Pretty bored in a job that is great on paper

I'm not sure my reasoning behind creating this post, but maybe someone has advice or perspective.

In the last 3 years, I went from making about 100k to >250k (total comp).

That involved moving from a tiny company (5 yrs), to a startup (1.5 yrs), to a very huge company (you could probably guess it in 3 guesses).

​

I'm not a great programmer (though I'd love to be given the chance), and I don't have a college degree. I'm 37 and have been working in tech for a long time, worked my way up from my first tech support job that paid $6/hr 20 years ago. I'm a strong devops/cloud guy who likes to hack and troubleshoot problems.

I'm married and have a kid. The benefits and 401k match and all that at my company are amazing. But I work with technology I don't really like, that is not really relevant to the greater market and I fear I'm falling behind because of it.

I've done a few interviews lately and it seems like most smaller companies that allow fully remote work and use "cool" stuff like kubernetes aren't interesting in hiring me at the $250k total comp level.

Talking to recruiters and interviewing is so exhausting, between work and having a family I really don't have time for it.

​

Do I suck it up and try to make my job interesting somehow or just go balls out looking? Ever been in my boat?

​

I get 5+ recruiter emails a day.

​

Thanks

https://redd.it/qmtiqh
@r_devops

Too many things to learn.

As a DevOps guy I find it difficult to keep updated and keep learning - most of the time I feel I have the imposters syndrome.

Does anybody feel the same?

https://redd.it/qn3ht9
@r_devops

How do I choose tools? There are so many now...

For too many years, I worked for an enormous company and helped implement a devops model using Tanzu (was Pivotal) Cloud Foundry and Kubernetes with Concourse as an automation/scripting/gitops/iac glue layer.

I recently left, and went to work for a medium SaaS company that is trying to make the switch to Kubernetes and micro services for their workloads. Our infrastructure is on AWS, and they've spun up a Kubernetes environment and are trying to figure out infrastructure as code, but they are having trouble managing it because it was largely manually installed. They have a working in-house CI system they like, and they're familiar with Terraform, but any other tools seem more piecemeal instead of a part of an integrated strategy. It makes scaling impractical at best.

I've been asked to help with containerization, automation, and observability. ie. make this Kubernetes thing work like we need it to. I think they need a PaaS, and more orchestration/automation (probably with git as the source of truth), but the sheer number of options available for this space has exploded over the last 5 years and it is overwhelming. Most of the popular products seem to be more focused on dev and less on ops, but I think there's probably something better than just what I've done before (Tanzu/Concourse). I need infrastructure automation.

Can I get some "boots on the ground" feedback on tools that would work together to stand up and manage an AWS kubernetes infrastructure for a growing company, instead of just the marketing/sales stuff I'm being fed?

https://redd.it/qn1gng
@r_devops

DevOps Master Class just passed 100,000 views across the content

Just wanted to say thanks and make sure people were aware of the DevOps Master Class which is free and has zero adverts.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlVtbbG169nFr8RzQ4GIxUEznpNR53ERq

GitHub repo for all associated code, boards etc. at https://github.com/johnthebrit/DevOpsMC.

https://redd.it/qna9hq
@r_devops

Lesson plan ideas for a 1h Devops intro for teens/tweens

Hi all!

I've been asked/invited to represent my company in a STEM learning project that introduces under-resourced Jr. High and high school kids to STEM careers in the area. I have about an hour to work on a project with them, and have been wracking my brains trying to figure out a good, engaging, but quick introduction to DevOps that can be done in a remote-learni g type environment.

Right now, I was sort of just thinking of setting up a github (or Azure) project, creating a basic web page on a repo, and directing the students to copy the folder, create their own folder with the same contents, modify it a bit to make their own page, and go through the push/pipeline/code review process. Showing ci/cd, and let them go see the products when deployment is done by going to the web page on their browser. I'm currently in the percolating stage of planning, haven't put pen to paper anywhere or investigated things like how to get a bunch of random kids access to a project.

I have about 2 weeks to set everything up. If anyone has good/better ideas, or advice to flesh out what I have here, it would be greatly appreciated.

https://redd.it/qnejy3
@r_devops

Is DevOps the new SysAdmin? If not, why not?

Yeah - 'ok, boomer' - get it out of the way (I am actually Gen-X).

Have been working in IT for 20 years now,, started while I was still in Uni (Mathematics and Computing, they didn't have IT back then). For me it seems like DevOps is basically knowing what buttons to click onto get something done - API (that's for developers, but we wont give them the access token needed to call it).

