CosmosDB linux container for your CI builds

If you have been following Microsoft Build 2021, you may have seen the news that the CosmosDB linux container is now out. This is great news for the ones who finally want to test on a *nix environment. As of this post, the CosmosDB linux container is in preview. As stated in the documentation, there are some limitations: Today, I will show you how you can automate the CosmosDB container for your CI builds, in particular Azure DevOps, running on Linux and Windows machines. If you plan to use the container on a machine running Windows, but using Docker Linux container mode, you will run into some Windows limitations while automating the process. Read more about that below. Using the…

June 8, 2021 | by Dominique St-Amand | 1 Comment

Azure

Azure AD Linux Login Extension – sudo fails with PAM account management error: System error

As you all know, I’ve been playing around with the Azure Active Directory login extensions for both Linux and Windows. I came across a problem where the first sudo worked (after re-authenticating) and the second, with the same command, failed with sudo: PAM account management error: System error Trying to debug this was tricky. Along with a support engineer we were able to enable enough log to get to the bottom of the problem. First, edit /etc/pam.d/system-auth-aad and add the debug keyword whenever you see pam_aad.so. Adding “debug” will switch to verbose logging. For example:

auth        required      pam_env.so
auth        sufficient    pam_fprintd.so
auth [success=done ignore=ignore default=die] pam_aad.so debug
auth        sufficient    pam_unix.so nullok try_first_pass
auth        requisite     pam_succeed_if.so uid >= 1000 quiet_success
auth        required      pam_deny.so

account [success=done ignore=ignore default=die] pam_aad.so debug
account     required      pam_unix.so
account     sufficient    pam_localuser.so
account     sufficient    pam_succeed_if.so uid < 1000 quiet
account     required      pam_permit.so

password    requisite     pam_pwquality.so try_first_pass local_users_only retry=3 authtok_type= ucredit=-1 lcredit=-1 dcredit=-1 ocredit=-1
password    sufficient    pam_unix.so sha512 shadow nullok try_first_pass use_authtok remember=5
password    required      pam_deny.so

session     optional      pam_keyinit.so revoke
session     required      pam_limits.so
-session     optional      pam_systemd.so
session     [success=1 default=ignore] pam_succeed_if.so service in crond quiet use_uid
session     required      pam_unix.so

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auth required pam_env.so

auth sufficient pam_fprintd.so

auth [success=done ignore=ignore default=die] pam_aad.so debug

auth sufficient pam_unix.so nullok try_first_pass

auth requisite pam_succeed_if.so uid >= 1000 quiet_success

auth required pam_deny.so

account [success=done ignore=ignore default=die] pam_aad.so debug

account required pam_unix.so

account sufficient pam_localuser.so

account sufficient pam_succeed_if.so uid < 1000 quiet

account required pam_permit.so

password requisite pam_pwquality.so try_first_pass local_users_only retry=3 authtok_type= ucredit=-1 lcredit=-1 dcredit=-1 ocredit=-1

password sufficient pam_unix.so sha512 shadow nullok try_first_pass use_authtok remember=5

password required pam_deny.so

session optional pam_keyinit.so revoke

session required pam_limits.so

-session optional pam_systemd.so

session [success=1 default=ignore] pam_succeed_if.so service in crond quiet use_uid

session required pam_unix.so

Once that is done, execute in one terminal the following command tail -f /var/log/secure. Execute the sudo that you know will fail (that is the…

August 4, 2020 | by Dominique St-Amand | Leave a comment

Docker

Accessing raw dd images in a Docker Linux container

I was backing up a Linux server of mine the other day and I wanted to have a full backup (along with regular tar.gz backups) of the main disk mounted on the /dev/sda partition. You can backup your partition using dd with a command such as dd if=/dev/sda | dd of=/home/archive/disk.img If everything works, you will get an output similar to below:

4096000+0 records in
4096000+0 records out
2097152000 bytes (2.1 GB) copied, 371.632 seconds, 5.6 MB/s

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4096000+0 records in

4096000+0 records out

2097152000 bytes (2.1 GB) copied, 371.632 seconds, 5.6 MB/s

I was then looking to mount that backup raw image in order to check if everything was OK. You can do that by using the loop device in Linux. A loop device is a pseudo (“fake”) device (actually just a file) that acts as a block-based device1. My main OS is Windows and I did not have access to a Linux…

