29 червня 2023 р.
DevOps is a software development methodology used by programmers, testers, and system administrators. Its goal is to shorten the development life cycle and ensure more frequent releases of versions and new software by automating the processes of building, testing and deploying code. This approach helps to improve the overall quality of the software and to detect and fix problems faster.
Let's consider the essence of DevOps, implementation issues, features of the DevOps engineer profession, and the advantages of the methodology for business and development.
Definition of DevOps
The term DevOps comes from the combination of the words development and operations. The main idea of the methodology is to combine software development, testing and operation into a single cyclical process.
DevOps integrates development and operations to create an efficient and reliable IT infrastructure. The methodology facilitates collaboration between software developers and operations teams to automate processes such as service deployment and backups. Special attention in the DevOps approach is paid to automation, security of actions and communication between teams, which allows to quickly provide software products.
The need to implement DevOps for the development team
Adopting DevOps allows companies to reduce complexity and improve the security and reliability of their IT infrastructure compared to traditional development approaches. DevOps automates processes such as infrastructure preparation for development, testing, application operation, deployment, and monitoring.
The benefits of using DevOps: best practices
Implementing a continuous development methodology allows teams to get their products to release faster and with less effort. Here are some benefits associated with using DevOps:
- Continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) enables teams to build, test and deploy software faster and more frequently;
- The development of a culture of cooperation promotes successful communication between teams, which leads to an increase in the quality of software and a decrease in the number of errors;
- DevOps practices help teams reduce the time and effort spent on repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus on more important work;
- Continuous testing and monitoring help teams identify and fix problems faster, which improves software quality;
- DevOps techniques such as containerization and microservices allow teams to build and deploy software in a more flexible way, making it easier to adapt to changing business needs;
- Monitoring and logging provide teams with a more complete view of their software's performance and behavior, enabling faster problem detection and troubleshooting.
Use of the methodology for business
DevOps contributes to the creation of software of higher quality and with more efficient use of company resources. Here are some benefits of using DevOps for business:
- Speed to market allows organizations to release new features and updates faster, which can provide a competitive advantage;
- Increasing process flexibility helps companies respond more quickly to changing business needs and market conditions, making it easier to adapt and iterate software development;
- Automation and containerization make it easy to scale software to meet growing demand;
- Helps companies reduce costs by automating repetitive tasks, reducing downtime and improving team efficiency.
Problems without DevOps in software development
Operating without implementing DevOps can lead to a number of software interoperability issues. Let's say we have a team of developers who write code for a certain part of the application. They choose a specific programming language, operating system (for example, Linux), use a development framework, and set up communication with the chosen database.
The developer then achieves the desired functional level of the application and submits it for testing, packaging the code into an archive, including a copy of the database and instructions for installing the necessary software to get the application up and running.
A quality specialist (QA) unpacks the archive, installs everything necessary on the test bed, deploys the application and conducts testing. If a new development version appears during testing, the entire procedure must be repeated: the developer must create and transfer a new archive, and the tester must deploy the application. This increases the chance of errors, and the tester finds the same problems multiple times. The launch of new features is delayed.
In addition, software component versions may be incompatible in the test environment and on the customer's server. After testing is completed, the system administrator prepares a new or existing server, and the developer downloads the application to it.
The version of the programming language, database, or database management system (DBMS) may differ from those used in the development process. As a result, if a different web server is used on the production server, a software conflict may occur and the application will have to be configured again.
Without the automation and collaboration that DevOps provides, software development cycles can drag on. The lack of continuous testing and monitoring makes it more difficult for the development team to identify and fix problems.
DevOps technologies
DevOps tools are used to automate and optimize development processes. It is important that the choice of specific tools depends on the needs of the company and the software development process. Here are some popular DevOps tools:
- Continuous Integration and Delivery: Jenkins, Travis CI, CircleCI;
- Infrastructure automation: Ansible, Puppet, Chef;
- Containerization and orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes;
- Monitoring and logging: Prometheus, Nagios, Logstash;
- Testing and quality assurance: Selenium, JUnit, Cucumber;
- Cloud platforms, for example, OneCloudPlanet cloud;
- ChatOps: RocketChat, Chanty, Mattermost.
