DevOps Automation | DevOps Tools

Continuous Integration /
Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) tools

Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) is one of the features of the DevOps process, this whole process is time consuming by default. Our DevOps Consultants overcome this handicap by using tools which tailor made to overcome the time constraints. Our DevOps consultants automate the entire cycle of build, provisioning, and the deployment process, Our DevOps consultants also use multiple tools, scripts, and test data to ensure rapid delivery.

Jenkins

Jenkins is an open-source virtual server coded in Java designed specially for continuous integration and continuous iterations. Jenkins is an very useful tool for developers, as it helps to build and test software continuously, all while monitoring externally-run executions. It increases the scale of automation and is quickly gaining popularity in DevOps circles. Jenkins requires little maintenance and has built-in GUI tool for easy updates. Jenkins provides customized solution as there are over 400 plugins to support building and testing virtually any project. Jenkins is a software that allows continuous integration. Jenkins will be installed on a server where the central build will take place. Jenkins is a powerful application that allows continuous integration and continuous delivery of projects, regardless of the platform you are working on. It is a free source that can handle any kind of build or continuous integration. You can integrate Jenkins with a number of testing and deployment technologies. Our DevOps consultants have proved their expertise with Jenkins support again and again. It must be said that Jenkins is one of the favourite DevOps tool of our DevOps consultants.

TeamCity

TeamCity is a Continuous Integration server from JetBrains and it comes bundled with a lot of features out of the box, this helps our DevOps consultants to get started with Continuous Integration projects. As a Continuous Integration server, TeamCity is very a precise tool as it can quickly detect the even the minute changes in version-control repositories and trigger builds whenever the new code is added in. TeamCity can be automated and configured to perform the various build activities, this also includes whole of activities such as compilations of source codes, running unit tests, integration tests, deploying the newly built executables into a testing environment to perform functional tests and debugging tests. TeamCity is a tool which our DevOps consultants trust as it is designed to help our DevOps consultants to follow the best practices of the Continuous Integration process. With its unique feature to download reports for comparison from other build configurations. This helps TeamCity to follow the theory of build once and deploy everywhere. TeamCity is a feature-rich and flexible tool which our DevOps consultants love to use as it is quite capable enough to allow or DevOps consultants to follow the best practices which the Continuous Integration process demand.

Octopus Deploy

Octopus Deploy is an automated deployment server, the advantage of Octopus Deploy is its ease to automate the deployment of ASP.NET web applications, Java applications, and Windows Services. These platform can be put into development, test, and production environments.

Octopus Deploy server comes with Tentacles agents, the idea is being that one Octopus Deploy server controls as many servers as there are Tentacles, to be clear there are more than 8 tentacles. With Octopus and with Tentacle agents, our DevOps consultants can easily deploy to servers, the platform acceptance Octopus Deploy extends to cloud services from Amazon Web Services to Microsoft Azure.

Bamboo

Released in February 2007, Bamboo is a Continuous Integration (CI) server that automates the release management for a software application, creating a continuous delivery pipeline. Bamboo is free for open-source projects and also supports any build tool, including Ant, Maven, Make, etc. it is written in JavaScript. Our DevOps consultants love Bamboo for multiple integrations on Bitbucket, GitHub etc. Since Bamboo is open source, there is good from the community as well as constant updates. Bamboo has able to match up to its premier competitors with its constant evolutions and updates. Bamboo also has built-in support for deployment, most of these support systems are automated in nature and feature, another feature why our DevOps consultants love working with Bamboo. Bamboo also supports streamlining of multiple branches such as GitHub and Bitbucket.

Configuration Management

Configuration management (CM) tools usually track updates, changes, code improvements and the versions that have been applied to software code repository, the tracking also covers locations and network addresses of hardware devices. If a system ever needs a software or hardware upgrade, the developers can access the Configuration management program and access the database to see what are the updates are currently installed and helps the developer then to make a more informed decision about the upgradations and features needed.

Chef

The chef is the best known as an infrastructure automation platform and is very popular with our DevOps service provider, it is a straightforward scripting language which turns infrastructure into the code, one thing why Chef is popular and popular in DevOps community. This unique ability of Chef reduces all the unpredictability associated with configuring, even with quite complicated operational environments to the simple computer program one that DevOps teams can manage as they would any other code. Chef sets the bar for DevOps automation across the DevOps tools landscape according to our DevOps service providers. The advantage of Chef is the feature of infrastructure as code translates as the code is flexible, reachable and traceable code changes, codes are human readable and easily testable according to the changes to the main repository.

Puppet Labs

Puppet is a tool that helps DevOps service providers in managing the IT infrastructure especially associated with configuration management of DevOps services at a considerably faster speed without compromising on security concerns and accuracy issues. Puppet is a configuration management tool that assists our DevOps service providers to automate the provisioning, configuration, and management of a server infrastructure. It runs on many platforms such as may open source OS, Linux, Microsoft Windows and with its declarative language to describe configuration to provide customized configuration management options. Puppet is made by Puppet Labs, the brainchild of Luke Kanies in 2005. It is written and coded in Ruby and was released as free software under the GNU General Public License (GPL) until version 2.7.0 and the Apache License 2.0 after that.

