How To practice DevOps

Hi, so I'm in my last year of university.I started my journey as a backend engineer, back in when I was in college.I always wanted to move to DevOps but didn't move because I thought I should have knowledge about the architecture and different concepts related to it like databases, networking,System design etc.After learning and practicing these concepts, I move towards learning famously used tools like docker, kubernetes,aws,terraform.

Now I want to do projects, not the ones where i build architecture on aws and post on LinkedIn.I want to do projects which teaches me real life job problems like how to handle deployments, where to look when things goes wrong,cost optimization etc.I believe that, these skills will make me standout as a DevOps engineer.

So I want to ask everyone how did you practice this DevOps stuff ??

https://redd.it/1unbsci
@r_devops

Which countries pay DevOps Engineers, SREs, and Forward Deployed Engineers the best?

I'm curious about where these roles are most popular and well compensated.

Which countries offer the highest salaries for DevOps, SRE, and Forward Deployed Engineers?
Where is the demand strongest?
Are Forward Deployed Engineer roles mostly concentrated in the US, or are they common elsewhere as well?
How do compensation and work-life balance compare across regions?

Would love to hear from people working in different countries and companies.

I often see many SRE and DevOps roles globally, but Forward Deployed Engineer positions seem much rarer. I'm wondering whether that's because they're concentrated in specific countries or mostly found in certain types of companies.

If possible, please mention:

Country/region
Role (DevOps, SRE, FDE, etc.)
Years of experience
Company type (startup, product company, consulting, FAANG, enterprise)
Approximate salary range (if comfortable sharing)
Work-life balance and on-call expectations

More details would help everyone understand the differences better. Thanks!

https://redd.it/1unfk0l
@r_devops

DevOps engineers who freelance: How did you get your first client?

I'm curious how experienced DevOps engineers got started with freelancing or part-time consulting.

I currently work full-time as a DevOps engineer and have experience with AWS, Kubernetes, Terraform, Docker, Linux, CI/CD, monitoring, and cloud infrastructure. I'm not looking for job offers here—I want to understand how people successfully transitioned into freelance work.

Some questions I have:

How did you land your first client?
Did you use Upwork, Toptal, LinkedIn, personal networking, or something else?
What services were easiest to sell when starting out?
Did you build a portfolio, blog, GitHub projects, or open-source contributions first?
How did you decide your hourly rate?
What mistakes should someone avoid when starting?

I'd really appreciate hearing about your experiences and what worked for you. Thanks!

https://redd.it/1unru10
@r_devops

How much coding is needed for devops?

Python / Bash scripting is enough right?

No need to focus on objected oriented code like a software dev.

https://redd.it/1untbc8
@r_devops

Built a multi-agent Sast Scanner
https://redd.it/1unweqe
@r_devops

Best way to restrict AWS/Cloudflare app to specific desktops?

Best way to restrict AWS/Cloudflare app to specific desktops?

We are building a fee payment application for a school organization.

**Stack:** DB/Backend on AWS and frontend on Cloudflare.

**The challenge:** We need to restrict payment work flow used by cashiers to specific systems, while the read fees access should be able to be accessed from anywhere.

The desktops are unmanaged, regular PCs, residing in different branches in different cities. They are all connected via standard consumer ISPs (no static IPs, no company intranet).

As we are already using Cloudflare, is this something that can be achieved with Cloudflare Zero Trust free tier?

I have never worked with this restriction before, SO I am open to any suggestions. And as this is a very low budget project, I'm looking for something that costs as less as possible (Preferably free).

https://redd.it/1unyxz6
@r_devops

Engineering managers: how do you prevent valuable Slack discussions from disappearing

In my team I notice senior engineers write detailed explanations in Slack, but months later nobody can find them. Curious how others solve this.

https://redd.it/1unvlkj
@r_devops

Has anyone successfully made the jump from SDET to platform engineer from a Tier 1 company?

Hi everyone,

I’m currently an SDET (exp 1 year, total exp 2 years) at a Tier 1 tech company and I’m planning my move into a platform engineer role. I love building tools and want to be closer to product development and feature ownership.

For those who have successfully made this pivot:

Did you find it easier to transfer internally or interview elsewhere?

How did you bridge the gap in System Design if your daily work was focused on automation frameworks?

What was the single most helpful thing you did to prove you were ready?

