One of the building blocks of running an AWS EC2 instance is called the VPC or Virtual Private Cloud. The VPC system allows you to create shared or segmented networking blocks for the various EC2 instances that you will run. The really boring Security conversation... Fundamentally the level of security…

There are many approaches to connecting to servers long-term. For Linux, the default is to use SSH without a password. All the examples will be based on Linux servers, so SSH is what we will use. While access to a server with only one form of authentication (SSH in this…

There are many different approaches to creating an application build. Obviously I go for full automation of the end to end process (and even then there still multiple approaches to be thought through), but the sad reality most people live in is that builds are anything but automated, or if…

When I first started writing my posts, I was using Ghost 5.5, and missed the ability to spell check intensely. Ghost 5.5 was using a weird and wonderful browser editor that meant the inbuilt spelling checkers within current browsers was unable to actually function. I've run through the…

This is an optional step which will cost you real money if you move forward with it. While the free tier is manageable and can truly be 'free', adding a domain in of itself costs money, but it is also the only way to take full advantage of also using…

So while there are 38 (and counting!) distinct AWS services, I generally find that I only use around a third of them. That said, with 10 or more frequently used services, navigating between them can be intimidating. AWS do give a way of adding shortcuts to the top menu, however…

Before you can create a server, you need to have an environment to set that server up in. Given we are using Amazon Web Services, you will need to have a key ingredient - an email account. You thought I was going to say and AWS account right? You do,…

I've become a big fan of PostgreSQL (aka PostgresDB or just Postgres depending on where you look). Over the years they have added some of the best database technology to the point where if I do need a relational database, I will use PostgreSQL without a second thought. I also…

Have you ever added a sleep or pause into a script to resolve a timing issue? I have, and I have to say I feel kinda dirty every time I do. One of the more entertaining foibles of using linux within a cloud service, specifically Amazon Linux within AWS in…

I've been playing with Hubot lately as part of allowing certain commands to be available to the engineers for deploying environments within AWS. One of the puzzles I have had is the lack of a good reference as to what all the various pieces within the msg object are within…