Hello, I'm Michael 👋 on Michael Schnerring

Checking Out Code Committed Within the Same GitHub Actions Workflow Run

Sun, 02 Apr 2023 05:30:00 +0200

When using GitHub Actions, we often include steps that use Git to check out the code of the repository, make some changes to the code, and then commit these changes back to the repo. Additional steps subsequently act upon these changes within the same workflow run. For example, appending auto-generated release notes to a CHANGELOG.md file and committing it to the repo, to later bundle the changelog with release artifacts. Another example is using a workflow that periodically uses a linter to clean up the code base. Simple enough, right?

Use OBS and ffmpeg to Create Modern GIF-like Screencasts

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 22:30:46 +0200

In this post, I’ll share how I use OBS Studio and ffmpeg to create short MP4/WebM video snippets for my blog posts. Using the <video> tag with the autoplay and loop attributes makes them look like GIFs. However, modern video formats result in much smaller file sizes.

Use PowerShell to Request Quotes for Azure Reservations

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 04:14:21 +0200

Over the weekend, I was on a quest to find the cheapest available Azure Virtual Machine to house my Azure Kubernetes Service cluster. I previously wrote about optimizing storage cost with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), where I talk about the importance of selecting VMs that support ephemeral OS disks. But what VM type and region should I choose? Searching through reservation offers in the Azure Portal turned out to be tedious. This time, I’ll demonstrate how to find the best offers using PowerShell and export the results to a CSV file.

Automate Building Custom Windows Images For Azure Virtual Desktop With Packer And GitHub Actions

Sun, 27 Mar 2022 08:12:20 +0200

One aspect of managing Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) is keeping it up-to-date. One strategy is periodically building a “golden” image and re-deploying AVD session host VMs using the updated image. In this post, we’ll use Packer and GitHub Actions to build a Windows 11 image and push it to Azure.

Deploy Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) Using Terraform and Azure Active Directory Domain Services (AADDS)

Sun, 27 Feb 2022 21:32:52 +0100

With Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), you can deliver secure Windows 11 desktops and environments anywhere. It’s pretty easy to deploy and scale. You can provide a coherent user experience from any end-user device and reduce costs by leveraging Windows 11 multi-session licensing. This tutorial will guide you through setting up AVD with AADDS using Terraform.

Set Up Azure Active Directory Domain Services (AADDS) With Terraform

Sun, 20 Feb 2022 06:05:36 +0100

I wanted to revisit this topic for a while because the previous guide I wrote about setting up Azure Active Directory Domain Services (AADDS) with Terraform is outdated. However, the article still attracts around 100 visitors per month. People also keep downloading the deprecated Terraform module I created. Time to set things right!

Percent-encoding with the Hugo `urlquery` Function

Sun, 16 Jan 2022 21:33:17 +0100

I recently tried to percent-encode (or URL-encode) strings in Hugo. Percent-encoding is used to encode data in query strings of URLs because they must only contain ASCII characters. There is a Hugo built-in querify function to transform key-value pairs to query strings. But I required to URL-encode a single string value and not build a query string from key-value pairs.

Reduce Storage Costs when Deploying Azure Kubernetes Service Clusters with Terraform

Mon, 29 Nov 2021 03:50:04 +0100

I use the Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) to host a few services, like Synapse, Remark42, and Plausible Analytics. As of yet, none of these services require much computing power, so I chose a small VM size for the AKS node: Standard_B2ms. I recently analyzed my Azure costs and found out that I could have saved more than a hundred bucks in the past months if I had been more diligent.

