DevOps is a methodology in the software development and IT industry. Used as a set of practices and tools, DevOps integrates and automates the work of software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) as a means for improving and shortening the systems development life cycle. DevOps is complementary to agile software development; several DevOps aspects came from the agile way of working.
1. Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD)
– CI/CD is a software development approach that emphasizes frequent integration of code changes and automated deployment.
– Questions may focus on popular CI/CD tools like Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, or CircleCI and how they are used to build, test, and deploy applications.
– Topics to cover include build automation, code quality checks, artifact management, and deployment pipelines.
2. Version Control Systems
– Git is the most widely used distributed version control system in DevOps.
– Questions may cover branching strategies, merging techniques, resolving conflicts, and integrating Git with CI/CD pipelines.
– It’s important to discuss concepts like commits, branches, tags, and remote repositories.
3. Configuration Management
– Configuration management tools automate the provisioning, configuration, and management of infrastructure resources.
– Popular tools include Ansible, Puppet, and Chef.
– Questions may focus on writing playbooks, defining infrastructure as code, managing configuration files, and enforcing desired state configuration.
4. Containerization and Orchestration
– Containerization allows packaging applications and their dependencies into isolated containers for portability and scalability.
– Docker is a widely used containerization platform, while Kubernetes is a popular container orchestration system.
– Questions may cover container creation, deployment, networking, scaling, and managing containerized applications in a cluster.
5. Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
– IaC is the practice of defining and managing infrastructure resources through machine-readable configuration files.
– Tools like Terraform and CloudFormation are used to provision and manage infrastructure in a declarative manner.
– Questions may focus on creating infrastructure resources, managing dependencies, handling infrastructure updates, and managing state.
6. Monitoring and Logging
– Monitoring tools help observe the performance and health of systems, while logging tools collect and analyze logs for troubleshooting and analysis.
– Prominent tools include Prometheus for monitoring and Grafana for visualization, or the ELK stack for logging.
– Questions may cover metric collection, alerting, log aggregation, visualization, and analyzing system performance.
7. Cloud Computing
– Cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform offer scalable infrastructure and services that are commonly used in DevOps.
– Questions may cover cloud service models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS), virtualization, auto-scaling, cloud storage, and identity/access management.
8. DevOps Culture and Collaboration
– DevOps emphasizes collaboration and communication between development, operations, and other stakeholders.
– Questions may cover Agile methodologies, cross-functional teams, continuous feedback, communication tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams, and the importance of a collaborative culture.
9. Continuous Testing
– Continuous testing involves automating testing processes throughout the software development lifecycle.
– Questions may cover different types of testing (unit, integration, functional, performance), testing frameworks (e.g., Selenium), test automation, and integrating testing into CI/CD pipelines.
10. Security in DevOps
– DevSecOps integrates security practices into the DevOps pipeline from the beginning.
– Questions may cover secure coding practices, vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, identity management, secure configurations, and compliance requirements.
11. Microservices Architecture
– Microservices architecture is an approach where an application is built as a collection of loosely coupled services.
– Questions may cover concepts like service decomposition, service discovery, inter-service communication, and deployment strategies for microservices.
12. Infrastructure Monitoring and Alerting
– Infrastructure monitoring involves collecting and analyzing metrics to ensure the health and performance of systems.
– Questions may cover monitoring tools like Nagios, Zabbix, or Datadog, setting up alerts, configuring thresholds, and responding to incidents.
13. DevOps Best Practices
– DevOps encompasses various best practices that promote collaboration, automation, and continuous improvement.
– Questions may cover topics such as infrastructure as code, version control, automated testing, code reviews, documentation, and post-incident reviews.
14. Release Management and Change Control
– Release management focuses on planning, scheduling, and coordinating software releases.
– Questions may cover release pipelines, versioning strategies, rollback procedures, change management processes, and managing dependencies.
15. Cloud Native Technologies
– Cloud native technologies are specifically designed to leverage the capabilities of cloud platforms.
– Questions may cover topics such as serverless computing, container orchestration with tools like Kubernetes or Amazon ECS, cloud-native databases, and cloud-native networking.
16. Immutable Infrastructure
– Immutable infrastructure refers to the practice of treating infrastructure as disposable and rebuilding it from scratch for every deployment.
– Questions may cover benefits, challenges, and implementation strategies of immutable infrastructure using tools like Packer, Docker, or AMIs (Amazon Machine Images).
17. Orchestration and Configuration Management Tools
– Apart from Puppet, Chef, and Ansible, explore other popular orchestration and configuration management tools like SaltStack, CFEngine, or Juju.
– Questions may focus on their features, use cases, and differences compared to other tools.
18. Continuous Security
– Continuous security integrates security practices throughout the DevOps pipeline to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities.
– Questions may cover security testing tools, secure coding practices, threat modeling, security scans, and compliance requirements.
19. DevOps in a Hybrid or Multi-Cloud Environment
– In hybrid or multi-cloud environments, organizations leverage a combination of on-premises and multiple cloud providers.
– Questions may cover challenges, strategies, and tools used for managing infrastructure and applications in such environments.
20. Infrastructure Scalability and Auto-scaling
– Scalability is the ability to handle increased workloads, while auto-scaling automatically adjusts resources based on demand.
– Questions may cover horizontal and vertical scaling, load balancing, auto-scaling strategies, and cloud-native scaling features.
21. Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)
– SRE is a discipline that combines software engineering and operations to ensure the reliability and availability of systems.
– Questions may cover SRE principles, error budgets, incident management, monitoring, and implementing SRE practices in organizations.
These topics will provide a deeper understanding of each topic and enable you to grasp key concepts in DevOps. You can Google each of these topics for better understanding, there are thousands of articles on each of these topics waiting for you. Happy Learning.
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