Vagrant | Tools to Automate Infrastructure Configuration and Management

In the earlier era of DevOps, numerous open source and business tools have developed to maintain infrastructure automation and configuration management. The most popular open source tools to automate infrastructure configuration are – Chef, Puppet, Docker, Ansible, Bcfg2, CFEngine, and Vagrant.

They can be utilised in the cloud, virtual and physical environments. In this Blog, I’ll direct you on one of the most renowned tools for infrastructure automation – Vagrant – once after we analyse the benefits of automation infrastructure.

Infrastructure automation delivers coordination to both development and operations because any sanctioned team member can change the scripts while implementing good development usages, such as automated testing and versioning to the infrastructure.

Now let’s see how to automate infrastructure configuration and management

There remains some upfront activity, but the primary thing to learn is to take it one-by-one in the automation process. Many corporations now wish to automate everything at the beginning itself. They’ll get Puppet, or Chef, or Vagrant and try to automate over the board.

Unluckily, that’s not a remarkably practical implementation approach. Systems are too complex to automate everything all at the same time. To accurately execute infrastructure automation, organizations must begin little by little.

Determining a starting point can be tricky. Mostly, automating users just on the web server is considered. While it’s a tiny portion of the system, that is a useless point to start with. Automating users just on the web server implies you’re affecting users in other parts of your system separately. This adds complexity to your system, rather than making an order to it.

What you need is something that is general among 90% of your nodes, for instance, an SSH key. That’s how you should automate first. Something that is ordinary, uncomplicated, and connects most of the infrastructure should be considered.

Then, take something that affects 80% of your nodes, like that you have to finish the whole infrastructure. If you prepare these big-ticket items first, you will notice that you have automated most of your foundation system rather promptly, and obtaining other adjustments are simple then. When you need to execute a new web server, for instance, you’ve already got the base. Thus it becomes a great commencement.

Vagrant

Vagrant is a tool to work with virtual environments, and in most situations, this means working with virtual machines. Vagrant presents an uncomplicated and effortless terminal for maintaining these environments, and an interpreter for the text-based definitions of what every environment seems like, termed as VAGRANT FILES. Vagrant is open source, which implies, anyone can download it, change it, and deal with it freely.

The open-source software Vagrant is used for creating and controlling manageable virtual software developing environments like VirtualBox, Hyper-V, Docker containers, VMware, and AWS. It works to simplify software configuration management of virtualisations in order to improve development productivity. Vagrant is written in the Ruby language, but its ecosystem carries development in a few other languages.

While several virtual machine hypervisors produce their own command-line interface, and technically the provisioning of virtual machines within these programs can be arranged straight or through shell scripts; the benefit Vagrant gives by combining an additional layer is simplicity and inter-operability over many systems, and a more compatible way which could probably be used with any virtual environment operating on top of any other system.

By presenting a common text-based format to operate with virtual machines, your environment can be explained in code, securing it in easy to back-up, modify, share, and manage with update control. Consequently, it means that rather than sharing a whole virtual machine image, which could be numerous gigabytes, a simple text file measuring at just a few kilobytes can be shared alternatively.

Importance of Vagrant

Vagrant gives a rather uncomplicated function automation software, it may be beneficial to an extensive range of people serving on different kinds of responsibilities. The automation software makes it easy for developers to build a local environment which imitates the environment upon which your code will ultimately be deployed.

You can make sure you have the same libraries and dependencies fixed, equal processes installed, very same operating system and version, and many other details without having to lose the way your local machine is set up, and without the delay or expense of devising an external development environment and joining to it.

Vagrant Architecture

Vagrant applies “Provisioners” and “Providers” as building blocks to maintain the development environments. Provisioners are tools that enable users to customize the configuration of virtual environments. Puppet and Chef are the two most extensively adopted provisioners in the Vagrant ecosystem (Ansible has been used from 2014).

Providers are the services that Vagrant handles to set up and build virtual environments. Assistance for VirtualBox, Hyper-V, and Docker virtualization ships with Vagrant, while VMware and AWS are backed via Plugins.