Appreciate any insights or "traps" to avoid!

https://redd.it/1uo12qx
@r_devops

Reticle - The infrastructure diagram you can operate.

Hi all. I made a (OSS+MIT) tool called Reticle which is an infrastructure diagramming tool, but it uses your host ssh/kconf credentials to access the real running state of your actual system.

It has configurable cron health probes to determine whether your resources are green in realtime, and even gives you access to a terminal on a box for quick fixes without switching to another app.

It feels like a fresh way to get a health overview, and if something is broken, the context/dependencies is immediately obvious.

There's more features like team collaboration and professional PDF export, but I'm really curious whether r/devops (the experts in this space), find it interesting or useful.

So if there's any feedback I'd be incredibly grateful. Thank you.


reticle.live

https://redd.it/1uo6bkc
@r_devops

Leaving K8s platform engineering for an internal dev-tooling/CI-CD role

I am currently building a central "Cluster-as-a-Service" platform nd deal with automated cluster provisioning, multi-tenant setup, observability work, kubernetes security etc. I also contribute upstream to K8s-sigs. The company I work for is rather unknown and I would love to be at a bigger brand with a real engineering culture. (I have gotten a few faang interviews in the last month, but declined one myself and did not get more offers).

I now have an offer at a well-known fintech where I would work on owning CI/CD pipeline templates (GitHub Actions/Jenkins), and some more terraform templates plus policy work. Dev teams manage their own infra/CI-CD day-to-day, the team has no direct Kubernetes/Linux/scaling ownership and everything's serverless. However it is a well-known tech brand and I would get 35% more salary (which bumps my salary to slightly above market, not much tho).


My worry: My long-term goal is deep infra/platform roles (K8s internals, distributed systems, SRE-adjacent work). I'm concerned 1-2 years here erodes my skills in that area and I navigate myself into a build tooling and devex niche? What is your take on that move? Would I limit myself too much or can I easily move back to infra platform work later, i.e., would owning CI/CD/tooling be seen as equivalent experience to K8s internals, distributed systems, and observability work when I try to move back later?

https://redd.it/1uoatjd
@r_devops

When does an on-premises server become cheaper than AWS, Azure, or a VPS?

Everyone talks about moving to the cloud, but is it always the right choice?

For a small business with stable workloads (website, email, file storage, backups, internal apps), does buying a server once and running it for 5–7 years make more financial sense than paying cloud bills every month?

I'm also thinking from a business perspective. If you were starting a business today with a small budget, what service would you offer that brings recurring monthly income?

I'd love to hear real experiences from people who run infrastructure or do businesses from home network not just theory or marketing.

https://redd.it/1uobn4g
@r_devops

GitLab CI skill for ai agents based on official docs

I use ai agents as helper I talk to, not for blind vibecoding. One thing I kept noticing is asking agent to write or refactor gitlab ci pipeline, and results are often questionable. It creates a god yaml, outdated keywords, no thought about debugging or developer experience.

I looked for existing skills but did not find anything I would actually trust, most looked generated in one shot. So I spent some time and made my own. Used agent help of course, but went through everything myself and checked it against official docs for GitLab 18+

It covers pipeline structure and refactoring, bash in ci jobs, pipelines and other common patterns, debugging failed pipelines, readable logs and naming and many other cases

https://github.com/beeyev/skills/

Works with claude code and anything supporting skills format
I have been using it privately for couple of month and improving constantly, maybe it will useful for someone else too

https://redd.it/1uoab35
@r_devops

How are you handling query rewrites and schema changes in production databases?

I'm curious how teams are dealing with query performance over time as applications evolve.

A few questions I'd love to hear your experience on:

\\- How do you identify queries that need to be rewritten?

\\- How do you ensure schema changes (indexes, partitions, column changes, etc.) don't negatively impact production?

\\- Is this mostly a manual process, or do you use any tools to analyze query patterns and recommend improvements?

\\- Have you ever had an outage or major performance issue because a query or schema change wasn't optimized?

I'm exploring this space and trying to understand whether this is a pain point worth solving. I'd really appreciate hearing about your workflows, the tools you use, and what's still frustrating today.

https://redd.it/1uoewbr
@r_devops

Maybe the most hilarious job post I've run into
https://redd.it/1uonqh4
@r_devops

Weekly Self Promotion Thread

Hey r/devops, welcome to our weekly self-promotion thread!

