Windows application installation error codes

To enable logging of .msi packages open a command prompt as an administrator and execute

MY_APPLICATION.msi /l*vx install.log

Error Code	Explanation
2	?
1603	Error message from the operating system dll can not register msi installation failed required version of the .NET framework missing
1605	Nothing to uninstall ?
1618	?
1619	The source directory does not exist?
1622	File not found or access denied
1638

Stop multiple untagged AWS EC2 instances with a Bash script

List all EC2 instances without a specific tag

One day we have found 499 instances running in our account without any tags. Most likely someone accidentally started a process to launch those, so we needed a way to find them and stop them. Later we will terminate them with the same script below when we can make sure those are not needed.

For simplicity, place the appropriate aws_access_key_id and aws_secret_access_key into the [default] section of the “~/.aws/credentials” file or use the –profile option in every command below.

List all instances

To list all EC2 instances, execute

aws ec2 describe-instances

List all instances missing a specific tag

I have found the command to list those instances that are missing the “Name” tag at https://www.onica.com/blog/using-aws-cli-to-find-untagged-instances/

I have directed the output to a text file with the additional last line.

To get all info on the instances with no “Name” tag into a JSON file

aws ec2 describe-instances \
--query 'Reservations[].Instances[?!not_null(Tags[?Key == `Name`].Value)]' \
> instances-no-name-tag.json

To output multiple properties into a tab-separated file for reporting in Excel.

aws ec2 describe-instances \
--output text \
--filters Name=instance-state-name,Values=running \
--query 'Reservations[].Instances[?!not_null(Tags[?Key == `Name`].Value)] | [].[InstanceId,ImageId,InstanceType,Platform,LaunchTime,SubnetId,KeyName]' \
> instance-info-no-name-tag.csv

Get the list of instance IDs into a text file for batch processing

aws ec2 describe-instances \
--output text \
--filters Name=instance-state-name,Values=running \
--query 'Reservations[].Instances[?!not_null(Tags[?Key == `Name`].Value)] | [].[InstanceId]' \
> instance-ids-no-name-tag.txt

Stop an instance with the instance Id

aws ec2 stop-instances --instance-ids MY_INSTANCE_ID

Stop multiple instances

To stop all instances listed in the “instance-ids-no-name-tag.txt” file created above, create and execute this Bash script:

#!/bin/bash

# The file with the instance IDs
filname=instance-ids-no-name-tag.txt

# Iterate through the lines
while read p; do
  echo "Stopping $p"
  aws ec2 stop-instances --instance-ids $p
done <$filname

“incompatible-network” error when launching an AWS RDS instance

When the AWS subnet has no enough IP addresses Terraform displays the following error message:

* aws_db_instance.default: unexpected state ‘incompatible-network’, wanted target ‘available, storage-optimization’. last error: %!s(<nil>)

Make sure the subnet has enough available IP addresses.

Docker commands to run popular images

Maven

Navigate to the Maven project directory on your workstation and launch the Maven container.

To run a Maven project by using the Maven Docker image directly, passing a Maven command to docker run.

docker run -it --rm --name my-maven-project -v "$(pwd)":/usr/src/mymaven -w /usr/src/mymaven maven:3.3-jdk-8 mvn clean install

To launch the Maven Docker container and open a Bash terminal in the container for an interactive session.

docker run -it --name my-maven-project -v "$(pwd)":/usr/src/mymaven -w /usr/src/mymaven maven:3.3-jdk-8 bash

Set up a user to connect to a Linux server with a private-public key pair

To secure a Linux server, disable password authentication on it. This way only those users can connect to it, who have access to an authorized private key.

To enable users to connect to a Linux server with a private-public key pair

Generate an RSA key pair

In a Bash terminal on your workstation execute
```
ssh-keygen
```
Follow the prompts to specify the name of the key file pair. In most of the cases, you don’t need to protect the key with a password.
1. If you don’t specify the file name, the key will be saved as ~/.ssh/id_rsa
2. If you specify a file name, the key files will be saved in the current directory
The public key file will get the “.pub” extension, the private file has no extension

Upload the public key to the Linux server

Log into the server with the “ssh” command using a username and password
```
ssh MY_USER_NAME@SERVER_IP_ADDRESS
```
Add the public part of the key to the user configuration
1. Switch to sudo mode, this command will ask for the password again
```
sudo -i
```
2. Navigate to the user home directory
```
cd /home/USER_NAME/
```
3. Add the public key to the user’s authorized_keys file. Open the file with a text editor and copy the public key into a new line.
```
vi authorized_keys
```
4. To test the configuration, on your workstation navigate to the directory where the new key is located, and log into the server with
```
ssh -i MY_KEY_NAME MY_USER_NAME@SERVER_IP_ADDRESS
```

Turn off password authentication

Make sure you can log in with the new key !!!