Use Mullvad Port Forwarding to Connect to Your OPNsense Home Network with WireGuard

Sun, 28 Nov 2021 21:18:30 +0100

Update 2023-07-28

In May 2023, Mullvad announced the discontinuation of port forwarding support. Starting from 2023-07-01, all existing ports will be removed, making this guide obsolete. 😭

Configure NUT for OPNsense and TrueNAS with the CyberPower PR750ERT2U UPS

Sun, 28 Nov 2021 03:50:22 +0100

For storage in my homelab, I use TrueNAS. Additionally, I run a couple of apps on top of it as jails. For over a year, I’ve been using an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to protect my TrueNAS from possible data loss in case of a power failure. What I’ve been missing throughout that time are the monitoring and management tools to shut down everything gracefully when the battery of the UPS runs low. In the event of a power outage lasting longer than 30 minutes, the battery would run out of juice. Everything attached to the UPS would be powered off immediately, and data loss might occur. Luckily I live in an area where power outages rarely happen. I also have backups I could restore if my TrueNAS data gets corrupted. Still, doing this right and configuring Network UPS Tools (NUT) to orchestrate shutdowns has been on my to-do list for way too long. It’s time to tackle the issue!

OPNsense Baseline Guide with Mullvad VPN Multi-WAN, Guest, and VLAN Support

Wed, 17 Nov 2021 03:56:35 +0100

This beginner-friendly, step-by-step guide walks you through the initial configuration of your OPNsense firewall. The title of this guide is an homage to the pfSense baseline guide with VPN, Guest, and VLAN support that some of you guys might know, and this is an OPNsense migration of it. I found that guide two years ago and immediately fell in love with the network setup. After researching for weeks, I decided to use OPNsense instead of pfSense. I bit the bullet and bought the Deciso DEC630 appliance. Albeit expensive and possibly overkill for my needs, I’m happy to support the open-source mission of Deciso, the maintainers of OPNsense. The only thing I regret about the purchase is that I now can’t afford the sexier-looking successor model, the DEC690.

Install qBittorrent, Jackett, Lidarr, Radarr, Sonarr, and Plex inside TrueNAS Jails

Sun, 14 Nov 2021 20:41:04 +0100

This post documents the steps required to install qBittorrent, Jackett, Lidarr, Radarr, Sonarr, and Plex in TrueNAS jails version 12.0-U6.

Router on a Stick VLAN Configuration with SwOS on the Mikrotik CRS328-24P-4S+RM Switch

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 03:30:18 +0100

My homelab grew quite a bit over the past years. And with that, my networking needs also changed: stricter firewall rules, segregating untrusted IoT devices into separate networks, traffic prioritization, and more. I wanted to document my switch and VLAN configuration. And maybe this is useful for someone else, too.

Install the Ubiquiti Unifi Controller Software v6 Inside a TrueNAS Jail

Thu, 04 Nov 2021 23:15:27 +0100

To manage Ubiquiti UniFi devices, a UniFi controller is required. Over a year ago, I initially installed the controller software inside a Ubuntu VirtualBox VM. Now that version 6 of the UniFi controller software is released, it’s time to upgrade. I decided to reinstall the controller inside a TrueNAS jail instead of a VirtualBox VM. When searching the interwebs, I only found lots of outdated instructions. It turns out that it’s very straightforward, so here are my quick notes on how to do it.

Use Custom DNS Servers With Mullvad And Any WireGuard Client

Sun, 31 Oct 2021 08:19:52 +0100

I’ve been using Mullvad VPN for a while now but only ever used it with the official client on my workstation. I use DNS extensively in my home network, so as soon as I activate Mullvad, I can’t resolve DNS names locally. Of course, this is by design and expected. I own an OPNsense appliance, so the natural solution is to move the tunnel there.

TL;DR

Use the following shell command to request an IP with no DNS hijacking:

Use the Trezor Hardware Wallet Anonymously Inside a VirtualBox Whonix VM With External Wallets Like Adalite and Monero GUI

Fri, 22 Oct 2021 20:15:36 +0200

In the past, I used an old laptop running Qubes OS for any cryptocurrency-related stuff, and it worked great. It’s where I first learned about Whonix, a desktop operating system designed to protect your privacy online. Unfortunately, Qubes OS is a bit picky about the hardware it runs on. My old laptop only has four gigs of RAM, and I could barely run two instances of MyEtherWallet in two separate qubes without the system running out of memory.

