finally give it a try and I will run Linux on my day to day machine. Continue reading…
Installing OpenShift Origin in a Home Lab
We are going to demonstrate how quickly get us up and running with a “lightweight” OpenShift Origin environment in a virtual home lab.
Origin is the upstream community project that powers OpenShift. Built around a core of Docker container packaging and Kubernetes container cluster management. OpenShift Origin is a distribution of Kubernetes optimized for continuous application development and multi-tenant deployment. (source: www.openshift.org)
Let’s have a look at our virtual infrastructure of this project:
OpenShift Origin Topology
Virtual infra:
Our virtual infrastructure has 4 virtual machines. Point out that each machine has 3 virtual disks attached. In addition, we are running DNS server, NFS storage and Ansible control server. Our DNS server is configured to resolve to all hostnames and IPs including console.openshift.local domain and wildcard for *.apps.openshift.local. We will be running installation scripts from ansible host, using openshift ansible playbooks. It can be a laptop or any other workstation that has access to all virtual servers. Point out that os-infra1 node has 8GB of RAM, this is because we intend to run logging, metrics and EFK on that node. Continue reading…
Installing Sophos UTM 9 Firewall In Home Network
Have you ever thought about securing and monitoring your home network, or protecting your children from online treads? There are hundreds of applications you could install which is challenging to choose. I do care about online security and I’m very keen to know what’s going on in my home network. This has led me to creating my own, central home intrusion prevention system (IDS) on a budget equipment. And I’m going to share with you, how to do it.
Traditional home network armed with IDS system
In the previous post Securing Home Network with SOPHOS UTM IDS we have introduced SOPHOS UTM 9 and we have discussed some benefits of having such system implemented in our home network. In this post we will focus on building that IDS Box, which is shown on the diagram above in a red square. Let’s take a look at example hardware which can be used to build our home network Intrusion Detection System.
Bill of materials (BoM). Choosing a decent piece of hardware.
 Intel NUC6CAYH, Celeron J3455 |
€ 129 |
 RAM: Crucial 4GB PC3L-12800 |
€ 39 |
 SanDisk SSD Plus, 120GB, 2,5″, SATA3 |
€ 60 |
 TP-Link USB 3.0 to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter |
€ 19 |
| TOTAL: | €247 |
In our project we are using Intel NUC6CAYH mini PC which has a quad-core Intel Celeron processor. It is power-efficient and very quiet device. Although it comes with only one network interface card (NIC), it is not an issue because that’s the way we save some money and we hook-up an USB 3.0 gigabit Ethernet adapter, which will serve as of a secondary NIC. This is because our IDS system requires two network interfaces – one for the external network (WAN) and the second for internal network (LAN). We’ve got 4GB of RAM and 120 GB solid state hard drive (more disk space is good for longer logs’ retention time). This configuration will ensure a decent performance and long up-time for our system.
Securing Home Network with SOPHOS UTM IDS
Traditionally, households are connected to the internet via modems. Modern modems come with builtin basic routers and Wi-Fi access points. All we have to do is to plug them in, activate the service and enjoy a vast ocean of content available on the internet. What if the “internet” would attempt to browse our home network?
Cyber threat real-time map: cybermap.kaspersky.com
Are traditional devices strong enough to secure home network from internet threats, or protect the children from browsing unwanted content? Unfortunately not. Their role is to provide internet service at basic security level. Home networks certainly need something more than simple modem to increase level of security. Here comes the enterprise grade firewall, an Intrusion Detection System – Sophos UTM Home Edition. And guess what, it is for free! Continue reading…
How To Build an FPV Drone – Beginners Guide
Building a quadcopter is relatively easy nowadays. Components required to build a decent quadcopter, equipped with a first person view camera (FPV), are broadly available for purchase. The average time for a hobbyist to build a “qwad” is less than an hour! Well, let’s build a multipurpose quadcopter capable of flying freestyle, racing, and recording HD videos at the same time!
Even though it appears to be difficult, trust me it isn’t. Once you created your first qwad, you won’t have any problems with building even more advanced configurations. It is very easy to learn how to put all the things together and take your bird in the air. This post is about to provide basic information on haw to get started with the hobby, short buying guide of “ready to fly” quads and finally some generic information about building the quadcopter equipped with FPV & HD recording camera.
Let’s roll…
Provisioning WebLogic Server in less than 1 minute using Docker
We are going to demonstrate how to provision Oracle WebLogic Server in less than 1 minute Using Docker running on Ubuntu.
Prerequisites
To follow this tutorial, you will need Ubuntu 64-bit up and running. We will be using Ubuntu version 16.04 in our fancy VirtualBox sandbox machine. This is because Docker requires a 64-bit version of Ubuntu as well as a kernel version equal to or greater than 3.10.