The company I work at has a 'DevOps Team' - the fact that you have a team for DevOps means you don't actually do DevOps.

https://redd.it/qngnfv
@r_devops

I'm lost and overwhelmed with new concepts

Originally and currently I'm a system administrator, I got asked by an acquaintance to do some work for a development company mainly java stuff (not a fan of Java) the stuffs were basic tasks backup, ssl... Etc all good so far I got to work with new concepts like docker, compose, reverse proxies, cloud servers and storage. I'm not an expert but I can get things done with a little googling and documentation reading the problem is now I'm introduced to the CI/CD world and I'm overwhelmed with git, jenkins, maven, Ansible, gradle, branching... Etc and here is where I crashed I'm not sure where to start and how to use the full potential of each of them, even docker isn't making sense to me now, maybe this is happening because I started directly without any full understanding of the concepts and tools and actually its making me depressed and frustrated I like the cloud concept and what else but I can't make my next move cause I don't even know what my next move is, Any advice??!

https://redd.it/qnlfca
@r_devops

Keeping track of software versions?

How does your team track software package versions to ensure they are up-to-date and protected against vulnerabilities?

https://redd.it/qnn9jo
@r_devops

Deny docker container run without valid license file/key

Hi

I am creating the software product based on Docker containers (docker-compose).
It should be delivered as a single package to the client and allow to install it even without access to the internet.

The question is - how to deny to run the docker-compose (docker containers) if client doesn’t have correct license file or license was expired?

https://redd.it/qnl6kv
@r_devops

Tool support Q License portability of Bamboo remote agent on AWS/cloud

For those using bamboo as CICD, how do you make the remote agent licenses portable across instances. We've to mandatory change instances due to AMI upgrades.
We've multiple agents installed & activated on a single machine & have to work with another central team to activate them using unique agent ids.

I was thinking of just assigning a static ip to the instance & making sure hostname remains same across instance refreshes & copying the entire agent home directories. Not sure if anyone else has dwelled into this/similar tool license setup..

https://redd.it/qnf7i4
@r_devops

Kubernetes introductory material

Hello everyone,
last few years I spend in development for cloud native applications on kubernetes. During a job interviews I was shocked how little people know about fundamentals. Now I am not taking about Kubernetes administrations. I would be pretty interested what you think is a mandatory and good to know. Desparetly waiting for your feedback

https://jakubstransky.com/2021/11/05/4-devs-kubernetes-interview-question-made-easy/

https://redd.it/qn6y1v
@r_devops

How does one get live production experience?

Hey there I work as a Private server tech support and this current place will not let me go to anything devops related so I've been interviewing for the past 4 months or so. Most of the times my profile is good but I get screwed with the "You don't have production experience". Sometimes I do feel the skill gap and that is quite valid I haven't gone through different scenarios at my current job.

In these 4 Months I've been studying Cloud, CI/CD, Kubernetes, terraform, Ansible, and I'm following the roadmap.sh/devops guide. I have a small homelab to learn all this stuff everything I do I write about it or put it on github.

All the jobs here have moved to DevOps roles or SRE roles.

Even certs won't get me experience, so what should I do now to prove that I can do the job? Any guidance is appreciated.

https://redd.it/qnya98
@r_devops

Too many buzzwords and tools for devsecops - share what is important and implemented in your org

Static code analyzer - sonarqube, gitlab, fortify analyzer
Dynamic analyzer - fortify web
Container security - aquasec, snyk
.......alot more which claimed they can provide better scan.

Is that overrated or real protection?

https://redd.it/qndzkp
@r_devops

Visualizing and filtering logs from papertrail/easy logging solutions?

Hi everyone,

I've been tasked with improving logging for my company - currently we use papertrail, which is fairly limited when it comes to filtering and visualizing server data. I've been trying to set up an ELK stack (elastic search, logstash, kibana) but running into a ridiculous number of errors. I was wondering if there's an easier solution to transforming logs from papertrail into another service for filtering and visualizing server data? Or, an alternative that is easier to setup than ELK?

Thanks

https://redd.it/qnm0bb
@r_devops

I've been reading through some top threads and asking questions. It's hard to understand what you guys do. What foundational skills are needed coming from closer to a senior level of full stack development? (Here's my list so far and plan)

I've been hovering around this sub for a week or so and trying to watch intro courses on YouTube and I have to say it's harder and harder to understand what you guys do by just watching you guys. Some of the top threads on this sub are mostly complaining about shifting knowledge requirements, burn out from learning, and never being able fully learn one thing due to the release of new tools. So I guess my question here is how does someone at least get to a foundational point?

