First day training back with @endomondo – more a walk today, but I ran a bit during the “fast-walk” intervals.

I used Endomondo for the voice prompts, but tracked the main workout with my fitbit. This led to my graph being a bit out of sync with the workout graph…

Next run is on Thursday. Well, it’s a walk rather than run…. But start slow, and build up, I guess

I tried (for the second time) to do the next run in the C25K ZenLabs, which was a 22min run I got halfway, then dropped to a walk :(

I checked out Strava’s Premium Fitness Plan offering and dislike it immediately (for a 5K training, it wants you to run 1-1.5 hours as the first run. Seriously?!)

I went back to Endomondo (who have been acquired by Under Armor since I last used them) and their Fitness Plan offering hasn’t changed so reactivated my premium and will start with their C25K tomorrow.

So this guy did 650 + 650 + 100 km….. Impressive.

But it does prove the effectiveness of having the right mindset.

www.odditycentral.com/news/man-…

Did the 2x 10 minute runs today and topped 5km according to the ZenLabs app, but only hit 4.85km according to Fitbit (and I kinda trust FitBit more than ZenLabs in terms of distance tracking)

Set two Strava Segment PRs during this run

This run was done on Lineage OS 14. I downgraded back to 14 from 15 after finding a few quirks with that version that don’t sit well with me.

• The ADB connection is very flaky, cutting out a lot, and the charge LED blinks during this time, like something is restarting. I don't get that with 14
• The general battery usage is really bad. I lose between 20% and 40% battery life overnight, whereras I lose only 15-20% on 14.

I might decided to try again at some point, but on a clean (empty) install.

[gallery type=“rectangular” size=“full” ids=“7121,7120,7119”]

I imported some of my old runs into Strava, and found that Strava placed me amongst the other Strava users and even let me see in real time how I fared with the other runners

www.youtube.com/watch

Re-did my run from yesterday and did it without stopping.

I had my fitbit on and it seemed to have stopped tracking before the end for some weird reason, so this run wasn’t tracked properly…

[gallery type=“rectangular” size=“full” ids=“7114,7113,7112”]

5min warmup, 5min run, 3min walk, 8min run, 3min walk, 5min run, 5min cooldown

Everything was fine until the second walk where I got attacked by a Jack Russell. Small, but feisty dog.

Last run I got to 3 mins then dropped to a walk.

I’ll try this again tomorrow and see if I can finish it without walking during a run cycle.

[gallery type=“rectangular” size=“full” ids=“7109,7108,7107”]

20 minute run successful. Early morning run to avoid the heat

[gallery type=“rectangular” size=“full” ids=“7104,7103,7102”]

My run yesterday was a failure – it was the longest run so far for the C25K at 20 minutes without walking, and I only got halfway.

Damn, I’m out of shape :(

Weather is definitely lower today to a more comfortable 21degC. Early morning run and a nice breeze blowing as I run. 2x 8min runs today with 5 min break in between.

[gallery type=“rectangular” size=“full” ids=“7094,7093,7092”]

I stumbled across this trailer of the Sully movie – the one which tells the story about the famous Hudson River landing.

And this was a brilliant set of editing cuts. It gives you the tension from just a couple of seconds of shots each. If you haven’t watched the film yet, do it now

www.youtube.com/watch

And here’s a video of the investigation

www.youtube.com/watch

I took my CKA exam for the second time – and failed again. This time. however got much closer to the pass mark than my first time.

Things I think I fluffed on:

Cluster DNS

pods, services and how they can show up using nslookup. I got caught up in trying to figure out why my DNS wasn’t working, and I think it’s because I was trying to nslookup from outside the cluster, which obviously would not resolve the “.cluster.local” domain correctly. I forgot that you can do an interactive, in-cluster shell using

[code lang=text] kubectl run -i –tty busybox –image=busybox – sh [/code]

Not to mention that doing nslookup {service}.svc.cluster.local won’t work, and you have to use -type=a to nslookup to get the ip address of the service to confirm it is resolving

etcd Snapshots

This got me both times. The first time I had no idea why doing a snapshot command was failing. The second time I figured out how to do the backup and how to invoke it from the pod, but still got it wrong. Now I figured out (and it was right in front of my face):

[code lang=text] <br />WARNING: Environment variable ETCDCTL_API is not set; defaults to etcdctl v2. Set environment variable ETCDCTL_API=3 to use v3 API or ETCDCTL_API=2 to use v2 API.