Execute the command

sed -i 's/#PasswordAuthentication yes/PasswordAuthentication no/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Install a ZIP web application package with Octopus Deploy

Install the Octopus Tentacle on the application server.

Automated Tentacle installation instructions are at https://octopus.com/docs/infrastructure/windows-targets/automating-tentacle-installation
(Note for our DevOps team: execute ~/Git/devops-scripts/OctopusDeploy/Tentacle_Installation/install_tentacle.ps1.)
Make sure the box registered itself in the Octopus server. On the Deployment Targets tab of the Infrastructure menu enter the server name into the search box. The script already created the Environment and the Role and attached them to the target.

To manually create the application-specific environments

On the Environments tab of the Infrastructure menu push the ADD ENVIRONMENT button

Create an application-specific lifecycle

On the Lifecycles tab of the Library menu click the ADD LIFECYCLE button
Click the ADD PHASE button to add a new phase for the environments
Click the ADD ENVIRONMENT link to add the environments to the phase
Create a phase for every environment. For automated deployment, select the Deploy automatically… radio button, and select the application-specific environments, and click the Ok button
The list of phases is at the bottom of the page. Click the Save button to save the lifecycle.

Create a project for the application deployment

Create a new project group
Create a new project
Set the project group and the lifecycle
Click the DEFINE YOUR DEPLOYMENT PROCESS button
Click the ADD STEP button
Select the Deploy to IIS template
Enter the name of the step and select the Role and Package ID

…

Trigger an Octopus Deploy application package installation from TeamCity

Push the package to Octopus Deploy from TeamCity

Create project level parameters

In TeamCity create the parameters to centralize the configuration of reused values

On the project level create a system parameter for the Octopus package name including the build number interpolation

Push the artifact to Octopus Deploy

Create a build configuration, and on the General Settings page specify a build number format that Octopus can understand
Add the build step as a dependency
Create a trigger on the same dependency to automatically execute the Octopus push on a successful build
Create a Command Line build step to get the artifact from the built-in TeamCity repository. Use curl to download the file to the working directory, use the octopus_package_name parameter you created above.
```
curl -o %system.MY_APP_api_octopus_package_name% http://%system.tc_server%/guestAuth/repository/downloadAll/MY_PROJECT_ID/.lastSuccessful/artifacts.zip
```
Create an OctopusDeploy: Create and Push Packages build step to upload the package to the Octopus server. Use the system parameters to specify the Octopus server URL, and the package name, enter the API key that has enough rights to push a package to the Octopus server. The user needs the BuiltInFeedPush permission to push a package. Octopus Deploy provides a built-in role called Package Publisher that has been granted the BuiltInFeedPush permission.
To check the push to Octopus Deploy, run the TeamCity configuration to upload the package to the OctopusDeploy built-in repository. in Octopus Deploy click the name of the package to see the versions.
The next page shows the package versions

Create an Octopus Deploy release

In the TeamCity configuration, add an OctopusDeploy: Create release type build step to create a release in Octopus Deploy. Use the %OctopusURL% parameter from the root project level, enter the Octopus API key, and use the %build_number% macro that you have specified in the Release number field on the General Settings tab. If you have not created a custom channel in the Octopus project, the default is “Default”.
List the environments where the release can be deployed, and check the Show deployment process checkbox.
To check the release creation in Octopus Deploy, navigate to the overview page of the Octopus Deploy project.

Deploy the Octopus Deploy release

To install the package add an OctopusDeploy: Deploy Release build step

Create a project parameter for the Octopus Deploy project name
Create a new build step using the project level parameters.

Set up an application to auto-start on macOS

To set up an application to automatically start when the Macintosh computer starts

Open Settings
Select Users & Groups
On the Login Items tab click the lock to enable changes
Enter your credentials to unlock the function
Click the + sign to add an application to the list
Select the application and click the Add button

Connect to a database on the host in a Docker container from a virtual machine

Docker is an emerging technology to launch applications without installation. The same host can run multiple Docker containers of any type, so one physical or virtual server can serve as a complete mini cloud environment. Most of the time Linux is used as the host operating system.

In this example, we will launch a PostgreSQL Docker container on macOS, and access the PostgreSQL database server from a Windows VirtualBox virtual machine.

From VMware Fusion

Configure the first network adapter to use NAT

From Virtual Box

Create a network between the guest VM and the host in Oracle VirtualBox

A VirtualBox virtual machine can share the networking with the host with the NAT setting, or it can be an independent computer on the network with the Bridged setting.

To access the host directly from the guest VM we can set up a host-only network, that only the host and the guest can access. This way we can launch a container on the host and access it from the guest via the host-only mini-network.

