David Begin - David Begin

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David Begin

Programmer/Human living in Los Angeles

10 Vim Registers to Rule Them All

10 Vim Registers to Rule Them All

There is also an accompanying Video! If you are using Vim you are using registers. However, if you are like me, you might not understand the details, and this leads to confusion. So here's a breakdown of the 10 Vim Register Types. 1. The unnamed register ""

How I Use Tmux

I use Tmux daily and have grown quite attached to it and I'm asked frequently for a breakdown of my Tmux usage on my Twitch Stream [https://www.twitch.tv/beginbot], so here's an overview of Tmux Begin Style. First Why I Like Tmux: * Multiple Windows

Vault and Dynamic Postgresql Database Credentials

Vault and Dynamic Postgresql Database Credentials

Vault [https://www.vaultproject.io/] generates Postgresql [https://www.postgresql.org/] credentials dynamically based on configured roles. This can increase our security, reduce secret sprawl and help auditing by having every service access the database with unique credentials. For more information on the Postgresql Secret Backend visit here [https://www.

How to use Vault's Cubbyhole Secret Backend and Response Wrapping

How to use Vault's Cubbyhole Secret Backend and Response Wrapping

I just started a new Club, it's called the Spicy Coderz Club and it is the newest most exclusive club for spicy coderz ONLY. Naturally everyone wants to join, and many people try and sneak in to our clubhouse everyday. But we take security VERY seriously. Everyday we

Using terraform-docs to keep your module documentation in sync

Using terraform-docs to keep your module documentation in sync

While watching this talk from Hashiconf 2017 [https://www.hashiconf.com/] - Terraform Abstractions for Safety and Power [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeweKUdHJc4] by Calvin French-Owen [https://github.com/calvinfo], I learned about this lovely tool: terraform-docs [https://github.com/segmentio/terraform-docs], which generates documentation based on the

Connecting Packer and Terraform with Data Sources

Connecting Packer and Terraform with Data Sources

When I first started using Packer I couldn't find any good information on how to automate the workflow with Terraform. So I just reached into my favorite toolbox Bash, and whipped together some scripts (details on this approach here [https://dolore.ghost.io/packer-and-terraform/]). However since my initial

Updating Terraform Modules versions with Bash

Updating Terraform Modules versions with Bash

Splitting your Terraform [https://www.terraform.io/] setup into versioned modules can provide many benefits like DRYer code, decoupling updates to modules from updates to infrastructure and the ability to use different versions of modules for different environments. This all makes working with Terraform a much more enjoyable experience. However

A Project Structure for Packer and Terraform

A Project Structure for Packer and Terraform

Being relatively new tools, I have not found a lot of common conventions around how to structure projects that use both Terraform [https://www.terraform.io/] and Packer [https://www.packer.io/]. This has lead me to do some experimenting, and so far I have come up with a system

Using SCP to transfer files to a private EC2 instance through a Bastion Host

Using SCP to transfer files to a private EC2 instance through a Bastion Host

I have a private EC2 instance and I need to transfer GPG keys onto it (my particular use case is for Vault [https://www.vaultproject.io/]. But I am sick of having to first transfer files to my Bastion host, and then onto to my private instance. I wanted to

Building and connecting to a Mysql Database on Aurora with Terraform

Building and connecting to a Mysql Database on Aurora with Terraform

I can never remember how to connect to a MYSQL Database deployed with RDS and Aurora in a VPC. As my setup inevitably gets more complex, I can't seem figure out the right combination of security groups, VPC settings, and SSH tunneling flags, that lets me magically connect.

Packer and Terraform

Packer and Terraform

I have Terraform [https://www.terraform.io/] provisioning my EC2 instances, and Packer [https://www.packer.io/] building AMIs, but how do you get those AMI's onto the EC2 instances Terraform deployed? ....and without copy and pasting the AMI IDs Packer spits out into my terraform files. I

Creating a Bastion Host with Terraform (in AWS)

Creating a Bastion Host with Terraform (in AWS)

Let's pretend you have these beautiful secure AWS resources. Off some where in a Private subnet hidden away. Then one day something goes wrong with one of your EC2 instances, and you have to actually get on the server and run commands....So how do you get access.

Prettier Diffing of Terraform policy changes

Prettier Diffing of Terraform policy changes

I love Terraform [https://www.terraform.io/]. It makes managing complex infrastructure and keeping track of what changes are happening infinitely easier........except if you are changing AWS IAM [https://aws.amazon.com/iam/] policies. UPDATE: Someone has made an excellent tool that takes care of this for you! terraform-landscape

Making your computer translate Amazon IAM Policies for you

Making your computer translate Amazon IAM Policies for you

Every time I write or read an AWS policy, I end up reading these same Docs here [http://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies.html], because I can never remember what the resource or action means. Well no more! I want my computer to just tell me

The most minimal AWS Lambda + Python + Terraform setup

The most minimal AWS Lambda + Python + Terraform setup

I want to write and deploy the simplest function possible on AWS Lambda [https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/], written in Python [https://www.python.org/], using Terraform [https://www.terraform.io/]. Here is what I figured out so far: Note: These are instructions for OSX. Note: I assume that you

Deploying a React App with S3 and Terraform

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Deploying a React App with S3 and Terraform

If you want a deployed static React App [https://facebook.github.io/react/] quickly: S3 [https://aws.amazon.com/s3/], Terraform [https://www.terraform.io/] and create-react-app [https://github.com/facebookincubator/create-react-app] make it quite painless. The following are instructions for creating a new React and making publicly addressable, using

New Computer Part II - Bash Setup

New Computer Part II - Bash Setup

Once I have some basic essentials installed on my computer, it's time to start customizing my Bash Profile. Here are the top 5 things I like to add on a fresh Bash. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Shortcuts to configuration files I think it is important to make it very easy

New Computer - New Year

New Computer - New Year

I bought a new computer (a Mac Book Pro to be exact)! And while getting a new computer is great and all, it's not that fun reinstalling everything, and setting up every shortcut exactly how I like. So I've started a new blog series, walking through