After 1 year of slowly growing PHP-CRUD-API v2 another milestone is reached. Today SQLite support, the fourth supported database engine, is (re)added to the project. It was removed with the introduction of v2. This feature is added in order to facilitate fast prototyping as SQLite is easy to install and configure. I want to thank Raymond Verbruggen for his feature request and his contribution to deliver this feature. SQLite support on steroids A few weeks ago I redid the research on the performance of a SQLite implementation. I found that since version 3.16 of SQLite there are new reflection methods available that allow better performance of my reflective REST API. Other DBMS systems provide reflection using the “information schema”, which is a SQL standard. SQLite now has similar functionality, but non-standard with “pragma table functions”. These functions differ from the “pragma statements” used to implement SQLite support in v1, as the new pragma table functions can be combined with “select” or “where” clauses, while the old pragma statements could not. This flexibility means we no longer need to create a “pseudo” information schema for SQLite. It also means we don’t support older versions of SQLite, such as the version 3.11 that is used in Ubuntu 16.04. ...

I’ve built another PC. This time I wanted to replace my Intel NUC i5 with something more powerful. I’ve chosen an ASRock DeskMini A300 case (with a STX-sized motherboard) and a Ryzen 3 3200G processor. This little machine costs less than 500 euro, is super fast and not too noisy. I run Xubuntu 20.04 LTS and it works great, I’m very pleased with the results! List of materials The materials used in this build: ...

In a previous post I have shown how to add an IPsec IKEv2 VPN to your (Ubuntu 18.04) KVM setup. In this post I will show you how to add and configure OpenConnect VPN. I will show how to install the VPN endpoint on a virtual machine, as a replacement for the VPN installation that we did in the previous post. OpenConnect may be easier to setup and maintain, but it is not clientless on Windows 10 and does require a (user-friendly and free) VPN client. ...

In a previous post I have shown how to set up port forwarding to KVM virtual machines. In this post I will show you how to add an IPsec IKEv2 VPN to your (Ubuntu 18.04) KVM setup. I will show how to install the VPN endpoint on a virtual machine and make it available using port forwards. This allows for a simple networking setup and easy replacement of VPN technology. Install Strongswan You need to setup a new Ubuntu virtual machine using “virt-install” (as described here). On this newly created machine you need to install the strongswan IPsec software: ...

In a previous post I have shown how to set up static IP addresses for virtual machines in KVM (on Ubuntu 18.04). I have also shown how to reconfigure the IP range of the KVM network. In this post I will show how to do port forwarding of specific traffic to your virtual machines without turning off UFW. This requires to reconfigure the KVM network to a “routed” network with explicit forwarding rules in iptables. ...

In a previous post I have shown how to use the serial console in KVM (on Ubuntu 18.04) and how to access it on the KVM CLI. In this post I will show how to set up static IP addresses for your KVM virtual machines. Static IP addresses are a requirement for doing port forwarding, a topic we will touch in another post in this blog series. In this post we will also explore how to reconfigure the IP range for your KVM virtual machines. ...

In a previous post I have installed KVM (on Ubuntu 18.04) from the CLI on my Dell R720xd. In this post I will show how to adjust the GRUB config to enable the serial console in KVM and how to access it on the KVM CLI. This is great for fixing SSH connectivity issues and to do easy LUKS password entry during boot. In this post we will also explore how to allow access to the grub menu from the serial console. ...

In a previous post I have installed OpenSSH (on Ubuntu 18.04) on my Dell R720xd. In this post I will show how to install KVM on it, so that you can start using it as a GNU/Linux hypervisor to run virtual machines. In this post I will also show how to load a graphical tool to connect to your KVM enabled server. Install KVM KVM requires CPU virtualization support (VT-x/AMD-V) to be enabled in the BIOS. You can check if your CPU is supported by installing cpu-checker and running the kvm-ok command. ...

In a previous post I have installed Ubuntu 18.04 on my Dell R720xd. In this post I will show how to install OpenSSH on it, so that we no longer need the iDRAC for system administration. After setting up SSH to securely manage the server we only need the iDRAC when we misconfigure the firewall or the network. Install OpenSSH Installing OpenSSH can be done by selecting the “OpenSSH server” in the software selection screen of the network installer. Alternatively you can install it, or ensure that it is installed, by running the following command: ...

I rent a dedicated server at LeaseWeb (this is NOT a sponsored post) for my virtual machines. It is a Dell PowerEdge R720xd and I recently re-installed it. You can let LeaseWeb do this for you, but I prefer to install the operating system installation myself. Fortunately this is possible from my own pc, with a cup of coffee next to me, surrounded by the piece and quiet of my home office. ...