A Technical I.T./DevOps Blog
Question
You have heard of git tags. What are they?
Answer
A Git tag is a pointer to a commit in Git (according to page 129 of Terraform: Up & Running, 2nd Edition by Yevgeniy Brikman (O’Reilly), Copyright 2019, 978-1-492-04690-5).
To create names for these tags, we recommend using semantic versioning as described http://semver.org (because page 129 of Terraform: Up &
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Question
You have heard of Group Variables in Ansible. What are they?
Answer
They are like global variables assigned in a modular way (like Ansible roles). They are ideal when you have Ansible playbooks that run against many different servers. Rather than have a regular variable in a playbook, group variables are taken from a group_vars/ directory. To read more about them,
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Continue reading “What is a group_var or Group Variable in Ansible?”
Problem scenario
You are troubleshooting a pipeline in Azure DevOps. You look at the task’s log output. You see a security-threshold flag in a CLI with the value of “low”, “medium”, “high” or “critical” that you think is incorrect or discrepant with another setting. How do you get the flag to be set to the security threshold level of your choice?
Background
The ultimate Snyk command that is run (or commands that are run) is (or are) created from various underlying settings,
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Continue reading “How Do You Configure Snyk’s Threshold Level in Azure DevOps Pipelines?”
Problem scenario
You want to generate and retrieve a memory dump of a specific process on a Windows server. How to you take or get a memory dump of a given process?
Solution
1. Launch Task Manager as Administrator. Search for Task Manager and right click it and go to “Run as Administrator”
2. Go to “Create dump file”
3.
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Continue reading “How Do You Get a Memory Dump of a Specific Process in Windows?”
Problem scenario
You rebooted your Windows laptop. You are not getting any network. The internet is unreachable. The NIC’s lights are off. What should you do?
Possible Solution #1
Use WiFi. Completely bypass your network interface port.
Possible Solution #2
1. Reboot your computer.
2. Press Esc to enter the Startup Menu.
3.
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Continue reading “How Do You Get the Internet and/or NIC on Your Windows Workstation to Work?”
Problem scenario
You have a Python program that is evaluating one-character strings of punctuation as “True” when tested by the .isalpha method. What should you do?
Solution
Remember to use “()” after .isalpha().
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Continue reading “Why Is Your .isalpha Method in Python Allowing “*” and Other Punctuation?”
Question
In the context of weight lifting (or resistance training), what single exercise is the most important?
Answer
The squat (according to page 7 of Starting Strength). Page 19 says “There is simply no other exercise, and certainly no machine, that produces the level of central nervous system activity, improved balance and coordination, skeletal loading and bone density enhancement,
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Continue reading “What Is The Most Important Exercise in Weight Training?”
Problem scenario
You are trying to use SSH, but you get a “connection timed out” error. What should you do?
Possible solution #1
Can you try to ping the hostname or IP address? Are you connected to a necessary VPN? Perhaps the endpoint is down or not reachable from the network you are on.
Possible solution #2
Is there a router that was recently configured?
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Continue reading “How Do You Troubleshoot SSH Connection Timed Out?”
Problem scenario
You are trying to sell a stock. You see an option for “Sell Short”, but no “Sell” button. You want to do a regular sell as a trade. You don’t want to try to “short” a stock. What should you do?
Possible Solution
It is good to be observant because a “Sell Short” option is different from a regular sale of stock.
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Continue reading “Does a “Sell Short” Button Do What a Regular “Sell” Button Would Do?”
Problem scenario
You have a web-based email account, and you cannot send an email. You cannot save a draft of the email. You get “Error when communicating with server” in red. What should you do?
Solution
Delete the images/graphics of the original email or in your message. This usually happens when the sender had graphic intensive content, and you are trying to respond.
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