Terraform is all about infrastructure (and platform) as code. Creating OCI resources through Terraform is probably the best way to manage your cloud resources. I have written several articles about that. In this article I will quickly show the steps you can take for querying OCI resources using Terraform – […]
OCI DevOps Composite–creating Build & Deploy Pipeline resources using Terraform plans
I recently started a GitHub repo with Terraform plans for the creation of what I call OCI Composites – combinations of resources that will frequently be used together and that will have to be created through Infrastructure as Code. My first entry in this repository was the composite of Function, […]
Oracle Database 21c XE, setting up a demo environment using Vagrant and Oracle VirtualBox (part 2)
I wanted to set up a demo environment with Apache Kafka (an open-source distributed event streaming platform) and an Oracle Database, all within containers. For my purpose I opted for Oracle Database XE. [https://kafka.apache.org/] As I did before, on my Windows laptop, I wanted to use a demo environment within […]
VS Code Extension–GistPad–for quick gist creation, editing and consumption
Gists are the code snippets that you want to retain and share – with yourself and with others. Gists can be embedded in websites, blog articles and articles on Medium. Although used for snippets, all Gists are Git repositories, so they are automatically versioned, forkable and usable from Git. A […]
Creating, Building and Invoking a Function on OCI with Terraform
Automation through infrastructure as code is the name of the game. And I am a player in that game. In the last few weeks I have spent a lot of time on creating resources on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Through the console, using Terraform and the Resource Manager and Stacks, with […]
Visual Studio Code–the Code Tours extension for in context and interactive readme
The most popular IDE – VS Code – comes with a ton of extensions, and each can make life easier, more productive and more fun for developers. Recently I came across the Code Tours extension. An extension that supports the creation of guided tours through the files in your VS […]
OCI DevOps Build Pipeline for Functions
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure offers the Functions service, a FaaS offering with serverless functions, based on container images built with the Project Fn FDK. In a previous article, I introduced the OCI DevOps Deployment Pipeline for Functions – a free service on OCI that automated the deployment of a Function from […]
OCI DevOps Deployment Pipeline for Functions–automation on Oracle Cloud
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure has a free DevOps cloud service that includes build and deploy pipelines in addition to source code and artifact repositories. I have written about OCI DevOps Deployment Pipelines and its Build Pipelines in earlier articles. In this article, I will show you a deployment pipeline on OCI […]
How to open IDCS Console from OCI– Finding the entry to Identity Cloud Service
I have just spent way too much time on finding the way to the Oracle IDCS console from within my OCI (Oracle Cloud Infrastructure) console. I was reading a bunch of interesting articles on using IDCS to protect access to OCI Functions and I was trying to follow along. However, […]
Simple queries against Oracle Cloud NoSQL Database
I have been struggling in my first simple steps with querying data in a NoSQL Database table on Oracle Cloud. Creating the table is easy enough – either in the console or through Terraform or the CLI. However, the data that my Node application creates in the table seemed very […]
Cleaning Out a Compartment on Oracle Cloud using Terraform provider
The situation: a Compartment on OCI should be removed. Or at least all its resources should be purged. Or at least most of the resources should be removed. The challenge: there is no “purge compartment” available that will delete the resources in the compartment. Removing each resource one by one […]
Oracle Database 21c XE, setting up a demo environment using Vagrant and Oracle VirtualBox (part 1)
I wanted to set up a demo environment with Apache Kafka (an open-source distributed event streaming platform) and an Oracle Database, all within containers. For my purpose I opted for Oracle Database XE. [https://kafka.apache.org/] As I did before, on my Windows laptop, I wanted to use a demo environment within […]
Devoxx United Kingdom 2021, I am We are
At the beginning of this November, I attended the Devoxx United Kingdom 2021 event, remotely. In this article I gathered some practical information about the event, and the sessions that were held. Perhaps this gives you more insight in what you can expect from such an event and it may […]
OCI DevOps–Build Pipelines and Code Repositories for CI
This article introduces Build Pipelines and Code Repositories in OCI DevOps (released on October 26th 2021) – complementing the Artifact Registry and Deployment Pipelines that were first launched in July of 2021 and that I discussed in this article. Build [ing software] is an apparently clear indication of a specific […]
OCI DevOps–Free Automated Cloud Native Application Deployment to Oracle Cloud
Deployment is a term used frequently and often casually in software engineering. A term that for a long time was a bit cryptic to me. What exactly is deployment and what steps does it entail? Why is it apparently so hard? What help do deployment tools offer? And what is […]
Product selection done quickly
Your customer has a specific challenge and wants to have it solved by means of software. They ask you as a software/solution architect to advise them on this topic and they want to be able to choose a solution based on your advise by the end of next week (we’re […]
Scaling [down] the Mountain of Debt – Four dimensions of IT Debt
![Scaling [down] the Mountain of Debt – Four dimensions of IT Debt](https://technology.amis.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/image.png)
WYSIWYG may not be true for all IT systems. What you see may be more than what you actually get. As a Product Owner, you have to be very careful to not deceive yourself. The latest iteration of your product may be shiny and new – but all may not […]
Architecture in an agile world
This year I had to work with a colleague for multiple internal poc’s that we could use to show customers. Together we started thinking about the approach and where to start. We planned to approach it in a Scrum way, but soon landed upon the question where architecture would fit […]
AWS Config automated remediation
Introduction It is possible in AWS to check if your environment is compliant to your minimum standards. It is also possible to automatically change the environment to make it compliant again. Maybe not in a way that was designed by the developer – but compliant anyhow. Let me give an […]
“You have to give a little… scripting for 12c+”
or Publishing a cleanup script for Oracle 12c+ At the moment I’m just for fun collecting Linux scripts from my direct colleagues. And while I was busy to think up a wiki page for internal use, for a moment I felt like Uncle Scrooge, gathering riches from other minds. Which, […]
Continuous Generation and Publication of Docstring Documentation on Azure – using Sphinx, Pydoc, Storage Account and App Service
In this blog I will explain how to generate static HTML pages from your projects Pydoc (docstring) comments with Sphinx. Then we are going to host it in an Azure Web App so that everyone in your team is able to access it. Because we use a Storage Mount, when […]
Stop DELETE_IN_PROGRESS when custom resources fail in AWS CloudFormation
Script to stop the execution of CloudFormation when you made a small error in a custom resource (Lambda function).
