Fusion 5 is a bit different than previous versions. It adds a lot of network configuration missing in previous versions. There are two interfaces that aren't modifiable in the gui; vmnet1 and vmnet8.

These are default networks created by VMware. vmnet1 is VMware's default hostonly net and vmnet8 is the default nat network. Both have dhcp enabled.

Network configuration options are managed using the vmnet-cfgcli. vmnet-cfgcli and all VMWare utilities are found in the /Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/ directory. To disable dhcp, we'd

sudo vmnet-cfgcli vnetcfgadd VNET_1_DHCP no
sudo vmnet-cfgcli vnetcfgadd VNET_8_DHCP no

They basically update configuration values in the /Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/networking file.

Then restart vmware. You can verify the dhcpd service is no longer running by

ps aux | grep -i dhcpd | grep vmnet

Zero results means no dhcpd running on VMware's virtual nets.


Deploying Pelican Blog with Bitbucket Commit Hooks

Mon 10 December 2012 by James A. Kyle

Use bitbucket service post notifications to triger remote blog synchronization using pelican

read more

Configuring OpenSwan IPSec Server

Wed 18 July 2012 by James A. Kyle

Introduction

The intent of this article is to walk through the installation, textiguration, and general debugging of OpenSwan based IPSec tunnels. Though primarily focused on Ubuntu & Debian systems, non-package management portions should apply generally.

Installation & Initial Configuration

We install using apt-get or aptitude.

% apt-get install openswan

For a basic PSK ...

read more

A Boilerplate Comparison: Puppet

Sun 15 July 2012 by James A. Kyle

Introduction

Here we cover the steps for deploying a package to a puppet agent/node. Like with chef, we assume a working installation.

Though I must take the opportunity to comment that the installation process for puppet was ridiculously easy.

The ridiculously easy way

Package installation can be performed completely ...

read more

Infrastructure Automation: A Boilerplate Comparison

Sun 08 July 2012 by James A. Kyle

Introduction

We've been using Chef to deploy our infrastructure for a while now. One of the main sticking points we've run into is the barrier to entry for develoepers as a result of the boiler plate required to perform a simple deployment task. Our ideal framework would be ...

read more

Chef Alternatives for Debian/Ubuntu

Sun 05 February 2012 by James A. Kyle

An update-alternatives script for chef. Currently only sets up a version installed in the 1.9.1 gems directory, but extendable to any version easily enough.

#!/bin/bash
RUBY_VERSION=1.9.1
CHEF_VERSION=0.10.8
GEM_ROOT=/var/lib/gems/${RUBY_VERSION}/gems/chef-${CHEF_VERSION}update-alternatives \
   --install /usr/bin/chef-client chef ...
read more

Ruby Alternatives for Debian/Ubuntu

Sun 05 February 2012 by James A. Kyle

A quick update-alternatives script for ruby versions on debian based systems. It only includes the ruby binaries, man pages, etc. included in the ruby1.8 and ruby1.9.1 debs. It's defaults to '1.9' when in auto mode.

After running the script, you can switch between ruby version ...

read more

Adding Syntactic Sugar to Python dicts

Sat 28 January 2012 by James A. Kyle

Snippet

This little snippet allows dict keys to be accessed like attributes. For example

d = CustomDict({"foo": "bar", "bah": {"baz": "bot"}})

Can be accessed like

d.foo # returns "bar"
d.foo.bah.baz # returns "bot"

In addition to the hash key lookups.

class CustomDict(dict):
    def __init__(self, data):
        d ...
read more

Improving ScriptingBridge Performance Using NSProxy & NSCache

Sat 10 September 2011 by James A. Kyle

The Problem

The ScriptingBridge API is an excellent way to tap into the internals of OS X applications with little effort. However, it does have its drawbacks. Not the least of which being lazy evaluation of SBObject's attributes. Lazy evaluation makes the retrieval of SBObject's very efficient since ...

read more

Unboxing, first impressions, and 300 mile followup for Rol Wheel's Volant/RT

Mon 06 June 2011 by James A. Kyle

For the write up on why I chose Rol Wheels over the many other custom and commercial options for wheels, see my original post My experience as a newbie cyclist buying his first set of non stock wheels..

The Unboxing

Rol Wheels 1.jpg

Though packed in nothing but cardboard, the wheels were well ...

read more