<p><strong>This is a Reference Page:</strong> Reference pages are collections of short bits
of information that are useful to look up but not long or interesting enough to
justify having their own dedicated post.</p>
<p>This reference page contains operations-related mini-guides and minor posts.</p>
<hr>
<h3 id="table-of-contents">Table of Contents</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="#find-which-active-passive-bond-member-is-active">Find which active-passive bond member is active</a></li>
<li><a href="#convert-p7b-certificate-to-pem-format">Convert p7b certificate to pem format</a></li>
<li><a href="#journalctl-commands">Journalctl commands</a></li>
<li><a href="#get-real-ram-use-of-processes">Get real RAM use of processes</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#of-ceph">of ceph</a></li>
<li><a href="#of-vms">of VMs</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#bypass-chromes-self-signed-cert-warning">Bypass Chrome's self-signed cert warning</a></li>
<li><a href="#create-a-virtual-loopback-volume-on-ubuntu">Create a virtual loopback volume on Ubuntu</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#use-systemd-to-re-map-loopback-on-reboot">Use Systemd to re-map loopback on reboot</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#test-mtu-from-ubuntu">Test MTU from Ubuntu</a></li>
<li><a href="#find-big-files-on-mac-os">Find big files on Mac OS</a></li>
<li><a href="#renew-ntp-lease-ubuntu">Renew NTP Lease Ubuntu</a></li>
<li><a href="#create-aws-ecr-registry-if-not-found">Create AWS ECR Registry If Not Found</a></li>
<li><a href="#passwordless-sudo-on-ubuntu-server">Passwordless sudo on Ubuntu Server</a></li>
<li><a href="#vim-tasks">VIM Tasks</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#find--replace">Find &#x26; Replace</a></li>
<li><a href="#spell-check-commands">Spell-Check commands</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#use-an-insecure-docker-registry">Use an Insecure Docker Registry</a></li>
<li><a href="#ansible-ignore-errors">Ansible ignore errors</a></li>
<li><a href="#how-to-tail--f-on-dmesg">How to tail -f on dmesg</a></li>
<li><a href="#ubuntu-downgrade-a-package">Ubuntu Downgrade a package</a></li>
<li><a href="#make-ansible-run-python-3-on-target-nodes">Make Ansible run Python 3 on target nodes</a></li>
<li><a href="#bash-print-all-but-first-line">Bash: Print all but first line</a></li>
<li><a href="#bash-run-code-whenever-a-script-exits">Bash: Run code whenever a script exits</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 id="find-which-active-passive-bond-member-is-active">Find which active-passive bond member is active</h1>
<pre><code>cat /proc/net/bonding/bond0
</code></pre>
<hr>
<h1 id="convert-p7b-certificate-to-pem-format">Convert p7b certificate to pem format</h1>
<pre><code class="language-bash">openssl pkcs7 -print_certs -in certnew.p7b -out cert.pem
</code></pre>
<p>To generate a CSR with Subject Alternative Names (required to fix
<code>ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID</code>), see
<a href="/openssl-csr-san.html">Creating a CSR with a SAN</a>.</p>
<hr>
<h1 id="journalctl-commands">Journalctl commands</h1>
<p>Watch the logs as they come in:</p>
<pre><code class="language-bash">journalctl -f
</code></pre>
<p>When journalctl logs too much and you need to pair it down:</p>
<pre><code class="language-bash"># to 30 days
journalctl --vacuum-time=30d

