Digital Certificate Management

Previously, I wrote a blog post about using the OpenSSL CLI tool to generate digital certificates. Since then, I’ve refined things a bit on my end, and here’s the update, please consider the old post deprecated. First of all, we’ll need a private key file; e.g., privkey.pem: openssl genrsa -out privkey.pem 2048 From the private key, we’ll generate a new CSR - Certificate Signing Request file; e.g., signme.csr: openssl req -new -sha256 -days 90 -key privkey.

OpenSSL for X.509 certificates

Recently I’d to generate an X.509 certificate to enable encryption connections to a web app. The browser performs a check to ensure that the connection is via a valid, trusted certificate, later on we’ll be using a 3rd party entity known as a Certificate Authority (CA) to do just that. We’ll be using openssl to generate a private key. This key manifests in the form of a file, so we’ll call it a .

Newly-minted Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)

In July I became a CKA on my second attempt, improving my score from 67% to 79% (74% to pass). A couple of people – nerds, really – asked me about it, so I thought I’d write down some of the things I picked up along the way. What worked Practice effect. I took the exam twice! Practical experience. Second time around, I really took the time to familiarize with kubectl, and at work I deployed a CI/CD integration with my cluster, and that helped for sure, too.

GitLab Runner certificate signed by unknown authority

Recently I’ve been working w/ GitLab Runners, starting with Shell Executor before moving on to Docker. Self-signed Anyway, my GitLab instance uses a self-signed certificate. This is not great as our tooling essentially needs to work around errors like this: ERROR: Registering runner... failed runner=EfnphyLc status=couldn't execute POST against https://example.com/api/v4/runners: Post https://example.com/api/v4/runners: x509: certificate signed by unknown authority PANIC: Failed to register this runner. Perhaps you are having network problems Config In your config.

2018 Smartwatch Head-to-Head

Of late I’ve come to use two very different kinds of (smart)watch. Currently I prioritize heart rate and step tracking, so I’ve opted to eschew the typical smartwatch-y things. The Contenders 2018 Apple Watch Nike+ Series 4 (44 mm). Apple’s device sports a beautiful, fully digital face, and must be paired with iPhone. Apple Watch is pretty much an iPhone for the wrist, supporting such things as making and receiving calls, text messages, and turn-by-turn navigation.

Docker cheatsheet

I developed this cheatsheet because I love using Docker, your mileage will vary. I got a lot of value from this paid Docker course published on Udemy. Midway through, I realized that it was relatively easy to containerize the entire blog, and so here goes. Registries Pull alpine off Docker Hub: $ docker pull alpine:latest latest: Pulling from library/alpine Digest: sha256:46e71df1e5191ab8b8034c5189e325258ec44ea739bba1e5645cff83c9048ff1 Status: Downloaded newer image for alpine:latest Search Quay for alpine: