TUT89691

Game of ThronesA DevOps Parable

Craig Gardner

Software Engineering Manager

SUSE

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Victims

DevOps? Really?!

Of Golden Hammers, Silver Bullets, and Poisoned Thrones

How much do you really care?

Managers and Teams who deliver solutions

SUSE® and DevOps (a morality play)

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DevOps? Really?!

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… what is it? Really??

Select the correct answer. “DevOps is:”

___ Magic Wand

___ Silver Bullet

___ Golden Hammer

___ An attempt to economize the collaboration of efforts to release usable software

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What is DevOps, Really?!

A Textbook would say:

• DevOps is the practice of operations and development engineers participating together in the entire service lifecycle, from design through the development process to production support

● … Characterized by operations staff making use many of the same techniques as developers for their systems work

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What is DevOps, Really?!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DevOps#/media/File:Devops.svg

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Reality would say...

DevOps in practice:

• Not necessarily new

• Another process; built on principles from earlier, successful processes

• Not a Silver Bullet

• Can work well enough – with the right conditions

– with the right people

– with a lot of hard work

– … and a lot of coffee

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“Not Necessarily New…?”

DevOps in practice:

• Continuous Integration

• Continuous Deployment

• Concentrating on Efficiency of Collaboration

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Types of XXXOps

DevOps

ITOps

BuildOPS

NetOPS

WebOPS

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What Am I Managing, Exactly?

● Typically web solutions

Less common to be talking about stand alone applications

● Providing agility for addressing performance, scaling, and delivery of new/updated code to IT applications

● The Flow of Delivering a Service or Services

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What Does DevOps Fix?

Poor communication between development

and those running the software

● Note that we group “testing” with “development”

● … though it’s too simplistic to avoid the topic of testing

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What Does DevOps Fix?

Inefficiencies of:

● Handing code from developers to deployers (IT operations)● Providing a competent feedback loop (good or bad)● Conflicts due to the inefficiencies● Development is agile, while operations is relatively static● While attempting to provide a solution for customers, resist

solving problems within the process

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What's The Real Problem?

So what’s the REAL problem?● Providing a solution while managing change● IT Manager feels she has no upstream insight, no control

● It’s frequent chaos● Anarchy rules● Little idea of quality● Little control over addressing growth

● Dev Manager feels he has no downstream influence● “I just write the code; I don’t know what IT is doing with it.”

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What is DevOps? Really?!

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DevOps in Ideology

DevOps hopes to accomplish:

● Reducing the distance between development and IT operations● Reducing the barriers and time to deliver software (service)● Increasing the collaboration between developers and sysadmins● Bringing mutual agility to delivering new solutions (managing

change)

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Development and Operations Roles

Development● Create functionality● Fix code problems● Non-functional characteristics: performance, scalability, security, etc.

Operations● Make the functionality available● Stabilize (fix environment and runtime problems)● Economize / Scale

Some different tasks, yet remarkable confluence (similarity)

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The Process Flow of DevOps

Code

Build

Test

Package

Release

Configure

Monitor

Match the Speed of Change

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Automation

● Not unique to DevOps, but particularly well fitted

● Both in Dev and in Ops

● Reliant upon consistent, known states

● Unit tests in Dev, Configuration Management in Ops

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Automation

What can be automated?

● Builds (probably the easiest)

● Testing, at various levels

● Deployment of software

● System administration

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Manager's Special

What should a DevOps Manager insist?● Metrics (knowledge is power)

● Dialog (doesn’t have to be fancy, but frequent and well meaning)

● Ordinary, predictable (no time for heroics)

● Investment (New ideas, long term outcomes; “What if?”)

● Trust

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DevOps Lifecycle

Planning

● Manager must take time for this, facilitate

● Consider non-functional requirements

● Be pragmatic; developers are too optimistic

● Involves Operations, too; not just Deveopment

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DevOps Lifecycle

Execute

● Create channels and opportunities to communicate● Embrace risk (not reckless) ● Reward measurable improvements in the team’s execution

● Don’t focus on the dates● Don’t focus on the features/bug fixes● The project manager will be pushing those things● Example: new automation

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DevOps Lifecycle

Post-Release

● Hold a Retrospective

● Continue automated tests after release

● Breathe (counter to Sprint)

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DevOps Lifecycle

Maintain

● Be prepared for Support and maintenance

● Continue automation

● Monitor and measure

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Of Golden Hammers,Silver Bullets,

and Poisoned Thrones

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No Magic Solutions

DevOps is an Agile Process

● Still requires “process”

● Requires smart, caring, hard-working people

● Requires management

● Demands heightened collaboration where other processes fail

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Game of Thrones . . . or Oedipus

Game of Thrones

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Game of Thrones

Epic Struggle for Power – sacrifice for power● Jaime Lannister: pushes a boy out a window

● Malevolent Charisma● Jon Snow: crafty deception

● Guards the Northern Border, honor bound● Daenerys Targaryen: most aggressive to reclaim the Iron Throne

● Most popular, appealing, sexy

G.R.R. Martin makes all these characters out to be Heroes

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Oedipus the King

Greek Tragedy by Sophocles

● Born to King Laius and Queen Jocasta● Oedipus kills his father to become king● Due to Tragic Struggle, faced with The Riddle of the Sphinx● Marries his mother, Jocasta● Jocasta kills herself● Oedipus blinds himself

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Oedipus the King

Greek Tragedy by Sophocles

Oedipus owes more to

his dad than he realizes,

until it’s much too late.

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Teams That Deliver Solutions

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Hallmarks of Success

Configuration Management● OPS: Salt, Ansible, Chef, Puppet, CFEngine, etc● DEV: git, svn, etc

Testing● Unit tests, and more unit tests● QA tests happen alongside development

Automation● Jenkins, Drone, Travis, etc

Continuous Deployment● Once you validate, deploy; automate

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SUSE and DevOps

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SUSE Customer Center (SCC)

Team Decision → Team Investment● Scrum and DevOps● Less Specific “Dev” and “Ops” Roles● New project, not tied to old processes or paradigms

Fearless Deployment● Don’t be afraid to make mistakes● As many as 40 deployments per day (though typically not)● Confidence in Agility

Automation, Automation● Automate everything: Tests, Integrations, Deployments●

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Open Build Service

Opted for DevOps Almost by Default● Uses a modified Kanban approach; Agile development● All Ops environment already under Dev management

More Deliberate Deployments● Can deploy more rapidly; chooses to deploy weekly● Extensive, stress testing before deployment● Service Level Agreement with Users

Automation, Automation● Sophisticated Dev Test Suite ensures changes don’t break Production● Roll Back

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DevOps for DevOps Managers

Thank You