Run a Joomla CMS in Podman Pod

One of the special feature of podman over docker is, podman has the concept of pod. Pod is a feature to group containers together. One example is, is lets say we want to deploy a joomla stack. The stack can be deployed in a pod, so that the containers can be managed together, without having to operate on each single component of the stack.

To create a pod with port 8080 on localhost will be redirected to port 80 in a pod
$ podman pod create --name mypod --publish 8080:80

Next, create a container for database that belongs to our pod above
$ podman run -dit --pod mypod -e MYSQL_DATABASE=joomla -e MYSQL_USER=joomlauser -e MYSQL_PASSWORD=joomlapassword -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=rootpw --name mariadb docker.io/library/mariadb 

Check whether your mariadb container is ready, by viewing its logs
$ podman logs -f mariadb

After that create a joomla container. Since both the containers are in the same pod, joomla container can refer to mariadb with just 127.0.0.1 since both of them share the same network namespace in a pod
$ podman run -dit --pod mypod -e JOOMLA_DB_HOST=127.0.0.1 -e JOOMLA_DB_USER=joomlauser -e JOOMLA_DB_PASSWORD=joomlapassword -e JOOMLA_DB_NAME=joomla --name joomla docker.io/library/joomla

Similar to mariadb container, you can check whether your joomla container is ready by viewing its logs
$ podman logs -f joomla

Start a browser, and browse to http://0.0.0.0:8080. You should be able to access the joomla web interface. Continue with the installation using the web interface. Make sure you put 127.0.0.1 for the database host information in the web installer.

Starting a Web Server using Podman

To start a web server using podman, in this case we are using nginx from docker repository, just run below command to start a webserver and expose it on port 8080 localhost
$ podman run -dit -p 8080:80 docker.io/library/nginx

Test our brand new web server
$ curl -s localhost:8080 | tail
working. Further configuration is required.</p>

<p>For online documentation and support please refer to
<a href="http://nginx.org/">nginx.org</a>.<br/>
Commercial support is available at
<a href="http://nginx.com/">nginx.com</a>.</p>

<p><em>Thank you for using nginx.</em></p>
</body>
</html>

How to Install Podman on CentOS 8

Podman is a daemonless container engine for developing, managing, and running OCI Containers on your Linux System. 

Some of the advantages of podman over docker for managing your linux containers are:

1. Podman is daemonless

2. Podman is fully compatible with docker, thus can run docker images without any modification even from docker.io

3. Most podman commands can be run as a regular user, without requiring additional privileges. 

4. Used by Redhat in latest openshift container platform

To install podman on CentOS 8, just run below command

# dnf install podman -y

or 

# yum install -y podman

Once installed, check podman version to ensure podman has been installed successfully

# podman --version

Downloading ISO Directly to Proxmox Using Command Line

This is usually the faster way to get any iso to proxmox, especially if you are connecting to proxmox via some not so fast internet connection. But if you still prefer to use the web GUI, please refer to this post on how to do it via the web UI.

Go to the directory where iso's are being kept in proxmox
# cd /var/lib/vz/template/iso

If you have not downloaded the ISO, you can download it directly in this directory. For example I want to download a Centos 8 ISO
# wget http://centos.ipserverone.com/centos/8-stream/isos/x86_64/CentOS-Stream-8-x86_64-20191219-dvd1.iso

Once done, refresh the webUI

Proxmox VE No Subscription Repository

When you install Proxmox VE, by default the system will be configured to use Proxmox VE enterprise repository, which needs subscription in order to use it.

If you do not plan on purchasing the subscription, but still want to get updates on the latest package, you can use Proxmox VE no-subscription repository.

According to this document, this repository is recommended only for non production, as the packages are not heavily tested. Proceed at your own risk if you want to use it for production.

To enable the pve no-subscription repository

$ echo "deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pve buster pve-no-subscription" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list

To disable the enterprise repository

$ cd /etc/apt/sources.list.d/

$ sudo mv pve-enterprise.list pve-enterprise.list.disabled

Update package information

$ sudo apt update

You should now be seeing the new no-subscription repository being checked, and the enterprise repository being left out

Windows in Proxmox Cannot Detect Virtio Network Adapter

I encountered this issue when installing Windows 2019 on proxmox Virtual Environment 6.1-7.

Below is my windows VM setting

In windows, I cannot see any network adapter to be configured.

After looking around in proxmox documentation, I found this gem, whereby you can download driver for the windows so that your windows can recognize the virtio interface.

You can download the iso for the driver from the above link, or using this direct link.

