Tag: SRE

Understanding the DevOps Lifecycle

Introduction

In today’s fast-paced software development environment, DevOps has become an essential methodology for delivering high-quality software swiftly. DevOps bridges the gap between development and operations, fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement. This blog post delves into the DevOps lifecycle, highlighting its stages with practical examples and links to additional resources for a deeper understanding.

DevOps Lifecycle

The DevOps lifecycle is a continuous process composed of several key stages: planning, coding, building, testing, releasing, deploying, operating, and monitoring. Each stage plays a crucial role in ensuring the seamless delivery and maintenance of applications.

Planning

The planning stage involves defining project requirements and setting objectives. Tools like Jira and Trello are commonly used to manage tasks and track progress. For instance, a development team planning a new feature might use Jira to create user stories and tasks, outlining the specific functionality and the steps needed to achieve it.

Additional Material: Atlassian’s Guide to Agile Project Management

Coding

In the coding stage, developers write the application code. Version control systems like Git are used to manage changes and collaborate efficiently. For example, developers working on a new microservice might use GitHub for source code management, ensuring that changes are tracked and can be easily rolled back if necessary.

Additional Material: Pro Git Book

Building

Building involves compiling the source code into executable artifacts. This stage often includes packaging the application for deployment. Using Jenkins for continuous integration, the build process can automatically compile code, run tests, and create Docker images ready for deployment.

Additional Material: Jenkins Documentation

Testing

Automated testing ensures that the application functions correctly and meets the specified requirements. Tools like Selenium and JUnit are popular in this stage. For instance, implementing a suite of automated tests in Selenium to verify the functionality of a web application across different browsers.

Additional Material: SeleniumHQ

Releasing

Releasing is the process of making the application available for deployment. This stage involves versioning and tagging releases. Using Git tags to mark a particular commit as a release candidate, ready for deployment to a staging environment for final verification.

Additional Material: Semantic Versioning

Deploying

Deployment involves moving the application to a live environment. Tools like Kubernetes and Ansible help automate this process, ensuring consistency and reliability. For example, deploying a containerized application to a Kubernetes cluster, using Helm charts to manage the deployment configuration.

Additional Material: Kubernetes Documentation

Operating

In the operating stage, the application runs in the production environment. Ensuring uptime and performance is critical, often managed through infrastructure as code practices. Using Terraform to provision and manage cloud infrastructure, ensuring that environments are consistent and scalable.

Additional Material: Terraform by HashiCorp

Monitoring

Continuous monitoring and logging are essential to detect issues and improve the system. Tools like Prometheus and ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) are widely used. Implementing Prometheus to collect metrics and Grafana to visualize the performance of a microservices architecture.

Additional Material: Prometheus Documentation

Wrapping it all up

The DevOps lifecycle is a continuous journey of improvement and collaboration. By integrating and automating each stage, teams can deliver robust and reliable software faster and more efficiently. Embracing DevOps practices not only enhances the quality of software but also fosters a culture of continuous learning and adaptation.

For those looking to dive deeper into DevOps, the additional materials provided offer a wealth of knowledge and practical guidance. Embrace the DevOps mindset, and transform your software development process into a well-oiled, efficient machine.

Keep in mind this is a very high level list of some of the most commonly used tools everyday. There’s no mention of platforms here such as Rancher as it was intentionally kept high level. Future content will provide insights into best practices, other platforms, and how to be successful in a Devops world.

Declarative vs Imperative Operations in Kubernetes: A Deep Dive with Code Examples

Kubernetes, the de facto orchestrator for containerized applications, offers two distinct approaches to managing resources: declarative and imperative. Understanding the nuances between these two can significantly impact the efficiency, reliability, and scalability of your applications. In this post, we’ll dissect the differences, advantages, and use cases of declarative and imperative operations in Kubernetes, supplemented with code examples for popular workloads.

Imperative Operations: Direct Control at Your Fingertips

Imperative operations in Kubernetes involve commands that make changes to the cluster directly. This approach is akin to giving step-by-step instructions to Kubernetes about what you want to happen. It’s like telling a chef exactly how to make a dish, rather than giving them a recipe to follow.

Example: Running an NGINX Deployment

Consider deploying an NGINX server. An imperative command would be:

kubectl run nginx --image=nginx:1.17.10 --replicas=3

This command creates a deployment named nginx, using the nginx:1.17.10 image, and scales it to three replicas. It’s straightforward and excellent for quick tasks or one-off deployments.

