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DevOps & Automation- Advantages Of DevOps

Automation is the key to realizing the philosophy of DevOps and in ensuring that it delivers. The underlying building blocks of DevOps are to ensure that the engineering platform is in place to facilitate continuous delivery, integration, and improvement.  Consider the following processes that have traditionally been carried out manually- Creating development, testing and production infrastructure and configuring networks Harnessing security and data protection Setting up, configuring and deploying software Testing and validation of data – data generated from the application and about the usage of the application Supporting infrastructure and the applications running on it – maintenance, upgrades and transitions In a traditional development scenario, each new environment has to be created from scratch and include all of the above processes, making it a very tedious and lengthy process. However, in a DevOps environment, releases are more frequent and time for testing and quality assurance is therefore much shorter. Performing all these tasks manually therefore severely undermines the efficacy of the DevOps approach. However, it is not just about making DevOps possible, it also has its own advantages. Unexpected errors in production still occur in manual builds as it is difficult to exactly replicate each environment. This in turn, increases the risk of errors occurring in production after testing has been carried out on non-identical pre-production systems. In today’s software world, it is all about productizing and replicating solutions. A product needs to be customized and deployed at a new client site within a really short period of time. Once deployed, the operations support team must be able to support with issues, bug fixes and day-to-day activities in a smooth manner. Similarly, a product deployed for one business domain must easily be configured and utilized by another industry. Such is the flexibility expected from software today. What’s more, in the traditional development cycle, each member of the team has a local copy of the code. When a developer implements a new feature or fixes a bug locally, once complete, the new code is committed back to a central repository. But in a team of developers and system operators, more than one individual can be following this process at the same time, unintentionally breaking the code or affecting another developer’s code. The rule of thumb is that the greater the human intervention, the more testing that will be required. Pre-production or development environments become non-standard which makes processes like testing or releasing new software versions more difficult to repeat and more prone to error. In worst-case scenarios, developers are left to re-invent the wheel each time they need to make changes in response to new business demands. The advantage of DevOps By creating a more responsive development environment that is closely aligned to business requirements and which removes human error from the project lifecycle, DevOps enables organizations to:  Reduce the implementation time of new services from months to minutes  Increase productivity of business and IT teams  Save costs on maintenance and upgrades, and eliminate unnecessary capital expenditure  Standardize processes for easy replication and faster delivery  Improve quality, reliability and reusability of all system components  Increase the rate of success for digitalization strategies and transformation projects  Ensure that money invested in cloud infrastructure, analytics and data management are not wasted Since it focuses on delivering value much earlier in a project lifecycle, DevOps can be seen as an ideal approach to national and government IT projects, as well as massive scale projects for the private sector. It helps accelerate new services through continuous improvement and operational flexibility, providing innovative and cost-effective ways for delivering value through new ways of development and operations. Devops course helps in automation of organization & more benefits
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DevOps & Automation- Advantages Of DevOps

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DevOps & Automation- Advantages Of DevOps

Automation is the key to realizing the philosophy of DevOps and in ensuring that it delivers. The underlying building blocks of DevOps are to ensure that the engineering platform is in place to facilitate continuous delivery, integration, and improvement. 

Consider the following processes that have traditionally been carried out manually-

  • Creating development, testing and production infrastructure and configuring networks
  • Harnessing security and data protection
  • Setting up, configuring and deploying software
  • Testing and validation of data – data generated from the application and about the usage of the application
  • Supporting infrastructure and the applications running on it – maintenance, upgrades and transitions

In a traditional development scenario, each new environment has to be created from scratch and include all of the above processes, making it a very tedious and lengthy process. However, in a DevOps environment, releases are more frequent and time for testing and quality assurance is therefore much shorter. Performing all these tasks manually therefore severely undermines the efficacy of the DevOps approach.

However, it is not just about making DevOps possible, it also has its own advantages. Unexpected errors in production still occur in manual builds as it is difficult to exactly replicate each environment. This in turn, increases the risk of errors occurring in production after testing has been carried out on non-identical pre-production systems. In today’s software world, it is all about productizing and replicating solutions. A product needs to be customized and deployed at a new client site within a really short period of time. Once deployed, the operations support team must be able to support with issues, bug fixes and day-to-day activities in a smooth manner. Similarly, a product deployed for one business domain must easily be configured and utilized by another industry. Such is the flexibility expected from software today.