Preparation for migrating data to Oracle Virtual Private Database
preparation for migrating data to Oracle Virtual Private Database Introduction Recently I was part of a team involved in the preparation of migration data belonging to multiple business units into a single Oracle 19c database with Virtual Private Database (VPD). The VPD solution is used for the virtual separation […]
Play environment for WebGoat, WebWolf and Juice Shop
In this blog post, I will show how you can install the OWASP training tools WebGoat, WebWolf and JuiceShop on your local laptop using Vagrant.
How to use single sign on between multiple OCI environments
Since we provide support for several clients in OCI, we regularly need to login into different OCI-tenancies. How nice would it be to have Single Sign-On (SSO) functionality between these different customer environments. Just 1 credential for all environments, granting and revoking access a lot easier. Also no need to […]
How to run Jenkins with Chrome from a Docker container
In this blog I will show you how to run a Jenkins agent that can use chrome from a docker container. The Dockerfile and docker-compose.yml file are explained in this article.
Measure the Quality of your Source Code!
Quality is something which is hard to define. Different areas of expertise use their own definitions of what quality is. Without an objective standard which carries weight, anyone can claim to provide a quality product or service according to some standard. This makes it difficult to compare products and to […]
The Release Formula: R = ΔF + ΔNF + ΔQ
TL;DR: a software release introduces changes in three areas: functional, non-functional and quality. Each change should contribute to identified objectives – and the contribution should be measurable. Product teams should strive for release statements that identify the changes, the objective they contribute to and the metric used for measuring their […]
The True Cost of a Feature–Kill your darlings
TL;DR: the true cost of a software feature includes a long tail of operational and maintenance cost that should be taken into consideration when first implementing the feature. The continuance or deprecation of features should be evaluated periodically, based on the actual usage and true value of the feature – […]
Migrate Oracle VM to KVM easily and without reconfiguration
Oracle VM is end-of-life and is, since March 2021, in extended support1. In looking for a replacement hypervisor AMIS has turned to KVM. Oracle itself also uses KVM, albeit its own brand of KVM, OLKVM, in Oracle Cloud and on the new versions of its Oracle Database Appliance. Topped with […]
Polling Rank – Interactive Visualization Component for Ordering Options
TL;DR: live demo of the Poll Rank component on Code Pen: https://codepen.io/lucasjellema/pen/NWpoBeM Bringing things to order is a common requirement. Making clear how things are mutually ordered, which comes first and which comes next, is often relevant. Order by value, by time or by preference are just some of the […]
What the Ether, part 1 – Ethereum
Just like in 2017, blockchain has been all the craze this year. With Bitcoin reaching prices over three times higher than the previous all-time high, everybody has been talking about cryptocurrency and blockchains. And one of the blockchains that has been taking the spotlight is Ethereum. That is why in […]
Visualizing Recipes in aid of Freshman Cooks
I am not the best cook in the world – it has been said. But I am making an effort to step up my game. My two sons have started participating in our family’s meal planning and with the rising quality and complexity of the meals they prepare I feel […]
Implementing Serverless Multi Client Session Synchronization with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
TL;DR – Multi Client Sessions can be facilitated in a fully serverless fashion. Two players playing Tic Tac Toe or Chess, teams collaborating on a document or diagram, an audience witnessing a presenter’s demonstration – these are just examples where multiple distributed application instances should be kept in synch. This […]
Serverless Distributed Multi User Browser Session Synchronization
Assume a browser based (or desktop electron) stand alone, client side only application. Multiple users are working with that application at the same time, on their own laptops and at (possibly very) different locations, possibly across the globe. It is conceivable that they are working on a common object. A […]
Introduction to D3 Force for Simulation and Animation
The D3 library is great for creating rich and interactive data visualizations running in your browser. D3 is a JavaScript library that provides an easy bridge between the power of SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) in the browser and your (and my) own JavaScript applications. Whether you use React, Angular, Vue […]
Review: Greenshot, Easy tool for screenshots
Is it possible to make something simple as making a screenshot easier? Yes, I have been using the free and open-source tool Greenshot for the past year. And I noticed missing the features when I got a new Windows image on my laptop. I would recommend installing this for anyone […]
Check for RunAs accounts in Automation Accounts
Introduction Some time ago, I wrote about the new preview feature in Azure Automation Accounts to use Managed Identities [1]. I think that it is useful to migrate to this new feature as soon as possible: managed identities are used in many places in Azure and it is better to […]
OBS Studio: How to record online presentations (Zoom, Teams, Webex, Meet, …)
Sometimes you want to record online presentations to maybe re-watch them later or share them with colleagues. It is not always possible to easily do this from within the tool which is used for the presentation. An easy alternative is to record such sessions using OBS Studio, a free and […]
Starting my own Game Studio–on the ease and the power of SVG
My very first steps in programming consisted of typing in the BASIC program listings from computer magazines. Usually very simple games with very poor UX. That probably is the closest I got to “creating” games. And then I went into computers professionally – with a primary focus on the backend, […]