Feel free to use this thread to promote any projects, ideas, or any repos you're wanting to share. Please keep in mind that we ask you to stay friendly, civil, and adhere to the subreddit rules!

https://redd.it/1uopcqy
@r_devops

Interview prep for devops

​

JD says devops, python and linux developer.

I just want focus on scripting and ignore oops.

Is that possible?

Does this heavily depends on project requirements and company?

How did you clear devops interview?

Any suggestions?

My focus area is systems emgineering.

https://redd.it/1uot5eb
@r_devops

Help with Devsecops pipeline setup

I am a pentester. My manager had given me a task for cicd integration with checkmarx. I can understand the basic stuff but I am unable to come up with material for the following:
1. How do manage secrets in the pipeline (someone suggested me aws kms)
2. How to run authenticated scans (apps using okta) using pipeline
3. Capturing traffic to run the scans on them.

I would appreciate if someone can help me in this scenario as my job depends on it.

https://redd.it/1uotw74
@r_devops

From DevOps to SaaS: How Do You Find Your First Paying Customers?
https://redd.it/1uowi5u
@r_devops

5 YOE in DevOps/SRE at a Tier-1 bank, pivoted after a layoff — now in a support-heavy role. How do I course-correct before it hurts my career?

Hey r/devops — not looking for validation here, looking for people who’ve actually been through this.
The background:
Spent 5 years as a DevOps/SRE engineer at a large global investment bank. Real scope — owned incident response, SLO/SLI definition, Python automation, Kubernetes deployments, Grafana/InfluxDB observability stacks, CI/CD pipelines. High-stakes production trading systems. The kind of work I was proud of.
Earlier this year, my team was restructured. Whole group gone. I was laid off.
The decision I made:
The market was rough. I had a contract offer on the table — onsite at another major financial institution, compensation was actually better than my previous role. I took it. Practically speaking, it was the right call at the time.
What I underestimated: the actual scope of the work. It’s L1-L2 support. Ticket resolution, runbook execution, escalations. I’m not owning anything. I’m not building anything. And every month I stay here, the gap between my resume and my current reps gets wider.
I’m not bitter about the pay — it’s kept me stable. But I know this lane leads nowhere if I stay in it too long.

Three things I genuinely need help thinking through:

1. How do I keep building real SRE depth when my day job isn’t giving me the reps?
I have a solid foundation — Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Ansible, Python, Grafana. But I want to go deeper on observability, chaos engineering, capacity planning, and SRE fundamentals. What projects, home labs, or open-source contributions have actually made you better — not just resume filler?

2. Is the AWS Generative AI Professional cert (AIP-C01) worth pursuing for an SRE career path?
I’m currently working toward it, specifically because I’m interested in AIOps — anomaly detection, automated remediation, predictive reliability. Is this a real differentiator for senior SRE roles in 2025-26, or am I chasing the wrong thing? What certs have actually moved the needle for you?

3. How do I frame a support-heavy role in interviews without it undercutting 6 years of solid experience?
My instinct is to move within 6–9 months before the narrative gets harder to control. Is that the right timeline? And how do you position this kind of pivot when you’re targeting L4/L5 SRE or Senior Platform Engineer roles?

Context: Based in Bengaluru. Targeting product companies, global banks, and open to remote/international opportunities.
I know I made a compromise. I’m not here to relitigate that. Just want to make sure the next move is the right one.
Appreciate any honest perspectives — especially from people who’ve navigated something similar. 🙏

https://redd.it/1uoydmi
@r_devops

I'm starting a new movement

I am officially declaring the start (in my mind) of #MRBA

That stands for "Make Releases Boring Again"

This was prompted by a Release Engineer job posting that was your usual "just be on 24/7 on every communication channel during release windows". So every few months, you over activate my nervous system and it takes until the next release for it to finally calm down only to be activated again? No thanks.

I need to be doing automation, environment config hardening, observability tweaking. Not "monitoring Slack in case someone reports an issue". 😒

Releases need to be boring. The more boring, the more both dev AND ops sleep. With the added bonus of not over-rewarding heroics. 😏

Release day hype/fanfare/stress is for shit like clothing, games, etc. Not the newest feature for your internal app with 10 users.

https://redd.it/1up28y5
@r_devops