When you start working with Microsoft Azure Stack you can automate a lot of the configuration via PowerShell. This quick video and script will help you create Tenant Offers via PowerShell.
Watch this video on YouTube.
Category Archives: DevOps
Remove Docker persistent storage volumes from VMware datastore
After you have finished using your Docker persistent storage volumes you can remove them from the environment so you can clean them up and don’t consume more storage that what is really needed. Here is what you have to do do clean those up.
List your volumes
docker volume ls
You will see your docker volumes stored in your /vsanDatastore/dockvols folder
Remove the volumes not needed
docker volume rm volumename
ex: docker volume rm MyVolume
This will remove the volume from the docker host and will also remove it from the VMware vSphere datastore.
Deploying containers with persistent storage in VMware environments
In my last blog post I described how to install the VMware Plugin for Docker. Now we will deploy an environment and show how we can use a persistent storage volume across containers.
Build a new volume for a container
docker volume create –driver-vmdk –name BusyBox1 -o size=2gb
You can check the volume with docker volume ls or docker volume inspect commands.
Create a container with persistent storage
docker run –rm -it -v Volumename:/mnt/mymount containerimage.
docker run –rm -it -v BusyBox1:/mnt/myvol busybox
Create a file in the persistent storage
In your container go to the directory you specified in the previous command. In our case it is /mnt/myvol
Create a quick file ex: touch file1 and then add some information to it.
We have created a file in the persistent storage not in the container file system.
Now you can exit your container. ex: exit
Create a different container and attach the persistent volume
I will download a new image for an Ubuntu:latest container and mount the persistent storage volume.
docker run –rm -it -v BusyBox1:/mnt/myvol ubuntu
Change to the same directory /mnt/myvol and see that you can browse the file was created before.
Why is this important?
This allows the developers or administrators to provide a persistent storage that can be used across container reboots to save data outside the container. This can be a great use case for database or shared data that can be used for different containers.
Drop me a comment if you like this type of post.
Leveraging the VMware Docker Plugin in your environment
You may have heard that VMware released a docker plugin. This plugin allows the developers use persistent storage and store it in the VMware datastore while allowing IT Administrators the capability to manage their environment their way.
In this post I will go thru the steps to add the all the components to the ESXi server and to the VM’s
Download Binaries
To download the binaries I used a Ubuntu machine.
1. create a folder to download the files. ex: mkdir vmware
2. change to the directory. cd vmware
3. download the files:
ubuntu package: https://github.com/vmware/docker-volume-vsphere/releases/download/1.0.beta/docker-volume-vsphere_1.0.beta_amd64.deb
ESXi vib package: https://github.com/vmware/docker-volume-vsphere/releases/download/1.0.beta/vmware-esx-vmdkops-1.0.beta.vib
Optional: I created a script that you can use to download all the files directly to your Linux Machine Download the Script from GitLab
Example: curl https://gitlab.com/carlosvargas/devops/raw/master/ubuntu/downvmdockplugin | sh
Copy the VIB to your ESXi server
To copy the VIB file you can follow these steps
scp vmware-esx-vmdkops-1.0.beta.vib root@1.2.3.4:/vmfs/volume/datastorename/foldername/vmware-esx-vmdkops-1.0.beta.vib
Enable Community Support for VIB
Connect to your ESXi host: ssh root@1.2.3.4
Enable community support for VIB files: esxcli software acceptance set –level communitysupported
Install the VMware Plugin VIB: esxcli software vip install –no-sig-check -v /vmfs/…./vmware-esx-vmdkops-1.0.beta.vip
Copy VMware Docker Plugin to your Docker VM
scp docker-volume-vsphere_1.0.beta_amd64.deb user@1.2.3.4:/home/user/docker-volume-vsphere_1.0.beta_amd64.deb
Install the VMware Plugin in your Ubuntu VM
Login to your VM and install the plugin. Ex: sudo dpkg -i docker-volume-vsphere_1.0.beta_amd64.deb
Reboot your node: sudo reboot
Create Docker Volume with the VMware Plugin
To create the volume you need to use the –driver=vmdk parameter. here is an example: docker volume create –driver=vmdk –name=MyVolume -o size 10gb
To check your volumes execute: docker volume ls
Where are this volumes stored?
Go to to your vsanDatastore, you will see a new folder called docksvols. There you will find your new volume created.
5 steps to setup SSH PROXY VIA WITH PUTTY
Depending on your setup and where you are deploying your solution, you may have to jump via multiple servers before you can get access to your internal server. This quick guide will help you understand how you can leverage PUTTY to Proxy via multiple SSH hosts.
Here is the example: let say that you are on your house or outside your cloud provider and you need to access the private SSH server in the image. That server has an IP address that is private so it can’t be access from the internet. And there is only one server available from the internet. You can use that server as a SSH Proxy server so you can access the internal one via your SSH proxy server.
Here is what you need:
- Install Putty suite completely not only the putty.exe
- Have a Public Key configure on your Servers and have the Keys available.
5 Steps to configure SSH Proxy with Putty
- Open Putty and create a new connection. Type the IP address or DNS Name of your Private SSH Server. On our Lab that will be any IP address or Private DNS. Type a name to save the session later. Do not save it yet.
- Click the Connection Data. Type the name in the Auto-login username field.
- Click Connection Proxy. Type the IP Address or DNS server that is available externally or in the internet. Click Local for the Proxy Type and change the port to 22. Type your username that will be use to connect to the remote server. In the Telnet command or local proxy command type: plink %user@%proxyhost -nc %host:%port
- Click Connection à SSH àAuth. Click Allow agent forwarding and then put your public key.
- Go back up to the Session screen and click Save. Then Open.
That’s it. You are now connected to your Private IP server via a public SSH Server.
Let me know how you use this tutorial.