Friday, September 2, 2016

Azure Storage Service

Azure storage is a cloud storage solution for applications which provides applications additional scalability, durability and highly available storage for their data.

The 4 different types of Azure storage service are :

  1. Blob Storage : This supports any type of text or binary data, such as application installers, documents, media files etc. It stores unstructured object data hence also referred as object storage.
  2. Table Storage : It is for No-SQL key attribute datastore, which is useful for rapid development and provides quick access to huge amount of data.
  3. Queue Storage : User for communication between cloud services by providing reliable messaging for workflow processing
  4. File Storage : Used for shared storage for applications using SMB Protocol. Mounted shares are used to share files between Azure VM's and applications, to share files with the on-premises applications we can use file services Rest API.

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Azure Single sign-on (SSO)

We all know that SSO (Single Sign-On) means that we can access all the required applications and resources by signing in only once. This saves us time and effort and also keeps it easy for the users that they just have to remember one password for accessing the resources.

Talking about Azure cloud, Azure supports 3 different ways of SSO for applications :

  1. Federated Single Sign-On : This enables the applications to be redirected to Azure AD instead of prompting the users for a password. This is supported by applications which support SAML 2.0, WS-Federation and OpenID connect.
  2. Password Based Single Sign-On : Provides secure application based password storage, which is replayed with the help of web browser extensions or mobile apps. This method leverages the existing sign on process of the application
  3. Existing Single Sign-On : If you already have a SSO deployed for an application, this method extends the SSO capability to Office 365 or Azure AD access panel portals and also enables additional reporting in Azure AD.

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Puppet Client Installation Steps

I am sharing the steps to be followed to install Puppet on CentOS.
I will not cover the steps to followed to CentOS.

  • Install CentOS
  • Edit the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file, ensure Permit Root Login is YES
  • Install Yum Repo for Puppet 
$rpm -ivh http://yum.puppetlabs.com/puppetlabs-release-el-6.noarch.rpm ]
         [ Please validate the arch of the Linux distribution you are using ]
  • Now install puppet using Yum  
$yum install puppet 
  • Edit the puppet.conf file to add the puppet server. Also add puppet server in the /etc/hosts to make sure it points to the right server node.
[main]
    # The Puppet log directory.
    # The default value is '$vardir/log'.
    logdir = /var/log/puppet

    # Where Puppet PID files are kept.
    # The default value is '$vardir/run'.
    rundir = /var/run/puppet

    # Where SSL certificates are kept.
    # The default value is '$confdir/ssl'.
    ssldir = $vardir/ssl

[agent]
    # The file in which puppetd stores a list of the classes
    # associated with the retrieved configuratiion.  Can be loaded in
    # the separate ``puppet`` executable using the ``--loadclasses``
    # option.
    # The default value is '$confdir/classes.txt'.
    classfile = $vardir/classes.txt

    # Where puppetd caches the local configuration.  An
    # extension indicating the cache format is added automatically.
    # The default value is '$confdir/localconfig'.
    localconfig = $vardir/localconfig

server = puppet1.mylabserver.com
  • test the setup by using the command $puppet agent -t
[root@host2 puppet]# puppet agent -t
Info: Creating a new SSL key for host2.mylabserver.com
Info: csr_attributes file loading from /etc/puppet/csr_attributes.yaml
Info: Creating a new SSL certificate request for host2.mylabserver.com
Info: Certificate Request fingerprint (SHA256): 02:85:1F:AF:BF:04:32:93:A6:64:5B:CE:04:5B:CF:99:BF:1B:C9:D6:BA:20:84:0E:E4:F3:84:D4:2C:D8:F4:B3
Exiting; no certificate found and waitforcert is disabled
  • Sign the certificate at the master node :
[root@puppet1 ~]# puppet cert list
  "host2.mylabserver.com" (SHA256) 02:85:1F:AF:BF:04:32:93:A6:64:5B:CE:04:5B:CF:99:BF:1B:C9:D6:BA:20:84:0E:E4:F3:84:D4:2C:D8:F4:B3
[root@puppet1 ~]# puppet cert sign host2.mylabserver.com
Notice: Signed certificate request for host2.mylabserver.com
Notice: Removing file Puppet::SSL::CertificateRequest host2.mylabserver.com at '/etc/puppetlabs/puppet/ssl/ca/requests/ashsethi2.mylabserver.com.pem'

  • Now when you run puppet agent -t on the host2 node, it will show that it is recognised by the puppet server, in this case puppet1.mylabserver.com

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Flush / Reset DNS Cache in a Mac OS


You can use the below commands in the terminal to flush DNS / Reset DNS Cache on your macbook / Mac OS :

OS X Yosemite and later ( OS X v10.10.4 or later ):
sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

OS X v10.10 through v10.10.3:
sudo discoveryutil mdnsflushcache

OS X Mavericks, Mountain Lion, and Lion (OS X v10.9.5 and earlier):
sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

Mac OS X Snow Leopard (OS X v10.6 through v10.6.8):
sudo dscacheutil -flushcache

The Azure Synapse Resource Provider Error

  If you are get the error " The Azure Synapse resource provider (Microsoft.Synapse) needs to be registered with the selected subscript...