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Performance Matters (and Other Tidbits from the Trenches)

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Category: devops

Command Line Interface Guidelines

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am most comfortable and at home on the unix/linux command line. Continue reading “Command Line Interface Guidelines”

Author bduncanPosted on 2020-12-21Categories Code Bits, devops, RTFM, SRE, WFMTags bash, cli, commandline1 Comment on Command Line Interface Guidelines

The Tail at Scale

The landmark “Tail at Scale”[1] article was missing some of the math. We’re diving into it a bit here to show how the math can be used in setting objectives for latency budgets in back end systems. Continue reading “The Tail at Scale”

Author bduncanPosted on 2020-04-282020-05-30Categories devops, SRE, System Performance4 Comments on The Tail at Scale

What is SRE?

The current state of confusion around what a “Site Reliability Engineer” (SRE) role is..
Continue reading “What is SRE?”

Author bduncanPosted on 2020-03-112020-03-11Categories devops, SRETags DevOps, site reliability engineering, SRE1 Comment on What is SRE?

BPF Performance Tools

BPF is one of the Swiss Army Knife tools for Performance Engineering on Linux. Continue reading “BPF Performance Tools”

Author bduncanPosted on 2020-02-192020-02-19Categories Detecting Performance Issues, devops, Diagnosing Issues, Monitoring, RTFM, SRE, System PerformanceLeave a comment on BPF Performance Tools

Event Logs and A.I.

Many companies in the logging/monitoring space will try to sell you on AI and ML (Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning) to find abnormal. Continue reading “Event Logs and A.I.”

Author bduncanPosted on 2019-12-122020-08-28Categories Detecting Performance Issues, devops, Diagnosing Issues, Event logs, Problem Solving, SRETags AI, event logs, MLLeave a comment on Event Logs and A.I.

Event Logs and K.I.S.S.

I’ve worked with event logs for, well, decades. There are quite a few companies that offer services for managing logs and, afaik, only a few doing it right. Continue reading “Event Logs and K.I.S.S.”

Author bduncanPosted on 2019-12-082019-12-08Categories Detecting Performance Issues, devops, Diagnosing Issues, Event logs, Problem Solving, SRETags event logs, time series dataLeave a comment on Event Logs and K.I.S.S.

SPOFs and Partial Panel

In both aviation and systems we build in redundancies wherever practical to avoid unpleasantness when components or subsystems fail. Continue reading “SPOFs and Partial Panel”

Author bduncanPosted on 2019-12-072021-02-01Categories Aviation, devops, Monitoring, SRETags dashboards, monitoring, partial-panel, Single Points of Failure, SPOFLeave a comment on SPOFs and Partial Panel

Traffic At 2 O’clock!

Up in the air, your eyes can’t be everywhere, all the time. You’re trained to scan the skies for “traffic” (other flying machines) as well as scanning instrumentation in the cockpit. Continue reading “Traffic At 2 O’clock!”

Author bduncanPosted on 2019-11-222021-02-01Categories Aviation, devops, SRETags Detecting performance problems, diagnosing issues, on-call, preventing disasterLeave a comment on Traffic At 2 O’clock!

Own It !!

We were heading back from the practice area to the airport. I didn’t have my pilot license yet and my instructor says: “Push the throttle to Rental Speed!”. Continue reading “Own It !!”

Author bduncanPosted on 2019-10-312021-02-01Categories Aviation, devops, SRETags environments, on-call, ownership1 Comment on Own It !!

Reading Week #3

Here are some interesting reads if you’re fortunate in having some extra time off this Holiday Season.. Continue reading “Reading Week #3”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-12-26Categories devops, Reading Week, SRETags Reading WeekLeave a comment on Reading Week #3

Reading Week #1

I’d like to start a new series of articles based on interesting articles to read for the week.. Continue reading “Reading Week #1”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-12-142018-12-14Categories devops, Reading Week, SRELeave a comment on Reading Week #1

A Steal on O’Reilly DevOps/SRE Books!

This is a limited time deal on 15 O’Reilly books for $15. Go. Buy. Right. Now! Continue reading “A Steal on O’Reilly DevOps/SRE Books!”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-11-07Categories devops, Documentation, RTFM, SRETags O'Reilly Books2 Comments on A Steal on O’Reilly DevOps/SRE Books!

All Day DevOps 2018

I was lucky to catch most of the SRE track and Keynote speakers with the All Day DevOps event this year. Fortunately, if you missed it or want to watch some of the other tracks, the videos have been made available.

Continue reading “All Day DevOps 2018”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-10-192018-10-19Categories devops, SRELeave a comment on All Day DevOps 2018

One Thing At A Time..

We want to learn things from any idea, test, change, upgrade or (heaven forbid) outage in production..

Continue reading “One Thing At A Time..”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-10-032018-10-19Categories devops, Diagnosing Issues, SRELeave a comment on One Thing At A Time..

Seeking SRE

This book just arrived this morning and I’m just through the chapter on building SRE teams. Continue reading “Seeking SRE”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-09-272018-09-27Categories devops, SRETags site reliability engineering, SRE1 Comment on Seeking SRE

Snowflakes

We called our albino squirrel in the backyard, “Snowflake”..

Continue reading “Snowflakes”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-08-072018-08-08Categories devops, SRELeave a comment on Snowflakes

Operations in the Cloud

As an SRE, I’m very fortunate to have had training as a pilot. There are many similarities to system operations.. Continue reading “Operations in the Cloud”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-08-062021-02-01Categories Aviation, devops, SRE1 Comment on Operations in the Cloud

Must Have Books.. Another One!

Not just “Must Have”, but “Must Read!”. A new book has been released and is available, free to download for a short time. Continue reading “Must Have Books.. Another One!”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-07-252018-07-25Categories devops, RTFM, SRE2 Comments on Must Have Books.. Another One!

vi or emacs? Really?!?

Most of the operations/engineering folks I’ve come into contact with will proclaim to be “vi” people and yet, when I watch them edit a file I cringe.. Continue reading “vi or emacs? Really?!?”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-07-212018-07-30Categories devops, RTFM1 Comment on vi or emacs? Really?!?

CI/CD and Optimization

When we talk of CI/CD we’re often referring to Continuous Integration and Delivery while Optimization refers to Services/Systems. What I’d like to discuss is Constant Improvement/Continuous Development and Self-Optimization.. Continue reading “CI/CD and Optimization”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-07-082018-07-10Categories devops1 Comment on CI/CD and Optimization

The DevOps Alternative

In a previous article, “There’s Always a Problem”, I described situations that can arise with the “Engineering vs. Operations” old way. The new way is a DevOps culture.. Continue reading “The DevOps Alternative”

Author bduncanPosted on 2018-07-052018-07-17Categories devopsLeave a comment on The DevOps Alternative

Recent Posts

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