Vagrant lies on top of virtualization software as an envelope and benefits the developer communicate efficiently with the providers. It automates the configuration of virtual environments utilising Chef or Puppet, and the user does not have to apply any other virtualization software directly.

Machine and software specifications are written in a file named “Vagrant file” (as mentioned earlier) to perform essential steps in order to form a development-ready box.

Vagrant Boxes

A ‘Box’ is a format for Vagrant environment that is replicated to another machine in order to copy the same environment. Vagrant Boxes are pre-packaged development environments that are the basis of Vagrant. Mostly, this is just a displaced and exposed operating system such as Ubuntu, Debian, or CentOS. Boxes survive with the purpose to be provisioned with additional features like Apache and PHP with tools like Chef or Puppet.

Vagrant and VMware

In a lot of ways, Vagrant is an excellent idea to use VMs (virtual machines). Terminal wizards infrequently require a GUI (Graphical User Interface) to get something achieved and most of the times you really only want a simple sandbox to prototype something. Vagrant fulfils this exquisitely by wrapping configuration details in a Vagrantfile and a box file which has the complete VM image.

Benefits of Infrastructure Automation

Infrastructure automation is a title that gets launched throughout now due to its benefits in large and small organisations. While it is promoted as a lasting resolution for everything from distributed parallel computers to inconsistent application deployments.

Most of the Clouds in the world are not operating to support if you still have to manually perform every process in an infrastructure. So, to move quickly, you have to shrink the amount of time it demands to provision and configure fresh infrastructure.

Automation opens the door for developers to rapidly provision new settings. Another reason you should acknowledge using infrastructure automation is to reduce or dismiss variability in new infrastructure. Assume that you ultimately have your new server, but it’s not to the identical spec as the remaining servers.

Moreover, it might not have the tools you require on it. Infrastructure automation reduces those kinds of errors. Servers are configured in a similar way all the time. If someone does modify something, the automation will put it back where it fits.

Besides progressing velocity and lowering variability, infrastructure automation is the solution to do extra with fewer. Automation can meaningfully limit the management expenses required to manage complicated settings.

As an alternative to staffing up to remediate a security vulnerability, you can just write the necessary code and then perform it. Now your small team can accomplish many thousands of nodes with no more work than managing a hundred.

If you are wondering how you would speed up your server then look nowhere else but Apachebooster. It is a cPanel plugin that is extensively used for the same purpose since it combines the power of both Nginx and Varnish. Install it now and get the benefits right away!

Why is my DNS server not responding? How to fix it?

Once in a while it is expected to get errors like “DNS Server not Responding” when we surf or working using the internet. Internet connection failure happens due to many reasons. Among the various issues one major failure is the 'Domain Name System not responding'. A DNS server is a computer that serves which comprises a database of public IP addresses and their related host names. Mostly DNS serves to resolve or interpret those common names to IP addresses as demanded.

Devises may fail to join the internet if these conditions exist. DNS server errors may appear due to many reasons, for example, a defective internet provider, inaccurate TCP/IP or DHCP services, proactive antivirus software, imperfect router or modem. One by one, network troubleshooting can be used to check and correct the obstacle. Let's start with the simpler ones.

Disable extra unused connections and try with one

It is an established fact that you can use one best network connection if you enable only a frequently used network.

Use Any Other Device with the Same Network

You must recognize the error by checking the network. Connect it to any other system to check your network. When the internet is connected, obtain the same website to check if it is available or not. If it is connected, it indicates that your first system is generating the error.

Solving TCP/IP and DHCP Failures

There is a chance for malfunctioning TCP/IP software inside the operating system of client's device and set its DNS server addresses incorrectly. Rebooting computer often clarifies these momentary flaws. Another method is operating TCP/IP efficiency programs that deliver the standard procedure to "release and renew" the Windows IP address settings.

Thus, a majority of TCP/IP networks use the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) service to allow IP addresses to clients. DHCP assigns primary and secondary DNS server addresses also. If DHCP is not functioning properly, a PC reboot is reasonably wanted to improve it.

Monitor to secure both your machine and the network router have DHCP qualified. If each end of the connection is not utilizing DHCP, internet connection errors result normally.

