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Tag: Build

  • My Microsoft Build Release Previews

    My Microsoft Build Release Previews

    This post may come as a bit of a surprise to some of you who have seen my focus mostly on Storage, Backup and VMware products, but the world is a bigger place and there are technologies out there that are evolving and my interests have done a complete 360 back to my earlier days.

    This past week, we have seen the Microsoft Build conference take place streaming hundreds of sessions live from the presenter’s own home. For me, this has been a great opportunity for technologist to be able to be part of a conference they may not have been able to attend previously. I know for myself, I would not have spent the money previously to attend in-person, but that has more than likely changed now that I have had a a front row seat into the benefit of these sessions and what they have opened my eyes up to.  For the past couple of months, I’ve been thinking about moving back into the Microsoft space, I’ve spent the last 6 years focused on virtual infrastructure and less on guest OS. I’ve been dabbling in Linux for a little, but I am heavily focused on using MacOS as I’ve found Windows to be a bit too restrictive, that was until Microsoft started releasing some new exciting applications that have made a world of a difference to me and I feel have created a much more inclusive ecosystem. I use Windows 10 in the office, but any other time I will use my MacBook Pro. Since Microsoft brought out WSL, I have been using Ubuntu for all my SSH sessions and doing general command line web operations. Prior to this, I would pull out my MacBook or fire up a Linux VM.

    At Microsoft Build, there have been a number of new applications that have been released for preview that I am excited to see. The ones I am going to mention in this post are what I have found will help me in my day-to-day or just handy to have. There are many more out there, but here is my shortlist.

     

    1. Windows Terminal
      Here we find what looks like a standard Powershell window, but alas, it has much greater functionality that just running a couple of one-liners or scripts, by default, there are several preconfigured command line tools available, but you can also edit the settings via it’s config file and add more applications to keep them all in one spot. Windows Terminal may only be command lines, but it’s the way you set it up and use it, that’s what makes it so powerful. Windows Terminal is now 1.0

      WIndows Terminal 1.0

      Windows Terminal Config
    2. PowerToysThis has been a very welcomed addition, although still in preview, PowerToys adds extra tools to be able to customise and manipulate files, and customise your workspace with FancyZones.
      FancyZones allows you for create layouts for applications and have them snap to certain areas of your desktop to create a useable workflow for our day to day activities. You can use the templates already provided or create your own layout. There are multiple colour options to show which zone is currently active and which others are inactive.

      PowerToys FancyZones Options
      PowerToys FancyZones Templates

      The next 2 PowerToys will eliminate the need for 3rd party applications to be able to do bulk file renames and also image resizing. Don’t you hate I when you take a new set of photos for an event and they are all need something like “img_xxx”? – Well now you no longer need to either sit there renaming one by one or running through a 3rd party tool. PowerToys brings with it a simple File Renaming feature “PowerRename” that can be pinned to your explorer menu, allowing you to easily select your files, right click and Rename Files. The tool uses a “Find and Replace” method, so you can save time and only rename certain words, if needed.

      The Image Resizer works in a similar to the File Renamer. In the settings, you can create your presets for your image sizes and then you just select your images, right click and choose the Image Resizer. You are then presented with a window to select the size you would like all your select images to be.

      PowerToys PowerRename
      Image Resizer

      Image Resizer Settings
    3. Windows Package ManagerIf you have ever used Linux, whether it be Red Hat or Debian variants, you should be well aware of the yum (dnf) or apt package managers (some others exist for other distributions). Microsoft are now adding yet another feature to Windows to be able to move more inline with the evolving community and have release their new Windows Package Manager. Currently also in preview, it allows you to install recent releases of Windows applications through the commend line using winget.  Simple commands such as winget install and winget show will allow you to find and install available applications.  The winget show command will list the applications and their most recent version available. Once the application has been installed via the package manager, you will then be able to use it as any other application installed from an executable or msi file.
      winget install

      winget show

     

    Microsoft has certainly shown that they are listening to what users want, and are learning what people need to be able to operate in their day jobs. Previously, we needed tools such as putty to connect to SSH sessions, but with Terminals and WSL2, we are now able to connect with all in one tools from one operating system. I am excited to see what else is out there coming from Microsoft and where they roadmap is heading. If you missed any Microsoft Build sessions, you can head over and watch them on-demand.

