The document discusses DevOps practices and tools used at different stages of the software development lifecycle. It explains that traditional IT had separate development and operations teams, but DevOps aims to synchronize these teams. Key DevOps practices discussed include continuous testing, configuration management, continuous integration/delivery, and application monitoring. Various automation tools are used at each stage of planning, coding, building, testing, deploying, operating, and monitoring software.

1. DevOps Practices in a
Nutshell
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3. Traditional IT sectors had separate teams for development and operations. The
development team’s responsibilities includes creating and delivering a working
code. The operations team’s responsibilities comprised of management and
deployment of the same. However, conflicts arise between the two teams when
the code/software developed defects in the later stages. This issue became the
brainchild of the DevOps concept i.e., synchronization of the development and
operation teams.
Many companies have adopted this culture in order to accelerate their delivery
in a constructive and efficient manner. DevOps is a service that empowers
modern organizations by several automation practices which would be
discussed further in this blog.

4. DevOps phases and tools:
While adopting DevOps practices, there are a series of tools that are used in
each practice. The tools help in streamlining and automating the Software
Delivery Pipeline. The following are a few tools that are used at different
DevOps stages.
● PLAN – In this phase, business requirements and values are defined.
Tools like Git, Jira, Confluence, Slack are used to plan and perform project
management.
● CODE – In this phase, software coding and design are carried out with the
help of tools like GitLab, Stash, GitHub, BitBucket etc.

5. ● BUILD – Assembly and management of the software is carried out in this
phase. The automated tools help in the compilation and packaging of code
for production. This can be carried out with the help of Docker, Gradle,
Artifactory, Puppet etc.
● TEST – Here, the software is tested for defects to ensure its quality and
standards. The tools used in this phase are Selenium, Vagrant,
Blazemeter, TestNG, Appium etc.
● DEPLOY – In this phase the software is managed, coordinated, scheduled,
deployed, and automated for release. The tools supporting these functions
are Docker, Kubernetes, Jenkins, OpenStack, Ansible etc.
● OPERATE – This phase consists of monitoring and orchestration of live
code. This phase is parallel to the monitoring phase. Some of the tools
include Ansible, PowerShell, Chef, Salt, Puppet etc.

6. ● MONITOR – in this phase, the performance and states of the software are
tracked, supervised to identify defects (if any). The tools which can be
used in this phase are Splunk, Wireshark, Slack, Datadog etc
DEVOPS PRACTICES:
DevOps practices are steps that focus on the automation of one or more
development cycle phases. The following are some of the DevOps practices
which are implemented in any organization:
1. CONTINUOUS TESTING
DevOps adopts early and automated testing as a strategy to find and resolve
errors during the programming stage itself, instead of later stages. Using
automated frameworks and tools reduces manual testing, thus speeding up the
process.

7. Automation testing facilitates defined test cases so that no time is lost in
creating test cases manually. These test cases are efficient and help to
evaluate many aspects of the code. Automated testing reduces the chances of
human errors and increases reliability. It is extremely convenient when there is
a need to execute multiple test cases.
As DevOps supports continuous development, automated testing helps to
achieve the required speed and agility. Automated testing requires the
coordination of the Development, Quality assessment and Operations team.
Choosing the right tool for defining a mature testing framework is very
important. There is a wide range of open source and licensed tools available in
the market. The tools are dependent on the languages used and there are
separate tools for testers and developers. Choosing a tool that will yield proper
tests reports is very crucial to the whole Continuous Testing practice.

8. Even if automated testing is implemented, we cannot replace manual testing
completely. A team of professionals who are skilled in automation and testing
would be of great help. This would help the organization strike a balance
between over-automation and under-automation.
2. CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT
Configuration management is the act of automating, monitoring and designing
otherwise manual configuration processes via a configuration platform.
Configuration management orchestrates these processes to promote
consistency and efficiency. It helps in defining the state of each system.
Configuration management consists of the following set of activities:

9. ● Configuration identification: The configurations which are to be monitored
are identified. via an automated discovery tool or through a manual
process such as maintaining source codes on a common repository.
● Configuration control: Once the configurations are identified, an effective
mechanism to control the changes in the configuration management is to
be applied.
● Configuration audit: Despite of applying various techniques to control and
monitor configuration changes, there are chances of the mechanisms
failing. So, configuration audits are implemented to supervise configuration
compliance.
Configuration management in DevOps is governed by three primary
components such as:

10. ● Artifact Repository – It is a place to store machine files such as test data,
libraries, binary files etc. These are often the by-products of Continuous
integration. When builds are pushed out, they generate artifact files, which
are not accessed but require storage in the system.
● Source code repository – This repository contains the working codes,
scripts and configuration files. It acts as a container for storing ‘Human-
readable’ files. There are two kinds of source code repositories:
1. Centralized Version Control System – the code is stored in a centralized
location.
2. Distributed Version Control System – the code is stored across multiple
terminals.
Out of these two, the latter is mostly preferred by DevOps professionals as it is

11. ● Configuration Management Data Architecture – CMBD is a relational
database that spans across multiple systems related to configuration
management services, servers, applications and much more. CMDB is
used to enhance change management and auditing.
Configuration management is often confused with the term change
management. Change management is the process of re-imagining and
changing designs to fulfill new needs and dynamic conditions. Its main goal is
to manage the changes which affect the system’s configuration. Configuration
management on the other hand focuses on managing the configurable parts
and states of the system.
Configuration management reduces the need to recruit more IT management
staff as the processes are automated. Proper configuration management is the
key to continuous testing and delivery.