What’s more, in the traditional development cycle, each member of the team has a local copy of the code. When a developer implements a new feature or fixes a bug locally, once complete, the new code is committed back to a central repository. But in a team of developers and system operators, more than one individual can be following this process at the same time, unintentionally breaking the code or affecting another developer’s code.

The rule of thumb is that the greater the human intervention, the more testing that will be required. Pre-production or development environments become non-standard which makes processes like testing or releasing new software versions more difficult to repeat and more prone to error. In worst-case scenarios, developers are left to re-invent the wheel each time they need to make changes in response to new business demands.

The advantage of DevOps

By creating a more responsive development environment that is closely aligned to business requirements and which removes human error from the project lifecycle, DevOps enables organizations to:

  •  Reduce the implementation time of new services from months to minutes
  •  Increase productivity of business and IT teams
  •  Save costs on maintenance and upgrades, and eliminate unnecessary capital expenditure
  •  Standardize processes for easy replication and faster delivery
  •  Improve quality, reliability and reusability of all system components
  •  Increase the rate of success for digitalization strategies and transformation projects
  •  Ensure that money invested in cloud infrastructure, analytics and data management are not wasted

Since it focuses on delivering value much earlier in a project lifecycle, DevOps can be seen as an ideal approach to national and government IT projects, as well as massive scale projects for the private sector. It helps accelerate new services through continuous improvement and operational flexibility, providing innovative and cost-effective ways for delivering value through new ways of development and operations. Devops course helps in automation of organization & more benefits

Rumesh

Rumesh Wijetunge

Chief Innovation Officer - Zaizi Limited, Chief Operating Officer - LearntIn (Pvt) Ltd., Director /

Rumesh is an IT business leader with over 12 years of industry experience as a business analyst and project manager. He is currently the CIO of Zaizi Limited, a UK based data management company heading the operations in Sri Lanka, the COO of LearntIn, a global training institute based in Sri Lanka and is also a lecturer / trainer at multiple private universities on management, IT, business analysis and project management subjects. He is the current president of the IIBA Sri Lanka chapter and is one of the most qualified and sought after trainers in Sri Lanka. Refer his LinkedIn profile for more details and to see more articles he has written on linkedin

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Installation Guide to Jenkins