Create a Modern CSS-only Fold-Out Burger Menu

Tue, 03 Aug 2021 03:30:10 +0200

For the last couple of months, I have been working on a custom Hugo theme in my free time. Most recently, I implemented a CSS-only burger fold-out menu to increase its responsiveness. I based the implementation on Erik Terwan’s nifty pure CSS Hamburger fold-out menu which is pretty popular on CodePen. I modernized it by utilizing SVG and newer CSS selectors to make the code more declarative and scalable. It comes with the price of not supporting as many browsers, but honestly, who cares about Internet Explorer users?

Use Sieve Filters to Auto-Sort Your ProtonMail Inbox into Subfolders

Wed, 16 Jun 2021 20:32:21 +0200

Sieve is a programming language used for email filtering. Today, I show you how I automatically sort my ProtonMail inbox into folders and subfolders using custom sieve filters. My setup uses the catch-all feature requiring at least a ProtonMail Professional subscription and a properly configured custom domain.

Set Up Azure Active Directory Domain Services (AADDS) with Terraform

Sat, 22 May 2021 16:23:36 +0200

Update 2022-02-20

This guide is outdated! Please click here to go to the new guide I wrote.

Deploy a Matrix Homeserver to Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) with Terraform

Fri, 14 May 2021 01:13:33 +0200

Did you ever think about running a Matrix homeserver? In this post, we will set one up on the Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). We will use the reference homeserver implementation, which is Synapse from the folks at matrix.org. This post focuses on the Kubernetes stuff, keeping Synapse configuration to a minimum. Things like federation, delegation and PostgreSQL are out of scope, because plenty of excellent guides and the official documentation exist covering that. The icing on the cake will be the Synapse Admin UI deployment with secure access to the administration endpoints to make management of our homeserver easier.

Use Terraform to Deploy the Remark42 Commenting System to Kubernetes and Integrate it with a Hugo Website

Sun, 09 May 2021 09:31:13 +0200

Building upon our previous work, we will deploy Remark42 on Kubernetes with Terraform and integrate it with your existing Hugo website. Make sure to check out my previous posts about creating a Hugo Website and deploying an Azure Kubernetes Service cluster if you haven’t already.

Use Terraform to Deploy an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Cluster, Traefik 2, cert-manager, and Let's Encrypt Certificates

Sun, 25 Apr 2021 01:00:27 +0200

In this post, we will deploy a simple Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster from scratch. To expose our web services securely, we will install Traefik 2 and configure cert-manager to manage Let’s Encrypt certificates. The best part about it: we will do everything with Terraform.

Create a Hugo Website with GitHub Pages, GitHub Actions, and Cloudflare

Fri, 19 Mar 2021 21:14:22 +0100

In this beginner guide, you’ll create a Hugo website from scratch and publish the website on GitHub Pages. You’ll configure Cloudflare’s DNS and utilize its caching capabilities to optimize page speeds. Finally, implementing automated deployments with GitHub Pages will enable you to publish new content on your site easily.

Hello World

Sun, 14 Mar 2021 15:00:21 +0100

I’m a .NET developer by trade, so let’s say hello in C#!

using System;

class Program
{
 public static void Main(string[] args)
 {
 Console.WriteLine("Hello, world!");
 }
}

About

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

When I was a first grader in the mid-90s, I got my first Windows 95 computer as a gift from my dad. Since then, I have been fascinated by computers and the Internet, giving me access to an ever-expanding universe. I’ve lived throughout the digital age since its dawn and I continue to be amazed at how technology is shaping our world ever faster, for better and for worse.

With infinite amounts of information at my fingertips, I love discovering and learning new things every day. I enjoy building (and breaking) tech to efficiently solve real-world problems. When I’m on my own time, I sometimes like over-engineering things just because I can. 🚀

CV

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Experience

Full Stack Developer

2011-11-01 - present

Combyte AG — Intelligent software solutions for the social sector

Brugg, Switzerland

Develops and distributes software solutions for social institutions, counseling centers, homes, schools etc. since 1997.