To set up the private host-only network

Open the VirtualBox application and shut down all virtual machines
In the File menu select Host Network Manager…
On the Host Network Manager window click the Create button
Click the Enable checkbox in the DHCP Server column and click the Close button

Connect the virtual machine to the host-only network

The VirtualBox virtual machines can have four virtual network adapters. Always use the first adapter to connect to the host-only network.

Select the virtual machine in the list and click the Settings icon
On the Network tab click the arrow next to the Attached to drop-down
Select the Host-only adapter
The host-only network is automatically selected
Select the second adapter, click the Enable Network Adapter checkbox, and select NAT
Click the OK button to close the window.

Find the IP address of the host machine

When using VMware Fusion

WMware Fusion registers a local IP address to access the Mac host from the guest machine. On the Mac host terminal execute

ifconfig vmnet8

vmnet8: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether 00:50:56:c0:00:08
inet 192.168.2.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.2.255

Add the IP address to the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts file

192.168.2.1 mac.localhost

In your connection string use the address mac.localhost as the database URL

When using Oracle Virtual Box

On Docker version 18.03 and above you can use host.docker.internal to connect to the host machine.
On older Docker versions

Open a terminal on the host machine.
On Mac
1. enter the following command. Use the IP address range of the host-only network above.
```
ifconfig | grep 192.168
```
  inet 192.168.56.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.56.255
2. Based on the output above, the IP address of the host machine is 192.168.56.1

Launch a PostgreSQL Docker container

Create a docker-compose.yml file. Containers are ephemeral, when we terminate them, all data stored inside the container is lost. We want to keep the database files on our local hard drive, so this configuration will map the /var/lib/postgresql/data directory of the Docker container to the pgdata subdirectory of the current working directory. The 5432 is the default port of the PostgreSQL database server, we will expose it on port 5432 of the host with
```
version: '3'

services:
  postgres:
    image: postgres:10
    env_file: .env
    ports:
      - "5432:5432"
    restart: always
    volumes:
      - $PWD/pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data
```
Open a terminal window in the same directory and launch the Docker container
```
docker-compose up -d
```

Connect to the host machine from the guest machine

Test the connection

Open a terminal on the guest machine

Test the connection to the host machine

ping host.docker.internal

ping 192.168.56.1

Configure your application on the virtual machine to connect to the Docker PostgreSQL database server on the host

Change the connection string, and specify the exposed port on the host machine:

"Server=host.docker.internal;Port=5432;Database=MY_DATABASE;Username=MY_USERNAME;Password=MY_PASSWORD"

"Server=192.168.56.1;Port=5432;Database=MY_DATABASE;Username=MY_USERNAME;Password=MY_PASSWORD"

Add identity into an ASP.NET Core 2.1 MVC project and maintain full control of the Identity UI

To maintain full control over the Identity UI in an ASP.NET Core 2.1 MVC project, scaffold the identity using the Windows version of Visual Studio 2017.

Scaffold the Identity

Right click the web application project and select Add, New Scaffolded Item…
On the left side of the Add Scaffold dialog select Identity, and click the Add button
Select your existing Layout page, so the scaffolding will not overwrite it
Select the Identity functions (files) you want to override, and click the down arrow to select your existing data context class
The MY_SOLUTION\MY_WEBAPP\ScaffoldingReadme.txt file contains tasks to do to set up the Identity UI. Based on that
1. Add the following lines to the Configure method of the Startup.cs file in this order. If a line is already in the file, make sure the order is correct.
```
app.UseStaticFiles()
app.UseAuthentication()
app.UseMvc()
```
2. Add to the ConfigureServices method of the Startup.cs file, if the line is not there.
```
services.AddMvc()
```
The Aeras, Identity, Pages, Account folder contains the .cshtml files you can modify.
The code is in the .cshtml.cs file

Use your own SMTP server

To configure Identity to use you own SMTP server to send the Forgot my password and email verification emails, register a custom email sender.

Add to the ConfigureServices method of the Startup.cs file

// using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Identity.UI.Services;
services.AddSingleton<IEmailSender, EmailSender>();

Create the EmailSender class in the web application project

// using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Identity.UI.Services;
// using System.Threading.Tasks;
public class EmailSender : IEmailSender
{
    public Task SendEmailAsync(string sTo, string sSubject, string sMessage)
    {
        MyMessagingClass messaging = new MyMessagingClass();

        // Send an email message with SMTP
        messaging.MySendEmailMethod(sTo, sSubject, sMessage);
        
        return Task.CompletedTask;
    }
}

For more information see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/security/authentication/scaffold-identity?view=aspnetcore-2.1&tabs=visual-studio#scaffold-identity-into-a-razor-project-with-authorization