This article demonstrates how you can do infrastructure testing for Ansible roles and playbooks. I explain how the tools Vagrant and Molecule+Docker let you easily provision temporary VMs or Docker containers in which you can experimentally run your Ansible roles/playbooks, or even run unit testing in Continuous Integration. Introduction to infrastructure testing Ansible is a … Read more
In this article I discuss container-based development, where you not only run but also develop and debug software inside a locally-running Docker container. I explain the advantages and disadvantages of this approach, and look at VS Code’s development container feature, various features of IntelliJ-based IDEs, and how to implement an IDE-independent approach. Introduction to container-based … Read more
Using a Node.js example project I demonstrate how Docker-based caching can speed up your GitLab CI/CD pipelines even more than GitLab’s built-in caching mechanism. I explain how each approach works, and what the technical prerequisites are. I also list tools that support you with setting up a Docker-based CI pipeline. Introduction Caching of files between … Read more
This article explains why you should not tag your own Docker images with only the “latest” tag. I discuss alternative best practices, categorizing them into stable vs. unstable version tags. I also fully deconstruct a Docker image tag into its basic components to improve your understanding of Docker image names and tags. Introduction When you … Read more
In this article I explain how (and why) you install and use a Linux-based self-hosted GitLab CI/CD runner that executes jobs of your GitLab pipelines. I go into a few caveats and how you can reduce maintenance efforts for the runner to a minimum. Introduction GitLab CI/CD has a distributed architecture that consists of a … Read more
This article explains how to achieve Continuous Deployment of Docker-based software, using either pull-based approaches (external tools such as watchtower and harbormaster), or push-based techniques (deployment from the CI/CD pipeline). I explain the advantages and disadvantages of each approach, and also illustrate how automated testing greatly reduces the risk of unnoticed failed deployments. Introduction When … Read more
This article presents useful tips for operating Docker engine on a Linux server. I explain how you can improve the server’s security via automatic updates and scanning the images of your running containers, how to reduce the maintenance efforts by making sure your disks don’t run out of space, and how to set up a … Read more
Updated 2022-09-18 to reflect that Docker for Desktop and Virtualbox can co-exist on Windows, because Hyper-V is no longer a requirement for Docker for Desktop. Vagrant is a tool that automatically downloads and configures virtual machines, according to a recipe file. Docker does something similar, but can achieve better performance in specific situations. This article … Read more
Vagrant is a tool that automatically downloads and configures virtual machines, according to a recipe file. Typically, the base image is downloaded from the Vagrant Cloud, a repository of user-submitted boxes. This article explains how to create a Vagrant box, which is necessary if there is no appropriate box on Vagrant Cloud, or if you … Read more
Vagrant is a tool that automatically downloads and configures virtual machines, according to a recipe file. It is similar to Docker, but with extended support for different, virtualized operating systems. Use cases include setting up virtual test beds, or CI build machines. This article provides an introduction to Vagrant’s concepts and how it works, as … Read more