Get started with InfluxDB and Python on Linux

If you are building a script, application or anything else that collects measurements or data over time intervals, a time-series database might be a good match for you. In a TSDB you simply store the data and read it back for analysis. For these use cases, there is no need for updates or changes to the data as it’s time-based. The data can’t change back in the past. InfluxDB is the most popular of these time-series databases and this article describes how to get started with it, on Debian or Ubuntu, and how to use it from Python.

Continue reading

Read data from the Belgian digital meter through the P1 port

Like some other Belgians, unfortunately, my analog electricity meter was replaced by a digital one since a few months. Initially, I was quite happy with the change as it allows a much easier look into your consumption and solar panel injection to the net. But exactly that last turned out to be a bummer as the government decided to not keep their word regarding reversing consumption with solar panel injection. Nevertheless, I have the thing so I might as well take advantage of it. This post describes how to connect to and use the data from the P1 port on a digital electricity meter in Belgium.

Continue reading

Data lezen van de P1 poort op de Belgische digitale elektriciteitsmeter

Zoals enkele andere Belgen werd, jammer genoeg, ook mijn analoge elektriciteitsmeter vervangen door een digitaal exemplaar. Initieel was ik daar best wel blij mee gezien het hiermee gemakkelijker is om het verbruik en opbrengst van de zonnepanelen bij te houden. Dat laatste is net he probleem, gezien de overheid heeft beslist dat de teller niet langer kan “terugdraaien”. Los daarvan, ik heb de meter nu dus kan ik er zowel gebruik van maken. Dit artikel beschrijft hoe je de meter kunt verbinden met je computer en hoe je de data van de P1 poort kunt gebruiken voor een Belgische digital elektriciteitsmeter.

Continue reading

Build Docker images for deployment on non-x86 architecture

When building a Docker container image, in most cases, the machine where you build it on runs on the same CPU architecture as where you eventually want to use it. Today, more and more, there is a need for deploying containers on a different architecture as where it was built on. The most common scenario would be to build on your regular x86 desktop and to deploy to an ARM variant.

Continue reading

Create a new virtual machine in oVirt with Python using the API

Recently, I started to work or play, it’s a matter of definition, a little more with oVirt. oVirt is less known than VMWare but it’s the upstream project for Red Hat’s Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) and based on libvirt. In an earlier post, I explained how to create VM’s on VMWare vSphere environments using Python and the VMWare API. In this post, I’ll explain how to acomplish the same using the oVirt API. It turned out to be easier than I expected.

Continue reading

Create a new virtual machine in Vsphere with Python, Pysphere and the VMWare API

The VMWare API is very extensive and allows you to do almost all operations that are possible with VMWare using API calls. In order to be able to easily create and deploy new virtual machines, it can be a good idea to standardize and create VM’s using a (Python) script that calls the API. In this post, I will give some examples on how to easily create a new VM using Pysphere and the VMWare API.

Continue reading