A Long List of Docker Books

We found Docker Cookbook to be a good reference book about Docker.  The author, via O’Reilly Customer Service, responded to us saying that on page 79 near the top of Figure 3-1, the open curly brace “{” should be removed.  We were impressed the author took that the time to respond.

A shorter book written by two authors (neither of whom authored the Docker Cookbook) is called Docker Up &

How Do You Find Logs on a Linux Server That Pertain to a Failed mount Command?

Problem scenario
You want to set up a file share through Oracle VirtualBox.  You are trying to mount a file share on a Linux guest running via Oracle VirtualBox on a Windows host.   The mount command fails and you want to find relevant logs.  What do you do?

Solution
To find logs that are appropriate to debugging a mount command that does not work,

How Do You Know If Guest Additions Have Been Installed on Your Linux Guest Running Via Oracle VirtualBox on a Windows Host?

Question:  How do you find out if Guest Additions have been installed on your Linux guest running via Oracle VirtualBox on a Windows host?

Background  We find this message to be ignorable when installing Guest Additions:  “Could not find the X.org or XFree86 Window System, skipping.”

Answer
Go into the Linux guest and run this command:

lsmod | grep -i vbox

You should see results related to vbox. 

Two AWS Servers Cannot Ping Each Other. What Is Wrong?

Problem scenario:  You have two AWS instances in the same security group.  The Security Group has rules for “All TCP” associated with both the public IP address (visible in the EC2 portion of the AWS Console) and the private IP address (found when you issue an “ifconfig” at the OS level of the server).  You find that the servers cannot ping each other.  You cannot SSH from one to the other either.

You Cannot Apply Security Updates to Ubuntu Due to Errors about vim. What Should You Do?

Problem scenario:  You are running Ubuntu 16.10. When you log in you see this message:
65 packages can be updates. 33 updates are security updates.
As root you run this: apt-get upgrade
However you get this ominous message:
“The following packages have unmet dependencies: vim: Depends: vim-common (= 2:7.4.1829-1ubuntu2.1 2:7.4.1829-1ubuntu2 is to be installed vim-runtime (= 2.7.4.1829-1ubuntu2.1) but 2:7.4.1829-1ubuntu2 is installed
vim-tiny : Depends vim-common (= 2:7.4.1829-1ubuntu2.1) but 2:7.4.1829-1ubuntu2 is installed”

You tried to install aptitude to address this problem,

How Do You Use Oracle VirtualBox for The First Time?

Problem scenario:  To install Oracle VirtualBox on a Windows host, use this link.  Assuming you have Oracle VirtualBox on a Windows host, you now want to create a virtual server also known as a guest machine.  You want Oracle VirtualBox to run a guest Ubuntu VM so you can have access to a Linux server straight from your laptop. 

Solution
1.

Connection Refused Error When Trying to Configure Chef Server on RedHat

Problem scenario:  You are trying to set up a Chef Client on a VM to be configured to communicate with your Chef Server (version 12). The OS of both servers (the Chef server and the server that will be the Chef client) is RHEL 7.3.

You run this command from a server that you want to be a Chef client:

knife client list

You get this:

   

How Do You Troubleshoot Common Problems With Puppet?

Problem scenario:  You want to troubleshoot a variety of issues with Puppet.  You go to Puppet’s page for “Troubleshooting Common Errors.” It says that a “A newer version is available; see the version menu above for details.” ​

But every link newer than Version 2.8 you try gives you this “We tried to find that page, but 404.”

Solution
Google the error itself.  

How To Install Oracle VirtualBox 5.1 on Windows 7 Professional

Problem scenario  Your employer has no licenses for another virtual server.  You need a hypervisor to host a guest VM that runs a Linux OS.  Your workstation is running Windows 7 Professional.  What should you do?

Solution  Install Oracle VirtualBox 5.1. on your workstation. These directions are for how to install it on Windows 7 Professional.

1.  Get the installation media from this