USAGE: etcdctl [global options] command [command options] [arguments…]

VERSION: 3.2.18

[/code]

I wasn’t using the ETCDCTL_API variable beforehand so it was falling back to V2 api, which doesn’t have the snapshot command:

[code lang=text] <br /># etcdctl NAME: etcdctl - A simple command line client for etcd.

WARNING: Environment variable ETCDCTL_API is not set; defaults to etcdctl v2. Set environment variable ETCDCTL_API=3 to use v3 API or ETCDCTL_API=2 to use v2 API.

USAGE: etcdctl [global options] command [command options] [arguments…]

VERSION: 3.2.18

COMMANDS: backup backup an etcd directory cluster-health check the health of the etcd cluster mk make a new key with a given value mkdir make a new directory rm remove a key or a directory rmdir removes the key if it is an empty directory or a key-value pair get retrieve the value of a key ls retrieve a directory set set the value of a key setdir create a new directory or update an existing directory TTL update update an existing key with a given value updatedir update an existing directory watch watch a key for changes exec-watch watch a key for changes and exec an executable member member add, remove and list subcommands user user add, grant and revoke subcommands role role add, grant and revoke subcommands auth overall auth controls help, h Shows a list of commands or help for one command

GLOBAL OPTIONS: –debug output cURL commands which can be used to reproduce the request –no-sync don’t synchronize cluster information before sending request –output simple, -o simple output response in the given format (simple, extended or json) (default: “simple”) –discovery-srv value, -D value domain name to query for SRV records describing cluster endpoints –insecure-discovery accept insecure SRV records describing cluster endpoints –peers value, -C value DEPRECATED - “–endpoints” should be used instead –endpoint value DEPRECATED - “–endpoints” should be used instead –endpoints value a comma-delimited list of machine addresses in the cluster (default: “http://127.0.0.1:2379,http://127.0.0.1:4001”) –cert-file value identify HTTPS client using this SSL certificate file –key-file value identify HTTPS client using this SSL key file –ca-file value verify certificates of HTTPS-enabled servers using this CA bundle –username value, -u value provide username[:password] and prompt if password is not supplied. –timeout value connection timeout per request (default: 2s) –total-timeout value timeout for the command execution (except watch) (default: 5s) –help, -h show help –version, -v print the version

ETCDCTL_API=3 etcdctl

NAME: etcdctl - A simple command line client for etcd3.

USAGE: etcdctl

VERSION: 3.2.18

API VERSION: 3.2

COMMANDS: get Gets the key or a range of keys put Puts the given key into the store del Removes the specified key or range of keys [key, range_end) txn Txn processes all the requests in one transaction compaction Compacts the event history in etcd alarm disarm Disarms all alarms alarm list Lists all alarms defrag Defragments the storage of the etcd members with given endpoints endpoint health Checks the healthiness of endpoints specified in --endpoints flag endpoint status Prints out the status of endpoints specified in --endpoints flag watch Watches events stream on keys or prefixes version Prints the version of etcdctl lease grant Creates leases lease revoke Revokes leases lease timetolive Get lease information lease keep-alive Keeps leases alive (renew) member add Adds a member into the cluster member remove Removes a member from the cluster member update Updates a member in the cluster member list Lists all members in the cluster snapshot save Stores an etcd node backend snapshot to a given file snapshot restore Restores an etcd member snapshot to an etcd directory snapshot status Gets backend snapshot status of a given file make-mirror Makes a mirror at the destination etcd cluster migrate Migrates keys in a v2 store to a mvcc store lock Acquires a named lock elect Observes and participates in leader election auth enable Enables authentication auth disable Disables authentication user add Adds a new user user delete Deletes a user user get Gets detailed information of a user user list Lists all users user passwd Changes password of user user grant-role Grants a role to a user user revoke-role Revokes a role from a user role add Adds a new role role delete Deletes a role role get Gets detailed information of a role role list Lists all roles role grant-permission Grants a key to a role role revoke-permission Revokes a key from a role check perf Check the performance of the etcd cluster help Help about any command