Managing DNS Provider problems

We usually configure our home networks to obtain DNS server addresses from their internet provider automatically. When the provider's servers or network experience an interruption or are massively burdened with traffic, their DNS services can abruptly stop working. Customers must remain until the provider settles those problems before they can use the provider's DNS.

Several free public DNS servers have been established on the internet by Google and OpenDNS. A router manager has an option to switch their network's DNS setup over from a private to a public DNS configuration if they access manually to the public DNS IP addresses into the router configuration settings.

In critical conditions, administrators can choose this tentatively or they can make it a permanent change. Through Network and Sharing Center DNS frames can also be used on the Windows device itself. Normally this will not work as a stable solution as devices get and delete their local settings with these from the router via DHCP. 

Avoiding Internet Blockages from Antivirus Programs

Antiviruses are meant to block trespassing invaders, but they themselves have the capability to hinder internet flow once they detect any misbehaving device.

Maximum antiviruses operate using specific database files that the software merchants automatically update on a regular base. Computer users usually forget when these install updates occur as they are triggered in the setting and devised not to interrupt standard work.

Sometimes data updates cause confusion making the antivirus program to consider it as malware which is going to affect the computer. It makes a false alarm or false positive test. This, in turn, makes the windows to show a DNS server not responding error message.

To check whether or not it is a virus, pause the programme temporarily and restart the Windows Network Diagnostics. After confirming the issue you can ask the antivirus merchants a new update or you can seek a technical support. Never take antivirus disabling as a permanent solution as it is not safe.

Recover or Replace a Malfunctioning Router or Modem

A bad broadband router or modem may become a reason to show the DNS not responding error messages. Mostly restarting the router or modem will correct the issue. If the problem is persisting then it is advisable to renew.

It is very unlikely for both to fail that would cause DNS errors. Failed routers and modems usually cannot power or else cause errors related to the underlying network connection.

Now, try to access the website you previously was checking and see if it works. With the above solutions, the DNS server not responding error should be fixed. If you have any further obstacles, comment below and we will discuss it.

Try the 40 day plan pack of Apachebooster and Optimize Apache for high traffic

Apachebooster, The best cPanel plugin to optimize Apache for high traffic is offering a new 40 day plan pack. Chances may not knock twice, give it a try. Meanwhile we shall brief you the characteristic features of Apachebooster.



Advanced Caching mechanism:
Apache booster consists of both Nginx and Varnish which yields static and dynamic caching features. From practical experiences, the more cached resources on our servers the faster the website will be. The number of cached resources are directly proportional to the reduction in bandwidth consumption and in server load. This mechanism can distinguish and redirect misguiding HTTP header directive.


Gzip compression:
Apachebooster supports Gzip compression for static files and this promotes the quick and clear transfer of data. The gzip format is used in HTTP compression, a procedure used to speed up the sending of HTML and other content on the World Wide Web.


Resource Minification and Image Optimization:
Minification refers to the process of removing unnecessary or redundant data without affecting how the resource is processed by the browser.
Apachebooster minifies JSS, CSS, etc. Images take most of the downloaded bytes on a web page and also often hold a significant amount of visual space. As a result, optimizing images can often return some of the largest byte savings and improve website speed.


Minimize Redirects and Reduce HTTP Requests:
Apachebooster installed in Cpanel to improve your apache software can give results like minimising redirects and reducing HTTP requests which are crucial for website loading issue. Minification refers to the process of removing unnecessary or redundant data without affecting how the resource is processed by the browser, for example, code comments and formatting, removing unused code, using shorter variable and function names, and so on. JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) resources may be minified, preserving their behaviour while considerably reducing their file size.


There are many ways to reduce the number of HTTP requests like combining CSS, JS, image files etc. More the requests are made then the website will be slower. When a user's web page loads in a browser, the browser transmits an HTTP request to the web server for the page in the URL. Then, as the HTML is delivered, the browser analyse it and watches for further requests for images, scripts, CSS, Flash, etc.
Redirects add to the number of HTTP requests. The reason for this is that redirects cause roundtrips to the server(s) just like any other request. So avoiding redirects should also be a major consideration to improve website speed.

