I have been administering puppet installations for almost five years; FIVE years! I have always known that at some point, node management would become an issue. Unfortunately, I have never worked with an infrastructure that had massive numbers of exactly identical servers. I started by configuring nodes to inherit group definitions that were stored in another manifest. Then I saw the environments feature but never implemented it mostly due to overhead and the numerous and well documented bugs that will be solved in Puppet 4.
Tour of Saint Leo Aquaponics Facility
E
very Christmas my wife and I visit family in Florida. This year the nearby college, Saint Leo University, finished construction on their aquaponic garden. So I called them up an asked for a tour and they told me to stop by.
Filed under projects
New Employer
I have decided to change employers. While I have enjoyed working with my current coworkers, I feel it is time to move on and further my career.
Filed under Uncategorized
Scuba Certifications
I went scuba diving last week and had an epic amount of fun. The fall semester open water students travel to Vortex Springs, FL to get their certifications over two days of diving. I ended up taking the whole week off.
Two friends and I rolled out around 6p last tuesday and drove through the night to get to Lake City, FL. The three of us dove twice at Blue Grotto to a max depth of 90ft and got to see Virgil the turtle. Blue Grotto has done a lot of work recently including adding multiple pavilions for divers, a few cabins for rental, a new bath house, and a camping area. Most importantly if you have never been, there used to be a steep set of metal stairs that lead down to the water that would give you tetanus just by looking at them. They are gone and a new hugh desk has been installed.
Filed under scuba
Halloween Party 2013
Some friends of mine host a costume party every year. Last year everyone was a bit chilly, so they decided to move the party earlier in the month; On October 5th.
Lots of great costumes, my wife and I went as Drew Carey and Mimi, There were some Game of Thrones characters, and one dressed as Jayne from Firefly.
Filed under funny
Vacation wrap up
Back from scuba diving in Key Largo. I had an incredible amount of fun. I dove the Spiegel Grove and hit a max depth of 135′. We then dove Horseshoe Reef, Minnow Caves, the City of Washington (daytime and a later night dive), and Mike’s Wreck.
Filed under scuba
Work Work Work
Back at work, building our SAP Business Objects production infrastructure. I have automated as much as possible, so it will be easier to manage later down the road.
I wish SAP would actually produce valid documentation, nowhere did I find the actual database permissions the installer needed to complete the install. I ended up having to give the DBA_ALL role, which slightly scares me. If you cannot document the permissions your application needs then you are doing something wrong.
I do have some light at the end of the tunnel, I have scheduled a vacation to Key Largo for some scuba diving in the next few week. It will be a needed break.
Happy Holidays
Happy Independence day to all my american readers. Please remember this holiday is about freedom from tyranny, not a day off of work to barbecue. So while you are having a beer, grilling ribs and burgers and waiting for the fireworks to start. think about all those that have and are currently protecting your freedoms.
I went to Florida to visit my parents last week. And it was full of adventure to say the least. I got a call from my sister on July 4 that my grandmother was not doing well. She passed away later that day. Maude was a quiet and steadfast person and will be missed greatly. She passed away at the age of 96.
I knew I would have to be a pallbearer, so my wife and I when out looking for a suit coat. Driving down a 6 line divided road a deer came across the lanes from the right, hit the median and circle back heading directly for our car. I swerved at the last minute to avoid having a deer come through the windshield. We took the hit on the driver side front fender. $1700 dollar in total damage including a broken strut.
Of course we have insurance so there was nothing to pay, but it was a great ending to a week already going downhill. We had to leave the car and drive a rental car home, a Ford Feista. I can only hope that the gentleman that stopped to retrieve the deer was able to feed his family for more than a few days.
NSA and Verizion: Best Friends Forever
If any of you reading this think you are safe because you have Sprint, AT&T, or any other wireless carrier… You are dead wrong. Only Verizon got caught; You know this is happening with every communications provider. You can feel it in your gut.
I can not type words to describe how I feel. So here is a comment from reddit that sums it up nicely: Continue reading