# to 500MB
journalctl --vacuum-size=500M
</code></pre>
<p>Show for a specific service</p>
<pre><code class="language-bash">journalctl ceph*
</code></pre>
<hr>
<h1 id="get-real-ram-use-of-processes">Get real RAM use of processes</h1>
<p>You can always use top or htop or whatever. I use this to specifically get the
info about those processes.</p>
<h2 id="of-ceph">of ceph</h2>
<pre><code>ps aux | grep ceph | grep -v -e grep -e qemu -e "\[" | while read line; do bin=$(echo $line | awk '{print $11}'); pid=$(echo $line | awk '{print $2}'); id=$(echo $line | awk '{print $16}'); size=$(grep 'VmSize' /proc/$pid/status); echo -e "pid: $pid, \tbin: $bin, \tid: $id,    \tRAM: ($size)"; done
</code></pre>
<h2 id="of-vms">of VMs</h2>
<p>for KVM</p>
<pre><code>ps aux | grep qemu | grep -v -e grep| while read line; do bin=$(echo $line | awk '{print $11}'); pid=$(echo $line | awk '{print $2}'); guest=$(echo $line | awk '{print $13}'); size=$(grep 'VmSize' /proc/$pid/status); echo -e "pid: $pid, \tbin: $bin, \tguest: $guest,   \t\tRAM: ($size)" ; done
</code></pre>
<h1 id="bypass-chromes-self-signed-cert-warning">Bypass Chrome's self-signed cert warning</h1>
<p>As of Mac Catalina, developing a site using self-signed certs is a bigger pain
than before. Yeah you can go get the key and add it, but that's a nuisance.
It looks like the Chrome team built something they call an
"interstitial bypass keyword" to deal with that. That's one cool feature name.</p>
<p><strong>Obvious disclaimer</strong> If you're not a developer doing this to access your own
site, don't do this.</p>
<p>To bypass the warning, type</p>
<pre><code>thisisunsafe
</code></pre>
<p>Apparently it used to be <code>badidea</code> but they rotated it since it got too well
known. They'll probably do it again someday. I suspect people are using this
on sites they "trust" without really knowing any better and getting hurt by
it.</p>
<hr>
<h1 id="create-a-virtual-loopback-volume-on-ubuntu">Create a virtual loopback volume on Ubuntu</h1>
<p>Useful for simulating a real drive when building a test environment. I use this to test OpenStack in a VM as a Ceph or LVM back-end.</p>
<pre><code class="language-bash"># create empty file of all zeros
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/root/virtual-disk bs=1M count=512
# show list of loopback devices. Note its not there
losetup --list
# create the loopback device
losetup /dev/loop0 /root/virtual-disk
# confirm it worked
losetup --list
</code></pre>
<p>You can now treat it like a normal volume. Mount it, put a filesystem on it, whatever. Example:</p>
<pre><code class="language-bash">pvcreate /dev/loop0
vgcreate cinder-volumes /dev/loop0
</code></pre>
<h2 id="use-systemd-to-re-map-loopback-on-reboot">Use Systemd to re-map loopback on reboot</h2>
<p>I found <a href="https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/418322/persistent-lvm-device-with-loopback-devices-by-fstab">this useful systemd unit example</a> that didn't quite work for me, but was close. Here's mine:</p>
<p><code>vi /etc/systemd/system/loops-setup.service</code></p>
<pre><code class="language-text">[Unit]
Description=Setup loopback devices

DefaultDependencies=no
Conflicts=umount.target

Requires=lvm2-lvmetad.service mnt-host.mount
Before=local-fs.target umount.target
After=lvm2-lvmetad.service mnt-host.mount

[Service]
ExecStart=/sbin/losetup /dev/loop0 /root/virtual-disk
ExecStop=/sbin/losetup -d /dev/loop0

RemainAfterExit=yes
Type=oneshot

[Install]
WantedBy=local-fs-pre.target
</code></pre>
<p>Then enable it</p>
<pre><code class="language-bash">systemctl enable loops-setup
</code></pre>
<p>Reboot, then check <code>vgdisplay</code> (if that's your use case). It'll be there.</p>
<hr>
<h1 id="test-mtu-from-ubuntu">Test MTU from Ubuntu</h1>
<p>You would not believe the strange problems that an MTU issue can be the root cause of.</p>
<pre><code class="language-bash">ping -M do -s 1472 &#x3C;remote server>
ping -M do -s 8900 &#x3C;remote server>
</code></pre>
<hr>
<h1 id="find-big-files-on-mac-os">Find big files on Mac OS</h1>
<p>My SSD is always almost full. Here are useful commands for cleaning up:</p>
<pre><code class="language-bash"># Find all the files over 1G
sudo find / -type f -size +1G -exec ls -lh {} \; | awk '{ print $9 ": " $5 }' 2>/dev/null

