A demo on Bootstrapping:
If you want to know the previous blogs on the root causes of creating costly defects in Cloud , you can go through below blogs and videos:
https://vskumar.blog/2019/03/13/14-aws-what-is-session-management-in-elb/
So now, we will see as per this blog subject what kind of defects can be created under the below scenario:
Assume the a Cloud engineer joined newly in a job. He might be a fresher for IT and learnt AWS through either online or class room training sessions. He is highly self motivated and proactive. Being fresher with less CTC the employer hired him, instead of taking the infra experienced IT professional with costly CTC. Now they have given the below tasks to complete in a certain hours.
- Need to create N number of EC2s and install some software in Y days.
- Need to connect those EC2s using SSH and to test the loaded software.
What the Cloud Engineer has done with his mind set and by having limited infra exposure/knowledge ?
a) He created each EC2 separately. Because he did not practice on Boot strapping or IAC options.
b) He installed the required software in each EC2 by using SSH connection. And tested them once they are configured. Which is typical traditional sysadmin activity. But he is using the VMS.
What is the expectation from the Cloud expert/manager [who doesn’t give guidance, but he is more capable in tracking the work ? – we can see many such managers in IT field as trackers to crack the work culture!! ] ?
- The manager expect him to write and run a JSON or YAML script to do all the above tasks.
- And he expected him to do in a day or two.
- But this poor fresher has taken a week time to complete the job by sitting on week-end also.
- The management has planned to allocate the planned EC2s on 4th day to distribute to the technical staff where they are going to use for some other technical tasks. But its delayed due to a fresher is deployed for this activitiy.
Now, you as An Experienced Cloud Architect what you are suppose to do while recruiting a fresher for this kind of work?
Are you going to check by which tool he can write JSON or YAML scripts in AWS ?
Is he capable of creating EC2s with bootstrapping options also to install libs and software to save time ?
Is he capable of using Cloudformation template [by creating] along with Ansible to setup small EC2 servers/configurations ?
Do you think if he knows the above tools usage only, is it enough to do the work or plan/design the script properly ?
Are you going to check the Domain infra knowledge also with the candidate ?
Is the planned person and the executor are the same ?
If they are not the same, how the communication happened in between them ?
To meet the schedule; with what techniques/tools to use in the project, was it kept in the Cloud design specifications ? Was it communicated to the Cloud Engineer ?
Was it communicated clearly to the low level resources in the project [Like; Cloud Engineers, Architects, etc] on the design and tools usage as a standard ?
Did they estimate the competency of the existing resources ?
Are there any initial training/mentoring/knowledge transfer activities are lacking ?
So, finally what are the management related process defects you can find in this scenario as an experienced Cloud Architect ?
Obviously, many such kind of questions can strike to the mind set of experienced Infra professionals to dig the root causes of these defects. Such kind of situations are happening across Cloud projects and they are increasing the projects cost instead of decreasing. In many news or blogs we have been watching the management is spending more than the past infra cost for Cloud, so what for ? Because of having not the work culture matured managers in IT ?
So, one need to rethink on their environment also for further progress/process improvements. Even in case of a fresher, an experienced person would have been deployed also he might have done the same way due to lack of IAC/Infra creation knowledge. This comes from the experience or exposure or practice only. Hence the Cloud professionals including so called managers are also mandated to learn these techniques.
Some of them in the past I have observed during my Cloud consulting activities. With that knowledge only I have simulated these defects from my management experience. But these are the realistic issues appearing in Cloud projects.
I have given some solutions related to some of the above technical needs through videos/blogs where a fresher can learn well:
https://business.facebook.com/vskumarcloud/videos/831779460496153/
https://business.facebook.com/vskumarcloud/videos/2344192009241492/
https://business.facebook.com/vskumarcloud/videos/725185641285006/
https://business.facebook.com/vskumarcloud/videos/2328450437268264/
https://business.facebook.com/vskumarcloud/videos/2384548155122341/
I wrote a blog and connected one sample video for Boot strapping:
https://vskumar.blog/2020/09/07/aws-working-with-boot-strapping-tasks-on-ec2s/
Building Cloud cum DevOps Architects 