July 12, 2020 | by Dominique St-Amand | Leave a comment

Azure

Azure Active Directory login extensions and errors you can come across

I’ve been playing with the Azure Active Directory login extensions for both Linux and Windows in the past months and I’ve came across a few errors and problems I wanted to share with you. But before sharing the problems with you, lets see how you can install the extension Linux extension setup As there as multiple ways to enable the extension, you can follow the documentation here. If you are using ARM to deploy, use the following resource snippet

{
  "type": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/extensions",
  "apiVersion": "2019-12-01",
  "name": "[concat(variables('vmName'),'/', 'AADLoginForLinux')]",
  "location": "[parameters('location')]",
  "dependsOn": [
      "[resourceId('Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines',variables('vmName'))]"
  ],
  "properties": {
      "publisher": "Microsoft.Azure.ActiveDirectory.LinuxSSH",
      "type": "AADLoginForLinux",
      "typeHandlerVersion": "1.0",
      "autoUpgradeMinorVersion":true
  }
}

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{

"type": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/extensions",

"apiVersion": "2019-12-01",

"name": "[concat(variables('vmName'),'/', 'AADLoginForLinux')]",

"location": "[parameters('location')]",

"dependsOn": [

"[resourceId('Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines',variables('vmName'))]"

],

"properties": {

"publisher": "Microsoft.Azure.ActiveDirectory.LinuxSSH",

"type": "AADLoginForLinux",

"typeHandlerVersion": "1.0",

"autoUpgradeMinorVersion":true

}

Windows extension setup Similarly, like the linux extension, you can following the documentation here. If you are using ARM to deploy, use the following resource snippet

{
  "type": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/extensions",
  "apiVersion": "2019-12-01",
  "name": "[concat(variables('vmName'),'/', 'AADLoginForWindows')]",
  "location": "[parameters('location')]",
  "dependsOn": [
      "[resourceId('Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines',variables('vmName'))]"
  ],
  "properties": {
      "publisher": "Microsoft.Azure.ActiveDirectory",
      "type": "AADLoginForWindows",
      "typeHandlerVersion": "1.0",
      "autoUpgradeMinorVersion":true
  }
}

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{

"type": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/extensions",

"apiVersion": "2019-12-01",

"name": "[concat(variables('vmName'),'/', 'AADLoginForWindows')]",

"location": "[parameters('location')]",

"dependsOn": [

"[resourceId('Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines',variables('vmName'))]"

],

"properties": {

"publisher": "Microsoft.Azure.ActiveDirectory",

"type": "AADLoginForWindows",

"typeHandlerVersion": "1.0",

"autoUpgradeMinorVersion":true

}

Errors and problems Along with the problems/troubleshooting that appears in the documentation, here…

July 2, 2020 | by Dominique St-Amand | 2 Comments

Azure

Migrating your applications to Azure using Virtual Machine Scale Sets, Packer and Virtual Machine extensions – Part 1

So you are ready to move your application to Azure but it is not fully optimized for the cloud. You looked into App Services (web apps), but to be able to really get the best of them, it would need some definitive improvements in the code. You go back to your team and management and propose them a lift and shift that would make everyone happy. You then plan your improvements in your timeline and estimates. How can you effectively lift and shift your application so that it can be highly available (within one region) and scalable? In this series of posts, I will show you how you can package your application in an image and have it ready for…

February 16, 2020 | by Dominique St-Amand | 3 Comments

linux

CosmosDB linux container for your CI builds

Azure AD Linux Login Extension – sudo fails with PAM account management error: System error

Accessing raw dd images in a Docker Linux container

Migrating your applications to Azure using Virtual Machine Scale Sets, Packer and Virtual Machine extensions – Part 1

About me

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linux

CosmosDB linux container for your CI builds

Azure AD Linux Login Extension – sudo fails with PAM account management error: System error

Accessing raw dd images in a Docker Linux container

Azure Active Directory login extensions and errors you can come across

Migrating your applications to Azure using Virtual Machine Scale Sets, Packer and Virtual Machine extensions – Part 1

About me

Follow

Categories

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