# List files in Downloads directory by size
ls -lhS ~/Downloads
</code></pre>
<h1 id="renew-ntp-lease-ubuntu">Renew NTP Lease Ubuntu</h1>
<pre><code class="language-bash">service ntp stop
ntpd -gq
service ntp start
</code></pre>
<hr>
<h1 id="create-aws-ecr-registry-if-not-found">Create AWS ECR Registry If Not Found</h1>
<pre><code class="language-bash">aws ecr describe-repositories --repository-names $repo_name \
    || aws ecr create-repository --repository-name $repo_name
</code></pre>
<hr>
<h1 id="passwordless-sudo-on-ubuntu-server">Passwordless sudo on Ubuntu Server</h1>
<p>Run <code>visudo</code> as root.</p>
<pre><code class="language-bash"># as root
export EDITOR=vim
visudo
</code></pre>
<p>Add the user (replace <code>exampleUser</code>) at the end.</p>
<pre><code class="language-text">exampleUser ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
</code></pre>
<p>For those who don't use vim, a quick reminder:
<code>i</code> enter to insert mode , <code>[esc]</code> to exit insert mode, <code>:wq</code> to save and quit.</p>
<hr>
<h1 id="vim-tasks">VIM Tasks</h1>
<h2 id="find--replace">Find &#x26; Replace</h2>
<pre><code class="language-bash"># replace findThis with ReplaceWithThis
:%s/findThis/ReplaceWithThis/g
</code></pre>
<h2 id="spell-check-commands">Spell-Check commands</h2>
<pre><code class="language-text"># enable/disable
:set spell spelllang=en_ca
:setlocal spell spelllang=en_ca
:set nospell

# next/last
]s
[s

# suggest change
z=

# add/remove word from dictionary
zg
zw`
</code></pre>
<hr>
<h1 id="use-an-insecure-docker-registry">Use an Insecure Docker Registry</h1>
<p>To use a registry with no HTTP cert:</p>
<p><code>vi /etc/docker/daemon.json</code></p>
<pre><code class="language-json">{
    "insecure-registries" : ["myregistrydomain.com:5000"]
}
</code></pre>
<hr>
<h1 id="ansible-ignore-errors">Ansible ignore errors</h1>
<p>The command is <code>ignore_errors: yes</code></p>
<p>Just throw this into the task that's failing. It will still fail, but the play
won't stop.</p>
<p>Example:</p>
<pre><code class="language-yml">- name: Ensure the docker service is running
  script: ../tools/validate-docker-execute.sh
    ignore_errors: yes
</code></pre>
<hr>
<h1 id="how-to-tail--f-on-dmesg">How to tail -f on dmesg</h1>
<pre><code class="language-bash">dmesg -wH
</code></pre>
<hr>
<h1 id="ubuntu-downgrade-a-package">Ubuntu Downgrade a package</h1>
<pre><code class="language-bash"># Find the available versions under Versions:
apt-cache showpkg &#x3C;package>

# Install one of those
apt-get install &#x3C;package>=&#x3C;version>
</code></pre>
<hr>
<h1 id="make-ansible-run-python-3-on-target-nodes">Make Ansible run Python 3 on target nodes</h1>
<p>Useful for OS that ship with python3 but not python2.
Edit the inventory, find a group of the groups and apply this var.</p>
<pre><code class="language-ini">[baremetal:vars]
ansible_python_interpreter=/usr/bin/python3
</code></pre>
<hr>
<h1 id="bash-print-all-but-first-line">Bash: Print all but first line</h1>
<p>Use <code>tail -n +2</code>.
This was unintuitive to me because +1 seems like it should do it.</p>
<pre><code class="language-bash"># Example
docker images | awk '{print $3}' | tail -n +2
</code></pre>
<hr>
<h1 id="bash-run-code-whenever-a-script-exits">Bash: Run code whenever a script exits</h1>
<p>Use trap.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://redsymbol.net/articles/bash-exit-traps/">This is a nice post covering lots of examples</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/endpoints-quickstart/blob/master/scripts/deploy_api.sh">Here's where I first saw it used</a></li>
</ul>
<pre><code class="language-bash">temp_file=$(mktemp)

