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A few weeks ago, one of my DevOps counterparts was working on building out a new environment for one of our applications. This deployment included a new Puppet server (we are in an orchestration/configuration management state of flux) and my teammate was having some issues provisioning users (I did not ask why nor did I really care). My teammate asked if I could help with some Ansible knowledge. User management usually falls into one of two categories; disjointed or a monumental effort. This Ansible solution could be that nice middle ground between the disjointed and monumental. ...

Note: If you know of other remixes that showcase the lyrics of Notorious B.I.G., please let me know. The Notorious B.I.G., Biggie, Biggie Smalls, Big Poppa, The Black Frank White, The King of New York, however you refer to him, Christopher Wallace was one of the best rappers to ever walk planet earth. Since Biggie’s death in 1997 his timeless lyrics have served as a foundation for many remixes and mashups. This is the definitive collection of the best studio quality Notorious B.I.G. remixes and mashups ever created. ...

The Ansible lineinfile module is designed to search a file for a line, and ensure that it is present or absent. lineinfile is very effective at that particular task. However, when the line has to be in a certain place or before or after a certain line, lineinfile becomes a hassle to manage. Most people on IRC (#ansible) tend to agree, lineinfile is not a very good module in practice. Even Brain Coca says to avoid the lineinfile module. But, there is one use case I have found where line in file really excels. ...

I have been trying to fit a lot of square pegs into round holes lately. Eliminating technical debt with modern day DevOps practices to reduce costs is seldom fun or glamorous but is very often beneficial. Reducing costs should be the mindset of IT and one surefire way to do that is to spend the right amount of time on a task to complete it successfully. Finding that balance is definitely tricky especially when a lot of us are human time division multiplexers now. But, that right combination of good work and adequate time spent is definitely out there. ...

If you have not heard, Verizon announced they are going to acquire Yahoo. This ends a very long, drawn out bidding process in what has been the very long death of Yahoo. Yahoo, the brand, probably will not disappear in this deal (much like how AOL is still a brand after its acquisition by Verizon). AOL and Yahoo have benefitted greatly from their once high times. AOL’s story is well known (technological advances eroding their user base). But Yahoo’s downfall has taken significantly longer. The end of Yahoo was pretty much inevitable the day they said they could no longer compete with Google (back in the early 2000s). What can we learn from Yahoo’s downfall? ...