[The Beauty of Software Engineering - Column Notes] 36 | What exactly do DevOps engineers do?

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Column information

1. Columnist: Baoyu

2. Column Publishing Platform: Geek Time

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Main content

What exactly is DevOps?What exactly does DevOps do?

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First, the traditional operation and maintenance model and the challenges it faces

In the traditional waterfall model development, the operation and maintenance part of the software life cycle is usually handed over to the operation and maintenance engineer to complete.

In the early years this mode of operation and maintenance worked very wellGood, but with the development of the Internet over the years, there are two main factors that challenge the traditional operation and maintenance model.

1. First, the rapid growth of server scale and the rapid development of virtualization technology.

   In recent years, with the rapid development of technology, the number of servers in large Internet companies has become larger and larger, and small and medium-sized companies have begun to migrate to cloud services to build online service infrastructure based on virtualization technologies such as Docker..

   It means that the previous manual or semi-automatic methods are unsustainable, and more automation and secondary development based on container technology or related tools are required.

2. Second, high-frequency deployment releases.

   After the rise of the concept of agile development and continuous delivery, the frequency of updates is getting higher and higher, and updates are deployed several times a week or even a day.

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Second, what is DevOps?

DevOps can be understood as a way of working closely with Development and Operations to build, test, and release software faster and more reliably.

What are the benefits of working in a DevOps way?

1. The entire software build, test and release process is highly automated
2. Information is more transparent and easier to measure
3. Cultivate a culture of cross-functional collaboration

DevOps principles: Automation, transparent and measurable information, building a culture of collaboration.

• It looks difficult, but it doesn't need to be stressful, because to practice DevOps, you don't need to change the development model, either waterfall model or agile development can be implemented
• No need for management push
• It is not necessary for developers to learn operation and maintenance knowledge or operation and maintenance to learn development knowledge.Instead, make changes bit by bit by understanding the core value of DevOps, which is close collaboration across functions to build, test, and release software faster and more reliably.

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3. What exactly should a DevOps engineer do?

1. First, DevOps engineers help teams build workflows based on continuous integration and continuous delivery.

   Continuous integration and continuous delivery are not only about the use of tools, but also a set of delivery workflows based on tools.

   This is the first problem that a DevOps engineer has to solve.

2. Secondly, a log-based monitoring and alarming system should be established, as well as a fault response process.

   It is necessary to establish a log-based monitoring and alarming system to monitor various data of the application program and the operating environment, and set the alarm threshold.

3. Then, to build the infrastructure based on cloud computing and virtualization technology.

   Although not every software project is built based on cloud computing or virtualization technology, cloud computing and virtualization technology actually span development and operation and maintenance.

4. Finally, a DevOps culture needs to be formed.

   DevOps The core essence is the culture of work style and collaboration, and such a culture needs to be led and formed little by little.

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IV. Other excerpts

• A very important foundation of DevOps is automation. The application of automation is the easiest and most effective way to break down the barriers between development and operation and maintenance.
• When working in a DevOps way, information is more transparent and data can be better measured through logs and tools.
• The core culture of DevOps is a culture of close collaboration between different functional jobs.

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Summary

DevOps can be understood as a way of working closely together for development and operations to build, test, and release software faster and more reliably.The main principles of DevOps are automation, transparent and measurable information, and building a collaborative culture.