Introduction to devops LEARNOVITA

What is DevOps? : A Complete Guide with Best Practices

Last updated on 31st Oct 2022, Artciles, Blog

About author

Parneet Singh (DevOps Engineer )

Parneet Singh is a DevOps Senior Engineer. She has expertise in Trending Domains like Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain, etc. Her articles help the learners to get insights about the Domain.

(5.0) | 19284 Ratings 2301
    • In this article
    • 1.What is Devops?
    • 2.Why Devops?
    • 3. Conclusion

What is Devops?

The term “DevOps,” which stands for “development and operations,” refers to one of the most helpful technologies that can be used in the realm of “development and operations.” This blog post about the definition of DevOps and the contexts in which it is used attempts to help you grasp both concepts. In addition to this, you will get familiar with the myriad of tools and technologies that are used in its operation. So, let’s get started with some reading on DevOps, shall we?

This compartment mindset was effectively broken thanks to a significant organizational culture change known as “DevOps,” which bridged the gap between the development and operations teams by making them:

  • Cooperate with one another and divide the workload.
  • Take complete responsibility for the software that they offer for the whole of its software lifetime.

These days, the IT industry as a whole, including major players in the sector like Amazon, Facebook, Google, Netflix, and BMC Software, has enthusiastically adopted the DevOps methodology. More lately, businesses have been investigating how they might apply the tenets of the DevOps methodology to other parts of the company than IT.

Devops

Why Devops?

A. Involvement of Operations Early and Continually in Development and Development in Operations

The delivery cycle looks something like this in many different kinds of businesses:

  • The sales crew overpromising and under delivers.
  • The development team is under intense pressure to rush their work in order to fulfill the project’s functional requirements on time.
  • The operations team is given a product that is only halfway developed, on which they had no involvement, and for which there is no documentation.

As a direct consequence of this, the product is quite likely to:

Demand large time commitments, such as to instal, test, run, repair, and maintain, and do not satisfy performance objectives, such as reaction time or projected volume, among other things.

This obstacle is overcome through a strategy known as “DevOps,” which advocates a delivery structure that includes the following elements:

  • Instead of having different departments or stages, the company forms delivery teams composed of staff members with a focus on both development and operations, and then works on both at the same time.
  • Reduces the size of major modifications so that they may be implemented more often and with less risk.

Consider functional increments to be “done” only once all of the modifications required to support that change operationally, in addition to all of the tests, and any accompanying documentation, have also been finished. For further detail, see:

  • Agile is a framework for the delivery of projects that is often contrasted with waterfall.
  • Scrum is a software development approach that complies with the Agile standard.

B.Resolution of Problems Identified and Pursued Early and Consistently

In many businesses, the vast majority of problems are not discovered until after they have been reported by customers or users:

The testing that was carried out during the process of development and release was insufficient: Software flaws are not detected in time and are released into production.

Because there is so little in the way of monitoring and notifications on the manufacturing, any problems that arise with the operation go ignored.

In addition to this, once a problem has been identified:

It is challenging for investigators to notice the problem or recreate the circumstance due to the instruments that are at their disposal.

Transparency and cohesion are not present in the procedures that facilitate the prioritization of issues, the identification of the causes of such issues, the execution of fixes, and contact with customers.

End users get frustrated as a result of the high probability of problems, the slow pace at which these problems are fixed, and the lack of information that is accessible both for developers and for users. This puts strain on delivery teams.

A different configuration would consist of:

During the development and release processes, testing is fully automated, exhaustive, and continuously repeated. In addition, monitoring tools automatically detect key events and evaluate performance in comparison to the organization’s Service Line Agreements (SLAs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) (KPIs). The present condition and performance of the system, as well as any faults, are viewable via an interface that is appealing to users, and messages are sent to them whenever services are temporarily unavailable.

The team now has access to the appropriate tools, allowing them to rapidly build up a test environment, reproduce the problem by running preemptive scenarios, recognise existing issues, and research possible remedies.

In the event that problems do arise, consumers like the openness and honesty, which fosters loyalty, while support workers are given the authority to provide solutions.