Modifying a Deployment Imperatively

To update the number of replicas imperatively, you’d execute:

kubectl scale deployment/nginx --replicas=5

This command changes the replica count to five. While this method offers immediate results, it lacks the self-documenting and version control benefits of declarative operations.

Declarative Operations: The Power of Describing Desired State

Declarative operations, on the other hand, involve defining the desired state of the system in configuration files. Kubernetes then works to make the cluster match the desired state. It’s like giving the chef a recipe; they know the intended outcome and can figure out how to get there.

Example: NGINX Deployment via a Manifest File

Here’s how you would define the same NGINX deployment declaratively:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: nginx
spec:
  replicas: 3
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: nginx
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: nginx
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: nginx
        image: nginx:1.17.10

You would apply this configuration using:

kubectl apply -f nginx-deployment.yaml

Updating a Deployment Declaratively

To change the number of replicas, you would edit the nginx-deployment.yaml file to set replicas: 5 and reapply it.

spec:
  replicas: 5

Then apply the changes:

kubectl apply -f nginx-deployment.yaml

Kubernetes compares the desired state in the YAML file with the current state of the cluster and makes the necessary changes. This approach is idempotent, meaning you can apply the configuration multiple times without changing the result beyond the initial application.

Best Practices and When to Use Each Approach

Imperative:

  • Quick Prototyping: When you need to quickly test or prototype something, imperative commands are the way to go.
  • Learning and Debugging: For beginners learning Kubernetes or when debugging, imperative commands can be more intuitive and provide immediate feedback.

Declarative:

  • Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Declarative configurations can be stored in version control, providing a history of changes and facilitating collaboration.
  • Continuous Deployment: In a CI/CD pipeline, declarative configurations ensure that the deployed application matches the source of truth in your repository.
  • Complex Workloads: Declarative operations shine with complex workloads, where dependencies and the order of operations can become cumbersome to manage imperatively.

Conclusion

In Kubernetes, the choice between declarative and imperative operations boils down to the context of your work. For one-off tasks, imperative commands offer simplicity and speed. However, for managing production workloads and achieving reliable, repeatable deployments, declarative operations are the gold standard.

As you grow in your Kubernetes journey, you’ll likely find yourself using a mix of both approaches. The key is to understand the strengths and limitations of each and choose the right tool for the job at hand.

Remember, Kubernetes is a powerful system that demands respect for its complexity. Whether you choose the imperative wand or the declarative blueprint, always aim for practices that enhance maintainability, scalability, and clarity within your team. Happy orchestrating!

Leveraging Automation in Managing Kubernetes Clusters: The Path to Efficient Operation

Automation in managing Kubernetes clusters has burgeoned into an essential practice that enhances efficiency, security, and the seamless deployment of applications. With the exponential growth in containerized applications, automation has facilitated streamlined operations, reducing the room for human error while significantly saving time. Let’s delve deeper into the crucial role automation plays in managing Kubernetes clusters.

The Imperative of Automation in Kubernetes

Kubernetes Architecture

The Kubernetes Landscape

Before delving into the nuances of automation, let’s briefly recapitulate the fundamental components of Kubernetes, encompassing pods, nodes, and clusters, and their symbiotic relationships facilitating a harmonious operational environment.

The Need for Automation

Automation emerges as a vanguard in managing complex environments effortlessly, fostering efficiency, reducing downtime, and ensuring the optimal utilization of resources.

Efficiency and Scalability

Automation in Kubernetes ensures that clusters can dynamically scale based on the workload, fostering efficiency, and resource optimization.

Reduced Human Error

Automating repetitive tasks curtails the scope of human error, facilitating seamless operations and mitigating security risks.

Cost Optimization

Through efficient resource management, automation aids in cost reduction by optimizing resource allocation dynamically.

Automation Tools and Processes

top devops tools

CI/CD Pipelines

Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines are at the helm of automation, fostering swift and efficient deployment cycles.

pipeline:
  build:
    image: node:14
    commands:
      - npm install
      - npm test
  deploy:
    image: google/cloud-sdk
    commands:
      - gcloud container clusters get-credentials cluster-name --zone us-central1-a
      - kubectl apply -f k8s/

Declarative Example 1: A simple CI/CD pipeline example.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

IaC facilitates the programmable infrastructure, rendering a platform where systems and devices can be managed through code.