Ansible

Ansible is an open source, powerful automation software for configuring, managing and deploying software applications on remote nodes. According to our DevOps service providers, Ansible is designed for multi-tier deployments since day one, Ansible models IT infrastructure by describing how all of the nodes interrelate, rather than just managing one node at a time. To perform these configuration management operations, no downtime is required on either the controller machine (where Ansible is present) or the machines that are provisioned to run through it. In addition, there is no need for agents running on the remote hosts (unlike the competition in this category) just a passwordless SSH connection between the controller system and the remote nodes. Ansible works by connecting all the nodes and by pushing out small programs, called "Ansible modules" to the remote nodes. These Ansible programs are written to be resource models of the desired state of the system or as the desired output of the program.

AWS OpsWorks

Amazon Web Service’s OpsWorks is designed for IT administrators and DevOps-minded developers, this tool help them to easy to manage applications of nearly any scale and complexity without compromising on the security and code integrity. OpsWorks allows our DevOps service providers to create logical architectures, marshall resources depending on architecture structure, deploying applications and all supporting software and packages in a specific configuration, and it helps in the operation and maintenance of the application through the entire software development cycle and the stages of auto-scaling events and software updates.

Configuration management has been traditionally, a complex and time-consuming task because the DevOps service providers have had to choose among different types of configuration management metrics which come with specifically defined flexibility, reduced control, or the required time to develop and deploy custom tooling. Designed to simplify the processes across the entire application development lifecycle, AWS’s OpsWorks overcomes these obstacles by providing an end-to-end flexibility, automated solutions that provide more operational control over applications.

Containerization

Containerization tools are defined as software which provides an enterprise-level framework for integrating and managing containers at a required scale. These tools are aimed to simplify the otherwise complicated container management process and provide a framework, which is not only suited for defining the initial container deployment parameters but also for managing the multiple containers entities as one single entity for the purposes of availability, scaling, and networking metrics.

Docker is an open-source project based on Linux containers and it is the preferred tool of our DevOps support team for containerization. Docker uses Linux Kernel features such as namespaces and control groups to create containers on top of an operating system. While the concept of containerization is not entirely new, what difference docker brings is according to our DevOps support team, the ease for anyone within the development cycle to use them, be it a developer, systems admin, architect and others to take the complete advantage of containers in order to quickly build, integrate and test portable applications. Docker allows concerned talent to package an application on their workstation, this can be executed to run unmodified on any public cloud, private cloud, or even bare metal. According to our DevOps support team, Docker containers are very extremely lightweight and fast.

Containerizations tools are just sandboxed environments running on the Linux much more specifically kernel, due to the fact that they take up fewer resources. Anyone can create and run a Docker container in seconds, when compared with VMs. Docker users also benefit from the increasingly rich and lively ecosystem of Docker Hub, which you can think of as an “app store for Docker” maintained by the Docker community. With Docker, it is easier to link multiple containers together to create an application, this makes it easy to scale up, scale down or update components independently inside the container.

Cloud

Cloud computing is computing based on the internet. Traditionally, a typical user would run applications or programs from the software downloaded on a physical computer or server. Cloud computing allows people access to the same kinds of applications through the internet. Companies and developers love cloud computing for their numerous advantages such as flexibility, disaster recovery, automatic software updates, work from anywhere etc.

AWS Introduction

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the cloud computing service provided by Amazon, one of the largest tech company in the world. Versatility is the word for describing AWS, tasks such as configuring a server to the running of an application, AWS can execute these operations on its cloud service, similarly done on a physical computer. AWS is popular with our DevOps support team as it is always available, scalable, cost-effective, flexible and always up to date with all the technologies and techniques related to the software development cycle.

Azure

Powered by one of the biggest names in the tech industry, Microsoft Azure is the cloud computing service provided by Microsoft. Azure is a comprehensive cloud service, which our DevOps support team use to develop, use to build, deploy, and manage applications through a global network of data centres. Integration tools, DevOps tools, testing tools and a marketplace of over tools make sure that AWS has a tool for a developer of any nature. Azure is popular with our DevOps support team as it improves collaboration, improves mobility between platforms, helps to measure competition, extensive documentation support etc.

Google Cloud Platform

Google’s cloud computing platform, called Cloud Platform. It consists of physical assets, such as computers and hard disk drives depending upon the needs of the developer, and it comes with virtual resources such as virtual machines (VMs), online tools. Google’s cloud platform is known for having the largest presence for any cloud computing service provider. Another tool highly rated by DevOps support team due to their automatic software integration, unlimited storage (technically), quick deployment support, a flexibility of work practices, etc all leading to better productivity.

Version Control

Version control systems are a set of software tools which help a software development team to manage and track changes to source code over time. Version control softwares keeps track of every modification to the codes in the database. If a mistake is made or a bug arises which does not seem to go away, developers can always turn back to earlier versions of the code to compare, this helps to fix the mistake while minimizing disruption and time consumption to the team.

