DevOps Army of One - DevOps Days Silicon Valley 2015

DevOps Army of OneJonathan Disher

EHLO jon• Principal DevOps Engineer, Oracle Data Cloud


• Connoisseur of Fountain Pens

Redundant Array of Inexpensive-ish Styli [RAIS]



• Amateur Miata Mechanic

Which way to the datacenter?!Image by Dito Milan, GotBlueMilk Photography




• Briefly a load balancer





• More on that later





• More on that later

• Single Point of Failure

Poll: How many of you are now, or have previously, worked in DevOps groups of size==1?

(Specifically where the group was, at one time, size > 1, and shrank to 1)

Once upon a time…“Now, children, come on over here. I'm going to tell you a bedtime story.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.” — John Wood, War Games (1983)

Once upon a time…• 11/2012 - 3 engineers, 450 hosts


• 06/2013 - 2 engineers, 800 hosts



• 9/2013 - 1 eng, 1000 hosts



• 9/2013 - 1 eng, 1000 hosts

• 03/2014 - ORCL acquisition. 1 eng, 1300 hosts



• 9/2013 - 1 eng, 1000 hosts


• 06/2015 - 1 eng, 2400 hosts



• 9/2013 - 1 eng, 1000 hosts


• 06/2015 - 1 eng, 2400 hosts

• 11/2015 - 1 eng, 1500 hosts, 7 candidates!

Punctum Singulari Deficiendi


• We’re always on the lookout for SPoF’s

• Hardware

"Single Point of Failure" by Charles Féval - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SPOF.png. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Single_Point_of_Failure.png

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SPOF.png

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Single_Point_of_Failure.png



• Hardware

• Software



• Hardware

• Software

• We often forget the wetware!

• Domain knowledge, environmental quirks

Handling The Workload

Handling The Workload-or- Fifteen Pounds of Ops in a Five Pound Sack


• Automation and tools

• Provisioning

I need another monitor…

<3 csshX



• Provisioning

• Hostile hosting portals



• Provisioning

• Hostile hosting portals

• Access control

Downsides

DownsidesWait, there’s a downside??!

Downsides• Just because you are physically able to do it by

yourself, doesn’t mean you should.

Downsides• Just because you are physically able to do it by

yourself, doesn’t mean you should.

• Tools and Automation have created breathing room, not an excuse to not hire more people

Remediation & Survival


• Learn to say ‘no’.

This is not you.

This is not you.It took me a long time to

realize this.



• Leave work behind on Friday.




• Community support.





• Take your vacations!





• Take your vacations!

• Hire more people!

Growing Your TeamIt’s easy to hire more people, right?

Growing Your Team

• Ask for headcount. Come prepared with data.

• Ticket counts, emergencies, interrupts.

• Estimated vs actual time to complete projects

Growing Your Team




• Delegation and Enablement

• MUST be people you trust

Growing Your Team




• Delegation and Enablement

• MUST be people you trust

• Enlistment and Poaching

If all else fails…

So what was that about a load balancer?

Thank you!

Internet

DevOps Army of One - DevOps Days Silicon Valley 2015