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: mypod
spec:
  containers:
  - name: mycontainer
    image: nginx

Declarative Example 2: Defining a Kubernetes pod using IaC.

Configuration Management

Tools like Ansible and Chef aid in configuration management, ensuring system uniformity and adherence to policies.

- hosts: kubernetes_nodes
  tasks:
    - name: Ensure Kubelet is installed
      apt: 
        name: kubelet
        state: present

Declarative Example 3: Using Ansible for configuration management.

Section 3: Automation Use Cases in Kubernetes

Auto-scaling

Auto-scaling facilitates automatic adjustments to the system’s computational resources, optimizing performance and curtailing costs.

Horizontal Pod Autoscaler

Kubernetes’ Horizontal Pod Autoscaler automatically adjusts the number of pod replicas in a replication controller, deployment, or replica set based on observed CPU utilization.

apiVersion: autoscaling/v2beta2
kind: HorizontalPodAutoscaler
metadata:
  name: myapp-hpa
spec:
  scaleTargetRef:
    apiVersion: apps/v1
    kind: Deployment
    name: myapp
  minReplicas: 1
  maxReplicas: 10
  metrics:
  - type: Resource
    resource:
      name: cpu
      target:
        type: Utilization
        averageUtilization: 50

Declarative Example 4: Defining a Horizontal Pod Autoscaler in Kubernetes.

Automated Rollouts and Rollbacks

Kubernetes aids in automated rollouts and rollbacks, ensuring application uptime and facilitating seamless updates and reversions.

Deployment Strategies

Deployment strategies such as blue-green and canary releases can be automated in Kubernetes, facilitating controlled and safe deployments.

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: myapp
spec:
  strategy:
    type: RollingUpdate
    rollingUpdate:
      maxSurge: 25%
      maxUnavailable: 25%
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: myapp
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: myapp
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: myapp
        image: myapp:v2

Declarative Example 5: Configuring a rolling update strategy in a Kubernetes deployment.

Conclusion: The Future of Kubernetes with Automation

As Kubernetes continues to be the front-runner in orchestrating containerized applications, the automation integral to its ecosystem fosters efficiency, security, and scalability. Through a plethora of tools and evolving best practices, automation stands central in leveraging Kubernetes to its fullest potential, orchestrating seamless operations, and steering towards an era of self-healing systems and zero-downtime deployments.

In conclusion, the ever-evolving landscape of Kubernetes managed through automation guarantees a future where complex deployments are handled with increased efficiency and reduced manual intervention. Leveraging automation tools and practices ensures that Kubernetes clusters not only meet the current requirements but are also future-ready, paving the way for a robust, scalable, and secure operational environment.

References:

  1. Kubernetes Official Documentation. Retrieved from https://kubernetes.io/docs/
  2. Jenkins, CI/CD, and Kubernetes: Integrating CI/CD with Kubernetes (2021). Retrieved from https://www.jenkins.io/doc/book/

How to Create a Pull Request Using GitHub Through VSCode

Visual Studio Code (VSCode) has risen as a favorite among developers due to its extensibility and tight integration with many tools, including GitHub. In this tutorial, we’ll cover how to create a pull request (PR) on GitHub directly from VSCode. Given that our audience is highly technical, we’ll provide detailed steps along with screenshots and necessary code.

Prerequisites:

  • VSCode Installed: If not already, download and install from VSCode’s official website.
  • GitHub Account: You’ll need a GitHub account to interact with repositories.
  • Git Installed: Ensure you have git installed on your machine.
  • GitHub Pull Requests and Issues Extension: Install it from the VSCode Marketplace.

Steps:

Clone Your Repository

First, ensure you have the target repository cloned on your local machine. If not:

git clone <repository-url>

Open Repository in VSCode

Navigate to the cloned directory:

cd <repository-name>

Launch VSCode in this directory:

code .

Create a New Branch

Before making any changes, it’s best practice to create a new branch. In the bottom-left corner of VSCode, click on the current branch name (likely main or master). A top bar will appear. Click on + Create New Branch and give it a meaningful name related to your changes.

Make Your Changes

Once you’re on your new branch, make the necessary changes to the code or files. VSCode’s source control tab (represented by the branch icon on the sidebar) will list the changes made.

Stage and Commit Changes

Click on the + icon next to each changed file to stage the changes. Once all changes are staged, enter a commit message in the text box and click the checkmark at the top to commit.

