Category Archives: DevOps

The specified version of the NuGet package is not found in Artifactory

The “chocolatey_package” Chef resource can install NuGet packages from Artifactory. Artifactory is inconsistent in case sensitivity when an application is searching for a NuGet package. When we specify the package ID only, the search is not case sensitive. If the package is called “GoogleChrome” and we search for “googlechrome” the NuGet package is found in Artifactory. chocolatey_package ‘googlechrome’ do source ‘devops-chocolatey’ options “–allow-empty-checksums –ignore-package-exit-codes” end When we specify the version of the package, …

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Copy files between Windows and Linux computers

There are many tools to copy files between Windows and Linux computers, I have found this method the simplest. It does not require any software installation on the Windows machine, and only one package installation on the Linux machine. Share a folder on the Windows machine Share a folder on the Windows machine and allow …

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Edit the HKEY_CURRENT_USER Windows Registry keys of another user

The user-specific settings in the Windows registry are stored under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER key. If you open the Regedit.exe application the HKEY_CURRENT_USER key contains the settings for your user account. To access the registry keys of another user we need to Find the Security ID of the user In Regedit navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\hivelist The key lists the Security IDs and …

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“Ran out of time waiting for the server with id” with Windows Server 2016 in Chef Test Kitchen

AWS changed how Windows Server EC2 instances send messages during boot. Windows Server 2012 R2 AWS EC2 instances sent the “Windows is ready” message every time those became available after boot. When a Windows Server 2016 AWS EC2 instance launches, it only sends the “Windows is ready” message during the first boot. If you create your custom …

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Test Chef cookbooks locally on a virtual workstation

When you use a virtual machine to write your Chef cookbooks you may want to test them locally with Vagrant. This nested virtual machine cannot use a 64 bit operating system, because to run a 64 bit virtual machine, the host computer’s CPU has to provide the CPU Extensions. Currently only physical CPUs can provide …

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Nested VirtualBox virtual machine on a VirtualBox virtual machine

There can be reasons when we want to run a VirtualBox virtual machine on another VirtualBox virtual machine. I am setting up a Windows virtual machine to interview job candidates and want to run a small Ubuntu virtual machine on the Windows virtual machine. It is not recommended for performance reasons, but I want to …

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Resize the VirtualBox image hard drive

When your VirtualBox virtual machine’s hard drive fills up Virtual Box does not provide a user interface to extend it. If you run VirtualBox on a Macintosh workstation Stop the virtual machine On a Macintosh workstation, the virtual machine image files are located at ~/VirtualBox VMs The name of the subdirectory and the image file matches the …

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Ruby tips and tricks

Bang methods (Exclamation point at the end of the method name) There are methods that have a permanent or dangerous version. The exclamation point designates to use the dangerous version of the method. String manipulation The bang versions of the string manipulation methods (with the exclamation point), modify the string variable in place. Some of these methods …

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Find the AWS account number

The AWS account number uniquely identifies the AWs account you are working with. All AWS “arn” identifiers contain it, and you need to know it when you want to share AMIs with other accounts. If there are no resources created yet in the account, you can find the account number in the “arn” of your user …

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