OPTIONS: –cacert="" verify certificates of TLS-enabled secure servers using this CA bundle –cert="" identify secure client using this TLS certificate file –command-timeout=5s timeout for short running command (excluding dial timeout) –debug[=false] enable client-side debug logging –dial-timeout=2s dial timeout for client connections –endpoints=[127.0.0.1:2379] gRPC endpoints -h, –help[=false] help for etcdctl –hex[=false] print byte strings as hex encoded strings –insecure-skip-tls-verify[=false] skip server certificate verification –insecure-transport[=true] disable transport security for client connections –key="" identify secure client using this TLS key file –user="" username[:password] for authentication (prompt if password is not supplied) -w, –write-out=“simple” set the output format (fields, json, protobuf, simple, table)

[/code]

And then I can run

ETCDCTL_API=3 etcdctl snapshot save snapshot.db –cacert=/etc/kubernetes/pki/etcd/ca.crt –cert=/etc/kubernetes/pki/etcd/healthcheck-client.crt –key=/etc/kubernetes/pki/etcd/healthcheck-client.key

To create the snapshot.

Certificate Rotation

I need to look this one up – I had no idea how to rotate the certificates

Static Pods

I’d never directly dealt with static pods before this exam, and I don’t think I had this question in my first run, so it was one I didn’t know the answer do. A bit of hunting on the k8s side led me to figure out it was a static pod question, but I couldn’t find out where the exam cluster was looking for its static pod manifests. The question told me a directory, but my yaml didn’t seem to be picked up by the kubelet.

Final note

Generally, a lot of the questions from my first exam run showed up again in this run, which let me run through over half of the exam fairly quickly. I thought I was going to do better than my first run, and I did, but not by much.

If you’re going to go running out there, make sure you bring some water. A lot of it…

Week 5 runs starting. 5 minutes, 3 times and a 3min break in between.

Last night hardly got any sleep, and this morning, when I checked the weather, it wasn’t surprising with 89% humidity according to Google and weather.com

[gallery type=“rectangular” size=“full” ids=“7077,7078,7079”]

I posted this a while ago.

But given I’ve had my uncle lose his fight for life, and my uncle’s mother-in-law also lose her fight for life, I wanted to reference this article again. This article might be about speeding, but there’s an important point within in – you have a chance to speak to your family. To your loved ones. Right now. Talk to them, call them, write to them. You have no idea whether they will be around tomorrow – or you, for that matter.

Another early morning run today. No stopping during the four run intervals so that felt good :)

[gallery type=“rectangular” size=“full” ids=“7070,7071,7072”]

Haven’t run for a while so picked up on my C25K training where I left off.

Maybe slower than previous, but made it most of the way – dropped to a walk early on run #4

[gallery type=“rectangular” size=“full” ids=“7065,7066,7067”]

I had my cousin and his girlfriend over here in the UK for a couple of days for his graduation ceremony – something, no-one mentioned in advance so I ended up having to take a couple of days out of the office and working from home. Several long days later, and my lack of sleep was catching up with me, along with the 30 deg C heat wasn’t helping. They booked out of Gatwick rather than heathrow, meaning the trip to the airport took 1.5 hours instead of 1 hour. And meant I pretty much did an entire lap of the M25 in the process (about 75 miles there and 75 miles back, though I drove 80 miles there instead because the M25 was closed one way, so I had to turn back).

They picked an early flight, which meant we had to try to get there for about 7am, meaning we had to leave at 5am, which in turn meant a 4am get up so they could shower, finish packing and get into the car.

I was back home by 8:15, even stopping off at my local supermarket to pick up some bottled water - although the supermarket wasn’t open due to it being a Sunday, so I picked it up from a local Tesco petrol station instead (15p more expensive than a Tesco supermarket)

I was pretty tired for most of the day, so did washing, ironing, and then went to bed at 6pm – yeah, never went to bed that early before, but here’s FitBit to prove it. 12 hours in bed, 9.5 hours asleep.

Also, during my cousins visit, I took him around different food places. Now I know people like food pictures (aka food porn), here’s a couple of the pics

[gallery type=“rectangular” size=“full” ids=“7046,7047,7048,7049,7050,7051,7052,7053,7054,7055,7056,7057,7058,7059,7060,7061,7062”]

You may have known I really hate my broadband speeds. I’ve replaced the ADSL filters, the phone extension coil and the router, and was still getting barely 1Mb on a 4Mb connection from Sky.

