Making Local Backups Using rsnapshot

In the world of DevOps and system administration, ensuring data integrity and availability is paramount. One of the most efficient ways to safeguard your data is by implementing a robust backup strategy. While there are numerous tools available for this purpose, rsnapshot stands out as a powerful, open-source solution for creating local backups. In this article, we’ll explore how to set up and use rsnapshot to automate your backup processes effectively.

Defining a Custom Port for Rsnapshot Backup

Rsnapshot is a powerful filesystem snapshot utility for making backups of local and remote systems. It leverages rsync and hard links to create efficient and space-saving backups. By default, rsnapshot uses SSH to connect to remote systems, which typically operates over port 22. However, there are scenarios where you might need to define a custom port for SSH connections, such as when the remote server is configured to use a non-standard port for security reasons.

Getting Started with the Falco Project: A Beginner's Guide

In the ever-evolving landscape of DevOps and cloud-native applications, security remains a top priority. As organizations increasingly adopt containerized environments, the need for robust security tools becomes paramount. Enter Falco, an open-source project originally created by Sysdig, designed to monitor and detect anomalous activity in your applications and infrastructure. In this article, we’ll explore the basics of using the Falco project to enhance your security posture. What is Falco? Falco is a cloud-native runtime security tool that detects unexpected behavior in your applications.

Running a Factorio Server Using Docker

Factorio, a popular real-time strategy game focused on resource management and automation, has captured the hearts of many gamers. Hosting your own Factorio server can enhance your gaming experience by allowing you to play with friends or a community. Docker, a powerful containerization tool, simplifies the process of setting up and managing a Factorio server. This article will guide you through the steps to run a Factorio server using Docker.

Monitoring TLS Certificates with Uptime Kuma

In the realm of DevOps, ensuring the availability and security of your services is paramount. One critical aspect of this is monitoring TLS (Transport Layer Security) certificates, which are essential for securing communications over networks. Expired or misconfigured certificates can lead to service disruptions and security vulnerabilities. Uptime Kuma, an open-source monitoring tool, offers a straightforward way to keep an eye on your TLS certificates. In this article, we’ll explore how to set up and use Uptime Kuma for TLS certificate monitoring.

Migrating Issue Boards from One GitLab Instance to Another

Migrating issue boards from one GitLab instance to another can be a daunting task, especially when dealing with multiple projects and complex board configurations. However, with the right approach and tools, this process can be streamlined and automated to minimize downtime and ensure data integrity. In this article, we will explore a step-by-step guide to effectively migrate issue boards between GitLab instances. Understanding GitLab Issue Boards GitLab issue boards are a powerful feature that allows teams to manage their workflow using a visual interface.

Optimizing Docker Compose for Hosting a GitLab Instance

Hosting a GitLab instance using Docker Compose is a popular choice for many organizations looking to leverage the power of containerization for their DevOps needs. However, to ensure optimal performance and resource utilization, it’s crucial to optimize your Docker Compose file. This article will guide you through best practices and tips to enhance your GitLab deployment using Docker Compose. 1. Use Specific Image Tags When defining the GitLab service in your docker-compose.

How to Backup a Self-Hosted GitLab Instance

Backing up a self-hosted GitLab instance is a crucial task for ensuring data integrity and availability. Whether you’re running GitLab for a small team or a large enterprise, having a reliable backup strategy can save you from data loss due to hardware failures, accidental deletions, or other unforeseen events. In this article, we’ll explore how to effectively back up your GitLab instance using built-in tools and best practices. Why Backup Your GitLab Instance?

How to Backup a Self-Hosted GitLab Instance in Docker

In the world of DevOps, ensuring the safety and availability of your data is paramount. For those using a self-hosted GitLab instance running in Docker, setting up a reliable backup strategy is crucial. This article will guide you through the process of backing up your GitLab instance to safeguard your repositories, configurations, and other critical data. Why Backup Your GitLab Instance? GitLab is a powerful tool for managing repositories, CI/CD pipelines, and more.

How to Delete All Issues from a GitLab Project Using the GitLab API

Managing issues in GitLab can become cumbersome, especially when you need to delete a large number of them. While GitLab’s web interface allows for individual issue deletion, it lacks a bulk delete feature. Fortunately, the GitLab API provides a powerful way to automate this task. In this article, we’ll walk through the process of using the GitLab API to delete all issues from a project. Prerequisites Before you begin, ensure you have the following:

How to Check DNS Propagation Using Online Services

DNS propagation is a crucial aspect of managing web services and domains. When you make changes to your DNS records, such as updating an A record or changing your nameservers, these changes need to propagate across the internet. This process can take anywhere from a few minutes to 48 hours, depending on various factors like TTL (Time to Live) settings and the caching behavior of DNS servers worldwide. Understanding and checking DNS propagation is essential for ensuring that your changes have been successfully applied and are visible to users globally.

