2024

Running Longhorn on OpenStack Flex

Longhorn is a distributed block storage system for Kubernetes that is designed to be easy to deploy and manage. In this guide, we will walk through deploying Longhorn on an OpenStack Flex instance. As operators, we will need to create a new instance, install the Longhorn software, and configure the service to run on the instance. This setup will allow us to access the Longhorn web interface and create new volumes, snapshots, and backups. The intent of this guide is to provide a simple example of how to deploy Longhorn on an OpenStack Flex instance.

Running Talos on OpenStack Flex

As developers, we're constantly seeking platforms that streamline our workflows and enhance the performance and reliability of our applications. Talos is a container optimized Linux distribution reimagined for distributed systems. Designed with minimalism and practicality in mind, Talos brings a host of features that are particularly advantageous for OpenStack environments. By stripping away unnecessary components, it embodies minimalism, reducing the attack surface and resource consumption. It comes secure by default, providing out-of-the-box secure configurations that alleviate the need for extensive hardening.

Running Llama on Rackspace Cloud

In one of my favourite movie series The Avengers, Tony Stark (Iron Man) creates this Artificial Intelligence (AI) named Jarvis, which helps him make much of his other works possible. This portrayal sparks curiosity: Are such sophisticated AIs possible in real life? Until a few years ago, AI capabilities like JARVIS were confined to the realm of science fiction. However, advancements in AI have bridged the gap between fantasy and reality, making powerful, customizable AI models accessible to enthusiasts and professionals alike.

Running an Open Infrastructure Native Application

I recently decided I needed to run an application on OpenStack Flex to make things real. So naturally, I wrote an application from scratch that's more than just a boilerplate bucket of bolts. The gist of what I did over the weekend was to make a tool that harnesses the power of OpenStack with a Swift kick in the teeth.

Creating a Ghost site using Openstack-Flex

Creating a Ghost site with Openstack-Flex

Welcome! In this blog post we are going over using Openstack-Flex to deploy Ghost. If you havent used ghost before and would like more information about it please visit their website using the link here

Kustomize: Using environment variables for configuration

Kustomize is a widely used tool for Kuberenetes config management that provides a template free way to change your manifests during application deployment. It uses a kustomization.yaml file to define the actions taken during the build process. The file itself can be seen a collection of optional ordered processes: resources, generators, transformers, validators, configMapGenerator, patches and so on.

We wont dive too deep into these but look at a specific way of using the transformer property to use configuration values (as environment variables) from a file to drive your configuration.

Installing Github actions on a Openstack-Flex Instance

Introduction

Welcome! In this blog post we are going to go over connecting our Openstack-Flex instance to GitHub-actions through the use of self-hosted runners. We will be using an small Ubuntu image for our example, but if you would like a more in-depth look into setting up your environment please check out James’ blog post here.

Fortify Your Kubernetes Clusters: Encrypting Secrets with Sealed-Secrets

Introduction

In today's cloud-native world, Kubernetes has become the de facto standard for container orchestration. Kubernetes secrets are essential for storing sensitive data like passwords, API keys, and database credentials for workloads running on Kubernetes clusters.

However, many teams encounter a common issue while interacting with Kubernetes secrets:

• The inadvertent exposure of the sensitive secrets when stored in version control systems.
• Kubernetes secrets are base64 encoded. Base64 encoding can be easily decoded, leading to significant security vulnerabilities, including unauthorized access and potential data breaches.

To address this issue, various solutions exist, but in this blog, we will focus on one: sealed-secrets.

We will walk through a practical example of how to use sealed-secrets to secure your Kubernetes secrets, ensuring they are both version-controlled and protected.

Choosing Your Kubernetes Guardian: Ingress Controllers, Envoy GatewayAPI, or Istio?

Introduction

In the ever-evolving landscape of cloud-native applications, effectively managing traffic within a Kubernetes cluster is essential for optimizing performance, enhancing security, and achieving scalability. Several popular solutions have emerged to address these challenges, including Envoy, Envoy GatewayAPI, Ingress Controllers, and Istio. However, users often face confusion when deciding which solution best suits their specific use cases. In this blog post, we will explore the differences and similarities assisting you in selecting the optimal tool based on your requirements.

Getting Started With Rackspace OpenStack Flex

We're now mid-way through 2024, and the Rackspace Public Cloud team has been hard at work building and delivering the successor to the Rackspace OpenStack Public Cloud (OSPC) first launched in 2012. As Limited Availability (LA) access to our latest multi-tenant OpenStack-based public cloud approaches and content begins to build up here on the blog, I thought it prudent to provide guidance on how one might onboard themselves and build resources on the platform.