C. Keeping idle time to a minimum

The duration of time during which a service is not accessible is referred to as “downtime.” The goal of most businesses is to eliminate or reduce their periods of downtime.

Downtime that occurs as a result of bugs, system crashes, or network faults can be difficult to predict; however, operations departments can protect themselves from it by adding “redundancy” to their solution. This refers to exact backup “copies” of the entire system that are always ready to take over in the event that something goes wrong.

The majority of system upgrades adhere to the fundamental pattern of shut down, replace, and restart, and the system remains unavailable all during this time period. Releases are another possible cause of downtime. Invoking redundancy is done in a similar fashion through the proven and tested cure known as “blue/green deployment,” which is deployed by operations teams.

The company operates two identical copies of the system, which it refers to as “blue” and “green.” However, all of the organization’s activity is directed to only one of the copies (for example, to “blue”) while the other remains inactive (‘green’).

The update is carried out and then tested on the system designated as “green,” while the system designated as “blue” continues to run the earlier version and manage all of the traffic. After the deployment has been finished and validated, the company will adjust the way it routes traffic (this might be done immediately or gradually), with the end goal being that ‘green’ will ultimately be in charge of all traffic while ‘blue’ would become inactive. After ‘green’ has been tested for a certain amount of time and shown to be reliable, ‘blue’ will ultimately be modified so that it is ready for the following generation.

Credit: 5 Blue-Green Deployment Recommended Procedures for a Seamless Discharge.

The pursuit of “zero downtime” is particularly critical in production settings, which are those in which end users would be negatively impacted in the event of an interruption; however, it may also apply to test environments, which are those in which it is crucial to avoid disrupting test operations.

Unfortunately, releases don’t always go according to plan, and occasionally a problem with a release only becomes apparent after it has been pushed out (typically because it’s only then that the programme is exposed to the greatest possible variety of contexts and situations). When something like this occurs, the return on investment that the organization had planned to get from the release, in addition to their reputation, is in jeopardy.

It is important for organizations to go back to regular operations as fast as they can, and they have two options to do so: “take a step back”

i.e. redirect traffic to the “blue” server if it is still using the older version; alternatively, redeploy the most recent stable version; i.e., issue a “hotfix” or “patch”; or alternatively, swiftly construct a new release that resolves the problem. A roll forward may make it possible for the new features of the release to be realized, but it has to be safe and effective in order for this to happen. A hasty adjustment might make the issue much more difficult. This degree of elevated, time-critical analysis and decision making, it should go without saying, demands well-drilled systems that promote tight collaboration between Operations and Development.

D.Delivery That Is Both Automatic And Continuous

(Re)deploying software might be essential for a variety of reasons, including the following:

New functionality was implemented, and the problem was found and fixed. It was determined that an update or migration of the hardware was necessary, and more resources were needed to accommodate growing demand across many regions.

In many companies, the process of deploying and testing their infrastructure and software is carried out manually. This involves people reading instruction manuals that include hundreds of individual stages. This:

High risk since it requires a lot of effort from knowledgeable resources, there is room for interpretation, and there is a possibility of errors.

It is quite unusual for organizations of this kind to publish updates more often than a few times each year. They are unable to respond rapidly to shifting business possibilities or dangers as a result of their lack of speed.

If, on the other hand, the deployment of infrastructure and applications, in addition to the testing that comes after it, is automated, then organisations may release software at an extremely rapid rate. The agility of a business delivers results:

Facebook formerly used the phrase “Move fast and break everything” as their business slogan because they believed that their rapid growth was a major contributor to their firm’s success. (Since then, sensibly, they’ve also addressed the risk factor, and they’ve modified their slogan to something a little less punchy like “Move quickly with reliable infrastructure.”).

The following few sections in this series will concentrate on the various tools and procedures that are used in the process of providing assistance for continuous delivery.

Why Devops?

Conclusion:

In this article, we have discussed the concept of DevOps, as well as the rationale for implementing it and some crucial procedures that may be put into place. The historically distinct realms of development and operations are brought closer together via the implementation of these solutions, which serves as the overarching unifying principle.

Are you looking training with Right Jobs?

Contact Us

Popular Courses