Push the Branch to GitHub

Click on the cloud-upload icon in the bottom-left corner to push your branch to GitHub.

Create a Pull Request

With the GitHub Pull Requests and Issues Extension installed, you’ll see a GitHub icon in the sidebar. Clicking on this will reveal a section titled GitHub Pull Requests.

Click on the + icon next to it. It’ll fetch the branch and present a UI to create a PR. Fill in the necessary details:

  • Title: Summarize the change in a short sentence.
  • Description: Provide a detailed description of what changes were made and why.
  • Base Repository: The repository to which you want to merge the changes.
  • Base: The branch (usually main or master) to which you want to merge the changes.
  • Head Repository: Your forked repository (if you’re working on a fork) or the original one.
  • Compare: Your feature/fix branch.

Once filled, click Create.

Review and Merge

Your PR is now on GitHub. It can be reviewed, commented upon, and eventually merged by maintainers.

Conclusion

VSCode’s deep integration with GitHub makes it a breeze to handle Git operations, including creating PRs. By following this guide, you can streamline your Git workflow without ever leaving your favorite editor!

7 things all devops practitioners need from Git

Git is a powerful tool for version control, enabling multiple developers to work together on the same codebase without stepping on each other’s toes. It’s a complex system with many features, and getting to grips with it can be daunting. Here are seven insights that I wish I had known when I started working with Git.

The Power of git log

The git log command is much more powerful than it first appears. It can show you the history of changes in a variety of formats, which can be extremely helpful for understanding the evolution of a project.

# Show the commit history in a single line per commit
git log --oneline

# Show the commit history with graph, date, and abbreviated commits
git log --graph --date=short --pretty=format:'%h - %s (%cd)'

Branching is Cheap

Branching in Git is incredibly lightweight, which means you should use branches liberally. Every new feature, bug fix, or experiment should have its own branch. This keeps changes organized and isolated from the main codebase until they’re ready to be merged.

# Create a new branch
git branch new-feature

# Switch to the new branch
git checkout new-feature

Or do both with:

# Create and switch to the new branch
git checkout -b new-feature

git stash is Your Friend

When you need to quickly switch context but don’t want to commit half-done work, git stash is incredibly useful. It allows you to save your current changes away and reapply them later.

# Stash your current changes
git stash

# List all stashes
git stash list

# Apply the last stashed changes and remove it from the stash list
git stash pop

git rebase for a Clean History

While merging is the standard way to bring a feature branch up to date with the main branch, rebasing can often result in a cleaner project history. It’s like saying, “I want my branch to look as if it was based on the latest state of the main branch.”

# Rebase your current branch on top of the main branch
git checkout feature-branch
git rebase main

Note: Rebasing rewrites history, which can be problematic for shared branches.

The .gitignore File

The .gitignore file is crucial for keeping your repository clean of unnecessary files. Any file patterns listed in .gitignore will be ignored by Git.

# Ignore all .log files
*.log

# Ignore a specific file
config.env

# Ignore everything in a directory
tmp/**

git diff Shows More Than Just Differences

git diff can be used in various scenarios, not just to show the differences between two commits. You can use it to see changes in the working directory, changes that are staged, and even differences between branches.

# Show changes in the working directory that are not yet staged
git diff

# Show changes that are staged but not yet committed
git diff --cached

# Show differences between two branches
git diff main..feature-branch

The Reflog Can Save You

The reflog is an advanced feature that records when the tips of branches and other references were updated in the local repository. It’s a lifesaver when you’ve done something wrong and need to go back to a previous state.

# Show the reflog
git reflog

# Reset to a specific entry in the reflog
git reset --hard HEAD@{1}

Remember: The reflog is a local log, so it only contains actions you’ve taken in your repository.

Understanding these seven aspects of Git can make your development workflow much more efficient and less error-prone. Git is a robust system with a steep learning curve, but with these tips in your arsenal, you’ll be better equipped to manage your projects effectively.

10x the DevEX!

Recently there has been a shift in language surrounding System Reliability Engineering (SRE) and DevOps to Platform Engineering. Granted these terms have been used in various ways for a while, but how language terms are used gives way to how markets evolve. This post provides a few key areas of thought around ways to ultimately get products to production faster. Remember…code means nothing until it’s in production.

No matter the title, anyone in the pipeline touching production code is part of the team of ensuring success of critical applications in an enterprise. This is an important concept because everyone is part of the larger team and how teams work together ultimately determines the success of any project.

