DevOps toolchain
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A DevOps toolchain is a set or combination of tools that aid in the delivery, development, and management of software applications throughout the systems development life cycle, as coordinated by an organisation that uses DevOps practices.
Generally, DevOps tools fit into one or more activities, which supports specific DevOps initiatives: Plan, Create, Verify, Package, Release, Configure, Monitor, and Version Control.[1][2]
Toolchains
In
As DevOps is a set of practices that emphasizes the collaboration and communication of both
Stages of DevOps
Plan
Plan is composed of two things: "define" and "plan".[8] This activity refers to the business value and application requirements. Specifically "Plan" activities include:
- Production metrics, objects and feedback
- Requirements
- Business metrics
- Update release metrics
- Release plan, timing and business case
- Security policy and requirement
A combination of the IT personnel will be involved in these activities: business application owners,
Create
Create is composed of the building, coding, and configuring of the software development process.[8] The specific activities are:
- Design of the software and configuration
- Coding including code quality and performance
- Software build and build performance
- Release candidate
Tools and vendors in this category often overlap with other categories. Because DevOps is about breaking down silos, this is reflective in the activities and product solutions.[clarification needed]
Verify
Verify is directly associated with ensuring the quality of the
- Acceptance testing
- Regression testing
- Security and vulnerability analysis
- Performance
- Configuration testing
Solutions for verify related activities generally fall under four main categories: Test automation, Static analysis, Test Lab, and Security.
Package
Package refers to the activities involved once the release is ready for deployment, often also referred to as staging or Preproduction / "preprod".[8] This often includes tasks and activities such as:
- Approval/preapprovals
- Package configuration
- Triggered releases
- Release staging and holding
Release
Release related activities include schedule, orchestration, provisioning and deploying software into production and targeted environment.[9] The specific Release activities include:
- Release coordination
- Deploying and promoting applications
- Fallbacks and recovery
- Scheduled/timed releases
Solutions that cover this aspect of the
Configure
Configure activities fall under the operation side of DevOps. Once software is deployed, there may be additional IT infrastructure provisioning and configuration activities required.[8] Specific activities including:
- Infrastructure storage, database and network provisioning and configuring
- Application provision and configuration.
The main types of solutions that facilitate these activities are continuous configuration automation, configuration management, and infrastructure as code tools.[10]
Monitor
Monitoring is an important link in a DevOps toolchain. It allows IT organization to identify specific issues of specific releases and to understand the impact on end-users.[8] A summary of Monitor related activities are:
- Performance of IT infrastructure
- End-user response and experience
- Production metrics and statistics
Information from monitoring activities often impacts Plan activities required for changes and for new release cycles.
Version Control
Version Control is an important link in a DevOps toolchain and a component of software configuration management.
- Non-linear development
- Distributed development
- Compatibility with existent systems and protocols
- Toolkit-based design
Information from Version Control often supports Release activities required for changes and for new release cycles.
See also
References
- ^ Edwards, Damon (22 August 2023). "Integrating DevOps tools into a Service Delivery Platform". dev2ops.org.
- ^ Seroter, Richard. "Exploring the ENTIRE DevOps Toolchain for (Cloud) Teams". infoq.com.
- ^ "Toolchain Overview". nongnu.org. 2012-01-03. Retrieved 2013-10-21.
- ^ "Toolchains". elinux.org. 2013-09-08. Retrieved 2013-10-21.
- ISBN 978-3-319-26137-9.
- ^ Loukides, Mike (2012-06-07). "What is DevOps?".
- ^ Garner Market Trends: DevOps – Not a Market, but Tool-Centric Philosophy That supports a Continuous Delivery Value Chain (Report). Gartner. 18 February 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f g Avoid Failure by Developing a Toolchain that Enables DevOps (Report). Gartner. 16 March 2016.
- ^ Best Practices in Change, Configuration and Release Management (Report). Gartner. 14 July 2010.
- ^ Roger S. Pressman (2009). Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach (7th International ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.