cleanup() {
  rm "$temp_file"
}

trap cleanup EXIT
</code></pre>


<p>This post covers how to create a bash script that runs every minute to send an
email when a ping fails.</p>
<p>You could use <a href="https://www.pingdom.com/">Pingdom</a> but there's no need to pay
someone else if you have compute resources available. Also, this works from
inside your local network, so it can ping <a href="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1918">RFC1918</a>
addresses.</p>
<p>This script watches for ICMP (ping) availability.
You can replace the ping command with a netcat call to watch a port, or run
whatever other test you like.</p>
<hr>
<h3 id="table-of-contents">Table of Contents</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="#building-the-alert-tool">Building the Alert Tool</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#test-the-mail-command">Test the mail command</a></li>
<li><a href="#create-the-bash-script">Create the bash script</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#create-cron-job">Create cron job</a>
<ul>
<li>
<ul>
<li><a href="#restart-cron-to-apply-the-changes">Restart Cron to apply the changes</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h1 id="building-the-alert-tool">Building the Alert Tool</h1>
<p>Before you begin, consider <a href="/emails-postfix-ubuntu.html">setting up a local send-only postfix service</a>.</p>
<h2 id="test-the-mail-command">Test the mail command</h2>
<p>Emails in this script will send using the <code>mail</code> command. Make sure it works
before continuing.</p>
<pre><code class="language-bash">echo "Test alert please ignore" | mail \
    -a "FROM:noreply@alerts.example.com" \
    -s "Test alert" \
    alerts@example.com
</code></pre>
<h2 id="create-the-bash-script">Create the bash script</h2>
<p>Create a directory to place the script.</p>
<pre><code class="language-bash">mkdir -p /etc/cronjobs &#x26;&#x26; cd /etc/cronjobs
chmod +x ping_alert.sh
</code></pre>
<p>Create the script. Here's a commented example of one I wrote:</p>
<p><code>vi ping_alert.sh</code></p>
<pre><code class="language-bash">#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Positional arguments. If debug is set to '1', debug will echo to stdout
target_ip=$1
debug_enabled=$2

# debug function for troubleshooting
function debug () {
    if [[ "$debug_enabled" == "1" ]]; then
        echo $1
    fi
}

# The token file will be written when an email has been sent, and ensure that
# another email doesn't get sent again too soon. This helps prevent your emails
# from being marked as SPAM and is also way less annoying.

token_file='/etc/cronjobs/.email_sent'
sent_recently=false
now_ts=$(date +%s)
if [ -f $token_file ]; then
    file_ts=$(cat $token_file)
    # hour_in_seconds defined how long between emails to wait before another
    # can be sent.
    hour_in_seconds=3600
    hour_from_file_ts=$(($file_ts+$hour_in_seconds))
    if [[ $now_ts -le $hour_from_file_ts ]]; then
        sent_recently=true
    fi
fi

# The script will gracefully exit if its within the cooldown window.
if [[ $sent_recently == true ]]; then
    debug "sent recently, exiting. Check $token_file"
    exit
fi

# Ping the target IP and collect the return code. If the return code is 0 then
# the ping was OK and this script will exit.
debug "Pigning $target_ip..."
ping -c 1 $target_ip >/dev/null
if [[ $? == 0 ]]; then
    debug "ping ok, exiting"
    exit
fi

# Since the script hasn't exited, the ping failed. Send the warning email.
debug "Sending warning email"
msg="Warning: Ping to IP $target_ip failed."
echo $msg | mail \
    -a  "FROM:noreply@alert.example.com" \
    -s "Test alert" \
    alerts@example.com

# Update the token file to reset the cooldown.
debug "Writing new timestamp $now_ts"
# Write the new timestamp
echo $now_ts > $token_file
</code></pre>
<p>Make the script executable:</p>
<pre><code class="language-bash">chmod +x ping_alert.sh
</code></pre>
<p>Give the script a test run against a valid and invalid IP. It should send an
email for the invalid IP but not the valid one.</p>
<pre><code># test that should pass
/etc/cronjobs/ping_alert.sh 1.1.1.1
# test that should fail
/etc/cronjobs/ping_alert.sh 10.2.3.4
</code></pre>
<hr>
<h1 id="create-cron-job">Create cron job</h1>
<p>We'll run this script every minute. Since it has a cool-down timer it won't
send spam.</p>
<p>This example will ping <a href="https://new.blog.cloudflare.com/announcing-1111/">Cloudflare's DNS</a>,
<code>1.1.1.1</code>, so replace the IP with one that you actually watch to watch.</p>
<p><code>vi /etc/crontab</code></p>
<pre><code># Keep whatever is currently there
*  *    * * *   root    /etc/cronjobs/ping_alert.sh 1.1.1.1 0 | tee -a /var/log/ping_alert.log
</code></pre>
<h3 id="restart-cron-to-apply-the-changes">Restart Cron to apply the changes</h3>
<pre><code>systemctl restart cron
</code></pre>
<p>Now the job will run every minute, and send emails at most every hour.</p>


Kyle Pericak

Operations Reference Page

Scheduled Availability Email Alerts