The focus here will be on the actual development team who is primarily writing the code. The code in question would be delivered as microservices running on a K8S cluster. Keep in mind the use of microservices will lend itself to multiple teams individually creating a service for other teams to consume. Already there is significant dependencies and a single line of code has yet to be written.

Each team ultimately needs to consume one or more code repositories, one or more “testing” systems, at least one pipeline for continuous integration, continuous delivery/deployment (CI/CD), and many other systems to get code to production.

The Platform Engineering team is ultimately responsible for ensuring the “platforms” are working in a way to support the developers. Ensuring a great experience is paramount.

The question is how do Platform Engineers continually improve the great developer experience? The answer many teams turn to is to create powerful systems with guardrails or opinions on how they are to be utilized based on the collective understanding of the teams modus operandi or how they work most effectively.

The key to how is reducing the repetitive work, the mundane menial tasks which take a toll on the cognitive workload of developers allowing them to be able to focus on writing good, clean code.

Giving the power to the developers to consume what is needed in a self-service fashion is one major step as is giving a limited set of choices in what toolsets to use. Make it easy for developers to build and deliver software without removing the useful capabilities of the core services.

In the ideal world, limit restrictions on the how allowing choices in using GitOps or ClickOps or using a API vs CLI vs UI. Use a “as a service” approach to create a system built iteratively by the entirety of the team based on direct feedback.

What it all comes down to is the fact that everyone has different ways they want to work. Its the platform engineering team who can help ensure all of the tools are available and functional to create a great developer experience which in turn will increase productivity and get new, shiny things to market faster.

90 days to success in DevOps

Starting a new role? Maybe this is the first foray into DevOps or Platform Engineering? What is needed to “hit the ground running” in a new role? Leaders in high positions of a company typically have a “100 day rule” to prove themselves. Let’s round it out with 3 months of progress for success.

In most enterprises on boarding new talent is typically left to the new employee. This is very unfortunate because the first 90 days of a new role will impact not only the new employee, but their immersion into the culture and their view of the company. Bottom line, in most cases it is up to the new employee to “learn the ropes” in navigating their new position.

The first 30 days

This month is usually the most important for everyone. The first thing a new employee needs to do is find a good mentor especially if they are not assigned one. Seek out those with institutional knowledge who knows how to navigate the company politics. Find someone who knows how the systems work, how to gain the access needed to be successful in the role. The mentor would have knowledge of “how things work” and what is seen as best practice for accomplishing the tasks at hand.

Some things to know:

  • Who’s who in the organization? – an org chart
  • How mature are they as a development organization?
  • What are the processes to put code into production?
  • Are the processes manual or automated?
  • What is the expectation of you on a day to day basis?

There is plenty more to uncover, but this will help to get started. Once the processes are understood and access is granted to perform the role, find some quick wins. Listen closely to where the frustrations may lie within your organization. Maybe the previous employee in this role didn’t automate certain tasks…submit a small PR to help.

It’s important to find some quick wins for many reasons. First it helps “break the ice”. It also shows strengths. Maybe there’s a way to improve some docs. There may be some ideas brought in from previous experience to help with a particular pain point.

The first 30 days is important to uncover the expectations of the team. Talking to stakeholders and “the customer” is important to get a big picture of what works and what doesn’t in order to find quick wins to make an impact early.

Days 30-60

The first 4 weeks are usually greeted with firehose sessions daily. Take a bit to digest everything. Review notes, brainstorm ideas, understand how the team and the company works. Armed with the broader knowledge about the organization, the team, and how things work at a high level it’s time to dig deeper into where the biggest impacts can be achieved.

In this 30 day block uncover:

  • The maturity of the team?
  • What is the approval process for delivering code to production?
  • What steps are needed to approve PRs?
  • How does code flow through the various systems?
  • What amount of QA is performed?

Find ways to help the team be more efficient. Listen to the complaints and see where possible improvements could be made. Again, quick wins are key at this stage. As a fresh face, a lot of times gaining access to otherwise inaccessible groups within the organization is usually fairly easy. Keep an ear to the ground to find ways to create impactful suggestions

It is important to remember as people get to know a new employee the interactions have lasting impacts. Ensure there is adequate listening and relevant questions to get underneath a complaint. Avoid making off hand suggestions, but rather find some common issues. Start to tackle the common issues and socialize improvements. The key here to to avoid “calling the baby ugly”.