Altogether Apachebooster adds to the improvement of website speed and reprimands load balancing issue through processes like server troubleshooting, caching, compressing, etc.

How to Troubleshoot Slow Windows Server Performance?

Windows Server is one of the efficient and most widely used operating systems developed by Microsoft. Certainly, there are some tips to keep your server humming in the windows infrastructure.

The primary phase of resolving a problem has to be monitoring in detail. A commonly used way for monitoring is to use the great tool “Windows perfmon” effectively but should not be used in Windows 2008 R2 as there is a lack of possibility of saving your settings. Try to achieve a single goal comprehended with all the possible counters needed, with a suitable duration in combination with the suitable configuration of sample values, thus equipped to use on multiple servers. Also, focus on resolving the startup issues and utilize performance advisors. Automation of some tasks which has to be performed regularly accelerates the windows server performance to a great extent. This includes:   

 Efficient DNS management

A well-managed Domain Name Systems always possess an efficient performance. Rather than manually working with zone files or the DNS interface, make use of the cluster of tools available to automate most of the processes dealing with DNS.

Cleaning up Active directoryActive directory gets summed up with non-existent machine references, expired users and full of other junks which never gets cleaned up. Keep the AD tidy by cleaning it up the AD at regular intervals utilizing a number of tools which automate the work.

Automating disk defragmentation

The server gets overloaded with time as a plethora of applications are installed. The System Administrators have to run Disk Defragmenter on a regular basis with the aid of Windows Task Scheduler. Routine defragmentation ensures sequential storage of data blocks in preference to random locations, upgrading overall file-reading efficiently.

Adjust server response

Adjust the server to optimum in order to prioritize the applications running in the background since server applications are not executed from the server console.

Administering an exclusive drive for pagefiles.

As pagefiles are used frequently by Windows, it is highly suggested to place it on a dedicated drive. This assures that your server has a primary access to pagefile data.

Employ New Technology File System (NTFS) being the most secure file system.

Transaction-based (possess security and speed improvement)
Avoid Running 16-bit apps

Running 16-bit apps reduce Windows server performance as independent multitasking models are used for 16, 32, and 64-bit applications.

Set up your Power Plan

Optimize the power plan for Windows Server to attain maximum power efficiency based on the role of the server along with application requirements. It actively increases or reduces the CPU performance while workload changes thereby matching computational capacity to computational demand.

Solving the named pipes puzzle

Invisible pipes are used for communicating with other servers. Interact well with them for transparency of procedures.

Explorer folder options

Some common configurations used for a better performance are mentioned below:

Uncheck “Hide protected operating system files”

Uncheck “Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items”

Uncheck “Show preview handlers in preview pane”

Uncheck “Use sharing wizard”

Uncheck “Display file size information in folder tips”

Check “Show hidden files”

Uncheck “Hide empty drives”

Uncheck “Hide extensions for known file types”

Check “Always show menus"

Disable IE Enhanced Security Configuration, at least for administrators, for a better performance.

"Internet options mentioned below are recommended for better server performance.

Launch IE, and configure first-time run options

Set Home Page (set to blank or other)

• Uncheck “Advanced – Enable page transitions”
• Uncheck “Advanced – Reuse windows for launching shortcuts”
• Uncheck “Advanced – Show friendly HTTP error messages”

Hard Disk Compression

Despite the introduction of Cloud, hard disk compression enhances server performance by reducing the time taken to read files from the hard disk. It generally becomes applicable when running a disk-based app which depends on a large number of individual files.

• Disable the Shutdown Event Tracker which is certainly not much necessary for the expected level of performance.
• Turn On SuperFetch which makes the OS more responsive only after making the necessary registry changes.
• Uninstall the Rarely-accessed Utilities and Disable the Rarely-used Services
• This, besides increasing the server performance, enhances security for your systems runs on a reduced number of services. The overall vulnerability of the server is thus reduced.
• Using Microsoft's File Server Migration Toolkit, Windows server tuning template also helps to achieve the desired performance.

All the above-mentioned practices collectively equip you to troubleshoot slow windows server performance.

Why Performance Boosters are inevitable in Apache!!!