1. Installing docker on Ubuntu:
#Add the GPG key for the official Docker repository to our system: sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://p80.pool.sks-keyservers.net:80 --recv-keys 58118E89F3A912897C070ADBF76221572C52609D #Add the Docker repository to apt sources: sudo apt-add-repository 'deb https://apt.dockerproject.org/repo ubuntu-xenial main' sudo apt-get update #we make sure that we use Docker repo instead of default Ubuntu repo: sudo apt-cache policy docker-engine #installing Docker $ sudo apt-get install -y docker-engine
Verifying installation and displaying information about Docker:
$ docker images -a REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE hello-world latest 48b5124b2768 3 months ago 1.84kB $ docker run hello-world Hello from Docker! This message shows that your installation appears to be working correctly. #Other check commands $ sudo systemctl status docker $ docker info
2. Provisioning WebLogic Server Domain
Our docker is ready to roll so we navigate to docker hub website:
https://hub.docker.com/r/playniuniu/weblogic-domain
or simply go to https://hub.docker.com and search for “weblogic” docker images.
@ https://hub.docker.com/r/playniuniu/weblogic-domain we copy the following command:
docker run -d -p 8001:8001 –name=wlsadmin playniuniu/weblogic-domain:12.2.1.2 startWebLogic.sh
Run it and after a while (depends on your network speed) a brand new WebLogic Server domain is up and running:
$ docker run -d -p 8001:8001 --name=wlsadmin playniuniu/weblogic-domain:12.2.1.2 startWebLogic.sh Unable to find image 'playniuniu/weblogic-domain:12.2.1.2' locally 12.2.1.2: Pulling from playniuniu/weblogic-domain 8d30e94188e7: Pull complete 1d43e94144e5: Pull complete ... Status: Downloaded newer image for playniuniu/weblogic-domain:12.2.1.2
Voila! We can login to WLS Admin Console http://ubuntuhost:8001/console using credentials weblogic/welcome1 and check if managed server (AdminServer) is up.
Learn more about Docker:
Oracle Compute Cloud Service Overview – Network
Oracle Compute as part of Oracle Cloud Service, is a standards-based infrastructure service. In Network section we control the ways of how we can connect to our Oracle Cloud Services.
Oracle Compute Cloud Service architectural overview
Access to Oracle Compute instances is possible in several ways.
We can use a web browser to access the web console, we can access the REST API directly, or we can use the command-line interface. Secure access is provided by protocols such as SSH and RDP. We can also set up a VPN tunnel to provide secure access to instances in our Oracle Compute Cloud Service network.
Accessing Oracle Compute Cloud with a web browser
Creating Oracle Database Cloud Service (DBaaS)
Previously we were looking at How to get 30 days Free Oracle Cloud Subscription Plan PaaS IaaS. Now let’s take a look at the Oracle Database Public Cloud Services and one of its offerings: Oracle Database Cloud Service (DBaaS).
We will create brand new 12c Database instance, enable remote access and using Oracle SQL developer we will connect from our local machine to the newly created database. Finally we will show how to monitor the database instance with OEM Database Express 12c and DBaaS Monitor.
Creating Database as a Service Instance in Oracle Database Cloud.
- Login to my services using the URL provided by Oracle in a welcome email:
- https://myservices.emea.oraclecloud.com
- Create DB Cloud Service Instance:
We will create our demo database with a backup configuration enabled using both, Cloud Storage and Local Storage. This will allow us in the future creating Oracle SOA Cloud Service instance.
How to get 30 days Free Oracle Cloud Subscription Plan PaaS IaaS
Oracle now offers the Free Oracle Cloud Promotion plan. With this promotion, we start with $300 (€260) Cloud Service credits in your Oracle Cloud Services Account. This balance can be used towards activating and using any of the metered Oracle Cloud Services in the following categories: PaaS, IaaS, Big Data and Middleware Cloud Services, which are available as Pay-as-You-Go subscriptions.
Previously we were playing with free trial subscription of Oracle Database Schema Cloud Service. This tutorial however is different! We are going to try a 30 days free subscription plan, which includes all we need to get started with Oracle Cloud: Compute, Storage, Database, Database Backup, MySQL, Java, SOA, Application Container Cloud and Developer Cloud Services.
Oracle Database Cloud Service free trial account
Oracle Cloud is offering a free of charge 30 days trial subscriptions to Oracle’s Platform (PaaS) and Infrastructure (IaaS) Cloud Services. One of the services is Oracle Database Cloud Service.
Users can find two ways to discover Oracle Cloud. One way is to get 30 days trial subscription to Platform & Infrastructure services. Second way is to register for Application (SaaS) and Data (DaaS) quick tours which offers very nice interactive application demos, videos and e-books.
Oracle Sales Cloud Quick Tour
One of the Platform & Infrastructure services is Oracle Database in the Cloud providing several deployment choices such us single schemas, dedicated pluggable databases, virtualized databases and more. Our focus for today is to activate 30 days subscription to Oracle Database Schema Cloud Service and application express (APEX). Continue reading…