Quick Byte - Assigning IAM role to a running EC2 instance

Using AWS CLI commands, it is now possible to attach an IAM role to a running EC2 instance.

Command/s:

$aws ec2 associate-iam-instance-profile --instance-id YourInstanceId --iam-instance-profile Name=YourNewRole-Instance-Profile

Refer the complete article here.

Quick Byte - Where does Amazon store its Billing Metric data for all regions?

Amazon stores global billing metric data in the US East (N. Virginia) region. Read the complete story here.

Quick Byte - CI tool chain

1. Version Control
2. CI Systems
3. Build
4. Test
5. Artifact Repository
6. Deployment

Quick Byte - A few DevOps Configuration Management definitions

1. Provisioning - Preparing a Server for operations 
2. Deplyoment - Uploading application on Server for operations
3. Orchestration- Coordinating activities amongst systems for operations
4. Configuration Management- Managing system configuration after initial server provisioning. Keeping the application and its dependencies updated
5. Configuration Management tools behaviour-
1. Imperative (Crucial) - Define and execute commands for a desired state
2. Declarative - Desired state is defined and let tool do the rest
3. Idempotent (Unchanging) - Repeat steps and get same result

Quick Byte - DevOps bare-bones

Bare-bone structure of DevOps:


1. Values - CAMS
                       i.  Culture
                       ii. Automation
                      iii. Management
                      iv. Sharing
2. Principles
                        i. Systems Thinking - Dev to Ops - Overall System
                        ii. Amplifying Feedback Loops
                        iii. Continuous Experimentation and Learning
3. Methods
                        i. People Over Process Over Tools
                        ii. Continuous Delivery
                        iii. Lean Management
                        iv. Visible Ops Change Control
                        v.  Infrastructure as Code
4. Practices
                        i. Incident Command System
                        ii. Developers on Call
                        iii. Status Pages
                        iv. Blameless Postmortems
                         v. Embedded Teams (Ops person working with the developers)
                         vi. The Cloud (API driven so can work on Infra as code)
                        vii. Andon Cords (To notify and stop a buggy code from going into prod)
                       viii. Dependency Injection (Inversion of Control - Web Framework model)
                         ix. Blue/Green Deployment
                          x. Chaos Monkey (Remember NetFlix)
5. Tools
                          i. Programmable (Not just UI driven)
                         ii. Verifiable
                        iii. Well Behaved

References & Resources to explore the subject further:
1.  https://devops-research.com/
2.  https://puppet.com/solutions/devops
3.  https://puppet.com/blog/what-is-devops
4.  https://puppet.com/resources/ebook/devops-and-you-advice-for-building-your-career
5.  https://puppet.com/blog/devops-tools-support-your-devops-initiatives       
6.  https://puppet.com/blog/what-a-devops-engineer
7.  http://www.amazon.in/Devops-Handbook-World-Class-Reliability-Organizations/dp/1942788002
8.  https://martinfowler.com/bliki/DevOpsCulture.html     
9.  https://martinfowler.com/bliki/ContinuousDelivery.html
10.https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/c914709e-8097-4537-92ef-8982fc416138/entry/devops_in_practice_best_practices_for_adopting_continuous_delivery?lang=en

Quick Byte - Complex systems failures and their investigation (ITIL Problem Management)

Check this article from MIT on Complex Systems Failures and the myths surrounding root cause investigation.

Check another article for effective incident postmortems.