Let's take a closer look at a few key DevOps tools.
Kubernetes — is an open source container management system. Kubernetes is widely used in DevOps to manage and deploy containerized applications. It allows you to automate the processes of deployment, scaling and management of containers in a cluster.
To use Kubernetes, companies implement support for microservices architecture, when the application is divided into independent services. These services are packaged in containers, which allows them to be isolated from interaction with other parts of the application. Kubernetes automatically adds or removes application replicas based on system load.
GitLab — is a web-based DevOps platform that helps teams manage and coordinate the development of software applications. It combines a source code management system, a project management tool, and a platform for continuous integration and delivery. GitLab enables teams to collaborate and share information. This web-based platform makes it easy to track progress, identify issues, and manage tasks.
In addition, GitLab provides developers with a set of tools to quickly and easily build, test, and deploy code. These tools include version control, static code analysis, and continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) pipelines. The platform provides a secure environment for teams to work together on projects, ensuring security and privacy.
Ansible — is an open source software automation platform that helps deploy, configure, and manage applications and systems. The tool connects to nodes and distributes Ansible modules, small programs that can be used to configure operating systems, install and update applications, automate multi-tier applications, and deploy systems.
Ansible uses simple YAML syntax to define tasks and workflows. This allows DevOps teams to quickly create and modify complex automation tasks without having to write complex code. Additionally, Ansible integrates well with other popular DevOps tools, making it easy to incorporate into automation workflows.
Python — is a powerful, versatile, and easy-to-learn programming language widely used by DevOps teams. With its help, you can write scripts to automate tasks such as configuring systems, deploying applications, and performing maintenance tasks.
Python is used to integrate with other DevOps tools such as Ansible and Chef. In addition, Python has a large library of packages that can be used to extend its functionality and create powerful programs.
OneCloudPlanet uses not only Python, and also Go, another programming language widely used in DevOps practice.
Career of a DevOps engineer
A DevOps engineer is responsible for the development, operation and maintenance of an organization's information technology infrastructure. His responsibilities include the development, deployment and management of applications, networks, servers and other IT systems.
Required knowledge for a DevOps engineer
DevOps engineers are responsible for ensuring that systems are running efficiently and securely, and for troubleshooting any issues. Their responsibilities include automating processes such as infrastructure deployment, applications, and backups. Scripting languages such as Python are often used for this.
DevOps engineers have knowledge of software development methodologies such as Agile and work closely with software development teams and operations teams. They also have various tools, including monitoring and logging systems, configuration management systems, and containerization technologies.
In addition to the skills related to the technical side of the job, strong communication skills are also important to succeed as a DevOps engineer. This is because their responsibilities often include gathering requirements from stakeholders and delivering solutions that meet them.
The structure and tasks of a DevOps specialist may vary slightly from company to company. In addition, there are additional job titles that are closely related to the work of a DevOps engineer, such as a build engineer, who is responsible for building continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) processes. When applying for a DevOps engineer role at a company, it is recommended that you read the job requirements carefully and ask additional questions about the role at the company to better understand the employer's expectations.
Hence
Successful implementation of the IT environment of small and large companies requires qualified specialists. Change, scaling, migration - the participation of a DevOps engineer is necessary at all stages of the software life cycle, so it is difficult to overestimate the importance of this specialist in the life cycle of a business.
However, no matter how qualified you are in DevOps, you can have a little experience interacting with certain technologies used by a cloud infrastructure representative. In this case, competent specialists of OneCloudPlanet are always ready to provide professional support to their customers, facilitating the safe transfer and deployment of your architecture to the IT infrastructure of OneCloudPlanet.