2018's Music In Review (5 mins read).
What music was I listening to in 2018?
by 
Jamie Tanna
.
#music.
Creating Microservices for my Static Website (2 mins read).
Exploring moving data out of my site's remit and into its own 'microservices' which can be consumed at build-time, as well as via client-side JavaScript.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#announcement
#jamstack
#microservices
#www.jvt.me
#spectat-designs
#netlifycms
#jekyll.
Leaving BTRFS as my primary filesystem (5 mins read).
Why I'm moving away from using BTRFS as the primary filesystem on my personal devices, and why it had nothing to do with BTRFS itself.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#thoughts
#linux
#btrfs.
TYKJS Middleware Gotcha When Base 64 Decoding Data (3 mins read).
How to workaround the Failed to base64 decode: illegal base64 data at input byte error when trying to use b64dec in TYKJS middleware.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#tyk
#tykjs
#unit-testing
#testing
#javascript
#nodejs.
Unit Testing Your TYK (TYKJS) Middleware (6 mins read).
Writing unit tests (in this case using Jasmine) for the TYK API Gateway's JavaScript middleware functionality.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#tyk
#tykjs
#unit-testing
#testing
#javascript
#nodejs.
Hackference 2018 (31 mins read).
A review of my time at Hackference's 1-day conference and 24-hour hackathon.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#events
#hackference
#aws
#cloud
#devops
#serverless
#nodejs
#deno
#identity
#auth0
#hackathon
#hacktoberfest.
How to run tests from the ChefDK in Docker (6 mins read).
How to get up and running with the ChefDK to perform common tests, such as unit tests and linting.
Using Fake Cookbooks for Writing ChefSpec Tests for your Custom Chef Resources (3 mins read).
A directory structure I've found quite useful for writing ChefSpec tests for custom resources, by creating a fake cookbook within the cookbook you're testing.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef
#custom-resource
#chefspec.
Creating a versionable, self-contained (fat-/uber-) JAR for Gatling tests (17 mins read).
Why you'd want a fat JAR for your Gatling tests and how you'd achieve it.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#java
#gatling
#testing
#jar
#artifact
#artefact
#maven
#uber-jar.
Tweaking Gatling HighCharts Response Time Bounds (3 mins read).
How to configure the bounds that Gatling marks your response times within for console output and graphing purposes.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#gatling
#gatling-highcharts.
Setting your default AWS profile for the AWS CLI and SDKs (2 mins read).
Setting the default AWS profile when working with multiple profiles and the AWS CLI / SDKs.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#aws
#aws-cli
#aws-sdk
#command-line.
Chef 14 Upgrade: Custom Resource Properties are Silently Coerced to Hash if they are a nil (2 mins read).
Finding out that a nil gets silently coerced to an empty Hash if given to a custom resource's property of type Hash.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef-14
#chef-14-upgrade
#chefspec
#test-coverage.
Chef 14: ChefSpec Coverage Reporting Deprecation (1 mins read).
Noting the deprecation of using ChefSpec::Coverage.start! when using Chef 14 and above.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef-14
#chef-14-upgrade
#chefspec
#test-coverage.
Chef 14 Upgrade: Change in ValidationFailed error messages when setting required properties (2 mins read).
The updated error message returned by a Chef ValidationFailed error, when you're specifying which properties are required on a custom resource.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef-14-upgrade
#chef
#chefspec
#chef-14.
Why You Should Be Unit Testing Your Functional Acceptance Tests (7 mins read).
A few reasons explaining why you should be writing unit tests for your functional tests.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#persuasive
#testing
#software-testing
#tdd
#bdd
#cucumber
#software-quality
#quality-engineering
#unit-testing.
Viewing X.509 DER Certificate Details with OpenSSL (2 mins read).
How to convert an X.509 DER file to a human-readable format using openssl commands.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#certificates
#command-line
#der
#openssl.