Once downloaded, upload the iso to proxmox using these steps.

Insert it into our windows vm cd drive, like below

You should now be able to see the iso mounted as D drive (depending on how many partition you have in your windows VM)

Now you have to install the driver. Press windows + s, type Device Manager and press Enter.

Expand "Network Adapters", you should see one adapter that is not recognized by windows.

Right click on it, and choose "Update driver"

Click on "Browse my computer for driver software"

Type in D:\ for the location, and tick "Include subfolders"

Click Next, and the wizard will search for a suitable driver for your device. Wait for it to finish.

Once done, it will show that your windows now has recognized the network adapter.

Reboot, if the wizard asks for it.

Done
     

Adding Internet Based Repositories in Alpine Linux

What I like about alpine linux is, it is very fast to get to a working linux with a shell inside a VM, and I can start testing whatever I need to test straight away. But the default setting of alpine linux does not preconfigured to get any packages from the internet, which is a pity. So we have to add it manually.

To add the main and community repositories manually, run below commands
# echo 'http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community' >> /etc/apk/repos
# echo 'http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/main' >> /etc/apk/repos

Update repository indexes
# apk update

That's it. You can now search for any package
# apk search openssh

And install any package
# apk add openssh-client

Enable pfsense Web Interface from WAN Temporarily

By default pfsense only allow access to web interface from LAN. But sometimes you need access from WAN, just for a very short time. For example, you do not have any machine in LAN that have web interface, and you need the web interface to make some changes.

The steps are as follows, if you have access to pfsense text based console

1. Access the text based console

2. Choose option 8, to access the pfsense shell

3. Run this command: pfctl -d

4. Once you get the message "pf is disabled", you can now access pfsense web interface using WAN ip, in this case, 192.168.20.3, and make your changes in the web interface. Once you activate the changes, the firewall will be turned on again, so you won't be able to access web interface via WAN anymore.

5. If by any chance you want to enable back firewall manually, run: pfctl -e

If you do not have access to the console, you have to use ssh.

1. ssh into any linux machine on the LAN side

2. From the linux machine, ssh into pfsense

3. Run pfctl -d

4. Access your pfsense web interface via WAN IP. The firewall will automatically started if you "Apply Change" in web interface.

5. If you want to enable pf manuallt, run pfctl -e.

6 Logout from pfsense

Credit to this site for the great tutorial.

Uploading iso to Proxmox

To upload iso to proxmox, so that the iso can be used to create VM, please follow below steps

1. Login to proxmox

2. On the left hand side, expand Datacenter, until you see node/s

3. Expand the node until you see local. Click on "local"

4. On the right hand side, click "Content"

5. Click "Upload"

6. Select the iso file that you want to upload, and click "Upload"

7. Once uploaded, you will see the iso listed on the right hand side. Please refer below picture for clearer view

Install and Use Vagrant on Linux Mint 19 with Virtualbox

Vagrant is a tool for building and managing virtual machine environments in a single workflow. With an easy-to-use workflow and focus on automation, Vagrant lowers development environment setup time, increases production parity, and makes the "works on my machine" excuse a relic of the past.

We can always install vagrant from the repository, but the one in the repository is quite an old version, which is 2.0.2. So we will download the latest version from https://www.vagrantup.com/downloads.html. Since they do not provide a package for ubuntu/mint, we will use debian package.

To download the installer

$ wget -c https://releases.hashicorp.com/vagrant/2.2.7/vagrant_2.2.7_x86_64.deb 

To install vagrant

$ sudo apt install ./vagrant_2.2.7_x86_64.deb -y

Download virtualbox, if you still have not install it

$ wget -c https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/6.1.4/virtualbox-6.1_6.1.4-136177~Ubuntu~bionic_amd64.deb

Install  virtualbox

$ sudo apt install ./virtualbox-6.1_6.1.4-136177~Ubuntu~bionic_amd64.deb -y

Let's say we want to create an ubuntu bionic virtual machine (VM) using vagrant. First we have to run init

$ mkdir -p  vagrant/ubuntu-bionic

$ cd vagrant/ubuntu-bionic

$ vagrant init hashicorp/bionic64

$ vagrant up

The init command will create a standard Vagrantfile, which can be used to define the specs of virtual machine we want to make.

The up command will use the Vagrantfile, and create a VM out of it.

Once all the downloading is done, the VM will be created, and you can login into the box using ssh command

$ vagrant ssh

And within just a few commands, you already have a working virtual machine without having to do the standard operating system installation just like when you create a virtual machine using the traditional way.