Fixing bootcode in FreeBSD

So the other day I attempted to upgrade my ZFS zpool on FreeBSD. After the move, it's been quite hecting and I have not had the time to do some TLC housekeeping on my BSD farm. The systems returned a message saying that I have to update my boot code …

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SSM Systems Manager Session Manager

AWS released a new feature of SSM Systems Manager on September 11th, 2018. This new feature allows organizations to control access to the EC2 instances using a secure manner. Some of the top features are:

  • Fine-tuned granular control to instances using IAM policies
    • Support for tags, users, instance IDs, etc …
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AWS API Credentials Order

  1. Environment variables such as AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
  2. Application code properties (like boto3.session(region_name='us-west-2', profile_name='account01'))
    • profile_name='' and --profile are used for assuming other roles if you are using API key-based authentication.
  3. Local credentials profile file (~/.aws/credentials)
    • You can …
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Viewing YUM variables using python

Below python oneliner will show you YUM variables typically defined in /etc/yum.conf and used by YUM/RPM. Very cool.

$ python -c 'import yum, pprint; yb = yum.YumBase(); pprint.pprint(yb.conf.yumvar, width=1)'

Output:

Loaded plugins: langpacks, update-motd
{'arch': 'ia32e',
'awsdomain': 'amazonaws.com',
'awsregion': 'us-west-2',
'basearch': 'x86 …
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AWS Parameter Store - Or how to securely store app configs

AWS Parameter Store is a hidden gem in the vast array of AWS services. Most engineers will never notice it unless someone tells them about it. After all, it is inconspicuously located within the Systems Manager Shared Resources section of the EC2 Console.

The Parameter store can be used for …

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Scaling EC2 Instances with AWS Auto Scaling Groups

AWS Auto Scaling Group service allows you to set up a logical grouping of similar EC2 instances that can used to ensure that a certain amount of instances is running at all times. This can be done for many different purposes, such as high availability, automatic scaling based on external …

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All about keeping AWS S3 secure

With a spike in recent major hacks and leaks, AWS S3 has been put in spotlight due to organizations' failures to secure their object storage in the cloud. Just in June of this year, a big leak of US voter data was made public. This happened right after a May …

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