Apache is a free and open source cross-platform web server software which is widely used. For delivery of static pages, an Apache series was rated significantly slower than Nginx and Varnish. To approach this issue, the Apache developers designed an event, which mixes the use of several processes and several threads per process in an asynchronous event-based loop. This architecture accommodates better performances. Nginx and Varnish can be used as plugins in Apache, meanwhile, there are cPanel based combination plugins created to enhance performance.

Nginx: It also has features like caching, security and load balancing. Caching done by Nginix is mostly static. Load balancing keeps check of the network traffic.

Varnish: The uniqueness of Varnish is the dynamic caching. The process of caching can be done to reduce data access time. It also helps with the recovery of input/output which in turn enhances application performances. Dynamic page caching helps in caching of HTML pages considering the cookies, request headers etc. How and when to cache the responses are decided upon by making use of a mix of factors from an HTTP request. Varnish supports load balancing and caches feature Gzip compression and decompression, HTTP Streaming Pass and Fetch, etc.

Now let's have a look on to few performance boosters which make use of features of Nginx and Varnish.

Apachebooster is a cPanel plugin built to improve the total execution of a server by raising the performance of Apache Software. Compounded with Nginx and Varnish Apachebooster doubles the working volume and capacity of Apache Software which in turn helps the servers to become faster in their processing. Compared to other plugins in the industry ApacheBooster has the advantage of Nginx and Varnish together. Apache software has many valuable properties, which may require manual aiding, usually done by an expert. Apachebooster can work for it out of the box.

In short, When a user reaches the site over HTTPS protocol, Nginx sends the request to Varnish and if Varnish already has the content in its cache it immediately responds with that content. Else, Varnish requests the content from Apache (if necessary), caches it and then assigns the content to Nginx. Nginx encrypts the content and transfers it to the user. Just like the caching, image optimization, minification of JS and CSS are also done by Apachebooster. Last but not the least feature is the SSL technology for security. It is the most trusted and safe technology implemented in HTTP.

Apachebooster requires a simple installation procedure only. The number of advantages of Apachebooster is inversely proportional to the cost you give. Because it's worth buying and you get an unexpected number of advantages.

Engintron is Nginx on cPanel. Nginx functions as a web traffic proxy, directly serving all static contents like CSS, JS, images by default instead of Apache. This drops appreciably the CPU/RAM resources used by Apache, leaving your server with more space with room for more websites to host. Engintron will raise the performance and web serving capacity of the server while decreasing CPU/RAM load at the same time. It does that by installing and configuring the conventional Nginx web server to operate as a reverse caching proxy for static files (like CSS, JS, images, etc).

cPnginx is again an Nginx highlighted plugin. Nginx doesn’t rely on threads to manage requests. Rather it uses a much more scalable event-driven (asynchronous) architecture. This architecture uses small, but more importantly, expected amounts of memory under load. Likewise, if you don't demand to handle thousands of synchronous requests, you can still avail from Nginx's high-performance and small memory footprint.

There are so many plugins available nowadays, X-Varnish, Nginx Admin (NginxCP) are few other similar plugins. Website performance optimization is perpetually something that should be the top priority, especially when there is so much competition. The web is growing at an active pace, and this year we have seen some severe changes to web performance, such as the release of HTTP/2 and on-page assets extending to gain in size. Some studies show that in two years global Internet traffic will be equivalent to 66 times the volume of the whole global Internet 10 years before. So choose your performance boosters wisely!

Apachebooster - Wordpress Benchmark ( Found 65% Performance improvement and 150% better access timing in 2core 2GB VPS)

I HATE SLOW BLOGS - ANY WORK AROUND TO MAKE IT FASTER?

Today Blogs are an important medium for knowledge transfer and to a greater extend as a medium that gives freedom for expression. So for the readers they are expecting your post to be loaded faster and then to comment their view as well. If you are affected loading wordpress blog, we recommends to use our plugin Apachebooster.

Apachebooster is a cpanel featured plugin.  Apachebooster enhance  cpanel based server performance. Apachebooster using effective caching technique which takes away the load from the web server and deliver improved performance in high traffic servers. For our detailed performance improvement report we have conducted in a default wordpress installation,  Read More

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