Github

The largest hub of source code in the world and trusted since its release in 2008. Github provides both distributed version control and source code management (SCM) functionalities. The large community of Github has made it a popular destination for aspiring developers and for those who want to step up their game. According to our DevOps consultants, Github is also popular due to its overall simplicity of use and navigation, the expertise of the community and the frequent updates which it provides. Features like integrated code search, bug tracking, and availability of servers. Our DevOps experts say that Github has transformed how companies and organizations view the CD/CI process due to Github, the version control tools have changed how codes are tracked and managed.

Git

To get far ahead of the competition, Git uses a feature called the branching model. This basically means that Git allows and encourages the developers to have multiple local branches of a single program that can be entirely independent of each other. This division of codes makes the process of coding, creation, debugging, merging, and deletion of specific lines of development easy to track, manage and in cases, to find also. Our DevOps consultants prefer Git to handle large and complex projects due to advantages such as contexts switching, which allows a developer to create an entirely new branch. In this branch, developers can be creative, commit to few lines with ever disturbing the original branch.

Another reason why our DevOps consultants love Git is due to its hierarchy access or the role-based code lines feature, which only allows only specific developers to access to specific parts of the program. Our DevOps consultants also love flowchart based feature which basically charts the changes to codes independently.

Gitlab

Used by NASA, IBM, Sony, Alibaba and SpaceX and written in Google’s in-house code Go. According to our DevOps consultants, the popularity of Gitlab comes due to the multitude of features which Gitlab provides. It has to be also noted that Gitlab provides the largest of tools to even the free users. Features such as CI/CD tools, cycle analytics, issue boards, time tracking, etc. The enterprise version of this tool comes with even more tools which basically blows away the competition. Another feature of Gitlab is security and privacy of the codes, according to our DevOps consultants Gitlab has easy compatibility with all the tools discussed here.

BitBucket

Preferred by professional developers with private proprietary code, this what Bitbucket has tailored itself towards. But while it may not features or tools like its competition, the edge comes from the fact that Bitbucket is owned by Atlassian, the parent company also owns products like Jira, HipChat, Confluence and Bamboo. Thus making this tool highly compatible with tools which are associated with collaboration, CD/CI, monitoring tools. This connection actually makes Bitbucket the most well-rounded tool overall if not individually. According to our DevOps consultants, the pricing is another area where BitBucket excels, developers get choose custom plans specifically according to their needs, something which the competitors lack.

Monitoring

These tools oversee the entire infrastructure and network, including servers, routers, and switches basically anything and everything associated with the DevOps process. These tools are important as they help to identify bottlenecks in the process, these tools are vital as they are the only tool which sees the process in a single go.Unlike the tools discussed before, those tools cater to a single section in the process. These tools connect the individual sections into a single process.

Scout

Scout is Application Monitoring built for modern DevOps teams. Our DevOps experts say that this tool is specifically designed for measuring and monitoring performance, It provides the fastest path to a slow line of code. The main overview page of this tool provides a DevOps expert metrics like performance, transition speeds, data leakages, integration compatibility metrics and more. Additionally, you can compare metrics in the overview chart and see how your app’s performance compares to different time periods.

Datadog

Datadog is another monitoring tool designed to help developers across platforms and expertise to monitor the performance of their program, integrated tools, third-party services, and gather data from different sections and sources within the program. Datadog analyses this large amount of unorganized data and organizes them into actionable and reliable insights. According to our DevOps experts, Datadog is especially good for monitoring data aggregation from multiple sources, thus maintaining the integrity of the program.

PagerDuty

PagerDuty is a popular monitoring tool which enables DevOps teams to deliver high-performing, high-quality apps with an unmatched user experience. According to our DevOps experts, PagerDuty supports hundreds of native integrations with other DevOps tools such as operations tools, automated scheduling tools etc. One of the areas where PagerDuty excels is its ability to check and monitor third integrations of the program, according to our DevOps experts. With its real-time alerts, tracking critical systems and applications, our DevOps experts can quickly detect, triage, and resolve incidents from development through production.

New Relic

New Relic is a software analytics tool that helps our DevOps experts to analyze and derive important, practical, actionable and relevant information from billions of metrics across millions of applications and in turn, use these data into an existing program. According to our DevOps experts, this tool eliminates the guessing process when it comes to the performance issue, CPU availability, database loads, or something else. This tool can give our DevOps experts the exact reason for any unforeseen roadblocks.

Zabbix

The only truly open source monitoring here, Zabbix is a monitoring tool which specializes in processing the metrics associated with the program’s response to the end user and internet connectivity. According to our DevOps experts, this is an important tool as the results from this tools lays down the path for all the future updates and features for the program.

A Case Study on DevOps: The Transition

Urolime DevOps consultants works closely with the customer development and deployment team and understand their existing process, prepared DevOps adoption plan, worked with the team to understand the advantages of the transition, given proper training which needed, helped them in moving to the DevOps culture.

Devops Tools & Technologies

Automate the entire cycle of build, provisioning, and the deployment process using Devops Tools & Technologies.

Docker Support Services

Take advantage of containers in order to quickly build and test portable applications with Docker support.

Jenkins Support Services

Build and test software continuously, all while monitoring externally-run executions using Jenkins support.