Jenkins is a Java-based open-source automation tool with plugins designed for ongoing integration. Jenkins is used to constantly develop and test software projects that help developers to incorporate project modifications and make it simpler for users to achieve a new build. The Jenkins allows developers to quickly locate and resolve flaws in a code base and to automatically test their structures. Jenkins can be changed and expanded readily on all operating platforms and various devices, whether OS X, Windows or Linux.  It immediately deploys code, produces test reports. During integration and continuous delivery, Jenkins can be configured according to the demands.System Requirements for Jenkins InstallationFollowing are the software and hardware requirements for installing Jenkins:Minimum hardware requirements:256 MB of RAM1 GB of drive space (although 10 GB is a recommended minimum if running Jenkins as a Docker container)Recommended hardware configuration for a small team:1 GB+ of RAM50 GB+ of drive spaceInstallation on WindowsYou must first install JDK. Jenkins promotes JDK8 only at this time. Jenkins can be installed when Java is running. The recent Jenkins package for Windows (presently version 2.191) can be downloaded from here. Click on the Jenkins exe file to unzip the file into a folder.To begin the installation click on "Next."To install Jenkins in another directory, click the "Change..." button. I'll hold the default choice in this instance and click on "Next."To begin the installation process, click on the "Install" button.The installation is being processed.When finished, you can finish the setup by clicking the "Finish" button.The URL http:/localhost:8080 will automatically be redirected to a Jenkins local page or the browser can be pasted.Copy and paste the password from the C:\Program Files (x85)\Jenkins\secrets\initialAdminPassword file for Jenkins unlocking. Click on the button "Continue."The suggested plugins or chosen plugins that you select can be installed. We will install the suggested plugins to maintain it easy.Wait for the complete installation of plugins.The next step is to build a Jenkins admin user. Click "Save and Continue." Please enter your information.To finish the Jenkins setup, click on "Save and Finish."To begin Jenkins, click on "Start using Jenkins."Below is the default page of Jenkins.Jenkins Installation on Linux/CentOS 7 systemMake sure that you are signed in as a user with sudo privileges before continuing this tutorial.The first step is to install Java, Jenkins being a Java application. To set up OpenJDK 8 package, execute the following command:$ sudo yum install java-1.8.0-openjdk-develJenkins does not currently support Java 10 (and Java 11). Make sure that Java 8 is the default Java version when multiple Java versions are installed on your computer.The next step is to allow the repository of Jenkins. To do so, use the following curl command to import the GPG key:$ curl --silent --location http://pkg.jenkins-ci.org/redhat-stable/jenkins.repo | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/jenkins.repoAdd your system's repository with:$ sudo rpm --import https://jenkins-ci.org/redhat/jenkins-ci.org.keyUpon activation of the repository, install the recent stable Jenkins version by typing:$ sudo yum install jenkinsUpon completion of the installation, begin the Jenkins service with:$ sudo systemctl start jenkinsTo verify if it has been successful, check with below command:$ systemctl status jenkinsSomething like this you should see:Outputjenkins.service - LSB: Jenkins Automation ServerLoaded: loaded (/etc/rc.d/init.d/jenkins; bad; vendor preset: disabled)Active: active (running) since Thu 2018-09-20 14:58:21 UTC; 15s agoDocs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)Process: 2367 ExecStart=/etc/rc.d/init.d/jenkins start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)CGroup: /system.slice/jenkins.serviceFinally, allow the Jenkins service to start on system boot $ sudo systemctl enable jenkinsOutputjenkins.service is not a native service, redirecting to /sbin/chkconfig.Executing /sbin/chkconfig jenkins onOpening Firewall portIf you install Jenkins on a remote CentOS firewall-protected server, port 8080 is necessary. To open   the required port, use the following instructions:$ sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-port=8080/tcpsudo firewall-cmd --reloadSetting JenkinsOpen your browser and type in your domain or IP address followed by port 8080 in order to set your fresh Jenkins setup:http://your_ip_or_domain:8080Below screen will be displayed which prompts you to enter the admin password generated during setup:To print the password on your terminal, use the following instructions: $ sudo cat /var/lib/jenkins/secrets/initialAdminPasswordThe alphanumeric password should be 32 characters long, as shown below:Output 3226*****************************Copy your terminal password, paste it in the password field for the Administrator and click on Continue.On the next screen, you are asked if you would like to install or pick certain plugins. To begin the installation process instantly, just click on the Install suggested plug-ins box.When the installation is finished, the first administrative user is prompted for the setting. Fill in all the necessary data. and click the Save and Continue.On your next page, the URL for the Jenkins instance will be requested. An automatically produced URL will be added to the URL field.To finish the configuration, click the Save and Finish button to verify the setup.Finally,  click start using  Jenkins Button to start the process and the user we created in one of the past steps as admin user will log in Jenkins dashboard.You have effectively mounted Jenkins on your CentOS scheme when you have reached this point.Jenkins Installation on MacPrerequisiteA Mac machine with Mac OSX Yosemite or higher with admin accessInstallation of Java Development Kit on the machine.Access to Git, Svn, etc. remote repository.Download Jenkins installer.pkg file from Jenkins ' official website and get through the wizard setup.The jenkins setup wizard sets up a distinct Jenkins user on your system.We need to make some changes in the ‘Users & Groups’ section as well. Do follow below steps.Open ‘System Preferences -> Users & Groups’Click on the Lock icon located in the bottom left corner which reads, ‘Click the lock to make changes’. Enter your login password.Under the ‘Other Users’ section you may see the user without any name but with admin rights. This is our Jenkins user. Let's rename it.Right-click the empty user and select Advanced Options. This will show you all the details. Give the ‘Full name’ as Jenkins. Press OKClick on ‘Reset Password’. Enter a new password and make sure that you remember this.Now our Jenkins user is almost ready.This is just like another mac user with admin rights.Now restart your Mac machine and log in with Jenkins user with the password which you just reset.Click the lock to save the changes and restart the system to login with Jenkins user account.In localhost Jenkins resides at port 8080.Open your browser, go to localhost:8080 and make the original set-up, which consists of installing some plugins and creating account for safety purpose.Setting Jenkins as Launch agentJenkins operates by default as a daemon. A daemon is a non-interactive background that operates in the entire scheme and is not linked to a particular user.Much of CI runs simulators and other GUI apps, so another option is required. You can modify Jenkins as a launch agent to resolve this. On behalf of the user, a launch agent operates behind the scenes.You need to edit the settings folder and alter your place to begin rebooting automatically if you want to alter how the Jenkins process is started.Enter the below command to unload Jenkins as a Daemonsudolaunchctlunload/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.jenkins-ci.plistNext, migrate to the LaunchAgents folder the.plist file which defines how Jenkins will be running.sudo mv /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.jenkins-ci.plist /Library/LaunchAgents/Start the jenkins again and now it will run as launch agent.
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Installation Guide to Jenkins

