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[939.88 --> 941.70] Linode.com slash SSH.
[941.96 --> 943.54] Linode is our cloud server provider.
[943.72 --> 948.10] And really, it's not just because the price is so great, although it is great.
[948.10 --> 953.20] It's also because the tools they have make it possible for a small team to have killer infrastructure.
[953.72 --> 955.96] Alex and I use it for our projects here on the show.
[956.10 --> 958.92] We use it for the backend infrastructure for JB 3.0.
[959.34 --> 963.24] And millions of projects and sites that we all love on the internet are using Linode.
[963.44 --> 970.04] They've been around since 2003 as one of the first companies in cloud computing, three years before AWS and other enterprise providers.
[970.24 --> 973.34] They're independently owned and founded on a love for Linux and open source.
[974.06 --> 975.48] I mean, they like to geek around with this stuff.
[975.56 --> 976.84] That's why they started so long ago.
[976.84 --> 981.78] Now that we live in the future, they're dedicated to offering the best virtualized cloud computing.
[981.98 --> 985.00] If it runs on Linux, well, it'll run on Linode.
[985.38 --> 989.70] And they have node balancers and, of course, a fantastic dashboard to make it all possible.
[989.82 --> 992.12] 11 data centers around the world.
[992.56 --> 997.26] One-click deployments of the entire application stack, if that's how you roll or build the whole thing up from scratch.
[997.32 --> 1002.10] And if you like to manage it with some centralized tools like Terraform, they support that too.
[1002.10 --> 1010.22] And then, just kind of like the bow on top of it all, they have fantastic 24-7 customer support by phone or by ticket.
[1010.40 --> 1012.88] So you're going to be taken care of if you ever run into any problems.
[1013.32 --> 1018.04] Go see why a huge part of our community has started using Linode and why we use it ourselves.
[1018.48 --> 1020.56] Linode.com slash SSH.
[1020.56 --> 1027.52] Now, you know I have a bit of a thing about GUIs and I prefer to do things on the command line, don't you?
[1027.78 --> 1029.00] That is totally true.
[1029.00 --> 1036.00] The one exception to this rule for probably seven or eight years has been my firewall for some reason.
[1036.34 --> 1040.28] I've allowed myself to run PFSense and then I moved to OpenSense last year.
[1040.44 --> 1043.24] You know, I've thought about that and I've meant to ask you why that is.
[1043.48 --> 1044.06] I don't know.
[1044.44 --> 1045.18] It's not rational.
[1045.64 --> 1049.54] Maybe you always do something that way and so you go on doing it that way, perhaps.
[1049.70 --> 1050.56] Yeah, that must be it.
[1050.56 --> 1056.38] And I came to the conclusion that with my home lab setup where I'm spinning up and down OpenShift stuff all the time
[1056.38 --> 1063.62] and I'm constantly adding MAC address reservations for new smart devices that arrive, you know,
[1063.68 --> 1068.26] I get a new phone or a new Shelly device pops up or whatever it is.
[1068.74 --> 1073.98] I feel like I'm logging into OpenSense three or four times a week to make some small tweak for some reason.
[1073.98 --> 1078.30] Now, that's fine if you, you know, think about it.
[1078.34 --> 1085.36] It's not really that big of a deal, but I would prefer to just make one config line change in an Ansible repo or something
[1085.36 --> 1087.68] and then run a playbook and it's done.
[1088.08 --> 1098.42] So I've finally bitten the bullet and written a playbook to turn an old Raspberry Pi 3B Plus that I have into my DNS and DHCP server.
[1098.42 --> 1100.80] Very nice.
[1100.90 --> 1105.32] And you think a Raspberry, I mean, yeah, it should be powerful enough for what you've got.
[1105.40 --> 1107.36] How many devices on your network would you say?
[1107.90 --> 1110.10] I think I've got like 150 or so.
[1110.80 --> 1119.14] But I mean, it's not like, you know, the performance of a DHCP server, this is ancient history technology.
[1119.14 --> 1125.02] You know, those servers have been around as long as the internet has pretty much those technologies.
[1125.40 --> 1128.28] And they need such minimal resources.
[1128.58 --> 1135.36] The only thing I was worried about with the Raspberry Pi using that for DHCP and DNS was it's a Pi, right?
[1135.42 --> 1144.20] I mean, it's logging to an SD card, but then I can just USB boot and put logs into RAM and ship them off to some remote server if I really want to keep them.
[1144.20 --> 1146.48] So I think I can work around that.
[1146.64 --> 1153.74] But what I ended up doing was using this as an exercise to remind myself how much I enjoy writing code.
[1154.38 --> 1156.68] It's not something I do as much as I would like anymore.
[1157.06 --> 1169.14] And one of the most difficult challenges I found actually was making Ansible look at a list of MAC addresses that I'd supplied and check for any duplicates.
