Author Archives: Will Foster

About Will Foster

hobo devop/sysadmin/SRE

Let’s Encrypt Everything – Setting up the Free, Automated CA

Let’s Encrypt is a free, public SSL certificate authority (CA) you can use to generate and automate SSL certificate renewal.  I co-manage Trystack.org, a free OpenStack sandbox for the general public and our Horizon SSL certificate came up for expiration … Continue reading

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Combat Unsolicited Sales with a Unique Office Voice Mail Recording

Office voice mail has become a graveyard for unwanted sales solicitations for things I don’t need.  People who need to reach me have many available methods.  I’ve decided to take some creative liberties with my voice mail recording and you … Continue reading

Posted in comedy, life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Back to the Future: Converting a Server VM to Bare Metal

It might seem like stepping back in time, but sometimes you start something with a VM and the desire for resources and usage skyrockets and you need to transplant it onto a bare metal server.  This was my situation with … Continue reading

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How to Use Self-signed SSL Certificates for Plex Media Server

Plex is a fork of the Open Source Kodi (previously XBMC) project from 2008, the Plex Media Server has evolved into what amounts to a free,  personal Netflix + Spotify that lets you stream home content to devices or browsers … Continue reading

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10 Must-have Firefox Addons for Privacy, Security and Utility

I have used every manner of web browser from lynx, Mosaic and Netscape builds to abusing curl commands and mostly prefer Firefox for the bulk of my daily desktop/laptop needs due to the strong plugin ecosystem.  Below you’ll find my … Continue reading

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Funcamp ET Legacy and Urban Terror Servers Upgraded

Recently two fun, actively developed Open Source FPS game projects have had major updates: Enemy Territory: Legacy and Urban Terror.  Over the weekend I’ve upgraded the Funcamp ET:L (2.75) and UT (4.3.1) servers to the latest versions.  Setup instructions and … Continue reading

Posted in gaming, open source | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Quick and Dirty SSH Key Management with Python

Sometimes I need to quickly copy SSH keys to remote systems in a pinch.  I can do this with the Ansible authorized_key module but that’s not always available.  I might be on a random system and Ansible or external internet … Continue reading

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Trystack and Browbeat at the OpenStack Summit

I recently gave two talks at the OpenStack Summit in Barcelona on two upstream Open Source projects that I work on – Trystack and Browbeat.  Trystack is a large, public free OpenStack sandbox we run for the general public and … Continue reading

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Fun and Automation with Git Hooks

Git is more than just an awesome, decentralized version control system (VCS) – it can also drive lots of useful automation by triggering actions to deploy infrastructure and services based on event and commit-based hooks.  You can drive a lot … Continue reading

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Automate Infrastructure Docs with Python, WordPress and Foreman

“It’s not done unless it’s documented,” says the wise Ops sage.  Frequently updated documentation is critical, it’s also one of the most neglected parts of technology.  Learn how we auto-generate server resource wiki data with Python, WordPress and Foreman.

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Automate SuperMicro Server Provisioning or Die Trying

We use Foreman for systems provisioning and recently received a large shipment of Supermicro for Ceph.  Out of the box they were a lot of trouble to get integrated/automated at the same level of our Dell gear but we managed, … Continue reading

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How to Make Aubergine Risotto

You seem to burn almost as many calories making risotto as you do eating it – there’s constant action required to keep things under control.  Don’t worry, it’s not too difficult and it’s a lot of fun.  We’re going to … Continue reading

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Switching from Mutt to Neomutt

“All mail clients suck. This one just sucks less,” so says mutt author Michael Elkins.  This is true for me over the last 10years as mutt along with offlineimap and notmuch allowed me battle the unwieldy, barbarous deluge of mailing … Continue reading

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The Workflow Optimizer Visits Engineering

The Workflow Optimizer is part of a new sketch series about people who work as “professional workflow optimizers.”  Today the workflow optimizer visits the Engineering office to help a colleague out with his workflow.

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Tmux for GNU Screen Refugees and Vim Users

I use GNU Screen on servers to manage working sessions and perform long-running or persistent tasks. Lately I’ve been using tmux locally on my work desktop/laptop, finding it better suited for most terminal activity.  Here’s how I set it up … Continue reading

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