The Null Route

OpenPYXL Poor Performance Optimisation

Problem:OpenPYXL is a python library for parsing excel files. It's fantastic and works really well. Plenty of features are supported but my primary use-case is to simply read data from various sheets and convert the contents into a dictionary / list of dictionaries. The

Docker in FreeNAS

Problem:I have a NAS, it runs FreeNAS. I also have a server, running Docker. I don't want the server anymore. Time to run it on FreeNAS! Solution:FreeNAS now supports docker via the 'VMs' tab (currently using FreeNAS version 11.2-U4.1). The

The shortcomings of Cisco DNS & NAT

Introduction: Usually these posts are centered around solving a problem - and this is no exception, however I'm going to rant a little more than usual as the experience with DNS and NAT in my particular situation has been particularly painful in the last

Cisco

GUI management for small docker services - Specifically AAA.

Introduction:As stated before - I love docker. It's great. But I also run a number of virtual machines for various purposes. One of those VMs happens to be Cisco ACS 5.8. This controls AAA functions for TACACS+ logins to my Cisco hardware,

Cisco

Cisco 'new' TACACS+ Config

A real short post to keep track of the new config for TACACS+ on Cisco devices. It's not really that new, but it avoids the deprecated warning! Old Style: tacacs-server host <server ip> key <my tacacs key> Replacement 'new' config:

Cisco

Cisco Zone Based Firewall (IPv4 & IPv6)

Introduction:I don't like security. It just gets in the way when you're trying to get stuff done. But that is no excuse to have nothing in place! I typically trust NAT, and don't tend to operate with much in the way of firewalling

Cisco

ACI Fabric Discovery - Not working!

Problem: I work with ACI - but in test environments. I am frequently in a position where the fabric needs totally resetting, or a new fabric is being built from switches & components which have been used in other fabrics. As a result of

Persistent Static routes - macOS High Sierra

Problem: I've got a mac at work. It's connected to two physically separate networks, one of which has a default route, but the other needs routes when the adapter is plugged in. Surprisingly, there's little information on this. Solution: It's actually pretty simple. The

Ubuntu Server 18.04 x64 Deployment

Introduction: It's been a while since I wrote my guide for the deployment of ubuntu 16.04, so I figured I would make one for the latest LTS release: 18.04! Implementation: First, download the ISO file from the ubuntu website: http://releases.ubuntu.

Cisco

Cisco ACI bits 'n' bobs

Introduction I'm fairly new to ACI, and am coming across new things all the time. Here I will provide quick bits and pieces of things I find which are useful to know and have documented. Content Erase fabric to factory defaults When you want

Docker

Better 'docker stats' output (with Name)

Problem: The docker stats command isn't great - it gives you container ID vs name, which when you have a pretty small deployment like me (~20 containers) you usually know what services you're running, and want to see the actual names of these things.

Docker

Ghost (blog) migration to 1.0

Introduction: It's been some time since Ghost 1.0 was released, and I've been putting off this day for a while. Essentially the migration strategy I was trying to use wasn't working in the slightest and moving everything seemed to be a bit of

Linux

HAProxy 'home' Load Balancer

Introduction: I've done a few posts in the past about using nginx as a reverse proxy / loadbalancer, however I thought I'd look into HAProxy as a possible alternative to some of the issues I was facing. Such issues include: nginx failing to start if

Cisco

Import Certificates into Cisco IOS Router (SSL VPN)

Problem: So I've made a few posts on automating SSL VPN with LetsEncrypt etc etc, however what if you're already using some way of generating certificates? Be it LetsEncrypt or otherwise. Essentially these days I rely on another container to generate certificates as they're

Alexa

Windows PC Wake up / Shut down - Automated

Problem: I've just got an Amazon Echo. As the previous post suggests I've got it talking to Jenkins, so anything that can be done in Jenkins Alexa can now call, which is rather awesome. This being said, I wanted to get Alexa to turn

Docker

Amazon Echo - Integration to Jenkins

Problem: So if you've ever dealt with an Amazon Echo (Alexa) you'll probably know that it's pretty awesome. There's all sorts of things you can do. As far as I could tell there are two main parts 1) Standard organisation / convenience: Essentially you get

Cisco

Cisco IR829 Tinkering

Introduction: The IR829 router is a rather interesting beast, it has 4G, wireless, GPS, an accelerometer, water resistant, fanless, gigabit switchports + WAN and vehicle ignition system features. It's also got the ability to run VM / containerised services within a small linux environment on the

Python

Netmiko Python package on Alpine

Problem: For a current project I was looking to use netmiko to administrate a Cisco router - and given my natural affinity for Docker I'm planning to use a container to run the script, so I do not have to depend on an external

Linux

Reset VMware vCenter root password

Problem: The vCenter appliance requires a complex password for the root user, which of course you'll forget after 5 minutes if you're just spinning something up for test purposes. Naturally what then happens is that vCenter server is used for a whole bunch of

Docker

Shorten & Alias 'docker ps' output

Problem: The default 'docker ps' command has a rather verbose output. This (especially for me) is due to the sheer number of ports associated to containers. As a result, I need a super wide terminal to actually accommodate for this, which I don't like.

Sky Fiber Broadband with a Cisco Router (897VA)

Problem: I've written a post previously of how to get sky ADSL broadband working with a Cisco router HERE however this particular implementation just got upgraded to Fiber (or VDSL). So, I've had to update the configuration on the router to get VDSL working.

Linux

Ghost blog account recovery

Problem: Naturally I'd never be so silly to forget my own password....however Billy is not so sensible and forgot his password. For some reason (I've not even bothered to look) the forgot password button isn't doing it's job right, so now I've had

Boiling Water: Kettle vs Microwave

Introduction: Now this is a rather unusual post, however I consider myself scientific and myself and a couple of colleagues (to those of you who know me reading this - I am of course talking about Tim and Alun) were debating the best way

Misc

Online email obfuscation

Problem: This blog has been a great place to brainstorm and share my ideas and activities with the world however it's always bugged me slightly that I've had no way to get feedback from my audience. I dislike contact forms, as it means I

Nginx

Correct IP in nginx logs behind reverse proxy / load balancer

Problem: So I finally got a log solution I like working properly. Logs in the load-balancer are correct in terms of their external IP. The problem is when I look at the webserver logs, this has the IP of the load balancer as the