My last article showed how to build a server template with Packer .

Now we want to use this template to create some servers on VMware vSphere. DNS will be registered manually and all IP addresses will be defined as fixed in the config files.

The last months I built a lot of environments for tests with IBM Connections Componentpack, Rancher, plain Kubernetes, IBM Domino and some more. In former years, I deployed single virtual machines, cloned them and created snapshots to “easily” jump back in cases of errors. Then I found Packer , which helped me to automate the first virtual machines on my local notebook.

Now I use Packer to create templates for VMware vSphere, which then are deployed and multiplied with Terraform . Terraform needs some packages installed in the template, that it can provision virtual machines on vSphere.

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Since thursday the gpn19 (Gulasch Programmiernacht) is taking place in Karlsruhe at ZKM. I’m happy that I got the chance to give two talks:

The last IBM Connections 6.0 CR4 introduced the new feature “Sharing Files via Link”. A quite handy way to share files with users by link. Just open the file, go to sharing and select “Share by Link”.

“Share by Link” makes it easy to share and grant read access to personal and Community files.

A lot of people don’t like to store credentials in mobile apps or browsers. A good workaround is the usage of OAuth 2.0 tokens, but the application needs to support it and the server you’re talking to too. The IBM Connections Mobile App can use it for authentication.

OAauth2 can be used directly with WebSphere Application Server and Connections 6.0. There are no special OAuth servers or applications needed!

The Documentation at IBM was a little bit confusing for me, there are lots of sidenotes, but you just need to do following steps, to use OAuth 2.0 token-based authentication with the IBM Connections Mobile App.

In the last days I had a problem with a crashed virtual disk on a WebSphere Application Server. The backup team was able to recover all the data, but the operating system needs to be reinstalled. The operating system was Red Hat Linux, so rpm-based. One of the first tasks after recovery was to identify and reinstall missing packages.

Today I had the pleisure to give a talk about Kubernetes Basics at the Docker Mannheim Meetup . I enjoyed it very much and we had some very good discussions after the talk with the traditional pizza and drinks sponsored by Stocard .

A big shout-out to Jens and Martina for organizing the meetup!

Last week I attended Social Connections 14 in Berlin, the event location had a great view and weather was great.

This week starts with Admincamp in Gelsenkirchen. Thanks Rudi Knegt and team for this awesome event! The conference or lets name it camp was real fun. In the end I did three sessions and a workshop. You can find download links to all slides and used files in this article or on https://stoeps.de/speaking/2018/ . I learned and heared a lot of interesting stuff around IBM Notes, IBM Connections and Sametime. You can get most of the session slides through the Admincamp agenda .