Solved: AWS Inspector issue : Service 'Amazon Web Services Agent'(AWSAgent) could not be stopped. Verify that you have sufficientprivileges to stop system services.

AWS Inspector issue
“Service ‘Amazon Web Services Agent’ (AWSAgent) could not be stopped. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to stop system services.”

Solution:-

First check that you are running the AWS inspector installation as administrator. But if you are still getting error then it can be because the most recent Amazon Windows AMIs released on February 23rd include a driver that uses the same service name as the Amazon Inspector Agent. This causes Inspector Agent installations to fail with the above error message. Impacted versions of the Windows AMIs include Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, and Windows Server 2016.

Try fixing it with the remove script provided in below forum link after taking all the required backups.

https://forums.aws.amazon.com/ann.jspa?annID=5505

But if you are still getting error “EC2 Windows Utility Device’ not found” when you execute the remove script follow below steps.

• Take snapshot image of the instance.
• After taking snapshot image login to the instance and execute below command in powershell as an administrator to fix it. It will need reboot of instance.

$agentService = Get-WmiObject -class win32_systemdriver | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq 'awsagent'}$agentService.Delete()

• After running these commands reboot the instance and try installation of AWS Inspector again.

Solved: How to reset RDS master user password

In this post we will show you how to reset  the master user password of an RDS DB instance. The new password after reset will be effective immediately.

• Go to your AWS RDS console.
• Select the DB instance whose master password you want to change. Do note that the DB instance should be in available state and not in backing up or any other state.
• Once you have selected the instance, select Modify from Instance Actions dropdown.
• It will take you to a new page  :- Modify DB Instance: cloudvedasdb
• Scroll down to the Setting section and look for New master password.
• Enter the new password in the text box and at the bottom click on continue.
• Select if you want to change password immediately or during next maintenance as this will need reboot.
• Finally click on Modify DB instance.
• The new password will be effective depending on what option you chose above.

Must have skills for DevOps Engineer and Free methods to learn them

Many people have asked us how to become a DevOps engineer so in this post we will show you the skills and technologies which can get you there.

Before we start we should know what is “DevOps”. As you can see the word is combination of “Developer” and “Operations”. So a DevOps engineer is suppose to be a bridge between the development and operations processes.
Let’s see which skills do you need to become a DevOps engineer. In this post we will also discuss how you can acquire these skills for free. We have also mentioned some advanced paid courses which can help you acquire these skills quickly.

Skill 1 :-  Make Linux your friend.

Nowadays whole world is moving towards opensource, and Linux is the poster boy of opensource world.  Most of the new enterprise level tools and services are now compatible with Linux and people are adopting them fast. So, as a devops engineer you will definitely have to work on/with linux in your job. Even Microsoft has come up with their own Linux version. So, you can understand the importance of Linux. You can learn Linux for free from Linux Foundation courses. But, if you are short of time you can quickly learn Linux through this course Learn Linux in 5 days .

Skill 2 :- Learn scripting

Automation is a big part of a DevOps engineer job and you will be expected to automate mundane tasks. This will not only help you work efficiently but also improve the overall maintainability of your company’s setup. Easiest way to automate things is through scripting. You should learn either shell scripting on Linux/Unix or powershell on windows. Free source to learn scripting is Learn Shell. Else, you can check out this around 6 hours course on Shell Scripting to solve real-world problems like a pro.

Skill 3 :- Understand the Cloud

Companies are shifting to cloud like never before. Applications are being re-built to leverage the advantage of cloud computing. So it’s always good that you know cloud really well. AWS, Azure and GCP are three market leaders and it will be good to know about at least one of them. All these vendors have tons of free material on their sites which can help you learn their technology. Else you can checkout these awesome Udemy courses for AWS, Azure or GCP .

Skill 4:- Source code Management

Tools like git are used to manage the version of code base and avoid any conflicts in code. As a devops engineer you should have good understanding of tools like git or bitbucket since they will be useful in build phase. Later you will use them to build a codepipeline. One of the good source to learn git for free is Try Git. To become zero to hero of Git in hours, one of the best course is Git complete.

Skill 5 :- Configuration management

Configuration management is used to manage the state of your infrastructure. You can use them to patch your linux servers or manage the services.  Some of the tools in config management are Ansible, Chef and Puppet. To get basic understanding of Ansible the best free course is from Redhat called Ansible essentials. If you want to get deeper understanding you can try Mastering Ansible.

Skill 6: – Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery

CI/CD is an important aspect in DevOps engineers job profile. As we are moving towards cloud automated deployments are now essential. They avoid human errors and are fast. You can learn tools like Jenkins for CI/CD. Jenkins will specially be very useful in building a codepipeline, you can learn it for free here. Since CI/CD consists of multiple tools we think that it’s better you learn it from a single source. We found course from Edward Learn Devops: Continuously Deliver Better Software  to have covered most of the topics.