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DevOps Roadmap to Become a Successful DevOps Engineer

“DevOps is a combination of best practices, culture, mindset, and software tools to deliver a high quality and reliable product faster”Benefits of DevOps (Dev+Ops(SysAdmins plus Database Admins)DevOps agile thinking drives towards an iterated continuous development model with higher velocity, reduced variations and better global visualization of the product flow. These three “V”s are achieved with synchronizing the teams and implementing CI/CD pipelines that automate the SDLC repetitive and complex processes in terms of continuous integration of code, continuous testing, and continuous delivery of features to the production-like environment for a high-quality product with shorter release cycles and reduced cost.This ensures customer satisfaction and credibility.A streamlined process in place with the help of best practices and DevOps tools reduce the overhead, and downtime thus giving more opportunity for innovation. As a matter of fact, DevOps way of defining every phase (coding, testing, infrastructure provisioning, deployment, and monitoring) as code also makes it easier to rollback a versioned code in case of disaster recovery and make the environment easily scalable, portable and secure.“DevOps tools help you accomplish what you can already do but do not have time to do it.”1. What are the tasks of a DevOps Engineer?A Summary of day-to-day tasks carried out by a DevOps engineer -Design, build, test and deploy scalable, distributed systems from development through productionManage the code repository(such as Git, SVN, BitBucket, etc.) including code merging and integrating, branching and maintenance and remote repository managementManage, configure and maintain infrastructure systemDesign the database architecture and database objects and synchronize the various environmentsDesign implement and support DevOps Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery pipelinesResearch and implement new technologies and practicesDocument processes, systems, and workflowsCreation and enhancement of dynamic monitoring and alerting solutions using industry-leading servicesContinuously analyse tasks that are performed manually and can be replaced by codeCreation and enhancement of Continuous Deployment automation built on Docker and Kubernetes.2. Who can become a DevOps Engineer?DevOps is a vast environment that fits almost all technologies and processes into it. For instance, you could come from a coding or testing background or could be a system administrator, a database administrator, or Operations team there is a role for everyone to play in a DevOps approach.You are ready to become a DevOps Engineer if you have the below knowledge and/expertise-You have a Bachelor’s or Master’s or BSC degree (preferably in Computer Science, IT, Engineering, Mathematics, or similar)Minimum 2 years of IT experience as a Software Developer with a good understanding of SDLC lifecycle with lean agile methodology (SCRUM)Strong background in Linux/Unix & Windows AdministrationSystem development in an Object-oriented or functional programming language such as Python / Ruby / Java / Perl / Shell scripting / Groovy or GoSystem-level understanding of Linux (RedHat, CentOS, Ubuntu, SUSE Linux), Unix (Solaris, Mac OS) and Windows ServersShell scripting and automation of routines, remote execution of scriptsDatabase management experience in Mongo/Oracle or MySQL databaseStrong SQL and PL/SQL scriptingExperience working with source code version control management like Git, GitLab, GitHub or SubversionExperience with cloud architectures, particularly Amazon Web Services(AWS) or Google cloud platform or Microsoft AzureGood understanding of containerization using Dockers and/or KubernetesExperience with CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins and GitLabKnowledge of data-centre management, systems management, and monitoring, networking & securityExperience in Automation/configuration management using Ansible, and/or Puppet and/or ChefKnow how to monitor your code using Configuration Monitoring tools such as Nagios or PrometheusBackground in Infrastructure and NetworkingExtensive knowledge about RESTful APIsA solid understanding of networking and core Internet protocols (e.g. TCP/IP, DNS, SMTP, HTTP, and distributed networks)Excellent written and verbal English communication skillsSelf-learner, team layer, willingness to learn new technologies and ability to resolve issues independently and deliver results.3. Roadmap to becoming a DevOps Engineer3.1 Learn a programming languageA programming language enables a user to interact and manage the system resources such as the kernel, device drivers, memory devices, I/O devices; also to write software.A well-written piece of code will be more versatile, portable, error-proof, scalable and optimized that will enhance your DevOps cycle letting you be more productive with a high-quality product. As a DevOps Engineer, you will have to use many software and plugins for a CI/CD pipeline, and you will be at your best if you have a good grip on some of the popular programming languages:1. Java : An object-oriented, general-purpose programming language. Goal – “Write once, run anywhere”, which is synonymous with the Dockers(or containerization) philosophy     2. C: Is a general-purpose procedural programming language, it supports structured programming3. C#: A general-purpose, multi-paradigm object-oriented programming (OOP) language4. Python: Python is an easy to learn, interpreted, high-level and powerful programming language with an object-oriented approach. Ideal for infrastructure programming and web development. It has a very clear syntax5. Ruby: Is an open-source dynamic OOP programming language with an elegant and easy syntax. This implements multiple multi-paradigm approaches.As you know, DevOps majorly emphasizes on automating