Ronard Luna on Caktus Group

Migrating Amazon EKS Nodes to Amazon Linux 2023 (AL2023) from Amazon Linux 2 (AL2) Using CloudFormation and Troposphere

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 22:18:00 +0300

Introduction

In this post, we’ll explain how we extended our existing AWS CloudFormation infrastructure, built using Troposphere, to support the use of Amazon Linux 2023 (AL2023) for Amazon EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service) nodes. This migration was necessary to ensure compatibility ahead of our planned upgrade to Kubernetes version 1.33.

How to migrate from pip-tools to uv

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 14:00:00 -0400

At Caktus, many of our projects use pip-tools for dependency management. Following Tobias’ post How to Migrate your Python & Django Projects to uv, we were looking to migrate other projects to uv, but the path seemed less clear with existing pip-tools setups. Our requirements are often spread across multiple files, like this:

Handling Configuration and Server Snippets When Upgrading to ingress-nginx 1.12.0

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 16:00:00 +0000

As part of our ongoing Sustainability and Maintenance efforts, we are upgrading our Kubernetes clusters to version 1.32. Much like a major Django upgrade, this process requires us to update other key components to ensure they remain compatible. One of these is the ingress-nginx controller, which manages external access to the cluster.

Cakti Share Their Favorite Tools For Streamlined Workflows

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 20:09:03 +0000

Let’s jump into it!

At Caktus, we’re always looking for tools that help us streamline our workflows, increase productivity, and make our day-to-day tasks more efficient. Whether you’re managing projects, writing code, or debugging, the right tools can make all the difference. Here are some of our favorite tools that we love using to get the job done!

Upgrade Smarter, Not Harder: Python Tools for Code Modernization

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 10:00:00 +0000

Upgrading projects is somewhat equivalent to flossing, you know you have to do it, but rarely make time for it. After all, if the project is in active development, there are exciting new features to build. And we all know that new features > project upgrades. Well not to worry, Caktus wants to make you aware of some tools that will save you from considerable repetitive work & time while simultaneously modernizing your codebase. Combined, these tools will automate part of the upgrade process, decreasing the likelihood of neglecting parts of the codebase.

A Helpful Guide to Solving Common Poetry Issues

Mon, 10 Mar 2025 10:00:00 +0000

We don't often use Poetry, the Python packaging and dependency management tool, but when we do, we usually look up and re-learn the same things repeatedly. This post is a quick reference for some of the recent issues we encountered when using Poetry.

Deleting a Django Application from a Multi-Site Kubernetes Cluster

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 13:20:54 +0000

Recently, a client requested that we delete a website that was no longer used. The Kubernetes cluster was managed by an engineer who is no longer with the company, making the cluster feel like a concealed box. All I had was the website’s name. Since we use Ingress Nginx and Nginx as a web server, I figured the answer to my query could be found there. So I ran:

Reflections on DjangoCon US 2024: Highlights, Takeaways, and Community Connections

Mon, 16 Dec 2024 23:00:00 +0000

DjangoCon 2024 was a resounding success for the community, with attendees from all over the world gathering to learn about the latest developments in Django and to connect with the Django community. Caktus was well-represented at the conference, with six of our team members attending. In this blog post, we share our experiences at DjangoCon 2024, including our favorite talks, the people we met, and the things we learned. We also offer some tips for future attendees on how to get the most out of DjangoCon.

Upgrading PostgreSQL From v11 to v15 in Your Django Application

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 13:28:50 +0000

In the ever-evolving world of data management, staying up-to-date with the latest technologies and best practices is imperative. One crucial aspect of this is ensuring your PostgreSQL version remains current. On November 9, 2023, PostgreSQL 11 reaches end of life (EOL).

Migrating a Django Project from a GPU to a Convenience Image on CircleCI

Tue, 22 Aug 2023 11:22:07 +0000

Recently we learned that as of September 30th, 2023 several linux images will be deprecated, including the one we used, ubuntu-2004:202111-02. Therefore, after September 30th, our pipelines would have failed. To avoid this, we switched several machines in our Django project from Ubuntu GPU images to convenience images; This writing details that switch.

Migrate to Amazon EKS Add-ons

Mon, 10 Jul 2023 17:07:44 +0000

Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) released support for operational cluster add-on software, or Amazon EKS add-ons, around Kubernetes version 1.19 in May 2021. These include:

Set up AWS CloudTrail to Monitor Application Events using Ansible

Tue, 27 Jun 2023 15:50:46 +0000

AWS CloudTrail is a service that enables monitoring and recording of account activities. In this post, we will use CloudTrail to monitor CPU usage and to monitor our nodes. We will use Ansible to automate the setup process and as a means to document our setup (IaC). This post assumes you already have Ansible set up for your project and will not provide setup instructions.

GitHub Submodules: Leveraging Branches to Allow Independent Updates in Parent Applications

Fri, 09 Jun 2023 13:24:00 +0000

Recently I’ve been working with projects that use GitHub submodules. According to GitHub, submodules “allow you to include or embed one or more repositories as a sub-folder inside another repository.” Submodules help us keep code dry when functionality is shared across multiple repositories.

Begin your Data Analysis Journey with Pandas and Seaborn

Tue, 28 Mar 2023 14:00:00 +0000

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about scoring in the NBA because LeBron James surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with 38,390 career points. I have noticed that there is not much discussion about post-season scoring, so I searched for this dataset on Kaggle (nba_playoffs.csv) which contains the top 25 all-time post-season scoring leaders. Post-season scoring is its own beast. Since teams face one opponent multiple times in a row, they can better concentrate on the opposing team and its individual players, particularly star players. This results in improved defenses across the board. However, the post-season also means players improving their game. What is the result of improved defenses and players alike? Only elite players score consistently and thus, only the NBA's elite are on this list. This post will first examine the dataset using Pandas and then use Seaborn to graph such data.

An introduction to Django Simple History

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 15:00:00 +0000

Wouldn’t it be useful if we could document changes in our life and revisit them later at will? It would allow us to better analyze situations, remember what we were thinking, or help us remember how we got to our current state. Although no such tool currently exists for changes in life, one such tool does exist in Django. It is called django-simple-history.

Reflection on DjangoCon 2022

Fri, 06 Jan 2023 15:33:37 +0000

Ronard’s Recap

“It takes a village” the African proverb goes. Nowhere was this as apparent as in DjangoCon. It was my first technology conference and my experience could not have been better. People from the most senior developer to fellow juniors and even one of the co-creators of Django made the experience feel warm and inviting. Perhaps knowing that you are surrounded by introverts alleviates the social pressure, knowing that everyone has a common interest, or perhaps even love for programming also brought a soothing feeling to the experience.