Days 60-90

This is where a new employee’s impact can accelerate. At this stage having the access needed to be successful would be complete. Hopefully there’s been a few quick wins, new co-workers are impressed, and there’s been positive impact on the team.

Regular interaction with your leader would have been established. A solid understanding of what is expected is created and the mentor has made an impact. Knowing where to go to get answers if there is a roadblock and knowing how to avoid the “potholes in the road” is key.

This stage is where the “rubber hits the road”. Gaining traction in the day to day and making regular impact to the business is routine at this point. This is where all of the knowledge gained in the first 60 days can be parlayed into a winning hand.

What success looks like

The first 3 months of any new position sets the stage for every new employee. Creating a positive impression on the team helps build credibility within the broader organization and is key to instilling the confidence needed to being successful overall.

It may take far more than 90 days to feel comfortable with the role and that is okay. As long as there is a consistent method for learning and mistakes are not repeated the impact new employees make is usually sustainable for a long time. Make the best of it and keep track of the wins and losses for the inevitable review with “the boss”.

You got this. Go.

Becoming Successful in DevOps: A Beginners Guide

Where to start

As a platform engineer, you will be tasked with ensuring that software projects run smoothly and efficiently. This includes managing all of the various components needed to develop and launch an app or system.

This may include choosing your development platform, setting up servers for hosting, finding vendors for integrations, and more. Beyond just technology, there are also time-management strategies to manage your day.

As you can imagine, being a part of this team comes with its own set of challenges and responsibilities. Being a senior member of the team takes some work — but it is totally worth it!

Being a senior developer means that you know what’s going on technologically, and you’re able to teach others that knowledge. You’ll have the opportunity to make an impact by helping other engineers get things done effectively.

It’s also important to remember that not everyone has a career in tech like you do, so don’t feel like you need to take over every task.

Plan your career

7 things to know as a devops engineer

As mentioned earlier, being a successful platform engineer is more than just knowing how to work in different environments having separate and distinctly different conversations with various people about what tools you use for each environment, and how to manage your time effectively between projects and departments. It also means planning your career ahead of time.

Most experienced devs will tell you that it’s impossible to become a senior developer without first becoming a team lead or manager. This makes sense, because you need to establish relationships within the department and organization that depend on you for leadership, guidance, and resources.

And since most tech companies are moving towards agile project management systems like Scrum, you need to be able to facilitate those meetings, talk about logistics, and make sure everyone has everything they need to complete their assignments on schedule.

All of these things require someone who leads by example, sets appropriate priorities, and keeps people motivated so that they feel comfortable coming to you for help when needed. You can’t expect anyone lower up the chain-of-command to do this if they don’t see you putting in the effort into developing your leadership skills.

It’s totally normal to want to move up the ladder, but making changes to your position requires proving that you’re capable of doing so while still keeping quality control over your tasks and setting realistic deadlines.

Create a good work-life balance

7 things to know as a devops engineer

Being a platform engineer means having close relationships with other people in your organization that depend on you for success, so make sure you are not overworking yourself.

It is important to enjoy what you do for a living, and staying motivated requires finding time to unwind and relax. You can’t expect to be passionate about your job if you don’t take care of yourself outside of work.

You need to recognize that it takes a lot out of you, both physically and mentally, and give yourself breaks to keep up momentum. Take frequent vacations, organize social events outside of work, and try to limit how many hours you spend working every day.

In addition to taking care of yourself, use the same energy you put into your career on your personal life to promote healthy relationships and friendships.

Having friends who treat you well will help you feel more balanced and confident in your position, and they will help you stay happier at home. Try to meet someone new once a week, if possible, to maintain strong ties with family members and colleagues.

Be a creative thinker

7 things to know as a devops engineer

As a platform engineer, you will be tasked with many different projects and responsibilities. This can make it hard to know what your next job is! As such, being able to think outside of the box and brainstorm new ideas and solutions to current issues is important.

You will have to use your creativity to figure out how to best solve these problems.

A great way to hone this skill is by taking part in various tech events or masterclasses. You may even get chance to present your own project or idea!

By attending events like these, not only do they give you knowledge about the field, but also lots of opportunities to improve yourself professionally.

Stay up-to-date with technology

7 things to know as a devops engineer

As a platform engineer, you will be tasked with keeping up with new technologies. This is not only important for your career, but also to satisfy users’ demands for quality services they can rely on.