  • Rubrik Build Roadshow – Brisbane Event Overview

    Rubrik Build Roadshow – Brisbane Event Overview

    On Monday, I took part in the Rubrik Build roadshow. This was an awesome opportunity to learn about working with Open Source projects and how to contribute from writing code, to writing/editing documentation, testing and version control and much more using GitHub, but that wasn’t all. Back in February, Rebecca Fitzhugh, Chris Wahl and their teams at Rubrik launched “Build” as project to bring awareness and education to working with open source projects and APIs. These events are not meant to be focused on Rubrik, but the lessons do connect to a Rubrik cluster as the API docs and software is readily available.

    I came across Build back when it launched in February and I have been a member of their slack group since it’s birth. After joining and looking through the plethora of content readily available through build.rubrik.com. I decided that I would attempt to write my first full script from scratch, just to put up on Github. Having always struggled with starting scripts from scratch, I started with planning out each step, in fact, I stepped through the process manually and event created a blog post about those steps – then Roxie set the challenge.

    https://twitter.com/RoxieAtRubrik/status/1120415276795928576

    I knew what I wanted to achieve and after having looked through several PowerShell scripts already up on the Build github repo, I had an idea on how it should look. After a couple of weeks writing and testing, I had a full script ready to put up.

    Once I had my script up publicly on Github, I linked it to the Build slack group where I got some great feedback, and even one of the main Rubrik PowerShell maintainers made a comment he was going to take part of my script and incorporate it into some of his.

    https://twitter.com/RoxieAtRubrik/status/1127946416523886592

    There was one hiccup with the Rubrik PowerShell module, but I’ll talk a little bit about that later.

    That is only a basic outline of my story of getting started, but without the Build community, I would not have dived as deep into APIs and scripting as quickly as I did here.

    So tracking back to the Build event, this was jam packed full of information, the session kicked off with Rebecca talking about the project, the idea behind it and the future outlook of build. She went as far as to talk not only about working with GitHub and the scripts and repositories available, but also the process and level of alerting her team receives when an issue is submitted on GitHub. This showed the level dedication the team has to ensuring that it’s contributors are looked after and have a fantastic experience while contributing. I found out first hand during my first script how enthusiastic the team is in helping as I was unable to find a call within the SDK to install a Volume Filter Driver. I went ahead and posted in the slack group about what I was trying to achieve and said that I was unable to find how to perform this particular action, and in no time, there was a response from Andy Draper who immediately went out of his way to write and test a call. I have since been informed that it is currently being worked on to be added to the SDK.

    After the first lesson and practice modules of using Github and how forks, branches, conflicts, etc. work, Chris then kicked off the main part of talking about APIs and about the different ways you might come across APIs and how to use them. The lesson took you through how to use the API Explorer (Similar to VMware’s API Explorer if you have ever use that). The lessons took you through how to authenticate using cURL and how to use tokens within the Rubrik cluster when making a call using an API.
    Chris then followed up with a crash course in PowerShell and giving a fairly in-depth look into how PowerShell came about and how easy it is to work with. This then went into discussing the different components and how modules are used and how easily they can be created.

    Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the sessions, I learnt a lot about automation, APIs and working with the Open Source community that I didn’t know beforehand. I highly suggest that If you are a novice or even an intermediate at working with APIs and Automation that you seek out when Rubrik Build is coming to a city near you and get over to it and see for yourself what it is all about.

    If you are unable to make it to a Build event, then get involved through the build online community and start looking at how you can contribute to the wider Open Source Community. There are use cases available on the website so you can get a good idea on where you can get started.

    You can find out more about Rubrik and Build by checking out the videos from Cloud Field Day 5