Using Ansible with AWS – Creating Multiple EC2 Instances, Tagging Them and ELK (AWS/Ansible)

An Ansible playbook to create multiple AWS EC2 instances

July 7, 2020 ~ Geek_Dude

In my previous blog post I used Ansible to create an AWS EC2 instance and discussed how to do this via the Ansible ec2 module. Today I am going to go slightly more in depth with creating multiple instances, inventory groups and tagging. The playbook I am using for this section is “create_multiple_ec2_instances.yml” and can … Continue reading Using Ansible with AWS – Creating Multiple EC2 Instances, Tagging Them and ELK (AWS/Ansible)

Using Ansible Roles, aka ELK Stack Ansible Playbook (V2)

May 4, 2020May 4, 2020 ~ Geek_Dude ~ 2 Comments

I have a working Ansible Playbook that installs the ELK stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana and for this example, Filebeat) across three different computers. I have tested the playbook several times and it works each time which is a great sign, however the playbook itself is a little messy. Note: All the files for my ELK … Continue reading Using Ansible Roles, aka ELK Stack Ansible Playbook (V2)

Creating An ELK Stack Via An Ansible Playbook (V1)

May 1, 2020 ~ Geek_Dude ~ 4 Comments

I’m currently spending time learning more about the ELK stack, which is made up of ElasticSearch, Logstash, Kibana (ELK) and Beats. The ELK stack can be created and run within containers (e.g. Docker) but I am going to use an Ansible Playbook to install and configure the ELK stack. You may ask why? Well I’m … Continue reading Creating An ELK Stack Via An Ansible Playbook (V1)

Security: OWASP Top Ten (Notes)

February 8, 2022February 8, 2022 ~ Geek_Dude

The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) provides a top ten security risks in web applications at https://owasp.org/www-project-top-ten/ . The ranking of risks can help developers (and organisations) make their applications more secure. The 2021 OWASP Top Ten Broken Access Control Cryptographic Failures Injection Insecure Design Security Misconfiguration Vulnerable and Outdated Components Identification and Authentication … Continue reading Security: OWASP Top Ten (Notes)

The DRY principle: Ansible and variables

October 12, 2020October 12, 2020 ~ Geek_Dude

One of the frequent teachings I have learned whilst learning programming languages is that repeated blocks of code should be, where possible, placed into a function so that the function can be called multiple times instead of writing out the code multiple times. This approach as the benefits of: Producing repeatable results Reducing the chances … Continue reading The DRY principle: Ansible and variables

Terraform – Introduction: Installation

July 28, 2020July 28, 2020 ~ Geek_Dude ~ 2 Comments

In this blog post I am going to introduce Terraform and install it. What’s Terraform? Terraform is a tool to help build infrastructure from code, i.e. it takes a terraform file and then creates / destroys infrastructure as required. Terraform was created by Hashicorp, the same company behind Vagrant and Packer. Terraform is written in … Continue reading Terraform – Introduction: Installation

AWS – Using Logstash to Ingest Logs From S3 Bucket Into Elastic

S3 Logstash input with the Prefix working

July 17, 2020 ~ Geek_Dude

I have written a few blog posts about setting up an ELK (Elastic Logstash Kibana) stack but have not really touched on the power of Logstash. In this blog post I am hoping to resolve this by looking at using Logstash to get logs from an AWS S3 bucket and place them into Elastic. To … Continue reading AWS – Using Logstash to Ingest Logs From S3 Bucket Into Elastic

Grafana, Prometheus and Node Exporter On Raspberry Pi via Ansible (Raspberry Pi and Linux)

Node Exporter dashboard showing system metrics

June 25, 2020 ~ Geek_Dude

If you want to see metrics in real time and look at web dashboards then Grafana and Prometheus may be the tools you are looking for, and if you are anything like me then you probably want to automate as much of the install as possible via Ansible. My Set Up For this blog post … Continue reading Grafana, Prometheus and Node Exporter On Raspberry Pi via Ansible (Raspberry Pi and Linux)

Installing And Configuring NGINX As A Reverse Proxy Via An Ansible Playbook

May 5, 2020May 5, 2020 ~ Geek_Dude

Today I am looking at installing and configuring NGINX with an Ansible playbook. In my previous blog posts I have looked at using an Ansible playbook to install the ELK (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) stack across three different computers, and then how Ansible roles can be used to organise a playbook. Note: The files for this … Continue reading Installing And Configuring NGINX As A Reverse Proxy Via An Ansible Playbook