The only cable I hadn’t yet replaced was the cable that went from my router to the extension coil. Without hoping for much, I spent £2 and got a “high quality” (always be careful with any listing that says that) so I decided to buy two while I was at it.

It arrived and I swapped out the cable. Then tested it.

Well….

The router claims connection speed as 7007 kbps down and 921 kbps up.

Ookla says:

An improvement over barely 1Mbps, but still below the 7007 kbps down claimed by the router….

Who out there remembers these from @bt_uk?

Back before phones took credit cards and before mobile phones were a thing, we had to pre-purchase credit using these cards.

And I think this one is still unused :D

In the old days, an off-peak, Zones 1-6 Travelcard would cost you £3.10

Don’t believe me? Here’s one from 1991

The equivalent ticket today would cost you £12.70, or £12.50 on Oyster….

Yes, this is a 27-year-old Travelcard…

Today’s temperature was 30degC according to Google….

And I did my C25K runs in this heat….

[gallery type=“rectangular” size=“large” ids=“7022,7021,7020”]

Suppose you have an application you are deploying to your kubernetes cluster. For most purposes, running kubectl rollout history deployments/your-app will give you a very simple revision history.

[code lang=text] $ kubectl rollout history deployments/awesome-app REVISION CHANGE-CAUSE 1 <none>

[/code]

However, what if you had multiple deployments by different people. How would you know what was the reason for the deployment? Especially when you have something like this?

[code lang=text] REVISION CHANGE-CAUSE 1 <none> 2 3 4 5 … … 100 <none> 101 <none> 102 <none> [/code]

It is possible to set a value into the change-cause field via an annotation, but that field is quite volatile, it is also filled/replaced if someone uses the –record flag when doing an apply. However, it can be utilised to make it much more useful:

[code lang=text] REVISION CHANGE-CAUSE 11 Deploy new version of awesome-app to test environment 12 Deploy new version of awesome-app to staging environment 13 Deploy new version of awesome-app, Thu 21 Jun 07:01:03 BST 2018 14 Deploy new version of awesome-app with integration to gitlab v0.0.0 [test] [/code]

How is this done? Pretty simply, actually. here’s a snippet from the deploy script I use.

[code lang=text] echo Deploy message? read MESSAGE if [ -z “$MESSAGE” ]; then MESSAGE=“Deploy new version of awesome-app, $(date)” echo Blank message detected, defaulting to "$MESSAGE" fi echo Deploy updates… cat deploy.yaml | sed s/‘SUB_TIMESTAMP’/"$(date)"/g | kubectl replace -f - kubectl annotate deployment awesome-app kubernetes.io/change-cause="$MESSAGE" –record=false –overwrite=true kubectl rollout status deployments/awesome-app kubectl rollout history deployment awesome-app [/code]

For lines 1 to 6, I read in a message from the terminal to populate the annotation, and if nothing is provided, a default is used. On line 8, I replace the timestamp to trigger a change to the deployment (this can be anything, for example, changing the version tag of your docker image from awesome-app:release-1.0 to awesome-app:release-1.1)

Note that I used replace and not apply – replace will reset the deployment declaration, and since my deploy yaml does NOT contain a change-cause annotation, replace will remove the annotation.

On line 9, I annotate the deployment, making sure I don’t record it and overwrite the annotation in the event it’s there already (though those two switches might be redundant)

On line 10 I check the status of the rollout – this blocks until it is complete

On line 11, I then dump the deployment history.

This is an example of a script run:

[code lang=text] $ ./deploy.sh Deploy message? [typed] Deploy new version of awesome-app with gitlab integration v0.0.0 [test] Deploy updates… deployment “awesome-app” replaced deployment “awesome-app” annotated Waiting for rollout to finish: 1 old replicas are pending termination… deployment “awesome-app” successfully rolled out deployments “awesome-app” REVISION CHANGE-CAUSE 11 Deploy new version of awesome-app, Thu 21 Jun 07:00:19 BST 2018 12 Deploy new version of awesome-app, Thu 21 Jun 07:00:52 BST 2018 13 Deploy new version of awesome-app, Thu 21 Jun 07:01:03 BST 2018 14 Deploy new version of awesome-app with integration to gitlab v0.0.0 [test] [/code]

My personal @github repos are now migrated to @gitlab.

As for why I chose to do this?

www.tuxmachines.org/node/1127… and techrights.org/2018/06/1… for starters…