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Python is Easy. Go is Simple. Simple != Easy
It has created an extensive discussion on Hacker News.
https://preslav.me/2023/11/27/python-is-easy-golang-is-simple-simple-is-not-easy/
ETCD and Concurrency STM
The blog post discusses challenges while working at InfluxData, particularly with their cloud platform, InfluxDB Cloud 2. The author details their experience using Go and etcd, a key-value store, to manage metadata components. Despite leveraging internal abstractions and software-transactional memory (STM), they encountered issues with client-side load balancing and etcd's transaction system. A specific error related to future revision readings in etcd transactions led to significant problems, including a severe incident. The root cause was identified as the STM's handling of etcd revisions in a load-balanced environment. The post also discusses the author's exploration of Raft, a consensus algorithm, to understand these challenges better.
https://george.macro.re/posts/etcd-and-concurrency-stm
Hashicorp’s Terraform Cloud RUM Pricing Sticker Shock
New costly update for Terraform Cloud. Paying resources per hour? OMG!
https://shavingtheyak.com/2023/10/28/hashicorps-terraform-cloud-rum-pricing-sticker-shock/
Synthetic Testing
Synthetic testing, often called synthetic or proactive monitoring, involves simulating real user traffic to detect performance problems in critical user pathways. This approach enables businesses to proactively oversee their service availability, track the responsiveness of their applications, and ensure the effectiveness of customer transactions.
Synthetic testing can help you in these cases: proactively identify performance problems, reduce mean time to resolution, launch in a new market, meet performance goals, and deploy code regularly.
https://www.datadoghq.com/knowledge-center/synthetic-testing/
SREcon23 Europe/Middle East/Africa - Should I Use OTel
OpenTelemetry is a hot topic of discussion, although many are still unclear about the distinctions between its tools, APIs, and SDKs, which can make joining these conversations somewhat perplexing.
Some view OpenTelemetry (specifically the collector) as a one-size-fits-all solution, suggesting the replacement of all Prometheus instances and telemetry agents with OTel collectors. However, it's not always clear if they fully understand the potential losses in functionality or new risks this might entail.
Drawing from his experience as an SRE monitoring millions of users with the traditional Prometheus setup, and his current role where he is deeply involved in designing large-scale telemetry pipelines using OTel with clients, this talk aims to help SREs weigh the advantages and disadvantages of different tools they might consider for their specific needs.
Your guide to better incident status pages
Your status page not only mirrors your brand's transparency but also influences perceived reliability, a concept emphasized by FireHydrant's CEO Robert, who states that customers define a company's reliability. Effective communication during incidents is crucial, as it shapes user interactions and perceptions during service downtimes. In a recent interview, the importance of clear, reassuring updates on status pages was discussed, highlighting their role in maintaining brand reputation. Additionally, the use of strategically crafted templates was recommended for ensuring consistent, efficient communication during such events.
https://firehydrant.com/blog/your-guide-to-better-incident-status-pages/
New Experimental Features in Gateway API v1.0
The Kubernetes Gateway API represents a developing collection of APIs that streamline service networking in Kubernetes, offering more versatility and expressiveness compared to the traditional Ingress API, which initially handled external service access in Kubernetes clusters. Key features of the Gateway API include:
Support for Diverse Services: The Gateway API goes beyond the HTTP-centric focus of Ingress, accommodating a range of services like HTTP, HTTPS, TCP, and others. This enables more sophisticated routing options and service management.
Customizability and Extendibility: Designed for adaptability, the Gateway API permits the creation of bespoke resources and configurations, enabling users to tailor routing behaviors, traffic filters, and other networking features to their specific needs.
Detailed Traffic Management: This API provides granular control over traffic flow, facilitating intricate routing rules and policies. It allows for precise management of traffic both within the cluster and for external services.
Ease of Multi-Tenancy: The Gateway API simplifies the implementation of multi-tenancy. It enables different teams or applications within the same Kubernetes cluster to maintain isolated Gateway resources, minimizing potential configuration disputes.
Facilitation of Team Collaboration: A central aspect of the Gateway API is its ability to separate different operational concerns, allowing teams such as development, operations, and security to independently manage aspects like routing, load balancing, and security protocols, without interference.
Ecosystem Compatibility and Support: Being part of the Kubernetes project, the Gateway API is compatible with the broader Kubernetes ecosystem and benefits from community support and development.
