Fredrik Engseth

What is Infrastructure as Code (iac)?

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) can be described with the following: IaC defines your environments, to include network, servers, storage and other computer resources as a text file, this can be in a form of a script or definition, which is checked into version control and used as the base source for creating or updating environments.

Getting started with Azure Resource Management Templates | ARM templates

Tried out Azure Resource Management templates this evening, to learn more about the “Infrastructure as Code” topic. A Resource Manager template is a JSON file that defines the resources to be deployed together through a declarative syntax. A templates can then be deployed via code. I started simple by creating a Resource Group in Azure first and then deployed a Storage Account with Azure PowerShell and an ARM template.

Testing out PowerShell Desired State Configurations

Tested out PowerShell Desired State Configuration this morning, in this post I”m going step-by-step through my first script using “PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC)”. The project I created is a simple website to the Default website in my lab environment, running the Microsoft Internet information Services (IIS) Server.

How to convert IDN Domains to ACE encoding with PowerShell

The other day I needed to lookup a lot of domains regarding changes to DNS. The list was long and contained plenty of IDN (International Domain Name) which contains special characters such as “æøå”. I used the command Resolve-DnsName, and for this to work one must use the ACE-encoded version of the domain to make it resolve. So, this ended with two small scripts that converts domains such as “krøllalfa.no” to “xn—krllalfa-64a.no” and “xn—krllalfa-64a.no” to “krøllalfa.no”

Testing Python and TravisCI

Played around with Python and TravisCI on a cabin trip this weekend, learning more about Continuous Integration, automatic builds and testing of code each time a change is committed to version control.

How to set up Ghost blog on Ubuntu Server in Azure

Good winter morning, thought I make a post on how you can set up a Ghost CMS instance on an Ubuntu server hosted on Azure. Even though it wasn’t the platform I ended up with, there might be someone you might find it useful, so thought I should share it.

How to create shortcuts in PowerShell

Find yourself repeatedly manually accessing often used folders by using cd and tab completion? For instance when you open a new console and have to access a file or folder like the “repo” folder or the “hosts” file. Instead of typing the path each time. I found that creating simple aliases for paths I often use spares a lot of punching.

8 Useful network troubleshooting tools

Good evening folks! This evening I am going through 8 command line tools for you can use to diagnose and resolve many network-related issues. Are you new to networking like me and need a helping hand with troubleshooting? This post goes through 8 command line tools and what purpose their serve, to get you started with network troubleshooting in Windows.

Automatic DNS lookup script for PowerShell

Played around with PowerShell in the spare time during our yearly business trip. This year we went to Tallinn in Estonia. I wanted to automate look up changes for DNS, instead of typing commands like “nslookup” or “Resolve-DnsName” now and then, to see if the DNS cache got updated. This ended with this script.

How To Troubleshoot Network Issues

Of all troubles you can stumble upon with a computer, network issues might be one of the most frustrating. First instinct when an issue occurs is, “Oh, let me Google that”, and your”e opening the browser to find the message “This site can”t be reached” and you feel kind of helpless.

What is DNSSEC and why is it important?

DNSSEC is an security extension to the domain name system (DNS). This makes it possible to check the reply to a domain lookup comes from the original source and lookup remains unchanged. If you’re not familiar with the DNS term on before hand, Let’s start with a simple explanation to understand the aspects of implementing DNSSEC.