How do I be a good DevOps Engineer In 2023-24? [Full Guide]

I divided your question into 2 because both of these have a deep meaning here.

1. How do I be a “Good” Engineer?
2. How do I be a DevOps Engineer?

The first question is quite challenging and requires plenty of practice; trust me, I’m still having trouble with it. There are presumably many people like me in the world.

DevOps were meant:

• To kill the bads of devs and ops.
• To bring some peace and work collaboratively.
• To stop the blame game and take ownership
• To reduce the amount of time spent in the “War Room” or in fact to kill the War Room culture.

The first question’s answer is simple to write but challenging to put into practice. Being kind to your fellow DevOps, Ops, and QA engineers will help you become a “Good” DevOps engineer.

There will be many instances in a project where you and your fellow developers, quality assurance testers, and DevOps (you) make mistakes.

It’s hard to “KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON” when there are blunders happening in the project. It’s even more difficult to keep calm when some action by someone hampers your work. So how do you handle this?

Learn how that job is done. You may not necessarily be perfect, but you at least know how it’s been done.

That way you get to know the obstacles they may have faced while working. I will give you 3 examples of how “Good Engineers” handled a situation.

1. Dev Mistake: A developer wrote a code that was written on AppleOS and deployed on Ubuntu for QA to test with the developer on leave thereafter and release due in the next few days. Needless to say, the code was well-tested. Somehow it did not work well. After researching a little the QA found that the header file mentioned in the code was filesutils.h while Ubuntu identified it as “FileUtils.h. Otherwise, the code was perfect. The QA quickly made the changes, tested and sent a pull request with the change, and updated the dev as well. Saved time and was “Good” too.
2. QA Mistake: A QA person while verifying DB on production fired a Query “DELETE” query instead of a “SELECT” The result was 24 important elements got deleted from production. The QA went to the Devops and said, “I think I executed a delete on production, I do not see my data and nor the query”. The ops guy says, “No issues, it’s an easy one to get back, nothing to panic about”. The process to get back the deleted data is, (i) Copy the previous days data(around 20 GB) from S3 to local (ii) create a new database and copy the dump to the DB (iii) Take the present db dump (iv) copy it to local (v) create another db and copy this dump to the new db (vi) check the diff (vii) insert the diff elements from old db to the production DB. (There are better ways to do this) In short, a good few hours process. The Ops guy maintained his calm, got all the required info and fixed the issue without any frustration.
3. Ops Mistake: mounted a drive /dev/xvdd instead of /dev/xvdb and deleted all the contents from it. The redis data got deleted, with redis running. Contacted developers who knew a little about operations to help. They asked to not stop redis and to do a bgsave (background save utility) and get all the data back.

Mistakes do occur. It’s crucial to learn from their errors. becoming polite and calm, as well as learning to see things from others’ viewpoints, is therefore crucial to becoming a good DevOps engineer.

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What Is a DevOps Engineer?

A DevOps engineer is an IT professional who is well-versed in the software development lifecycle. They must comprehend why the organization was forced to switch from one model to another, the problems of the prior model, the advantages of the new model, and so on.

A DevOps engineer must also be familiar with a variety of automation tools for creating continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. This high-demand profession necessitates a unique set of DevOps abilities, which we shall discuss in further detail later.

In comparison to the previous stages, DevOps engineers place a greater emphasis on monitoring. It is critical to continuously monitor the product for new defects, patch them, and return the updated version to the client.

Technically:
To be a DevOps Engineer you need the following:

1. Passion to automate almost anything
2. Linux Administration Skills
3. Expert in one or more scripting languages
4. Virtualization
5. Understand the Cloud
6. At least one Configuration Management tool
7. Monitoring tools
8. Great Troubleshooting skills
9. Containerization
10. At least one CI/CD tool
11. Patience … 🙂

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What Are The 10 Skills That Make A ‘Perfect’ DevOps Engineer?

The 10 Skills that make a perfect DevOps Engineer are:

1) Communication and Collaboration

Given the fundamental nature of DevOps, communication and collaboration are critical to success.

These two are critical for breaking down silos between Dev and Ops teams, aligning team goals with business goals, and implementing DevOps culture cross-functionally.

2) Security Skills

The pace of risk generally corresponds to the speed of deployment enabled by DevOps.

Given this constraint, implementing security at the end or as a distinct process in the usual approach may not be feasible. This is where DevSecOps can help by integrating security into the SDLC from the outset.

As a result, having DevSecOps abilities will undoubtedly help you succeed as a DevOps expert.

3) Understanding of Relevant Tools

DevOps success is solely dependent on the toolset used during the various stages of implementation.

It’s difficult to enumerate the number of tools introduced by DevOps. However, the importance of making DevOps successful should be explained in depth.

4) Soft Skills and Noble Thought

It is insufficient to be skilled in coding and automation. DevOps necessitates a distinct you, one who excels at soft skills, self-motivation, flexibility, and learning.

DevOps practitioners must be both doers and listeners.

They should be clear that DevOps transformation requires stakeholder dialogues, understanding of business goals, assessment, and identification of areas for improvement, all of which are driven by cooperation.

5) Automation Skills

A strong understanding of automation, the core of the DevOps approach, is necessary to be referred to as a DevOps engineer.

A DevOps engineer should be able to automate every step of the DevOps pipeline, including infrastructure and configurations, CI/CD cycles, app performance monitoring, and others.

The ability to use DevOps toolset, code, and scripting is directly related to DevOps automation expertise.

6) Coding and Scripting

Scripting and coding are two essential abilities that every DevOps engineer has to have. Ruby, Python, Java, Javascript, PHP, Bash, Shell, Node.js, and Python.Js is some of the most frequently suggested programming and scripting languages.

Even now, ardent programmers still use Linux as one of their operating systems. There is a lot of room to maneuver, and this flexibility is advantageous to DevOps professionals worldwide.

Therefore, even while not every DevOps developer will use Linux, every DevOps engineer will surely utilize it at some time in their career.

The basics of Linux, including connecting to a server and generating and editing files, are simple to learn. This is considered to be common knowledge.

7) Cloud Skills

Cloud and DevOps go hand in hand all the time. One directly affects and depends on the other’s effectiveness. While the cloud supports a process by giving it the necessary infrastructure to test, deploy, and release code, DevOps methodology drives that process.

With the necessary CI/CD toolkit, the cloud enables DevOps automation and simplifies a resource monitoring system.

8) Testing Skills

Testing is essential to the success of DevOps. Tests must function flawlessly without fail in the DevOps automation process.

For continuous testing to be successful, where automated tests are run, this is crucial.

9) Customer-Focused Approach

Any successful DevOps process has as its final goal achieving customer happiness. Given this aspect, DevOps experts should make sure every task they complete satisfies end-user needs and aligns with company goals.

In order to accomplish this, they will need to work together with many stakeholders, including project managers, developers, testers, and the organization’s thought leadership.

10) Proactiveness

DevOps engineers and professionals will need initiative and passion for their work, which directly affects output and performance.

Additionally, part of your process is remaining current with pertinent technology, new tools, and other things.

Final Thoughts

More of a culture than a technical solution, DevOps. It will be more beneficial the more you comprehend.

As a professional, business, or service provider, you must be flexible in your operations, open to change, and possess a mix of hard and soft skills if you want to thrive in the DevOps journey.

Take action now! Find a DevOps job that might be right for you!

Do check out some latest DevOps Bootcamp discounts for 2023 to help you get started.

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