Automation

Why I Wrote This I run Arch Linux with i3 and wanted Jenkins locally for CI/CD experiments. This covers Java 21, the Jenkins install, a test job, and a GitHub pipeline — exactly what I ran on my machine. 1. What is Jenkins? (Simple Explanation) Jenkins is an automation server. You can tell Jenkins to: Get your code (for example from GitHub) Run commands (build, test, scripts) Show you if things passed or failed Instead of you running commands manually every time, Jenkins does it automatically. ...

Why This Post Exists After writing my first real Ansible playbook, I realized something: Installing software manually once is easy. Installing it correctly, repeatedly, and safely is not. So I decided to automate something real and useful: Install Docker Engine (official way) Prepare an Ubuntu server to become a Kubernetes node Do everything using Ansible No SSH-ing into the server again and again This post documents that journey. Real Setup (Same as Before) Nothing fancy. Just real machines. ...

What is Ansible? (In Simple Words) Think of Ansible as a remote control for your servers. Instead of: SSH into server Run commands manually Forget what you changed Repeat the same steps again and again You tell Ansible: “Hey, I want this server to look like this.” And Ansible makes it happen — again and again, without breaking things. The best part? No agent needed Just SSH Simple YAML files Very human-readable My Setup (Real World) This is exactly what I used: ...

What Terraform Is (For Me) Terraform is how I describe cloud stuff in code instead of clicking through the AWS console. I write what I want in .tf files, run terraform apply, and it gets created. Same result every time. Why Use Terraform? No More Manual Clicking: Automate infrastructure setup instead of clicking through AWS Easy Updates: Change your code and run terraform apply to update everything Backup Your Infrastructure: Keep your setup in version control (like Git) Reuse Everywhere: Run the same setup in dev, staging, and production without changes Cost Preview: See what resources cost before you create them Work with Multiple Clouds: Manage AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud from one tool Basic Concepts (Made Simple) Providers A provider tells Terraform which cloud service to use. Think of it as picking AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure before you start building. ...

Why I Looked Into Chef Managing servers one by one doesn’t scale. I set up Chef to store server configs as code — a Chef server, a workstation where I write recipes, and a node that pulls its config automatically. Note: I did this on Ubuntu 18.04 using .deb packages and apt. Chef Server The Chef server acts as the central hub for all workstations and nodes under Chef management. Configuration changes made on workstations are pushed to the Chef server, where they are pulled by nodes using chef-client to apply the configurations. ...