Nick Getchell
48 posts
2026
Testing Ansible Roles with Molecule on Digital Ocean DropletsFor years, I’ve been using Ansible to configure my homelab, blog, and workstations.Engineering › Configuration Management
2025
Movies for Sept 2025My plans for what new (to me) movies I’ll watch over the next month.Movies › Lists
No Skip AlbumsOver the years I’ve picked up albums I love that have zero skippable tracks.Music › Lists
2024
Book Review: Designing Data-Intensive ApplicationsA book review of Designing Data-Intensive ApplicationsBooks › Review
First Impressions of JetTrying out the rust successor of ansibleEngineering › Configuration Management
2023
Book Review: The Missing READMEA book review for The Missing README by Chris RiccominiBooks › Review
Using Ansible via GitHub Actions and TailscaleUse Tailscale and GitHub Actions run your ansible playbooks against nodes on your tailnet.Engineering › Configuration Management
My Favorite SSH TricksExplore the ssh_config to make yourself more productiveEngineering › Systems Administration
Monitoring Cron and Scheduled Tasks With Healthchecks.ioKeeping an eye on web servers that stop serving pages or hard drive that fill up are monitoring basics.Engineering › Monitoring & Observability
2019
Expiring Group MembershipsTake advantage of the new AD feature of expiring group membershipsEngineering › Systems Administration
Logging PowerShell ScriptsAs you progress from running commands at the console, to scripting tedious work, to automating entire processes you…Engineering › Systems Administration
2018
Get-Command -Syntax vs Get-HelpWait, is Get-Help or Get-Command right?Engineering › Systems Administration
Random Man Page in PowerShellPowerShell is a programming language and console application that comes with "batteries included".Engineering › Systems Administration
PSGitLab v3.0.1 ReleasedA ton of work went into the v3 version of PSGitLab, both on my part and that of the community.Engineering › Systems Administration
Import a Module from Other ComputersPowerShell comes with a simple way to install a module using PowerShellGet and the Find/Install Module cmdlets.Engineering › Systems Administration
Git Commit Messages and HooksMaintaining integrity in your code is hard.Engineering › Software Engineering
Using ThreadJob for PerformanceParallelizing work in PowerShell has been a drag.Engineering › Systems Administration
Deploying PowerShell Down-levelThere have been many great features added to PowerShell throughout the years.Engineering › Systems Administration
PowerShell Core 6.0 ReleasedPowerShell Core 6.0 has been released thanks to the hard work of the PowerShell Team.Engineering › Systems Administration
2017
Generate Random PasswordsWhether you’re at a help desk resetting passwords or setting up service accounts, you always need to be able to…Engineering › Systems Administration
Adding Updates to a Wim FileEven with Microsoft releasing new Windows 10 builds on a twice-yearly basis, there is still a case to be made to…Engineering › Systems Administration
2016
Never Lose Your Work at the ConsoleIf you’re like me, every once in a while you have a dash of brilliance, write the perfect one-liner, but forget to…Engineering › Systems Administration
Tail a File in PowerShellIn my limited Linux administration experience I got used to dealing with text.Engineering › Systems Administration
Update-ModuleManifest is BackStarting with Windows Management Framework 5.1 PowerShell now comes with Update-ModuleManifest.Engineering › Systems Administration
How I Work: Pester TestingEver since the 2015 North America PowerShell Summit I’ve become addicted to Pester testing.Engineering › Systems Administration
Export to ExcelIf you handle any sort of data in your job you’ve likely run into the common PowerShell cmdlets for dealing with data…Engineering › Systems Administration
Installing ModulesWhether you’re writing scripts, functions to automate a repetitive task, or building a whole toolkit you should be…Engineering › Systems Administration
Time Your Script with Timespan ObjectsSpeed and consistency are the two main reasons people automate tasks using PowerShell.Engineering › Systems Administration
Why Use Source ControlSource control, whether you’re writing one off scripts or automating intricate processes, is essential to your work.Engineering › Software Engineering
Turn Off PSReadlineBeginning with Windows Management Framework 5 Microsoft decided to ship Pester and PSReadline baked into the framework.Engineering › Systems Administration
PSPushoverI just recently published a module to the PowerShell Gallery called PSPushover and it couldn’t have been easier.Engineering › Systems Administration
2015
Pipelines and ObjectsTwo strong points of PowerShell are the ability to work with Pipelines and Objects.Engineering › Systems Administration
Formatting OutputFormatting output from cmdlets doesn’t have to be complicated.Engineering › Systems Administration
Introduction to CmdletsFor years Microsoft has played a trick on systems administrators.Engineering › Systems Administration
Introduction: PowerShell DirectPowerShell Direct is a new feature to Windows Management Framework version 5 that allows for Windows hosts to run…Engineering › Systems Administration
CredentialsHave you ever tried running a script only to find that your user account doesn’t have the proper rights?Engineering › Systems Administration
Beyond Syntax: Pester TestingA TechSession episode where we discussing going beyond the easy stuff in pester.Engineering › Systems Administration
PowerShellGet IntroductionWith PowerShell version 5 Microsoft released a way of installing modules using PowerShell.Engineering › Systems Administration