the repetitive and error-prone tasks. You ought to know any of the popular scripting languages:6. Perl: Perl is a highly capable scripting programming language, with its syntax very similar to C7. Bash shell script: Powerful set of instructions in a single shell script file to automate repetitive and complex commands8. JavaScript: An interpreted scripting language to build websites9. PowerShell for windows: A cross-platform automation and configuration framework or tool, that deals with structured data, REST APIs and object models. It has a command-line tool.Good-to-know language:10. Go: Go is an open-source programming language developed by Google. It is used to build simple, reliable and efficient software3.2 Understand different OS conceptsAs a Software developer, you must be able to write code that can interact with the machine resources and have a sound understanding of the underlying OS you are dealing with.Knowing the OS concepts will help you be more productive in your programming.This gives you the ability to make your code faster, manage processes, interact with the input-output devices, communicate with the other OS, optimize the processing usage, memory usage and disk usage of your program.As a DevOps engineer with infrastructure role, setting up and managing servers, controllers and switches becomes easier if you understand the resources, processes, and virtualization concepts very well.To be able to administer the users and groups, file permissions and security you must know the filesystem architecture.Essential OS concepts a DevOps engineer must know include:I. Kernel managementKernel is the core element of any OS. It connects the system hardware with the software. It is responsible for memory, storage, and process managementII. Memory ManagementMemory management is the allocation/deallocation of system memory(RAM, cache, page) to various system resources and to optimize the performance of the systemIII. Device drivers managementA device driver is a software program that controls the hardware device of the machineIV. Resource managementThe dynamic allocation/deallocation of system resources such as kernel, CPU, memory, disk and so onV. I/O managementCommunication between various input/output devices connected to the machine such as- keyboard, mouse, disk, USB, monitor, printers, etc VI. Processes and process managementEvery program that executes a certain task is called a process, each process utilizes a certain amount of computational resources. The technique of managing various processes to share the load of memory, disk and CPU(processing) usage also the inter-process communication is termed as process managementVII. Threads and concurrencyMany programming languages support multi-threading and concurrency, i.e, the ability to run multiple tasks simultaneously  VIII. Virtualization and containerizationConcept of simulating a single physical machine to multiple virtual machines/environments to optimize the use of resources and to reduce the time is taken and cost. Understand this well as you will often need to replicate the real-time environment.Linux  containers are a great concept to isolate and package an application along with its run-time environment as a single entity.Run-time environment includes all its dependencies, binaries, configuration files and libraries. Dockers is a containerized command-line tool that makes it easier to create, run and deploy applications with containers.Using both Virtual machines and dockers together can yield better results in virtualizationIX. Distributed file systemsA client machine can access data located on a Server machine. This is true in the case of a client/server-based application model.X. Filesystem architectureThe architectural layout of how and in what hierarchy the data is organized on a disk, will make your task of managing data easier.3.3 Learn about managing serversAs cloud deployments become more useful with DevOps approach, there is a need to manage a group of Servers (Application, Database, Web Server, Storage, Infrastructure, Networking Server and so on) rather than individual servers.You should be dynamically scaled up/down the servers, without rewriting the configuration files.Nginx: This is a web server that can also be used as a reverse proxy, load balancer, mail proxy, and HTTP cache.This provides robust and customizable monitoring of your cloud instances and their status. Nginx offers more flexibility and configurability for better configuration and automation using DevOps tools like Puppet and Chef.3.4 Networking and SecurityIn a highly connected network of computers, it becomes essential to understand the basic concepts of networking, how to enforce security and diagnose problems.As a DevOps engineer, you would also be required to set up an environment to test networking functions. In addition, set up continuous integration, delivery and deployment pipelines for network functions.Learn the basic networking concepts like Ip addresses, DNS, routing, firewalls and ports, basic utilities like ping, ssh, netstat, ncr and ip, load balancing and TLS encryption.Understand the basic protocols(standard rules for networking) such as-TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), SSL, SSH (Secure Shell), FTP (File Transfer Protocol), DNS (Domain Name Server).Configuration management tools like Ansible and Jenkins can be used to configure and orchestrate network devices.3.5 What is and how to set-upAs a DevOps methodology we often describe CI/CD pipeline, let us understand what is it?Continuous Integration(CI) is a development practice wherein ­­developers regularly merge or integrate their code changes into a commonly shared repos­itory very frequently.If I speak from a VCS (preferably Git’s) point of view -Every minor code change done on various branches (from different contributors) is pushed and integrated with the main release branch several times a day, rather than