12. 3. CONTINUOUS INTEGRATION AND CONTINUOUS DELIVERY
Continuous integration and continuous delivery, also known as the CI/CD
pipeline, enable frequent and reliable delivery of code changes. This practice
goes hand in hand with continuous testing.
In continuous integration, the code is consistently refreshed in the repository by
the developers. After this, the automated assemblies and tests are carried out.
Continuous integration helps in the faster completion of various combinations.
CI devices and tools help in the differentiation of existing and new codes and
handle them accordingly. Implementation of Continuous Integration leads to
identify defects and quality issues on smaller codes instead of the larger ones
leading to a shorter commit cycle.

13. Feature flags is a mechanism used in a CI process. It is a configuration
mechanism used to turn the features and code on and off during run time. This
helps in segregating the features that are still under development and enables
to test or run the completed parts of the code. Another technique to enable
feature management in CI is version control branching. This technique is used
to create branches based on their development cycle duration. However, the
former technique is more convenient as it facilitates hassle-free feature
management in case of concurrent developments.
After continuous integration, continuous delivery is carried out. It is the
automation of pushing applications to the production environments. The
delivered components are then staged for review and tests. The steps involved
in continuous delivery would include:

14. ● Extracting code from version control and executing a build.
● Executing the required, automated infrastructure as code to modify cloud
infrastructure.
● Moving the code to targeted environments and managing the configuration
of the same.
● Executing steps needed for new code push.
● Executing roll back environments in cases where tests fail.
● Generating reports on the log data and alerts on the delivery states.
● Performing data synchronizations, application and library patching and
archiving information resources.
CD tools provide dashboards with reporting functions so that any failure in the
deliveries can be notified to the developers. Since they are integrated with
version control tools, they can be used to track code changes and versions to
ease error management.

15. CI/CD pipelines can be implemented using containers like Docker.
Orchestration systems like Kubernetes can also be implemented to optimize
the automation process.
4. CONTINUOUS DEPLOYMENT
Continuous deployment is a special case of continuous delivery. Continuous
deployment is the process where every change in the source code is
automatically deployed to the production unit. The developer reviews a pull
request from a teammate and merges it to the master branch. Continuous
deployment process is automated to the staging environment. It helps in
keeping the deployment- to production process manual with just a click. This
helps in tracking who deployed which code and when they did it. This practice
can be adopted when the enterprise plans to use the user as the actual tester.
Continuous deployment results in faster releases.

16. APPLICATION MONITORING
Application monitoring is the overviewing of the entire development process
starting from planning to deployment. It is a complete and real-time view of all
the tasks carried out in the DevOps team and the states of the application,
services and production infrastructure. It involves techniques like real-time
streaming, historical replay, and visual representations. This practice involves
the Ops (Operations) team more than the Dev (Development) team, however
high coordination between the two is important to establish a successful
monitoring infrastructure.
The following are core practices to be followed in application monitoring:’

17. ● Shift-left testing: It refers to testing performed at the early stages of the
Software Development Lifecycle. This practice can be extended to
monitoring pre-production environments. This ensures continuity
throughout the production and preserves the quality of production. Early
monitoring also enhances testing practices.
● Alert and incident management: While adopting cloud solutions,
incidents such as hardware failure, network issues, misconfiguration,
resource exhaustion, data inconsistencies and software bugs may occur.
Due to the dynamic nature of the cloud, these issues may be difficult to
resolve. Hence, the implementation of high-quality alert systems which
enable collaboration saves the day.

18. The systems must have minimized mean time to detect and isolate errors and
alerts in the code. Systems with usable dashboards can be implemented so
that the team members can be trained to use them.
Application monitoring is crucial for DevOps as it enhances the application
execution irrespective of it being sent on the cloud or local data center.
Application management measures performance, availability and user
experience. This practice encourages presentation checks of the application by
proactive observation. This is a tedious process due to the emergence of hybrid
clouds and native cloud environments, owing to their dynamic nature. It
requires high level on-call availability and monitoring.

19. CONCLUSION
DevOps is an approach where one size does not fit all organizations. It involves
the constant adaption of new technologies and tools for a seamless
experience. The significant advancements in the tools used for DevOps
implementation are a sign that DevOps will continue to evolve in future. For
example, Kubernetes is now used along with Docker to improve automated
deployment and management. DevOps has further branched out to services
like DevSecOps, QAOps, SecDevOps, MLOps and much more.

20. THANK YOU