Viewing X.509 PEM Certificate Details with OpenSSL (2 mins read).
How to convert an X.509 PEM file to a human-readable format using openssl commands.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#certificates
#command-line
#pem
#openssl.
Backporting/Replaying Changes Using git cherry-pick (6 mins read).
Using git cherry-pick to make it easier to backport or replay Git commits across different versions of your codebase.
Revert 'Some knowledge-sharing news' (5 mins read).
The unfortunate decision to cancel my Packt training courses.
DevOpsDays London 2018 (51 mins read).
My writeup of my first DevOpsDays conference, and the awesome talks and conversations I was part of.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#devopsdays
#aws
#cloud
#devops
#capital-one
#cloud-custodian
#dashboards
#events
#bash
#monolith
#serverless
#management
#agile
#testing
#microservices.
Showing response headers with curl -i (3 mins read).
Showing just response headers when curling a resource, using curl -i.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#curl.
Safely Force Pushing with Git using --force-with-lease=ref (6 mins read).
How git push --force-with-lease=ref can save you from overriding others' changes on shared Git branches.
My editorial workflow for blog posts (8 mins read).
Taking you through the journey I go on when writing blog posts, from ideation to publishing the post.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#www.jvt.me
#workflow
#ci
#gitlab
#git
#automation
#command-line
#shell
#gitlab-ci
#review-apps.
Viewing Git history of a file in git log while ignoring file renames (5 mins read).
How to track changes to files in Git without pesky file renames getting in the way, using git log --follow.
Test-Driven Chef Cookbook Development Using ChefSpec (and a sprinkling of InSpec) (38 mins read).
Using the example of deploying and running a Java JAR file as a way to show the lifecycle of a fully test-driven Chef cookbook.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#howto
#blogumentation
#chef
#test-kitchen
#chefspec
#tdd
#testing
#guide.
Pretty Printing JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) on the Command Line using Ruby (3 mins read).
How to easily introspect and pretty print a signed JWT (JWS) or an encrypted JWT (JWE) on the command line using Ruby's standard library, or using the ruby-jwt external library.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#ruby
#command-line
#jwt
#json
#pretty-print.
Using chef-shell to interactively debug attributes and recipes (5 mins read).
How to use chef-shell to see attribute config and recipes, with and without a Chef Server.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#chef
#chef-shell
#blogumentation
#test-kitchen
#chef-server
#chefdk.
OggCamp 2018 (21 mins read).
A look at my time at OggCamp 2018, the talks I presented and attended.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#events
#oggcamp
#chef
#public-speaking
#openapi
#swagger
#free-software
#open-source
#collaborative-culture.
Context is key: thinking about your audience (5 mins read).
How to have inclusive conversations by providing the right context for those who may not have the same level of understanding.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#thoughts
#communication
#capital-one
#context.
Creating a versionable, self-contained (fat-/uber-) JAR for Cucumber tests (11 mins read).
Why you'd want a fat JAR and how you'd achieve it.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#java
#cucumber
#testing
#jar
#artifact
#artefact
#maven
#uber-jar.
My Path from School to University to Work (25 mins read).
A look back at my journey up to now, the choices I've made, and what advice I have for others who are embarking on their own journeys into tech.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#musings
#blogumentation
#capital-one
#career
#university
#nottingham
#school
#a-level
#gcse.
Being More Explicit on Content Licensing (3 mins read).
Why I'm re-licensing the code snippets and post content on my site is, and how I'm making it more obvious.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#thoughts
#site
#licensing.
Some exciting job and knowledge-sharing news (4 mins read).
Moving into Quality Engineering, publishing Chef training courses, conference speaking about Chef at OggCamp and the complex mess that is this very static website at DevOpsDays London.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#news
#capital-one
#events
#chef
#testing
#conference
#job
#tdd
#oggcamp
#devopsdays.
Notes from the AWS + Chef Dev Day Roadshow in London (13 mins read).