In essence, the Kubernetes Gateway API provides a more advanced and adaptable approach to network management and service exposure in Kubernetes environments, catering to complex networking needs, promoting multi-tenancy, and enhancing collaboration across various organizational teams.
https://kubernetes.io/blog/2023/11/28/gateway-api-ga/
Kubernetes Removals, Deprecations, and Major Changes in Kubernetes 1.29
The Kubernetes 1.29 release introduces several key deprecations and removals, reflecting the project's commitment to evolving and maintaining high-quality releases. Significant changes include:
Deprecation Policy: Kubernetes has a well-documented deprecation policy. Stable APIs can be deprecated when a newer, stable version is available, with a minimum lifetime for each stability level. Deprecated APIs continue to function with warnings until removal, while removed APIs are no longer available.
k8s.gcr.io Redirect: Traffic to the old k8s.gcr.io registry is being redirected to the community-owned registry.k8s.io, with the eventual phasing out of k8s.gcr.io.
Community-Owned Package Repositories: The Kubernetes project introduced pkgs.k8s.io, replacing the legacy Google-owned repositories. These community-owned repositories for Debian and RPM packages have formally deprecated the legacy repositories.
Removal of In-Tree Integrations with Cloud Providers: Feature gates DisableCloudProviders and DisableKubeletCloudCredentialProviders are set to true by default in v1.29, requiring users of in-tree cloud provider integrations (like Azure, GCE, or vSphere) to enable external cloud controller managers or opt-in to legacy integration.
Removal of the v1beta2 Flow Control API Group: The flowcontrol.apiserver.k8s.io/v1beta2 API version will no longer be served, with users advised to switch to the v1beta3 version.
Deprecation of status.nodeInfo.kubeProxyVersion: The .status.kubeProxyVersion field for Node objects is marked as deprecated due to its inaccuracy and potential removal in a future release.
https://kubernetes.io/blog/2023/11/16/kubernetes-1-29-upcoming-changes/
Early Registration Now Open for Google Cloud Next ’24 (April 9-11) in Las Vegas
https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/google-cloud-next/register-early-for-google-cloud-next24
BigQuery Omni now available for AWS and Azure, for cross-cloud data analytics
https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/data-analytics/analyze-data-across-clouds-with-bigquery-omni/
NixOS 23.11 released
https://nixos.org/blog/announcements.html#nixos-23.11
PackagingCon
The official channel of PackagingCon – the conference with the mission to bring different software package management ecosystems together.
https://www.youtube.com/@packagingcon_org/videos
Top announcements of AWS re:Invent 2023
https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/top-announcements-of-aws-reinvent-2023/
https://reinvent.awsevents.com/
The Network Berg
A very informative and useful YouTube channel on networking especially focussed on Mikrotik.
https://www.youtube.com/@TheNetworkBerg
OpenIKED 7.3 released
OpenIKED is a FREE implementation of the Internet Key Exchange (IKEv2) protocol which performs mutual authentication and establishes and maintains IPsec VPN security policies and associations (SAs) between peers.
https://undeadly.org/cgi?action=article;sid=20231120085246
FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE Announcement
Includes OpenSSH, ZFS, and OpenSSL.
https://www.freebsd.org/releases/14.0R/announce/
terraform-aws-github-runner
I think I have already mentioned this project but it is really useful if you want to host your own Github runners on AWS.
https://github.com/philips-labs/terraform-aws-github-runner
Announcing - First NixCon North America!
It will be co-hosted with https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/21x. I am happy that Nix is getting more popular and have local conferences.
https://discourse.nixos.org/t/announcing-first-nixcon-north-america/35874
Ubuntu Summit 2023 Reflections
The Ubuntu Summit 2023, hosted in Riga by Canonical, was an energizing event marked by collaborative planning and successful execution. The summit focused on openness and communication, showcasing various talks and workshops, including innovative technology presentations and discussions on open-source community development. Highlights included a plenary session with notable speakers, a story about DreamWorks' renderer Moonray, and diverse sessions covering topics from Ubuntu Core Desktop to AI and open-source gaming. The event fostered community engagement, with lively activities like a secret swimming pool project and a closing party, culminating in a gathering that celebrated open-source passion and camaraderie.
https://ubuntu.com//blog/ubuntu-summit-2023-reflections
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