Author Archives: (zaphinath)
What are Java Beans
What Are Java Beans? ☕ If you’ve ever wondered what Java Beans are, you might be forgiven for picturing a steaming cup of coffee with a sprinkle of syntax sugar. But no — we’re not talking about your morning brew (though the name does make you crave one). JavaBeans are reusable software components in Java. […]
Using AI to Automate Helm Chart values.yaml Merges
Managing Helm charts at scale can become tricky. Each new application or chart release often comes with an updated values.yaml file containing new configuration properties. Rather than copying files or manually re-applying overrides, we use LLMs to merge new defaults and generate reviewer-friendly PRs. Workflow with GitHub Actions Here’s the GitHub Actions workflow that runs […]
Enforcing AWS ElastiCache (Valkey) Best Practices with Kyverno + Crossplane + GitOps
Use Kyverno in audit and enforce modes to standardize AWS ElastiCache (Valkey) ReplicationGroups defined by Crossplane. Includes example ClusterPolicy, annotations, and tips for Policy Reporter.
How to Manage AWS Valkey Clusters with Crossplane and GitOps
How to Manage AWS Valkey Clusters with Crossplane and GitOps Managing AWS Valkey clusters (the open Redis fork) can be done declaratively with Crossplane, bringing the benefits of GitOps to DBAs and platform engineers. This guide walks through importing an existing Valkey cluster into Crossplane, configuring it with Kustomize, and deploying with Argo CD. Step […]
Karpenter vs ECK Elasticsearch
Fixing ECK Elasticsearch Cluster Issues with Karpenter and PodDisruptionBudgets Recently, we ran into an issue with our Kubernetes cluster where Karpenter was updating AMIs. While this normally helps keep nodes up-to-date, in our case it was replacing nodes faster than Elasticsearch could recover. The result was a large Elasticsearch cluster that ended up in a […]
Solar Panels For EV Cars
Solar Car Dream When I was a kid, I often dreamed of having a car that was fully electric and could run on solar power in real time. Imagine never needing to stop to recharge—just endless travel powered by the sun. A vehicle like this would allow you to roam the world without ever worrying […]
ECK – Unify Kibana and Elasticsearch Versions
Managing Elasticsearch and Kibana Versions with ECK, ArgoCD, and Kustomize We use the ECK operator to manage our Elasticsearch clusters. It does a great job and integrates well with our GitOps workflow. All of our deployments run through ArgoCD, and we use Kustomize to tie the pieces together. This works smoothly in most cases, but […]
AI Longhorn Destruction + Solution
Longhorn PVC Mounting Issue and Backup Setup Recently I ran into a persistent error with Longhorn while trying to attach a PVC. The error kept repeating and initially, I thought I needed the v2 engine—but it turns out the real culprit was multipath being created. The Longhorn KB article on troubleshooting multipath explained exactly how […]
Enabling Windows nodes inside an EKS cluster on AWS.
Description We recently went about adding windows nodes for some legacy dotnet stacks at Ancestry. As part of this we followed the AWS documentation to enable windows. We also use Karpenter to handle the scheduling and decided to make a new provisioner for just windows. After following the docs a new windows node came up […]
Birth of a Liberal
Abstract I just want to begin by expressing my gratitude for this country where I live, The United States of America. It really is a land of immense freedom and opportunity. I love the constitution and feel that it really is an inspired document. I consider myself somewhere in the middle of the political spectrum. […]