LHB Linux Digest #24.09: Docker Course, Ansible Dry Run, System Resource History and More

Hey tiatira,

After the Linux for DevOps course, our next course on Docker is almost here.

Almost? What does that mean? Well, it's a work in progress but I could not stop myself from sharing it with you. Two of the eight chapters are available now and the rest will be published in the coming days.

Learn Docker: Complete Beginner’s Course

Learn Docker, an important skill to have for any DevOps and modern sysadmin. Learn all the essentials of Docker in this series.

Linux Handbook •Abdullah Tarek

And we quickly reached the 100 members mark on the LinkedIn page since its announcement in the last newsletter. Awesome 🙌

📣 I deployed a Discourse forum for Linux Handbook on the weekend. There is not much here because it's a fresh launch.

It will be a good place for you to discuss your doubts and share your experiences managing servers and infrastructure. I also plan to use it for archiving all the quick Linux tips I have shared on Twitter and through the LHB Linux Digest newsletter.

Feel free to sign up 🙏

💭 What else do you get in this edition of LHB Linux Digest:

• Ansible modules you should know
• SSH tips
• Tools and memes for Linux lovers
• This edition of LHB Linux Digest is sponsored by Netdata

✨ Sponsor: Netdata, the open-source observability platform

Tired of setting up and maintaining Prometheus & Grafana? Try Netdata: The only real-time, open-source observability platform that gets your monitoring set up in seconds. It's like it's monitoring on autopilot. 

Check it out on GitHub or opt for the hosted Netdata service (metrics aren't stored on the cloud, they are always kept on premise).

Netdata: Monitoring and troubleshooting transformed

Netdata is a distributed real-time, health monitoring platform for systems, hardware, containers & applications, collecting metrics. Zero configuration needed.

📖 Linux Tips and Tutorials

The ssh-copy-id is a good tool for adding your public key to a remote server.

How to Add SSH Public Key to Server

Public key authentication allows you to access a server via SSH without password. Here are two methods to copy the public ssh key to the server.

Linux Handbook •Abhishek Prakash

I like using the ~/.ssh/config file to save the details of all the Linux servers I manage. Easier to type ssh xyz-web-server than look for the IP addresses of each server.

How to Use SSH Config File [Beginner’s Guide]

Using SSH profiles can help you in cases where you regularly connect to various servers. No need to remember the IP address and other such details for SSH connection.

Linux Handbook •Abhishek Prakash

I know you probably know it already but no harm in brushing up the basics on redirection. You may discover something new.

Input Output & Error Redirection in Linux [Beginner’s Guide]

Redirection is an essential concept in Linux. Learn how to use stdin, stdout, stderr and pipe redirection in Linux command line.

Linux Handbook •Abhishek Prakash

And here's how you can have a look at the historical usage of system resources in Linux.

View Linux System Resource Usage History

Keep a track of your Linux server’s system resource usage with these tools.

Linux Handbook •Abhishek Prakash

📚 Ansible Tutorials

An essential Ansible feature you should know.

Ansible Dry Run: Running Playbook in Check Mode

Not sure of things with your playbook? Here’s how you can test your Ansible playbook by using the dry run feature.

Linux Handbook •LHB Community

The shell module enables you to execute shell commands on remote hosts.

Using the Shell Module in Ansible

Shell module in Ansible is a powerful tool for executing shell commands on remote hosts, but it comes with maintenance risks.

Linux Handbook •LHB Community

Another handy Ansible module to see if a node is reachable.

Ansible Ping Module: Check if Host is Reachable

Quickly test if a node is available with Ansible ping command.

Linux Handbook •LHB Community

🛍️ Exciting offer you should not miss

This bundle of books from No Starch Press will get you up to speed on a spectrum of mission-critical topics.

Humble Tech Book Bundle: Networking, Sysadmin, and DevOps by No Starch

IT pros, this book bundle will get you up to speed with DevOps, teach you Linux tips and tricks, and demystify containerization. Your purchase helps charity!

Humble Bundle

💡Quick Terminal tip

Did you know about the “z commands” that let you look through the zipped log files without extracting them? There is zcat, zless, zmore etc. Helpful while dealing with compressed log files.

📰 Linux news that matters

• Red Hat revealed an open source extension for Podman Desktop to work with large language models (LLMs) on a local environment
• Raspberry Pi now has its own RDP feature, Connect, to let you access your Pi from anywhere graphically.
• QEMU 9.0 was released recently.

🛠️ Nifty tool

The open source alternative to Tines / Splunk SOAR. Build AI-assisted workflows, orchestrate alerts, and close cases fast.

GitHub – TracecatHQ/tracecat: 😼 The open source alternative to Tines / Splunk SOAR. Build AI-assisted workflows, orchestrate alerts, and close cases fast.

😼 The open source alternative to Tines / Splunk SOAR. Build AI-assisted workflows, orchestrate alerts, and close cases fast. – TracecatHQ/tracecat

GitHub •TracecatHQ

😂 Geek humor

Developers from hell 👿

💌 Like the LHB Linux Digest newsletter?

You can encourage others to subscribe to this newsletter. (From here)

Become a Pro member and enjoy unlimited access to our eBooks, courses and in-depth tutorials.

Missed the previous editions? You can access the newsletter archives.

You may also contribute to Linux Handbook and share your experience and expertise with the community.

I like reading your messages, so just hit the reply button and share your thoughts 😄