Skill 7 :- Infra as a Code

The latest “in thing” in cloud is Infra as a Code. Yes you read it right, gone are the days where you have to buy the server, install OS and other softwares on it. With tools like Terraform or Cloudformation you can automate the build of your entire infrastructure in cloud right from VPC, Security groups,  servers etc. to application installation and configuration. To get basic free understanding of terraform you can learn it from Katacoda . If you want to deploy AWS Infrastructure using Terraform we found Edward’s another course on Terraform to be really useful. For cloudformation we found the free AWS cloudformation tutorials to be useful. If you are looking for advance practical guidance AWS CloudFormation Master Class is a good course.

Skill 8:- Containers

Servers are now shrinking every day. With the advent of VMs, hardware anyways became less important. Dockers, a containerization technology is taking it to one level up. Now with Dockers you can have a miniature copy of your OS image with the application code. Docker will only run for a few mili seconds when a query is executed and once it’s job is done it will just stop. If you want to learn Docker for free the best source is Play with Docker Classroom. To gain more advanced skills you can learn from Docker Mastery.

Skill 9 :-  Container orchestration

Tools like Kubernetes or Elastic container service (ECS) are used to manage cluster of Docker containers. These tools provides you mechanisms for deploying, maintaining, and scaling application. You can learn about Kubernetes with practical labs for free from Katacoda. For advanced knowledge of Kubernetes try the complete Kubernetes course.

Skill 10 : – Serverless

Technologies like AWS lambda are removing the need to manage the servers at all. You just have to upload you code in the AWS Lambda and set your run time environment. Rest all the issues of memory, CPU, OS patching will be taken care by AWS Lambda. It’s important as a DevOps engineer that you understand how the lambda works and how you can set it up. You can learn about AWS Lambda for free from this AWS Lambda Tutorial. For more advanced real world example you can refer how to build a serverless App with AWS Lambda .
We hope this post is helpful to you in understanding the skills which are important for a DevOps engineer and how you can master these skills. You can expect questions related to these skills in the interview of a DevOps Engineer.

How to Import SSL certificate in AWS Certificate Manager and apply on ELB

In this post we will show you how to apply an SSL certificate on an AWS ELB.


To use the certificate in ELB first we will have to import it in AWS Certificate Manager(ACM).
Currently ACM needs PEM files namely Certificate Body, Certificate Private Key and  Certificate Chain. You can check ACM SSL certificate pre-requisites here.
If you have the SSL certificate in .pem formats you can directly go to Step 7. Else if you have certifcate in .pfx or other format please follow from Step 1.
Step 1  As mentioned earlier ACM expects the certificates in PEM format. So we will first convert the certificates from pfx to pem format using openssl tool.
Step 2  Download the openssl binaries for windows of Linux from the links on openssl site.
Step 3 Once downloaded, install it. In our case we have installed the exe on windows.
Step 4 Go to the location where the OpenSSL is installed. In the bin folder you will find the openssl.exe . We will use this exe for conversion as per below commands. (You may need the import password you used while generation of SSL certificate)
Execute below command in windows command prompt(CMD) as an administrator.

C:\>openssl pkcs12 -in "C:\test-cloud.cloudvedas.com.pfx" -nodes -out "C:\test-cloud.cloudvedas.com.pem"

Enter Import Password:

Step 5 In the above command with “-in” you provide location where your .pfx certificate is kept. In “-out” you define the destination where the newly created .pem file should be kept. You can create a pem file from other certificate formats like .cer, .der, .p7b etc. also using openssl. Just explore its help options and execute command as we have done above.
Step 6 Once the .pem file is created you can open it with notepad. It will have multiple certificates and a key in it.
Step 7 Now go to AWS ACM console and click on Import a certificate.
Step 8 In the  Certificate body enter the complete certificate with all digits as below. In it’s description it will have something like friendlyName.

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----hdshgdhsgjjdghweuiw123hjhd8-----END CERTIFICATE-----

Step 9 Similarly enter the private key contents as below.

-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----deuiryfmvfv7682376ruifn3487tdfi58fvnf8g9-----END PRIVATE KEY-----

Step 10 Similarly enter the Certificate Chain .

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----yeuiwye78689ywhyeyds85d76ctd7cx7c56x8-----END CERTIFICATE-----

Step 11 Finally review and save the certificate.
Step 12 Now go to Route 53 > Hosted Zone and create a record set. Check this link if you want to create a new Hosted Zone.
Step 13 Once inside the hosted zone create a record set where you will basically map your friendly URL name (test-cloud.cloudvedas.com) to the load balancer with a CNAME.

Step 14 Now go to Load Balancer section and click on your ELB.
Step 15 Go to listeners tab and click on Edit.  Click “Add” and in the Load Balancer protocol select HTTPS. In the same window click “Change” option below SSL certificate.
Step 16 In the new window select Choose an existing certificate from AWS Certificate Manager (ACM), and then select the certificate that you created, from Certificate list. Finally click on Save.
Congrats! You have now applied a new SSL certificate to the load balancer. Do let us know in comments section if you have any query.

