Mac Setup

This project is meant to help with setting up an intel Mac book for DevOps type work.

This is currently a WIP

I work with Containers/Docker images a lot so this will mainly be aimed towards that but not strictly.

Setting up Brew

Brew is Macs package manager. It makes downloading various tools quick and easy. Brew is open source and anyone can technically contribute a new package to their repository but they are vetted for validity before being accepted. So be aware of the packages you are installing

• First you will need to install Homebrew which can be ound here https://brew.sh/
• Once that is complete you now have the power of Brew. brew install python@3.x, brew install docker etc.
• You can view all the different casks and formulae here https://formulae.brew.sh/
• I would advise updating brew weekly (at least) brew update > brew upgrade. I have a cron job set up that kicks this off every Monday morning before work.

Setting up your IDE.

I personally like Visual Studio Code the most but there are multiple options out there https://www.keycdn.com/blog/best-ide#which-is-the-best-ide-on-the-market . You can find the download link for VS Code here https://code.visualstudio.com/download

• Once you have installed VS Code I would suggest also downloading some extras to help make using it easier.
• Oh My ZSH is a tool that enriches you terminal and is very configurable. https://ohmyz.sh/
• cmd+shft+p will bring up the prompt for you to search for Toggle Auto Save and Install "code" command in PATH. Both useful.
• Extensions are very useful for just about any type of work you are doing within VS Code. Some of the ones I use are...

• Ansible by Red Hat
• Docker by Microsoft
• DotENV by mikestead
• Gitlab Workflow by Gitlab
• HashiCorp Terraform by HashiCorp
• json by zainchen
• Python by Microsoft
• YAML by Red Hat

• These are just a few I use. There are a lot out there for various needs like: spell check, linting, SSH etc. I would advise only using extensions that have a lot of downloads and a high rating.

Tools you can use to help make your life easier

Docker

• Docker is a widely popular containerization tool. The two most popular options out there (Aside from Docker which is not free) are Rancher and Colima-(for Mac). I use Colima https://github.com/abiosoft/colima
• Colima uses Qemu as its virtualization tool which does eat up a lot of resources but Colima should work out of the box.
• It also comes with k3s (kubernetes is disabled by default)
• To install and get colima running you just need to run brew install colima > colima start however I suggest using colima start --kubernetes --cpu 16 --memory 16 --disk 100
• I would also suggest installing docker-buildx "Docker CLI plugin for extended build capabilities with BuildKit"

Slack

• Slack is a free opensource chat app that is widely used in the IT realm.
• To download slack go to https://slack.com/downloads/mac

Brave

• Brave is a web browser.
• Brave is Chromium based so it is similar to Google but comes with built in ad and malware blockers.

Programming languages.

• Having multiple languages on your box at setup can save you some grief down the road when building or troubleshooting.
• A simple brew install <language> should do the trick. Pay attention to the download logs though as some installations will require you to either symlink them or update your PATH.

Virtual Box

• Virtual Box is a Virtual Machine manager. It is free to use and the download link can be found here https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
• Virtual Box has a user friendly GUI and can be used to import or create new VM's.
• This is great for testing in various environments.
• This also allows for you to then create your own VM and export it.

Open Lens

• Open Lens is a free opensource tool that helps you to manage your Kubernetes cluster.
• It does have a user friendly GUI so if you prefer that over the terminal this would be the tool Id suggest.
• To install this you just need to run brew install --cask openlens

k9s

• Like Open Lens, k9s is another tool you can use to help manage your Kubernetes cluster.
• This however does not come with a GUI but the terminal for this is easy to read.
• To install this just run brew install k9s

CaC and IaC

• Ansible, Terraform, Terragrunt and Packer
• I am not very familiar with these tools but I do use them for training and the occasional troubleshooting.
• Example is Packer. This is a tool that can be used to create consistent VM's. I have an Ubuntu machine set up that builds with preinstalled tools and STIGs applied so if I ever need access to certain apps I can just spin that up.
• I then export this to a .opa so people can use this out of the box without needing to set anything up themselves.

osxkeychain

• This is a tool that comes with Mac's and stores your creds locally.
• This is very useful for things like pushing to Gitlab, Github, Docker registries etc.

This project is meant to help individuals who have just joined the IT world or individuals who have not had to set up a computer in forever. Please feel free to contribute if something is missing or incorrect.