A presentation at Derby Developers Meetup June 2019 in in Derby, UK by Jonathan Relf
Jonathan Relf Devel-Ops - Bringing Development Practices to Operations Tasks
27th June 2019 Jonathan Relf DEVEL-OPS
Commify is the team behind a global portfolio of business messaging brands. We work with more than 45,000 companies, helping them transform their mobile communications with their customers and staff.
We provide SMS, voice, web, IP/OTT, email and intelligent multichannel messaging services both on a self-serve basis (through an online platform or API), and as tailored solutions to more complex needs. www.commify.com
BRINGING DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES TO OPERATIONS TASKS DEVEL-OPS
THIS TALK IS NOT: VS Devs Ops
THIS TALK IS MORE:
@jbjon
“THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY IS REPEATING THE SAME MISTAKES OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND EXPECTING DIFFERENT RESULTS” Unknown @jbjon
“THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY IN I.T. OPERATIONS IS MANUALLY REPEATING A TASK OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND EXPECTING THE SAME RESULTS” Jonathan Relf @jbjon
THE IRON AGE OF I.T.
THE CLOUD AGE OF I.T.
“UNRELIABLE SOFTWARE DEPENDING ON RELIABLE HARDWARE TO RELIABLE SOFTWARE RUNNING ON UNRELIABLE HARDWARE” Infrastructure As Code @jbjon
2017
2018
https://landscape.cncf.io/
THOUGHTWORKS RADAR @jbjon https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar/tools
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/xdot509/2013/07/24/getting-started-with-windows-azure-part-2-what-are-cloud-services/
WHY BOTHER DEFINING YOUR OWN INFRASTRUCTURE IN CODE? @jbjon
REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS
3RD PARTY SOLUTION UNCERTAINTY
HARDEN APPLICATION HOSTING
AVOID VENDOR LOCK-IN
MAINTAINING SERVERS OVER TIME OWN SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION UPDATES 3RD PARTY SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION UPDATES OPERATING SYSTEM FEATURES CONFIGURATION HYPERVISOR CONFIGURATION UPDATES PHYSICAL SERVER CONFIGURATION UPDATES UPDATES
THE FOUR STAGES OF INFRASTRUCTURE PROVISIONING CONFIGURING MAINTENANCE TERMINATION @jbjon
PROVISIONING ▸ Since virtualisation, one of the easiest of the phases ▸ Traditionally based off ISO images ▸ Out of date, unpatched images @jbjon
CONFIGURATION ▸ Can be where most configuration drift is added if not done through automation ▸ It may involve ‘tinkering’ to get a server working ▸ Can end up with ‘Snowflake servers’ ▸ Configuration Management software like Puppet & Chef @jbjon
MAINTENANCE ▸ Updates or upgrades of software components ▸ From security patches to in-place upgrades of O.S. ▸ Ordering of patches may affect outcome ▸ Scripting can help ensure consistency @jbjon
TERMINATION ▸ Fear of shutting off servers ▸ Treating servers like “pets, not cattle” ▸ Anti-pattern: Celebrating up-time ▸ Plan for the fact an instance could disappear @jbjon
GOALS OF INFRASTRUCTURE AS CODE @jbjon
IT INFRASTRUCTURE SUPPORTS & ENABLES CHANGE Kief Morris @jbjon
CHANGES TO THE SYSTEM ARE ROUTINE WITHOUT DRAMA OR STRESS Kief Morris @jbjon
IT STAFF SPEND THEIR TIME ON VALUABLE THINGS… NOT REPETITIVE TASKS Kief Morris @jbjon
USERS ARE ABLE TO DEFINE, PROVISION, AND MANAGE THE RESOURCES THEY NEED WITHOUT I.T. STAFF TO DO IT FOR THEM Kief Morris @jbjon
DEFINITION TOOLS ▸ Good Infrastructure As Code tools ▸ have scriptable interfaces ▸ can be run unattended ▸ can be tailored through config ▸ allow tasks to be defined in code ▸ the definition files become ‘living documentation’ @jbjon
VERSION CONTROL ▸ Natural part of development workflow ▸ branching, rollbacks, ownership ▸ Single point of truth ▸ Living documentation @jbjon
CONTINUOUS INTEGRATION ▸ Early feedback about potentially breaking changes ▸ Changes tested in isolation from production ▸ Can apply to infrastructure, server, and configuration changes ▸ “Does this produce the instance I expect?” ▸ “Does this instance have all the features I expect?” ▸ “Is this instance configured for its role correctly?” @jbjon
BUILD PIPELINES ▸ Avoid ‘automation fear’ ▸ Build regularly as well as on changes ▸ Pipelines maintaining templates ensures up-to-date images ▸ Reduces manual knowledge fading ▸ Services used to build can be provisioned temporarily ▸ Packer supports building machine images @jbjon
AUTOMATED TESTING ▸ One of the best practices to borrow from Development ▸ Not relying on ‘Green builds’ ▸ Frameworks like ServerSpec (http://serverspec.org) @jbjon
CONTINUOUS DELIVERY ▸ Not ‘Continuous Deployment’ ▸ Being able to update Test / Lab environments regularly ▸ Risk increases with ‘Time Since Last Success’ @jbjon
CODE ANALYSIS ▸ Emerging area drawing from Dev practices ▸ Config management declarative languages have ‘lint’ tools @jbjon
“A NETFLIX TEAM KNEW THAT A PERCENTAGE OF AWS INSTANCES, WHEN PROVISIONED, WILL PERFORM MUCH WORSE THAN THE AVERAGE INSTANCE SO THEY WROTE THEIR PROVISIONING SCRIPTS TO IMMEDIATELY TEST THE PERFORMANCE OF EACH NEW INSTANCE. IF IT DOESN’T MEET THEIR STANDARDS, THE SCRIPT DESTROYS THE INSTANCE AND TRIES AGAIN WITH A NEW INSTANCE.” Kief Morris @jbjon
WAYS TO START INTRODUCING THIS ▸ Start small ▸ Script everything ▸ Automate the process ▸ Run it regularly ▸ Test the changes in a safe environment ▸ Monitor all the things @jbjon
QUESTIONS?
ABOUT ME ▸ Jonathan Relf ▸ Solutions Architect @ Commify ▸ about.me/jbjon @jbjon
DevOps starts to deliver more value when it moves beyond breaking down team communication walls and the sharing of best practice starts to happen from all sides.
In this talk Jonathan Relf discusses how “infrastructure as code” can help you build secure, up to date environments consciously & collaboratively. You will be introduced to some of the methods and tools he has used to automate and test building virtual machines. He illustrates this with his own career journey from a Developer moving into Operations and the benefits these approaches have brought.
The following resources were mentioned during the presentation or are useful additional information.
Here’s what was said about this presentation on social media.
for free. You
can too.