NGinx Notes from URL Redirect Project on Google Cloud with Terraform & Packer - Part 2
In the first blog entry, “NGinx Notes from URL Redirect Project on Google Cloud with Terraform & Packer - Part 1” I covered getting a basic Nginx URL Redirector setup and running. Now it’s time to dig into some of the next steps.
Since we have an operative server running that we want to automate, I’ll actually just wipe out the server we built in the first part of this series. Albeit I will refer back to it when I get to the process of recreating this server with Packer and Terraform. So first things first, let’s actually setup the networking elements needed to put the server into action.
Speaking Trips, Tech, and Treks
I’ll be off on some coding adventures in the coming months. I also hope to catch up with a lot of people and their respective projects, learn a few things, and if it’s possible maybe teach a few people a thing or three about immutable infrastructure, lessons I’ve learned, and how to avoid infrastructure catastrophes while building the next bad ass awesome application. This blog entry is about the details of my logistics, and I’ll follow up with more details of the coding adventure along the way. For now: details, details, and details.
Portland Biketown Launches - Check out the API
Good morning Portland! After a few years of hiccups, the Portland Bike Share has finally gotten started! We can thank our corporate overlords over at Nike for kicking in that last chunk of millions to get a bike and station layout that is absolutely superb!
For a little bit more about the opening day and metrics on uses check out Bike Portland has posted Over 2,300 trips taken on Biketown bike share in first 24 hours, “This is awesome!” Photos and notes from the Biketown launch event, and others.
NGinx Notes from URL Redirect Project on Google Cloud with Terraform & Packer - Part 1
I set out on a mission yesterday to put together a URL Redirect Server. Before I even get into the nitty gritty of how I got this to work via Nginx, I’ll add two caveats:
- I don’t really know much about Nginx at all. I’ve written up and configured one reverse proxy and handed that off to some ops team. Theoretically it worked (in their testing). But other than that, I’ve barely done anything myself with Nginx.
- I’ve no idea really if this is even a good practice. URL Redirects of this sort actually seem like a hack. They work, but it seems like there really ought to be a better less onion layer like way to do this type of redirection.
With those two caveats I’ll add a few questions for you, dear reader.
- If you have any suggestions for an easier way than spinning up a whole Nginx Server to do URL Redirects I’d love to hear them!
- Is this a best practice way to do subdomain to URL Redirects? If not, I’d probably like to be doing whatever is best practice.
Anyway, now that we’re past my caveats, questions, and requests for help, let’s roll on the how-to of all this.
.NET Fringe and Node PDX Conference Retrospective
Well, that’s a wrap - tied with a bow - for .NET Fringe 2016 and Node PDX 2016. That’s two years in a row for .NET Fringe and the 3rd year for Node PDX (2012, 2013, and 2016). All of the conferences have been very stressful, intense, and rewarding. I’ve learned a lot in the process and had a chance to work together with a lot of great people including Troy Howard, Glenn Block, Scott Hanselman, Phil Haack, Itamar Syn-Hersko, Alena Hall, and many others.
At this point I’ve deemed it time for a solid retrospective on organizing, community, and related topics. I’m breaking this article into the following segments:
- Conference Organizing - Taking a Break
- Community Organizing vs. Value Added
- Workshops - What’s valuable
Day 2 Multi-thinking-threads Smeared Around the Brainstorming at .NET Fringe
Sitting at .NET Fringe, day 2. Just introduced James Newton-King. Got a million conversations running through my mind. A lot of these conversations are worth noting, so I’ll just give a quick break out right here.
.NET Fringe Bike Ride
In my not so humble opinion every conference should have a bike ride. But I realize it isn’t always possible. This is one of the ways conferences that Troy & I put on here in Portland are very different. We have a love for Portland; the energy, the chill, vibrant yet relaxed, laid back, bike like, walking friendly city that it is. It’s a beautiful city that really can only be seen or felt by active transportation. If you walk, run, bike, skate board, dog sled, sled, cross country ski, or otherwise travel around Portland you get to actually see, feel, and hear this city. No other mode really works. Transit is fun, driving is like a cage, and with both you miss the vast majority of the life and blood of what makes Portland a great city!
Node PDX 2016 Photos
Here’s a selection of photos from Node PDX. To check out all of the photos I’ve uploaded them on http://photos.adron.me/Software/Meetups-N-Conferences/Conferences/Node-PDX-2016/.
Videos are available at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLILnvQDgzULPSdF9Eppfl5MqQe0M3hhtx
Node PDX 2016 Bike Ride, Photos, and More
Node PDX, at least for me, kicked off Saturday morning before the conference. This involved the Geek Train, which as always was a great ride. After returning everyone went off for the evening and I prepared more for the conference.
The following day involved Sunday conference setup, workshops, and the Node PDX bike ride. Here’s a few photos of the ride and our break at Cup & Bar. In the next blog entry I’ll have more pictures & videos of the talks coming up.