How to Check DNS Propagation Using CLI

DNS propagation is a critical aspect of managing domain names and ensuring that changes to DNS records are reflected across the internet. When you update DNS records, it can take some time for these changes to propagate to all DNS servers worldwide. As a DevOps engineer, it’s essential to verify DNS propagation to ensure that your services are accessible and functioning correctly. In this article, we’ll explore how to check DNS propagation using command-line interface (CLI) tools, focusing on open-source solutions.

Migrating Labels Between GitLab Instances: A Step-by-Step Guide

Migrating labels between GitLab instances can be a daunting task, especially when dealing with numerous projects. Labels are crucial for organizing issues and merge requests, and ensuring they are consistent across instances is essential for maintaining workflow efficiency. This article will guide you through the process of migrating labels from one GitLab instance to another using GitLab’s API and a simple Python script. Prerequisites Before you begin, ensure you have the following:

Self-Hosted Docker Image Registries: A Comprehensive Guide

In the world of containerization, Docker has emerged as a leading platform, enabling developers to package applications into standardized units for development, shipment, and deployment. Central to this ecosystem is the Docker image registry, a service that stores and distributes Docker images. While Docker Hub is the most popular public registry, many organizations opt for self-hosted Docker image registries to maintain control over their images, enhance security, and improve performance. This article explores the benefits of self-hosting a Docker image registry and reviews both open-source and commercial solutions available today.

Enabling Prometheus Metrics in the Zot Project (Docker Image Registry)

The Zot project is an open-source Docker image registry designed to be simple, efficient, and easy to use. As with any critical infrastructure component, monitoring is essential to ensure the registry’s health and performance. Prometheus, a leading open-source monitoring solution, can be integrated with Zot to collect and visualize metrics, providing insights into the registry’s operations. In this article, we will walk through the steps to enable Prometheus metrics in the Zot project, ensuring you have the necessary observability to maintain a healthy Docker image registry.

Enabling Prometheus Metrics in Harbor Project

Harbor is an open-source container image registry that provides various features such as vulnerability scanning, role-based access control, and image replication. As with any critical infrastructure component, monitoring is essential to ensure its smooth operation. Prometheus is a popular open-source monitoring and alerting toolkit that can be integrated with Harbor to collect and visualize metrics. In this article, we will explore how to enable Prometheus metrics in the Harbor project.

Using Harbor as a Self-Hosted Image Registry

In the world of containerization, managing container images efficiently is crucial for seamless deployment and scaling. While Docker Hub is a popular choice for hosting container images, organizations often require a self-hosted solution for better control, security, and compliance. Harbor, an open-source cloud-native registry, is a robust option that provides a secure and scalable environment for managing container images. In this article, we will explore how to set up Harbor as a self-hosted image registry using Docker Compose, and demonstrate how to upload an image to your Harbor registry.

How to List All Projects in a Docker Image Registry

In the world of DevOps, managing container images efficiently is crucial for streamlined operations and deployments. Docker image registries serve as repositories where container images are stored, managed, and retrieved. Whether you’re using Docker Hub, a private registry, or an open-source alternative like Harbor, listing all projects or repositories is a common task. This article will guide you through the process of listing all projects in a Docker image registry using various tools and techniques.

How to Docker Pull from a Registry with an Invalid TLS Certificate

In the world of containerization, Docker has become a pivotal tool for developers and DevOps engineers alike. One of the common tasks is pulling images from a Docker registry. However, sometimes you might encounter a registry with an invalid TLS certificate. This can be due to a self-signed certificate or an expired one. While it’s generally advisable to use valid certificates for security reasons, there are scenarios where you might need to bypass this check for testing or development purposes.

Using HAProxy for TLS Termination in a Docker Container

In today’s cloud-native environments, securing communication between clients and servers is paramount. TLS termination is a common practice where the decryption of incoming TLS connections is handled by a load balancer, offloading this task from backend servers. HAProxy, a reliable and high-performance open-source load balancer, is an excellent choice for this task. In this article, we’ll explore how to set up HAProxy for TLS termination using Docker and Docker Compose.