Solved: How to start or stop Jenkins in Linux and check it's port number

In this post we will see how to start or stop Jenkins on different Linux distributions. Also we will see how to check the status of Jenkins service and identify the port on which it is running or listening.
If you have installed Jenkins on a Fedora or Debian based distribution like Ubuntu, you can use the below commands:
Start Jenkins

$ sudo service jenkins start

Stop Jenkins

$ sudo service jenkins stop

Restart Jenkins

$ sudo service jenkins restart

Check Jenkins status

$ sudo service jenkins status

For other Linux distribution like RHEL or CentOS use:
Start Jenkins
$ sudo systemctl start jenkins.service
Stop Jenkins
$ sudo systemctl stop jenkins.service
Restart Jenkins
$ sudo systemctl restart jenkins.service
Check Jenkins status

$ sudo systemctl status jenkins.service

Check Jenkins Port
To check the port on which Jenkins is listening we can use “lsof”(check installation instructions at the end) command.

[ec2-user@cloudvedas ~]$ sudo /usr/sbin/lsof -i -P | grep -i jenkins

java 1030 jenkins 161u IPv6 27986 0t0 TCP *:8080 (LISTEN)

Above we can see Jenkins is listening on port 8080.
If you do not have lsof you can simply install it with following commands
Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install lsof

RHEL or CentOS

sudo yum install lsof

How to prepare for AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate

In one of our earlier post we have detailed about which AWS certification is suitable for you ?
If you are from System Admin or DevOps background the  AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate certification will be a good plus for you.
If you are  an absolute beginner on AWS you can start with free labs from AWS . To practice further you can create free AWS account. These two actions will get you started on AWS.
Beware that if you go beyond free tier limits you will be billed. Best practice is to create a billing alert.  This alert can save you from unexpected bill shocker.
If you want to learn further you can opt for either classroom course or online course. The classroom course is generally expensive and range between USD 600 to 2000. While the online course can cost you anything between USD 10 to USD 300 depending on which course you choose.
Our personal opinion is that you should go for online courses as they are cheaper and if you follow their labs honestly(yeah not just seeing him do it but actually doing the labs yourself 😉 ) they can be as good as classroom training.
In online courses we found courses from two providers acloudguru and linux academy  to be good. Earlier the Linux Academy course was only available through their site using a monthly plan but the same course is now available on Udemy too. The acloudguru course is already available on Udemy from longtime.  Though both these courses are available to purchase from their respective site under monthly subscription but, if you buy these courses from Udemy you pay only once and get lifetime access to same courses.  And many times Udemy provide heavy discounts on courses which can get you a good bargain.
The acloudguru course is delivered by Ryan who is enthusiastic and teach you really well. Though sometime he can get a bit click happy and can quickly zip past few topics. But, you always have the option to rewind and go through the topic again 🙂 .
The labs in the course are very useful and helps you get deep understanding of topic. The course also has quizzes to check your knowledge.
Overall we found the acloudguru course to be beneficial in getting you exam ready.
However do note that the course alone is not enough to clear the exam. You should go through whitepapers and FAQs of atleast below services .

• EC2
• S3
• VPC
• Route 53
• CloudWatch
• OpsWorks
• Billing

Exam pattern
Exam has Multiple-choice and multiple-answer questions. Exam is of 80 minutes. You can download the exam blueprint here.
Practice Exam Questions
To get a good evaluation of your preparation you can go through another course  for sample exam questions on Udemy  .
Exam Cost
Exam will cost you USD 150. AWS also gives you an option to book a practice exam for USD 20 before you go for actual exam.
How to book exam
To book an exam you will have to create an account in AWS Training and Certification Portal .
Passing score
AWS doesn’t reveal minimum passing score and it keeps on changing. But we have observed that generally people who score above 70% passed the exam. You will immediately see the score on you screen once you finish the test and will also get a report on your mail within 1 hour.
Exam Tips

• Get good sleep and keep calm during the exam.
• You won’t get more than 3 mins per question.
• You may find some very long questions in exam. Best strategy to tackle them is to read the answer options first and then check for relevant info in question.
• Since it’s an AWS exam so look for AWS related options in the answers.  Chances are high that  Non-AWS related option in answer will be wrong.
• AWS exams generally don’t focus on mugging their datasheets. So you won’t get a question like “How much RAM does a C3.xlarge offer?” .

That’s all folks! Best of luck for the exam!
Do let us know in comments section if you have any query.

Solved: How to change from EFI to SMI label and vice-versa

Hello!
In this post we will see how to change the disk label from EFI to SMI in a Solaris server.
Before you decide to change the disk label ensure that the disk doesn't have any important data. If needed take backup of the disk. As during label change all the data will be removed from the disk.
We will use "format -e" command to change the label on disk.

root@cldvds# format -e c0t6006023764A62A00C5H174886B5BC267d0

format> la
 [0] SMI Label
 [1] EFI Label
 Specify Label type[1]: 0
 Auto configuration via format.dat[no]?
 Auto configuration via generic SCSI-2[no]?

Geometry: 256 heads, 10 sectors 40960 cylinders result in 104857600 out of 104857600 blocks.
 Do you want to modify the device geometry[no]? yes
 format> p

The disk partition should now change from 0 to 9 slices(EFI) to 0 to 7 slices (SMI).
If you want to change from SMI to EFI you can follow the same steps and instead of choosing option 0 choose option 1.
That's all folks! Do comment if you have any concern or query!