Education

Certificates

Skills

Windows Desktop Applications (Master)

C#, .NET, WPF, ASP.NET

Languages

German — Fluent
English — Proficient

Projects

Author

2021-06-01 - present

Hugo Gruvbox Theme — A retro-looking Hugo theme inspired by gruvbox to build secure, fast, and SEO-ready websites.

Using modern technologies such as Hugo, NPM, and PostCSS

Plausible Analytics

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I self-host Plausible Analytics, an open-source, privacy-respecting, and lightweight web analytics tool. I use Terraform and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) to host it. Check my Terraform configuration for Plausible on GitHub if you want to learn how.

Plausible doesn’t collect personal data. It doesn’t require cookies and is fully compliant with the GDPR, CCPA, and PECR.

Here you can find a standalone public dashboard.

Thanks to Marko Saric for inspiring me to create this stats page.

Projects

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s what I’m up to right now. Connect with me to stay in the loop!

Putting Food on the Table

I have been working for a small company called combyte AG since 2011, specializing in building .NET solutions for small and medium businesses that operate in the Swiss social sector.

Back when I joined the team, we were just getting started with a greenfield Silverlight (RIP) rewrite of the company’s core product, which sparked my love for .NET and set me on the path of a self-taught .NET developer I still follow today.

Hello, I'm Michael 👋 on Michael Schnerring

Checking Out Code Committed Within the Same GitHub Actions Workflow Run

Use OBS and ffmpeg to Create Modern GIF-like Screencasts

Use PowerShell to Request Quotes for Azure Reservations

Automate Building Custom Windows Images For Azure Virtual Desktop With Packer And GitHub Actions

Deploy Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) Using Terraform and Azure Active Directory Domain Services (AADDS)

Set Up Azure Active Directory Domain Services (AADDS) With Terraform

Percent-encoding with the Hugo `urlquery` Function

Reduce Storage Costs when Deploying Azure Kubernetes Service Clusters with Terraform

Use Mullvad Port Forwarding to Connect to Your OPNsense Home Network with WireGuard

Update 2023-07-28#

Configure NUT for OPNsense and TrueNAS with the CyberPower PR750ERT2U UPS

OPNsense Baseline Guide with Mullvad VPN Multi-WAN, Guest, and VLAN Support

Install qBittorrent, Jackett, Lidarr, Radarr, Sonarr, and Plex inside TrueNAS Jails

Router on a Stick VLAN Configuration with SwOS on the Mikrotik CRS328-24P-4S+RM Switch

Install the Ubiquiti Unifi Controller Software v6 Inside a TrueNAS Jail

Use Custom DNS Servers With Mullvad And Any WireGuard Client

TL;DR#

Use the Trezor Hardware Wallet Anonymously Inside a VirtualBox Whonix VM With External Wallets Like Adalite and Monero GUI

Create a Modern CSS-only Fold-Out Burger Menu

Use Sieve Filters to Auto-Sort Your ProtonMail Inbox into Subfolders

Set Up Azure Active Directory Domain Services (AADDS) with Terraform

Update 2022-02-20#

Deploy a Matrix Homeserver to Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) with Terraform

Use Terraform to Deploy the Remark42 Commenting System to Kubernetes and Integrate it with a Hugo Website

Use Terraform to Deploy an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Cluster, Traefik 2, cert-manager, and Let's Encrypt Certificates

Create a Hugo Website with GitHub Pages, GitHub Actions, and Cloudflare

Hello World

About

CV

Experience#

Education#

Certificates#

Skills#

Languages#

Projects#

Plausible Analytics

Projects

Putting Food on the Table#

Update 2023-07-28

TL;DR

Update 2022-02-20

Experience

Education

Certificates

Skills

Languages

Projects

Putting Food on the Table