As more companies implement automation via software or robotics, there are always new tools being used for this process. You will need to know what these tools are and how to use them.

You will also have to stay up-to-date with the ever-evolving practices in both development and operations. For example, when developers adopt newer agile methodologies like scrum, you must understand why that approach is better than the traditional waterfall model.

Likewise, understanding lean startup methodology means knowing why it works and if it applies to your organization. These concepts help bring down the overhead of launching an app by reducing the number of steps needed to get things going.

By staying informed about such developments, you will make sure apps launch as quickly as possible while still meeting standards.

Be a good leader

7 things to know as a devops engineer

As a platform engineer, you will be in charge of many different departments within your organization. You can expect that not every department in your own company or others you work with have strong leadership qualities.

If this is something that worries you, don’t worry! It’s totally normal.

It takes time to develop leadership skills, but you are never too young or old to learn them.

You can always look to those around you for examples of how to lead and learn from their mistakes. There are several books and courses available online and through educational institutions that focus on developing leadership abilities.

There are also mentorship programs where experienced leaders share knowledge and resources with younger people. By being part of these groups, you could gain some valuable lessons yourself.

Be a good team member

7 things to know as a devops engineer

As a platform engineer, your success will depend on how well you collaborate with others. You can’t have successful collaborations if one party is constantly trying to get their way or take over the process.

This isn’t helpful for anyone involved in the project, and it won’t set well with leadership either. Make every effort to work with people around you using sound reasoning and evidence, and keep discussions focused on topics that are productive and positive.

Avoid gossip unless you want to deal with a lot of resentment later, and be willing to go beyond what is practical or appropriate to help someone feel better about themselves or the situation.

Picture showing tools in a circle

7 SRE tools to know today

As an SRE or platform engineer, you’re likely constantly looking for ways to streamline your workflow and make your day-to-day tasks more efficient. One of the best ways to do this is by utilizing popular SRE or DevOps tools. In this post, we’ll take a look at 7 of the most popular tools that are widely used in the industry today and explain their value in terms of how they can help make you more efficient in your day-to-day tasks.

  1. Prometheus: Prometheus is a popular open-source monitoring and alerting system that is widely used for monitoring distributed systems. It allows you to collect metrics from your services and set up alerts based on those metrics. Prometheus is known for its simple data model, easy-to-use query language, and powerful alerting capabilities. With Prometheus, you can quickly and easily identify issues within your systems and be alerted to them before they become a problem.
  2. Grafana: Grafana is a popular open-source visualization tool that can be used to create interactive dashboards and charts based on the metrics collected by Prometheus. It allows you to easily view the health of your systems, identify trends, and spot outliers. With Grafana, you can quickly and easily identify patterns and trends within your data, which can help you optimize your systems and improve their performance.
  3. Kubernetes: Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration system that allows you to automate the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. It helps you to define, deploy, and manage your application at scale, and to ensure high availability and fault tolerance. With Kubernetes, you can automate many routine tasks associated with deploying and managing your applications, which frees up more time for you to focus on other important tasks.
  4. Ansible: Ansible is an open-source automation tool that can be used to automate the provisioning, configuration, and deployment of your infrastructure. Ansible is known for its simple, human-readable syntax and its ability to easily manage and automate complex tasks. With Ansible, you can automate the provisioning and configuration of your infrastructure, which can help you save time and reduce the risk of errors.
  5. Terraform: Terraform is a popular open-source tool for provisioning and managing infrastructure as code. It allows you to define your infrastructure as code and to use a simple, declarative language to provision and manage resources across multiple providers. With Terraform, you can automate the process of provisioning and managing your infrastructure, which can help you save time and reduce the risk of errors.
  6. Jenkins: Jenkins is an open-source automation server that can be used to automate the building, testing, and deployment of your software. It provides a powerful plugin system that allows you to easily integrate with other tools, such as Git, Ansible, and Kubernetes. With Jenkins, you can automate many routine tasks associated with building, testing, and deploying your software, which frees up more time for you to focus on other important tasks.
  7. GitLab: GitLab is a web-based Git repository manager that provides source code management (SCM), continuous integration, and more. It’s a full-featured platform that covers the entire software development life cycle and allows you to manage your code, collaborate with your team, and automate your pipeline. With GitLab, you can streamline your entire software development process, from code management to deployment, which can help you save time and reduce the risk of errors.

These are just a few examples of the many popular SRE and DevOps tools that are widely used in the industry today.