Here is what I can personally do with a weakness in this stuff: I can load balance a bunch of AWS EC2 instances, use AWS code pipeline for some continuous integration, setup an SSL certificate, and HTTPS. That's the basis of my skills. It's not a lot, but it's something.

What I'm looking at learning is:

Basic Docker
Docker Compose
Getting better with Linux
Clustering a bunch of Raspberry Pi 3s together
Networking
Package managers
Proxy/ Reverse Proxy servers
Kubernetes
Github Actions for CI
Terraform (Even though I have a weak concept of cloud computing)
Cloudfront (It's brought at my work all of the time)
NGINX or APACHE


Is there anything else foundational that would prepare me for this job or am I totally missing the mark here?

Skippable Context

For more context right now I'm working on my frontend dev weaknesses at the company I work for and I intend to either get into ops either with this company or another for a year with the ultimate goal of becoming a real mythical senior full stack developer. Maybe even get too CTO in a startup and go for the millions to retire from this industry altogether. Worst case, I'm in a comfortable enough position skills wise that I can weather out any recession coming and get so far ahead of those crash course javascript developers that I'm always in demand.

https://redd.it/qo7gnr
@r_devops

What's one tool or programming language that refuse to list on your resume despite having experience with it, out of fear of having to work with it again?

My own examples: regex, fluentd.

https://redd.it/qocpqh
@r_devops

What are the most important skills that you need to have if you are considering to move from IT generalist to DevOps

I have been working in IT for quite a while (12years or so) and currently considering moving toward DevOps. Can anyone suggest on what to focus and what are the most important technologies that I should get familiar with.

https://redd.it/qobz7j
@r_devops

Do devops positions ever get RSUs as a part of compensation?

I have a friend who works at a FAANG company as a software engineer who has a very high Total compensation. Our base salaries are very similar, but A majority of his compensation are payouts from REstricted stock units. Basically he gets around 45k once a quarter. This got me pretty motivated to try to get a position with a company that offers RSUs, but our positions are different and it got me wondering if RSUs are typical for devops type positions?

https://redd.it/qogi7z
@r_devops

Overview of state of tech

Hey, y'all! I'll be switching to an SRE role in the near future, and I'd like to brush up on commonly used tech. I'm already familiar with some tech (Terraform, Consul, and K8s), but I see a lot of other tech I don't know much about about. Some examples of stuff I wanna learn more about are Helm, Argo CD, Crossplane, and Prometheus.

Do you know of any articles that give a cursory summary of infrastructure tech? The what, why, and when. Thank you so much!

https://redd.it/qoai4q
@r_devops

How realist is it to get a DevOps job with visa sponsorship in California?

I live in the UK but next year I’d like a change of scene - somewhere English speaking, a city a buzz, a friendly culture, bit more of an outdoorsy lifestyle and decent job prospects. I bounce between the idea of moving to Vancouver, Melbourne and the SF Bay Area, thoughts so far are:
- Vancouver’s right at the feet of the mountains and east to get a visa, but it’s tiny compared to London
- Melbourne’s easy to get a visa, and a big city, but not much outdoorsy stuff.
- SF bay has the mountains and beeches, plenty of people and the most exciting companies to work for, but it sounds pretty tough to get a visa for.

My profile is that I have a couple years experience as a DevOps engineer and a couple more as BA before that. I passed my CKA. I’ve been promoted quickly, relative to my peers and feel pretty confident in my ability. I have a degree, but not computing.

Based on my profile, how likely is it I’d be able to get a DevOps job with visa sponsorship in California? Before I sink time into applications etc. Does anyone have anything to say on Vancouver or Melbourne too?

Thanks in advance! Really appreciate if people taking the time to share their thoughts

https://redd.it/qoakxx
@r_devops

New to testing and deploying apps into Kubernetes? Try my new LinkedIn Learning course: “Kubernetes: Your First Project”!

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/kubernetes-your-first-project

Introducing developers into Kubernetes is one of the biggest parts of my job. I’ve noticed that many devs new to Kubernetes have struggled with grokking the fundamentals, like creating local clusters to test with, deploying apps into it, and testing that things are working.

This happened often enough to motivate me to create a course that walks people through doing exactly these things!

My course is called “Kubernetes: Your First Project.” It guides developers through deploying a simple website onto Kubernetes. In the course, I walk through the basics of how Kubernetes works. I then guide users through containerizing their website and running it, from Docker, to a local Kubernetes cluster inside of KinD, to a real Kubernetes cluster with EKS. Finally, I demonstrate how to package the website as a Helm chart as an alternative to deploying raw YAML manifests.

Give it a try! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did creating it!

https://redd.it/qn9uk3
@r_devops