Tag: devops

Passwordless ssh keys

This is a common junior-engineer mistake.

You need to execute a program or access files on another computer with a ssh command in a background script, but a ssh key is required. Good security requires the key to have a password. Redirection tricks can be used to input the password to the ssh program. But now you have exposed the password in clear text. That is just as bad as having no password. Screw it; just remove the password. Done.

Mistake! Now, anyone who gets a copy of your private key will have access to ALL the places where you use that key!

Most of the time, passwordless keys are created because engineers are lazy. To be more generous, passwords slow down their development “flow.” However, there is a solution that has minimal impact (once set up), and it is more secure than passwordless keys.


Use ssh-agent

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‘Not My Problem’: A Big Problem for DevOps Teams

Reposted from: ‘Not My Problem’: A Big Problem for DevOps Teams – DevOps.com

Not my problem (NMP) — (n)

1. a statement, or position, of apathy expressed by those who perceive they are external and unaffected by a negative predicament. While sometimes warranted, it is typically uttered by those who perceive themselves as powerless; can’t be bothered; are too lazy, or are selfish non-contributing leeches. See also “complete cop out.”

2. an attitude that will stymie attempts to implement DevOps in your organization and will thwart success

3. (archaic) Actually not your problem

While perhaps it’s become more frequent in our culture of relative indifference, some of our oldest stories bear witness to how timeless the phenomenon “not my problem” is. For example, in the biblical story of Cain murdering Abel, God asks Cain afterward, “Hey Cain, I can’t find Able. Do you know where he is?” Cain responds famously, “Am I my brother’s keeper? (NMP)” It crosses country borders and language barriers, too: A transliteration of the same sentiment in Polish is, “Not my circus, not my monkeys.”

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No, you are not doing DevOps (…and nor am I)

Good rant and insights.

A subset of #2, keep the operators and sysadmins, but make them subordinate to developers, who will define new production architectures that can be changed just as fast as their continuous development environments. They get to play around in production, ignoring many years of experience in managing large scale infrastructures. Oh they will eventually get things stable, and working well, with a custom mix of tools and patches. However the next batch of developers will wonder “what it going on?” and they will start rewriting things until they understand it. Of course business will not mind unstable web sites, down time, and lots of engineers working to continuously reinvent things.

bronto's avatarA sysadmin's logbook

A word of caution

This post is addressed to all those people who think they know what DevOps means, but they don’t. If you don’t recognize yourself in this post, then maybe it’s not for you. If you recognize yourself, then beware: you’re going to be insulted: read at your own risk and don’t bother asking for apologies.

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