waiting for the complete feature to be developed.Every code check-in is then verified by an automated build and automated test cases. This approach helps to detect and fix the bugs early, resolve the conflicts that may arise, improve software quality, reduce the validation and feedback loop time; hence increasing the overall product quality and speedy product releases.Continuous Delivery(CD) is a software practice where every code check-in is automatically built, tested and ready for a release(delivery) to production. Every code check-in should be release/deployment ready.CD phase delivers the code to a production-like-environment such as dev, uat, preprod, etc and runs automated tests.On successful implementation of continuous delivery in the prod-like environment, the code is ready to be deployed to the main production server.It is best to learn the DevOps lifecycle of continuous development, continuous build, continuous testing, continuous integration, continuous deployment and continuous monitoring throughout the complete product lifecycle.Based on the DevOps process setup use the right tools to facilitate the CI/CD pipeline.3.6 Learn Infrastructure as codeInfrastructure as code (IaC) is to define(or declare) and manage the infrastructure resources programmatically by writing code as configuration files instead of managing each resource individually.These infrastructure resources(hardware and software) may be set up on a physical server, a Virtual machine or cloud.An IaC defines the desired state of the machine and generates the same environment every time it is compiled.What does IaC do?Automation: Spinning up or scaling down many resources becomes easier, as just a configuration file needs to be compiled and run. This reduces the overhead and the time spent.Versioning:  IaC is a text file which can be versioned controlled which means 3 things:Infrastructure changes such as scaling up/down the resources and or changing/updating the resources (filesystem or user management) can be tracked through the versioned historyConfiguration files are easily shareable and portable and are checked-in as source codeAn IaC text file can easily be scheduled to be run in a CI/CD pipeline for Server management and orchestration.Manual errors eliminated: productivity increasedEach environment is an exact replica of production.How to do it?Use tools like  Puppet,  Ansible,  Chef,  TerraformThese tools aim at providing a stable environment for both development and operations tasks that results in smooth orchestration.A. Puppet: Puppet is a Configuration Management Tool (CMT) to build, configure and manage infrastructure on physical or virtual machinesB. Ansible: is a Configuration management, Deployment and Orchestration toolC. Chef: is a configuration management tool written in Ruby and Erlang to deploy, manage, update and repair server and application to any environmentD. Terraform: This automation tool builds, change, version and improve infrastructure and servers safely and efficiently.How will IaC be applied in DevOps?IaC configuration files are used to build CI/CD pipelines.IaC definitions enable DevOps teams to test applications/software in production-like stable environments quickly and effortlessly.These environments with IaC are repeatable and prevent runtime issues caused due to misconfiguration or missing dependencies.---3.7 Learn some Continuous Integration and Delivery (CI/CD) toolsIn order to continuously develop, integrate, build, test, apply feedback, deliver our product features to the production environment or deploy to the customer site, we have to build an automated sequence of jobs(processes) to be executed using the appropriate tools.CI/CD pipeline requires custom code and working with multiple software packages simultaneously. As a DevOps Engineer, here are some widely used tools you must know-a.  Jenkins is an open-source automation server. Using Jenkins plugins CI/CD pipelines are built to automatically build, test and deploy the source codeJenkins is a self-contained Java-based program and easy to configure, extensible and distributedb.  GitLab CI is a single tool for the complete DevOps cycle. Every code check-ins trigger builds, run tests, and deploy code in a virtual machine or docker container or any other server. Its has an excellent GUI interface. GitLab CI also has features for monitoring and securityc.  CircleCI software is used to build, test, deploy and automate the development cycle. This is a secure and scalable tool with huge multi-platform support for IOS and MAC OS using MAC virtual machines along with Android and Linux environmentsd.  Microsoft VSTS(Visual Studio Team Services) is not only a CI/CD service but also provide unlimited cloud-hosted private code repositoriese.  CodeShip tool empowers your DevOps CI/CD pipelines with easy, secure, fast and reliable builds with native docker support. It provides a GUI to easily configure the buildsf.  Bamboo by Atlassian is a Continuous integration, deployment and delivery Server. Bamboo has built-in  Jira Software and  BitBucket Software Integration, also built-in git branching and workflows.Jenkins is the most popular and widely used tool with numerous flexible plugins that integrate with almost any CI/CD toolchain. Also the ability of Jenkins to automate any project really distinguish this tool from others, thus it is highly recommended to get a good grip of this tool as a DevOps practitioner.Note: Since this is also a key for enthusiasts to choose the right tool but should be short definitions3.8 Know the tools to monitor software and infrastructureIt is crucial to continuously monitor the software and infrastructure upon setting up the continuous integration and continuous delivery pipeline (CI/CD) to understand how well your DevOps setup is performing. Also, it is vital to monitor system events and get alerts in real-time. A hiccup in the pipeline such as an application dependency failure or a linking error, or say the database has a downtime must be immediately notable and taken care of.This is where a DevOps Engineer must be familiar with monitoring tools such as -1.  