How-tos

A collection of 75 posts

Ansible

Ansible, YAML, and JSON

Ansible is very flexible with data types, and easily transforms primitives and even JSON strings, but from time to time you need to process and transform something a bit more complex than String to Boolean conversions.

Ansible

Ansible: Iterations

Iterations in Ansible are not first-class citizens. The language allows you a single task loop with one nested iteration. Anything more sophisticated than that should be implemented as a separate module. Again, the include_tasks command gives us a helping hand.

Ansible

Ansible: Selections

Let's discuss selections in Ansible: if-then-else and case/switch operators. Ansible offers conditional execution for single tasks, blocks, and task imports. In addition, it allows effectively simulate if-then selection.

MySQL

Ghost Upgrade: A Bit of MySQL

This morning I accidentally brought down this site. The Ghost CLI told me that there is a minor upgrade to version 4.11.0. Unfortunately, even though the start version was 4.10.0, schema update has broken the server. We use MySQL as a Ghost blog database, and it&

Ansible

Ansible: Subroutines

The second post in the Ansible: Control Structures [https://chronicler.tech/ansible-control-structures/] series describes using Ansible core components to emulate subroutines - procedures and "packages." The whole paradigm of Ansible is the opposite of some core programming languages principles - encapsulation and isolation. Any task on the same

Ansible

Ansible: Control Structures

Red Hat Ansible is a powerful and easy-to-learn automation product. Simplicity is one of the basic principles of the language. Yet, any task a titbit more complex than installing and starting an HTTPD server requires good old procedural control flows.

Ansible

Ansible Variables: a Rookie Mistake

The mistake I made could be excused for Java Developer, but not for a guy who spends days with Ansible. The root cause is the different variable visibility model. Red Hat Ansible does not appreciate role or play boundaries and dynamically evaluates a variable value for each impacted host.

Ansible

Ansible: Conditional Playbooks

I have praised Ansible tags all about the previous post. Unfortunately, tags don't go along with Ansible Tower's complex workflows. Let me guide you through the playbook transformation we've done. The answer to this challenge is extra variables.

Containers

Maven Project with Docker Compose

This little tweak streamlines the development lifecycle and simplifies build and test operations. If you build something with Docker and Apache Maven you could find this article useful.

Ansible

How to run Ansible playbooks à-la Tower

Our Red Hat Ansible projects drift to the Ansible Tower. I found that it much faster to do quick fixes and debug playbooks from the server rather than go through the full chain VSCode -> Git -> Tower. Well, to be productive, I automated the automation.

OpenSSL

Quick Certificate Validation

Check certificate validity for a site; what could be easier? It's a click away if the address of interest is in your browser. Learn how you can check expiration dates for multiple Learn how you can check expiration dates for multiple host or virtual hosts with SNI.

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

Enforce HTTPS With OCI Load Balancer

To enforce secure connection you should enforce rewrite rules to rout your clients toward secure listener. The same could be done with load balancer in Oracle Cloud.

WebLogic

Speeding up WLST

Back in Java 7 days, when your WebLogic domain runs like a snail on a sunny meadow, you knew that you forgot to fix your random source. It is not quite a safe solution, plus it doesn't work for Java 8. One of the recent installations quite annoyed

JDeveloper

Easy JDK update

Working on the integrated WebLogic server configuration, I run into a very neat Middleware 12c feature. The primary fix for the issue is to use old JDK8. When you have JDeveloper and domain configured, you can upgrade your installation to the desired JDK version, with simple steps below.

Red Hat

Too much security: Is it a thing?

What I love about Red Hat classes, you get a live environment . This time, my new lab was partially unavailable. I click on the link, glimpse the application page, and then I get a protocol error page.

OHS

Graceful restart for Oracle HTTP Server 11g

From time to time, you need to update configuration HTTP server configuration. but OHS 11g offers only full start and stops. Read how to do it gracefully.

Quarkus

Easy Fix For Quarkus 1.2.0 Native Build

The new Quarkus release has just arrived and I decided to refresh my project to see how it works with GraalVM on JDK 11. Well, the native build failed with an indistinct exception.

Containers

RedHat CodeReady Containers update

Today my during the container start I have got notification that version 1.3.0 is available. During setup I get error that my libvrt bundle is not compatible with the new release. So you can find how I made an error and fix it.

Linux

Dude, where is my kernel?

I've got a little bit lost, trying to to install VirtualBox Guest Additions on my freshly installed and upgraded CentOS 7 virtual machine. I have tried all the tricks I found and still Virtual Box installer wont able to find my kernel headers.

Oracle SOA Suite

Automate SOA Infra configuration

For the last six months, I work on the fully automated Oracle Fusion Middleware platform delivery . We use Ansible as a main automation tool and OEM for the most of the daily Ops routines.

Ghost

Break the line

My fired, Ahmed, has published few posts with the WebLogic output. And I'm sure you have seen endless output lines, especially if the system throws an exception. So he asked me: "How we can wrap the lines in code blocks?"

How-tos

Git client for Windows: basic configuration

It's quite common when you have no admin access to the workstation and proxy server with the authorization for the internet access. First part is quite easy, you can find most of the DEV tools such maven or git in portable format. Now I'll tell you how to configure proxy for git.

Ghost

Another ode to Ghost

Google knows you better, and second link from from the top was: "Hey, looks like it's your domain! Why don't you try Google Search Console?". The site hookup process is quite easy, especially if you have our domains with Google, and use the same account.

Ansible

List as a parameter

About a month ago, I developed an Ansible role to manage OPSS application policies. By original design, my role uses two lists: application role names and principals and then assigned each role to each principal. Something similar to: - name: Grant application roles include_roles: role: opss-grant vars: app_name:

Oracle

Oracle 18c XE on Linux Mint

When things go naturally, you select an operating system, supported by the database of choice. Unfortunately, the only natural in our business is a changes. And somewhere in the middle of that, you find yourself with the task like "Hey, we need Oracle database on the Linux Mint box."