6 RFCs for Understanding How the Internet Works

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July 6, 2018

Reading the source is an important part of open source software. It means users have the ability to look at the code and see what it does.

But “read the source” doesn’t apply only to code. Understanding the standards the code implements can be just as important. These standards are codified in documents called “Requests for Comments” (RFCs) published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Thousands of RFCs have been published over the years, so we collected a few that our contributors consider must-reads.

6 must-read RFCs

RFC 2119—Key words for use in RFCs to indicate requirement levels

This is a quick read, but it’s important to understanding other RFCs. RFC 2119 defines the requirement levels used in subsequent RFCs. What does “MAY” really mean? If the standard says “SHOULD,” do you really have to do it? By giving the requirements a well-defined taxonomy, RFC 2119 helps avoid ambiguity.

Free Open Source Guides Offer Practical Advice for Building Leadership

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Sam Dean

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July 6, 2018

How important is leadership for evolving open source projects and communities? According to the most recent Open Source Guide for the Enterprise from The Linux Foundation and the TODO Group, building leadership in the community is key to establishing trust, enabling collaboration, and fostering the cultural understanding required to be effective in open source.

The new Building Leadership in an Open Source Community guide provides practical advice that can help organizations build leadership and influence within open source projects.

“Contributing code is just one aspect of creating a successful open source project,” says this Linux Foundation article introducing the latest guide. “The open source culture is fundamentally collaborative, and active involvement in shaping a project’s direction is equally important. The path toward leadership is not always straightforward, however, so the latest Open Source Guide for the Enterprise from The TODO Group provides practical advice for building leadership in open source projects and communities.”

Join Forces Against Natural Disasters with the Call for Code

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The Linux Foundation

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July 6, 2018

The Call for Code initiative aims to harness the collective power of the global open source developer community against the growing threat of natural disasters. According to IBM, “the goal is to develop technology solutions that significantly improve disaster preparedness, provide relief from devastation caused by fires, floods, hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes, and benefit Call for Code’s charitable partners — the United Nations Human Rights Office and the American Red Cross.”

In a recent webcast — How 22M Developers Take on Disaster Preparedness — Mary Glackin, SVP of Science & Forecast at The Weather Company and IBM Business, spoke with representatives from participating organizations about the initiative and some of the specific goals it aims to achieve.

The Call for Code is “encouraging the global community of developers to stand up for the rights of others,” said Laurent Sauveur, Chief of External Relations, UN Human Rights.

We invite you to amplify the initiative and join the call. You can learn more about the Call for Code and watch the complete webcast here: http://ibm.biz/BdYxHZ.

How to Build NGINX from Source on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

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Falko Timme

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July 6, 2018

In this tutorial, we will build NGINX with all available modules in open source version of NGINX and we will use mainline version which is at 1.15.0 at the time of this writing.

NGINX (pronounced “engine x”) is an open source web server software designed with high concurrency in mind, that can be used as HTTP/HTTPS server, reverse proxy server, mail proxy server, software load balancer, TLS terminator, caching server…

It is an extremely modular piece of software. Even some of the seemingly “built-in” pieces of the software, such as GZIP or SSL, are actually built as modules that can be enabled and disabled during the build time. It has core (native) modules and third-party (external) modules created by the community. Right now, there are over a hundred third-party modules that we can utilize.

Written in C language, it’s very fast and lightweight piece of software. Installing NGINX from source code is relatively “easy” – download latest version of NGINX source code, configure, build and install it. You’ll need to choose whether to download the mainline or stable version, but building them is exactly the same.

How the Kubernetes Release Process is Different From Other Open Source Projects

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ServerWatch

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July 6, 2018

The Kubernetes 1.11 release became generally available on June 27, providing users of the container orchestration with multiple new features and continued performance improvements.

While Kubernetes releases were originally all led by Google staffers, that has changed in the last two years, with a rigous release management Special Interest Group (SIG) that has mandated that there be a new leader for each release. For the 1.11 release, the role of release lead was held by Red Hat’s Josh Berkus, who is well known in the open-source community for his work helping to lead PostgreSQL database releases.

“What’s similar is the role of the release lead: marshaling all of the independent teams and contributors required to put out a release, including developers of each feature, documentation, release notes, PR, builds, and bug fixing,” Berkus said. “Being a release lead is like playing pinball with 8 balls, and you’re the flipper; it’s not your job to actually fix anything, it’s your job to keep everything in motion and progressing. There’s a lot of nagging involved.”

The Field Guide to Aiding in Natural Disasters and Deploying Life-Saving Code

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Mobile Business Insights

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July 6, 2018

As an open-source and mobile developer, I’ve had the opportunity to work on some unique projects in places where both man-made and natural disasters have severely affected people and communities. During my time in Haiti working with organizations helping those impacted by the devastating 2010 earthquake, for example, I learned how to take on challenges to assist those in need and simultaneously cope with more adversity than the average development project would require.

After the earthquake and through my experiences with other projects, I learned a lot about the deployment of mobile capabilities and devices after a natural disaster. Here are some important considerations, particularly for developers who might be considering creating solutions for the Call for Code.