Nagios: is an open-source software application that monitors systems, networks, and infrastructure(Servers) and generates logs and alerts2.  Prometheus: is an open-source real-time metrics-based event monitoring and alerting system.3.9 Learn about Cloud ProvidersAs the computational need increases so do the demand of the infrastructure resources.Cloud computing is a higher level of virtualization, wherein the computing resources are outsourced on a “cloud” and available for use on a pay-as-you-go basis over the internet.Some of the leading cloud providers such as AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure to name a few provide varied cloud services like IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS.Begin part of a DevOps practice, you will often find the need to access various cloud services say for infrastructure resources, production-like environment on the go for testing your product without having to provision it, get multiple replicas of the production environment, create a failover cluster, backup and recover your database over the cloud and various other tasks.Some of the cloud providers and what they offer are listed below-A.  AWS (Amazon Web Services): provide tooling and infrastructure resources readily available for DevOps programs customized as per your requirement. You can easily build and deliver products, automate CI/CD process without having to worry about provisioning and configuring the environmentB.  Microsoft Azure: Create a reliable CI/CD pipeline, practice Infrastructure as Code and continuous monitoring through Microsoft-managed data centresC.  Google Cloud Platform: Uses google-managed data centres to provide DevOps features like end-to-end CI/CD automation, Infrastructure as Code, configuration management, security management, and serverless computing.AWS is the most versatile and recommended provider that you may wish to start learning.4. What next after becoming a DevOps expert?“Sky is the only limit for a DevOps person !!!”Mastering the DevOps tools and practices opens up the door to new roles and challenges for you to learn and grow.4.1 DevOps EvangelistA technical Evangelist is a strong powerful and influential role that exhibits a strong thought process.A DevOps evangelist is a DevOps leader who identifies and implements the DevOps features to solve a business problem or a process, and then shares and promotes the benefits that come from DevOps practice.Also identifies the key roles and train the team in the same and is responsible for the success of entire DevOps processes and people.4.2 Code Release ManagerA Code Release Manager measures the overall progress of the project in terms of metrics, he/she is aware of the entire Agile methodology. A Release Manager is more involved in the coordination among all the phases of DevOps flow to support continuous delivery.4.3 Automation ArchitectThe key responsibility is to plan, analyze, and design a strategy to automate all manual tasks with the right tools and implement the processes for continuous deployment.4.4 Experience AssuranceAn experience Assurance person is responsible for the user experience and makes sure that the product being delivered meet the original business specifications.This role is also termed as Quality Assurance but with extended responsibilities of user experience testing. This role plays a critical role in the DevOps cycle.4.5 Software Developer/TesterUnder DevOps, the role and responsibilities of a Software Developer literally expand l, that the developers are no longer responsible for writing code, but also take ownership of unit testing, deployment and monitoring as well.A Developer/Tester has to make sure that the code meets the original business requirement.Henceforth; the role Developer/Tester or if the innovation extends further a Developer may also be referred to as DevTestOps.4.6 Security EngineerSecurity Engineer focuses on the Integrity of data by incorporating security into the product, and not at the end.He/she supports project teams in using security tools in the CI/CD pipeline, as well as provide resolution of identified security flaws. Conclusion“If you define the problem correctly, you almost have the solution.”  - Steve JobsIn a nutshell, if you aspire to  become a DevOps professional you ought to know -Programming language (C, Java, Perl, Python, Ruby, Bash shell, PowerShell)Operating System concepts (resource management)Source Control (like Git, Bitbucket, Svn, VSTS, etc)Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (Jenkins, GitLab CI, CircleCI)Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Automation (tools like Puppet, Chef, Ansible and/or Terraform)Managing Servers (application, storage, database, infrastructure, networking, web server etc)(Application, Database, Web Server, Storage, Infrastructure, Networking Server Networking and securityContainer Concepts (Docker)Continuous monitoring (Nagios and Prometheus)Cloud (like AWS, Azure, Google Cloud).DevOps ways( The three ways of DevOps) open the door of opportunities to improve and excel in the process using the right tools and technologies.“DevOps channels the entire process right from the idea on a whiteboard until the real product in the customer’s hands through automated pipelines(CI/CD).”As a DevOps Engineer you must be a motivated team player, need to have a desire to learn and grow, optimize the process and find better solutions.Since DevOps covers a vast area under its umbrella, it is best to focus on your key skills and learn the technologies and tools as needed.Understand the problem/challenge then find a DevOps solution around the same.
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8 Key Challenges Of Implementing DevOps And Overcoming Them