[1169.14 --> 1171.86] I mean, it sounds like a really simple thing.
[1172.28 --> 1174.04] And, you know, probably to some people it is.
[1174.10 --> 1177.16] But to me, I felt like I was working on the DaVinci code solving this one.
[1178.06 --> 1186.70] I have one big list of dictionaries with multiple sub keys and sub elements within them, right?
[1186.74 --> 1194.38] So it's, you know, name, IP and MAC address, for example, which corresponds to a specific device or a specific host on my network.
[1194.38 --> 1208.42] So I can go in and iterate over those keys using Ansible, over those sub elements using Ansible, and pull out the bits of information that I need to generate the config files, which then get deployed onto the Raspberry Pi using Ansible.
[1209.12 --> 1219.64] But what was really difficult was actually trying to control the flow of variables using facts using Ansible.
[1219.64 --> 1234.62] And there's a code snippet in the show notes if you're interested, but what I ended up doing was reading the list of MAC addresses into a fact and then comparing it against itself to be unique using one of Ansible's built-in filters.
[1235.10 --> 1243.48] And I'm sure very few people listening to this are going to ever want to solve the problem that I solved, but I'm incredibly proud of this bit of code.
[1244.56 --> 1246.30] So I thought I'd talk about it on the show.
[1246.30 --> 1247.62] That's a nice solution.
[1248.18 --> 1259.14] And kind of just works towards what I was talking about, how in a way what you've done is you've let the computer solve a problem for you that I would just spend human hours burning.
[1260.02 --> 1269.56] I spent probably two evenings whilst I was rocking a baby to sleep in one hand and trying to code in the other.
[1269.84 --> 1270.72] Productive right there.
[1271.24 --> 1272.64] Solving this problem, yeah.
[1273.14 --> 1275.92] Those late nights are productive for some reason.
[1276.30 --> 1287.82] What was really interesting actually was for my testing, I ended up using my ESXi lab and I created a second virtual network interface on that system.
[1288.30 --> 1304.24] And then I span up an isolated network within my network to test DHCP because obviously I didn't want to turn off my primary DHCP server because, well, I kind of need that for everything that goes on most days.
[1304.24 --> 1317.48] So I ended up with a completely separate subnet within VMware that I was able to test it and I was able to have OpenSense actually running as a firewall on this virtual network running within VMware.
[1317.68 --> 1318.82] It was really cool.
[1318.82 --> 1330.52] And I really think that if you're remotely interested in networking that there are just little projects like this you can do to kind of stretch yourself and challenge yourself where you can learn little bits and bobs here and there.
[1330.92 --> 1332.14] And I don't know.
[1332.22 --> 1333.10] I just had fun doing it.
[1333.10 --> 1337.46] Yeah, push yourself in a way that it solves a problem and you learn something.
[1337.66 --> 1342.78] And that solving a problem, something that's been on your mind for a while, is such a good motivator.
[1342.88 --> 1346.90] It's such a great way to get into something or, in your case, maybe take something to the next level.
[1347.52 --> 1349.48] People ask all the time, like, where should I get started?
[1349.60 --> 1350.46] How should I get started?
[1350.60 --> 1351.12] That's how.
[1352.14 --> 1354.42] It's a cliche to say it, but scratch that itch.
[1354.82 --> 1355.74] Absolutely true.
[1356.18 --> 1361.60] Now, speaking of, we've been using something called Slexi on JB for many, many years.
[1361.64 --> 1363.40] This goes back to Linux Action Show days.
[1363.82 --> 1364.90] Excuse me?
[1365.98 --> 1366.80] Yeah, it does.
[1366.90 --> 1367.02] Yeah.
[1367.18 --> 1370.66] It's a bad name, Slexi.org, but it was a good tool.
[1370.84 --> 1371.26] Yeah, dude.
[1371.36 --> 1372.46] You old, you know?
[1372.92 --> 1373.72] Yeah, I know.
[1374.18 --> 1374.74] I know.
[1374.84 --> 1380.06] And I could see the signs coming because every now and then the service would be offline for a couple of hours.
[1380.32 --> 1382.38] And then it came back strong for a bit.
[1382.38 --> 1390.02] It was just a clean paste bin that supported basically every language on the planet, including my beloved Markdown, even.
[1390.62 --> 1401.92] And it was really simple for us as a team to take, like, emails that come in or messages on Discord and throw them in something that we could link the other hosts to and link them in our show notes.
[1402.38 --> 1408.16] And it really wasn't something that was necessarily intended for public consumption, although it could be in some cases.
[1408.16 --> 1416.80] But it was mostly just so that way you have, like, you know, 15 different platforms, messages come in for a show, and we could take them and have one central spot.
[1417.34 --> 1418.52] And so it was Slexi.org.
[1418.52 --> 1423.86] And then, like, so many things, when the cloud giveth, the cloud taketh.