New Training Options Address Demand for Blockchain Skills

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Sam Dean

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July 5, 2018

Blockchain technology is transforming industries and bringing new levels of trust to contracts, payment processing, asset protection, and supply chain management. Blockchain-related jobs are the second-fastest growing in today’s labor market, according to TechCrunch. But, as in the rapidly expanding field of artificial intelligence, there is a pronounced blockchain skills gap and a need for expert training resources.

Blockchain for Business

A new training option was recently announced from The Linux Foundation. Enrollment is now open for a free training course called Blockchain: Understanding Its Uses and Implications, as well as a Blockchain for Business professional certificate program. Delivered through the edX training platform, the new course and program provide a way to learn about the impact of blockchain technologies and a means to demonstrate that knowledge. Certification, in particular, can make a difference for anyone looking to work in the blockchain arena.

“In the span of only a year or two, blockchain has gone from something seen only as related to cryptocurrencies to a necessity for businesses across a wide variety of industries,” said Linux Foundation General Manager, Training & Certification Clyde Seepersad. “Providing a free introductory course designed not only for technical staff but business professionals will help improve understanding of this important technology, while offering a certificate program through edX will enable professionals from all over the world to clearly demonstrate their expertise.”

TechCrunch also reports that venture capital is rapidly flowing toward blockchain-focused startups. And, this new program is designed for business professionals who need to understand the potential – or threat – of blockchain to their company and industry.

“Professional Certificate programs on edX deliver career-relevant education in a flexible, affordable way, by focusing on the critical skills industry leaders and successful professionals are seeking today,” said Anant Agarwal, edX CEO and MIT Professor.

Hyperledger Fabric

The Linux Foundation is steward to many valuable blockchain resources and includes some notable community members. In fact, a recent New York Times article — “The People Leading the Blockchain Revolution” — named Brian Behlendorf, Executive Director of The Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Project, one of the top influential voices in the blockchain world.

Hyperledger offers proven paths for gaining credibility and skills in the blockchain space. For example, the project offers a free course titled Introduction to Hyperledger Fabric for Developers. Fabric has emerged as a key open source toolset in the blockchain world. Through the Hyperledger project, you can also take the B9-lab Certified Hyperledger Fabric Developer course. More information on both courses is available here.

“As you can imagine, someone needs to do the actual coding when companies move to experiment and replace their legacy systems with blockchain implementations,” states the Hyperledger website. “With training, you could gain serious first-mover advantage.”

Why You’re Choosing a Multi-Platform Approach, According to Our Research

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Cloud Foundry

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July 5, 2018

Developers and operators are using a combination of PaaS, containers, and serverless to build new cloud-native applications as well as refactor existing applications. They are also focused on integrating these new technologies with existing environments, while also looking for flexibility to adapt to new technologies. The Cloud Foundry community, in particular, continues to work hard to pull in new technologies — like Kubernetes, Istio, Envoy, and many others — to ensure the Cloud Foundry platform continues to evolve to meet the needs of our growing user base.

The crossover among these technologies is fascinating. While 77 percent of respondents report using a PaaS alone, a full 64 percent report using a combination of PaaS and containers while 43 percent report using a combination of PaaS and serverless. You can see how IT decision makers have adopted a “choose your own adventure” approach as they make use of a wide array of cloud-native technologies.

Containers Break the Shared Responsibility Model Between Cloud Providers and Ops

By

The New Stack

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July 5, 2018

Last month, a critical vulnerability in the basic Linux network infrastructure was discovered by Felix Wilhelm from Google’s Security Team and disclosed by Red Hat product security.

The attack exploits a problem in the processing of Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) messages, which is the way machines automatically set up their network connectivity. A command injection vulnerability was found in a script included in the DHCP client (dhclient) packages, allowing an attacker to pose as a legitimate DHCP server, sending specially crafted packets containing malicious commands that a DHCP client may unsuspectingly execute. This vulnerability affects Red Hat commercial Enterprise Linux 6 and 7 and the various Linux derivative distros such as Fedora & CentOS.

Taking this vulnerability as an example, we can see how a traditional “shared responsibility” model of security between cloud providers and their customers becomes less effective for containerized workloads. As network plugins have become the standard way of providing networking between containers, cloud providers have not stepped up their own responsibility for securing containers, leaving security and operations teams struggling when patching becomes insufficient to secure their containerized applications.

A First Look at the Helm 3 Plan

By

SweetCode

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July 5, 2018

Since the release of Helm 2 in 2016, Kubernetes has seen explosive growth and major feature additions. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) was added. Many new resource types have been introduced. Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) were invented. And most importantly, a set of best practices emerged. Throughout all of these changes, Helm continued to serve the needs of Kubernetes users. But it became evident to us that now was the time to introduce some major changes so that Helm can continue to meet the needs of this evolving ecosystem.

This brings us to Helm 3. In what follows, I’ll preview some of the new things on the roadmap. …

Work on Objects, not YAML Chunks

We repeatedly hear our users asking for the ability to inspect and modify Kubernetes resources as objects, not as strings. But they are equally adamant that however we would choose to provide this, it must be easy to learn and well supported in the ecosystem.

After months of investigating, we decided to provide an embedded scripting language that could be sandboxed and customized. In the top 20 languages, there is only one candidate that fits that bill: Lua.