Smaller projects and updates.

content/misc-updates-may-2021.rst

+Misc. projects and updates
+==========================
+
+:date: 2021-05-11
+:summary: A few small project and an update for May 2021.
+
+I have a few smaller projects that I never blogged about and now might be a good
+time.
+
+Presentation toolkit
+--------------------
+
+I like Markdown and Vim, I don't like PowerPoint. On enough occasions I was
+asked to present and I built a workflow to make my life easier. For that I have
+a `container image <https://git.shore.co.il/nimrod/presentation>`_ with all of
+the tools that I require. There's an example presentation in that repo and
+there's also a GitLab `CI template
+<https://git.shore.co.il/shore/ci-templates/-/blob/master/templates/presentation.yml>`_
+for those using GitLab and wish to integrate it in their pipeline. For me,
+creating presentations in Markdown and DOT is much faster and I find the results
+(especially when dealing with code) much nicer.
+
+CloudWatch logs container image
+-------------------------------
+
+When I started working with AWS ECS I had trouble debugging deployment issues.
+The logs in the ECS console were not complete and the container logs didn't hold
+the answers either. After a few times I had to login to EC2 instances and tail
+the ECS agent logs, I decided that sending those to CloudWatch logs is needed to
+better deal with such issues. I created `another container image
+<https://git.shore.co.il/nimrod/cw-logs-docker>`_ that has the CloudWatch plugin
+for the AWS CLI. With that you can send the ECS agent logs (or any other log
+file) to CloudWatch Logs. Deploying it as an ECS service (set the scheduling to
+daemon) and having it run on all of the ECS instances solved that issue for me.
+
+Cron container image
+--------------------
+
+Several services that I run need containerized Cron. However, regular Cron
+daemons aren't suited for running in a container (they remove environment
+variables before starting jobs, they log to syslog, etc.). Aptible created a
+Cron daemon suitable for containers named `Supersonic
+<https://github.com/aptible/supercronic>`_, however there's ready container
+image so I created one. You can see it at in my `GitLab instance
+<https://git.shore.co.il/nimrod/cron-docker>`_.
+
+The image can be used in 2 ways. You can it in a multi-stage build and copy the
+Supersonic binary from it.
+
+.. code:: Dockerfile
+
+    FROM registry.shore.co.il/cron as supersonic
+
+    FROM alpine:latest
+    COPY --from=supersonic /usr/local/bin/supersonic /usr/local/bin/
+
+Or you can build on top of it (``ONBUILD`` instructions copy the ``crontab``
+file and validate it).
+
+.. code:: Dockerfile
+
+    FROM registry.shore.co.il/cron
+    COPY script /usr/local/bin/
+    USER root
+    RUN apk add --update --no-cache aws-cli
+    USER nobody
+
+Lastly, updates
+---------------
+
+Subscribers to my blog might have noticed that I've been blogging rather
+profusely this last week. The reason is that I've finished the contract I had
+with my last employer. I've taken a short break and now I'm looking for work
+again. Right now I'm available for freelance work if something interesting comes
+up. Otherwise, I'm looking for long-term work. If anyone you know (or you are
+yourself) is looking for DevOps/ SRE/ infrastructure engineer with a preference
+for simple and effective tools and a strong tendency for open source software,
+drop me a message at `nimrod@shore.co.il <mailto:nimrod@shore.co.il>`_.
+
+The reason for the excessive blogging (apart from the fact that I now have free
+time and I hope that someone somewhere finds my work interesting) is that I hope
+save time. I see that although almost all of what I wrote is publicly available
+in `my GitLab instance <https://git.shore.co.il/explore>`_, people apparently
+don't look too closely go just by my `résumé <https://www.shore.co.il/about>`_.
+I hope that these last few blog posts make it more apparent who I am, what it is
+that I do and my approach to things. Thus saving both the interviewers and me
+some time.