The increase in the number of companies to adopt DevOps to improve their workflow and productivity has led to an increase in the recurring concerns regarding its implementation. The answers to questions such as ‘Where and how do I start with my DevOps adoption?’, ‘What are the challenges that I might face?’ and ‘How do I go about to resolve those challenges?’, are very commonly sought after. Bringing about such a revolutionary change from the traditional Waterfall approach to DevOps is not an easy process. The following lists some of the major challenges that organisations face while implementing DevOps.Change in Culture: The workplace culture undergoes the major amount of transformation while implementing DevOps. It is also one of the most difficult areas of transformation as it is a long term process which also requires a lot of patience and endurance. To make the process a bit easier, enterprises should try and maintain a positive as well as a transparent atmosphere in the workplace. Switching from Legacy Infrastructure to Microservices: In order to reduce stability issues, organisations now use infrastructure as code along with microservices for quicker development along with sharp innovations. Moreover, organisations need to update their hardware and software systems according to the latest trends on a regular basis, so that new systems can co-exist with the existing systems. Issues with the standards and metrics: Dev and Ops departments have different goals and working systems, hence they have different toolsets as well. It might become very tedious to sit together and integrate the tools. Under such circumstances, it is advisable that the teams agree upon a commonly decided metric system.Tool Turbulence: Switching to DevOps practices might make people dependent on the various tools that are available to solve even the smallest of their problems.  Due to this, organisations might become addicted to those tools which provide with short-term benefits over the ones which provide with long-term benefits. Some of the tools are open-sourced or SaaS-based and can be easily adopted without any authorization. To make things easier, you can provide teams with a set of library tools from which they can opt for their preferred tools. This will also help the leaders stay up-to-date with the activities of the employees. Resistance to Change: You might come across people in your company who might not be supportive of the legacy systems. They are the ones who have become comfortable with their way of working and are not willing to leave their comfort zones. Hence, it is very important that you don’t bend down to such elements but instead bear with the discomfort of change. Challenges during the process: Adopting DevOps can prove to be challenging for workers who blindly follow guidelines and stay stuck to the rules, or for companies which follow specific guidelines for software development, as DevOps doesn’t have any fixed framework stating procedures that employees can follow to reach their desired goals.The teams can decide on their own course of action without any structural approach, giving them opportunities and more scope for innovation. Test Automation: Test Automation holds equal importance as CI/CD deployments. It has been commonly observed that companies tend to neglect test automation and focus more on CI/CD deployments. For DevOps to be a success, continuous testing acts as a key. Cost and Budget: It is very important to keep in mind that open source does not necessarily mean that it is free of cost. Moreover, factor in integration and operational complexity to your overall costs. In a Nutshell:As Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher says that change is the only constant. It might be hard in the beginning, messy during the process, but it is always glorious in the end. Evolving in the IT culture, DevOps brings you closer to bridge the boundary between business, development and operations. Overcoming these challenges from the root will make the transition process smoother for you. 
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8 Key Challenges Of Implementing DevOps And Overcoming Them
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