Notes from the AWS Dev Day Roadshow in London, where we got to play around with Chef, Chef Automate and InSpec using AWS OpsWorks.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#aws
#chef
#events
#chef-server
#opsworks
#cloud-formation
#cloud-custodian
#deployment
#containers
#chef-automate
#inspec.
Pretty Printing JSON on the Command Line with Ruby (1 mins read).
Using Ruby's JSON module to pretty print JSON objects from the command line.
Merging multiple repositories into a monorepo, while preserving history, using git subtree (3 mins read).
How to merge multiple repositories, with their history, into a single repository, using the git subtree add command.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#git
#monorepo
#git-subtree
#command-line.
Sharing Multiple SSH Sessions over the Same Network Socket (3 mins read).
Reusing network sockets for speed and reduction of authentication handshakes with OpenSSH.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#ssh
#openssh
#command-line.
Better Git Diff Outputs with Git Submodules (2 mins read).
How to get nicer diffs when working with submodules.
Beware: deleteing a file in Chef doesn't actually delete it (3 mins read).
Why you should explicitly add backup false when deleteing a file through Chef, to avoid leaving potentially sensitive files still on the box.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef.
Morsels of Goodness: What's Cooking in Chef 14? (5 mins read).
A look at the new features coming in the new Chef 14 release, as well as what to watch out for when upgrading.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#chef-14
#chef
#foodcritic
#cookstyle
#rubocop
#ruby
#test-kitchen.
Finally Returning to Full Time Work After 123 Days (2 mins read).
Receiving the final sign off after four months off for my ruptured appendix.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#thoughts
#appendix
#health.
Serving Branches on a Subdomain using Caddy and GitLab Review Apps (2 mins read).
How to dynamically serve a branch on a subdomain for GitLab Review Apps using Caddy Labels.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#guide
#gitlab
#review-apps
#caddy
#howto
#deploy.
Deploying to Netlify using GitLab CI (3 mins read).
How adding two lines to my .gitlab-ci.yml migrated my existing site from GitLab Pages to Netlify.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#netlify
#gitlab-ci
#automation
#continuous-deployment
#ci
#deploy
#howto.
Executing an Interactive Python Shell (REPL) for a Script (1 mins read).
Using python -i to get an interactive REPL after running a Python source file.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#command-line
#python
#blogumentation
#tools
#howto.
Bundling Common Rake Tasks into a Gem (8 mins read).
An example of how to create a helper gem for common Rake task, using the real-world example of Chef cookbooks.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef
#chefdk
#gem
#ruby
#rake
#foodcritic
#rubocop
#rspec
#knife-cookbook-doc
#gitlab-ci.
Running docker login as another user in Chef (2 mins read).
Hitting the error permission denied while trying to connect to the Docker daemon socket when trying to run docker login as a non-root user in Chef.
My First Week Back to Working (Remotely) After Three Months (6 mins read).
How I've found the first week back to work after almost three months, and the productivity gains of working reduced hours.
Chef 13 Upgrade: knife-cookbook-doc Rubocop Updates (1 mins read).
Disabling the Missing space after # and Do not use block comments errors for your knife-cookbook-doc formatted comments.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef-13-upgrade
#chef
#knife-cookbook-doc
#chef-13
#documentation
#chef-13-upgrade-rubocop.
Chef 13 Upgrade: knife-cookbook-doc gem upgrade (1 mins read).
Fixing odd Logger entries in autogenerated knife-cookbook-doc README.mds for Chef 13.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef-13-upgrade
#chef
#knife-cookbook-doc
#chef-13
#documentation.
Chef 13 Upgrade: Deprecation of Namespace Collisions in Custom Resources (1 mins read).
Preparing for breaking changes in Chef 14 by renaming property_name to new_resource.property_name in Custom Resources.
by Jamie Tanna
.
#blogumentation
#chef-13-upgrade
#chef-13-upgrade-deprecation
#chef
#chef-13
#chef-14.