Month: August 2017

Following my recent ventures in the Kubernetes world (https://cloudinthealps.mandin.net/2017/08/23/kubernetes-the-hard-way-azcli-style/), I now had a functional Kubernetes cluster, on Azure, built with my own sweat and brain.

But that was not the original goal. The original goal was to try and play with Azure Container Instances, and its Kubernetes connector https://azure.microsoft.com/fr-fr/resources/videos/using-kubernetes-with-azure-container-instances/

Following the guide on GitHub was relatively straightforward and painless (https://github.com/Azure/aci-connector-k8s), but I encountered two small issues.
One was that I am not completely comfortable yet with all things K8s, and I had to read a bit about taints, to understand why the current ACI connector is not used by the K8s scheduler by default. Not a big deal, and a good way to get to know more about K8s.
The second one was maybe due to the fact that I had never used ACI before, maybe not. I logged it into the GitHub project as an issue (https://github.com/Azure/aci-connector-k8s/issues/33) to make sure that it is taken into consideration.
Short story was that I was missing a registered Provider in my subscription. However the error message did not pop up in kubectl output, but only on the Activity log in Azure portal. Another good occasion to learn an dig into some tools.

Finally a tech post!

I have been busy this week, on command lines and Kubernetes.

The starting point was the recent announce for Azure Container Instances and the related Kubernetes conenctor : https://github.com/azure/aci-connector-k8s

I admit I did try what Corey Sanders showed in his show : https://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Tuesdays-With-Corey/Tuesdays-with-Corey-Azure-Container-Instances-with-WINDOWS-containers. However what I found interesting and wanted to try was the ACI connecter to Kubernetes, and how we would work with that.

Of course we have a test Kubernetes cluster here, that someone from our tema built, but it felt too easy just to add the connector. Also I am not comfortable yet with Kubernetes and I wanted to get my hands dirty and know more about the inner workings of a k8s cluster.

I remembered a quote from the Geek Whisperers’ show featuring Kelsey Hightower. He said that he wrote a guide to build a K8s cluster from the ground up, without any shortcuts. The guide is found there : https://github.com/kelseyhightower/kubernetes-the-hard-way

The downside is that the guide is aimed at Google Cloud Platform, and I am an Azure guy.

And there was my pet project for this week : adapt the guide for Azure, using only Azure CLI commands!

There was one final trick for me to learn : store and share all that on GitHub. As I never had to work with Git by myself, it was also a good way to learn the moves.

So, lots of new stuff learnt :

• Create a K8s cluster from scratch
• GitHub, and Git
• Making progress on Azure CLI
• A good refresh and Azure infrastructure

The project is hosted there : https://github.com/frederimandin/Kubernetes-the-azcli-way

There are many following steps to work on :

• Integrating properly with Kelsey’s guide
• Testing my own guide again
• Adding ACI connector to my cluster and play with it (and write about it of course!)

I’ll keep you posted, of course!

We are almost halfway of the first quarter for Microsoft financial year, a month after the partner convention, which has been rebranded “Inspire”.

Now that I am not a newbie any more, I can step back a bit and see past the awe of the first event.

The setting this year was in Washington DC, which is great place for these kind of events. There are many hotels nearby, the city center is small enough to walk around, and there are many chic places for the evenings.

This is not a travel blog, so I will not go further into the tourism information.

This year we had decided, with our PSE, to have a lighter Microsoft agenda, and to be able to attend more sessions and impromptu meetings. I have to say that it was a wise choice. It allowed us to make new connections, to network quietly and to enjoy the Expo and the other partners. Note that I found it way easier to network this time, as our company was better known in the ecosystem, and we also had a better knowledge of the various people, names and acronyms used throughout Microsoft.

This year I was able to attend several sessions, with different format : roundtables, breakout, demo theater, workshop and of course keynotes. The content was really good, though it is definitely not a technical event.

The best way to have a technical discussion is to go to the Microsoft pods with a specific subject in mind and ask for an expert on that matter. Also these pods provide good help and advice on how to build or develop your business along the current track or toward a brand new scope (yes GDPR was a recurrent topic, I’ll write separately about that later on).

I have met many amazing partners and vendors, through the social events, or on their booths and we have started to build new relationships that will hopefully help develop all our business and knowledge.

Once again, it is an event where you have to be prepared, and be prepared to change your plans.

First you need to have an idea of your goal beforehand. Do you want to find new partners within the ecosystem? Would you rather gian some traction or visibility in that ecosystem, both from Microsoft and from the other partners? Are you open to new business opportunities? Are you here to listen to the keynote and get a feeling of what is coming for the near future?

Then, you need to build your agenda around that goal : sessions, meetings, events etc. But do remember to leave some room to be able to continue a discussion with an unexpected partner, or be ready to not attend a session live and see the recording, because something else popped up.

And mostly, have fun 🙂