DevOps Tools Engineer Objectives V1

Objectives

701 Software Engineering

701.1 Modern Software Development (weight: 6)

Weight	6
Description	Candidates

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Understand and design service based applications

• Understand common API concepts and standards

• Understand aspects of data storage, service status and session handling

• Design software to be run in containers

• Design software to be deployed to cloud services

• Awareness of risks in the migration and integration of monolithic legacy software

• Understanding of common application security risks and ways to mitigate them

• Understand the concept of agile software development

• Understand the concept of DevOps and its implications to software developers and operators

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• REST, JSON, SOAP

• Service Orientated Architectures (SOA)

• Microservices

• Immutable servers

• Service discovery

• Loose coupling

• Cross site scripting, SQL injections, verbose error reports, API authentication, consistent enforcement of transport encryption

• CORS Headers

• ACID properties and CAP theorems

701.2 Standard Components and Platforms for Software (weight: 2)

Weight	2
Description	Candidates should understand services offered by common cloud solutions. They should be able to include these services in their application architectures and deployment toolchains and understand the required service configurations. OpenStack service components are used as a reference implementation.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Features and concepts of object storage

• Features and concepts of relational and NoSQL databases

• Features and concepts of message brokers and message queues

• Features and concepts of big data services

• Features and concepts of application runtimes / PaaS

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• OpenStack Swift

• OpenStack Trove

• OpenStack Zaqar

• CloudFoundry

• OpenShift

701.3 Source Code Management (weight: 5)

Weight	5
Description	Candidates should be able to use Git to manage and share source code. This includes creating and contributing to a repository as well as the usage of tags, branches and remote repositories. Furthermore, the candidate should be able to merge files and resolve merging conflicts.

Key Knowledge Areas:

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• ...

• ...

701.4 Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (weight: 5)

Weight	5
Description	Candidates should understand the principles and components of a continuous integration and continuous delivery pipeline. Candidates should be able to implement a CI/CD pipeline using Jenkins, including triggering the CI/CD pipeline, running unit, integration and acceptance tests, packaging software and handling the deployment of tested software artifacts.

Key Knowledge Areas:

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• ...

• ...

702 Container Management

702.1 Container Usage (weight: 7)

Weight	7
Description	Candidates should be able to build, share and operate Docker containers. This includes creating Dockerfiles, using a Docker registry, creating and interacting with containers as well as connecting containers to networks and storage volumes.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Understand the Docker architecture

• Use existing Docker images from a Docker registry

• Create Dockerfiles and build images from Dockerfiles

• Upload images to a Docker registry

• Operate and access Docker containers

• Manage Docker networks and connect container to Docker networks

• Manage Docker volumes and use Docker volumes for persistent container storage

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• docker

• Dockerfile

• .dockerignore

702.2 Container Deployment and Orchestration (weight: 5)

Weight	5
Description	Candidates should be able to run and manage multiple containers that work together to provide a service. This includes the orchestration of Docker containers using Docker Compose in conjunction with an existing Docker Swarm cluster as well as using an existing Kubernetes cluster.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Understand the application model of Docker Compose

• Create and run Docker Compose Files

• Understand the architecture and functionality of Docker Swarm mode

• Run containers in a Docker Swarm

• Understand the architecture and application model Kubernetes

• Define and manage a container-based application for Kubernetes, including the definition of pods, services and replication controller

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• docker-compose

• docker

• kubectl

702.3 Container Infrastructure (weight: 4)

Weight	4
Description	Candidates should be able to set up a runtime environment for containers. This includes running containers on a local workstation as well as setting up a dedicated container host. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of other container infrastructures and container specific security aspects.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Use docker-machine to setup a Docker host

• Understand Docker networking concepts, including overlay networks

• Create and manage Docker networks

• Understand Docker storage concepts, including flocker

• Understand the concept of service discovery and basic feature knowledge of etcd

• Basic feature knowledge of CoreOS and rkt

• Understand security risks of container virtualization and container images and how to mitigate them

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• docker-machine

703 Machine Deployment

703.1 Virtual Machine Deployment (weight: 4)

Weight	4
Description	Candidates should be able to automate the deployment of a virtual machine with an operating system and a specific set of configuration files and software.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Understand Vagrant architecture and concepts, including storage and networking

• Retrieve and use boxes from Atlas

• Create and run Vagrantfiles

• Access Vagrant virtual machines

• Share and synchronize folder between a Vagrant virtual machine and the host system

• Understand Vagrant provisioning, including File, Shell, Ansible and Docker

• Understand multi-machine setup

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• vagrant

• Vagrantfile

703.2 Cloud Deployment (weight: 2)

Weight	2
Description	Candidates should be able to configure IaaS cloud instances and adjust them to match their available hardware resources, specifically, disk space and volumes. Additinally, candidates should be able to configure instances to allow secure SSH logins and prepare the instances to be ready for a configuration management tool such as Ansible.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Understanding the features and concepts of cloud-init, including user-data and initializing and configuring cloud-init

• Use cloud-init to create, resize and mount file systems, configure user accounts, including login credentials such as SSH keys and install software packages from the distribution’s repository

• Understand the features and implications of IaaS clouds and virtualization for a computing instance, such as snapshotting, pausing, cloning and resource limits.

703.3 System Image Creation (weight: 2)

Weight	2
Description	Candidates should be able to create images for containers, virtual machines and IaaS cloud instances.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Understand the functionality and features of Packer

• Create and maintain template files

• Build images from template files using different builders

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• packer

704 Configuration Management

704.1 Ansible (weight: 8)

Weight	8
Description	Candidates

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Understand the principles of automated system configuration and software installation

• Create and maintain inventory files

• Understand how Ansible interacts with remote systems

• Manage SSH login credentials for Ansible, including using unprivileged login accounts

• Create, maintain and run Ansible playbooks, including tasks, handlers, conditionals, loops and registers

• Set and use variables

• Maintain secrets using Ansible vaults

• Write Jinja2 templates, including using common filters, loops and conditionals

• Understand and use Ansible roles and install Ansible roles from Ansible Galaxy

• Understand and use important Ansible tasks, including file, copy, template, ini_file, lineinfile, patch, replace, user, group, command, shell, service, systemd, cron, apt, debconf, yum, git, and debug

• Awareness of dynamic inventory

• Awareness of Ansibles features for non-Linux systems

• Awareness of Ansible containers

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• ansible.cfg

• ansible-playbook

• ansible-vault

• ansible-galaxy

• ansible-doc

704.2 Other Configuration Management Tools (weight: 2)

Weight	2
Description	Candidates should understand the main features and principles of important configuration management tools other than Ansible.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Basic feature and architecture knowledge of Puppet.

• Basic feature and architecture knowledge of Chef.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• Manifest, Class, Recipe, Cookbook

• puppet

• chef

• chef-solo

• chef-client

• chef-server-ctl

• knife

705 Service Operations

705.1 IT Operations and Monitoring (weight: 4)

Weight	4
Description	Candidates

Key Knowledge Areas:

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• ...

• ...

705.2 Log Management and Analysis (weight: 4)

Weight	4
Description	Candidates should understand the role of log files in operations and troubleshooting. They should be able to set up centralized logging infrastructure based on Logstash to collect and normalize log data. Furthermore, candidates should understand how Elasticsearch and Kibana help to store and access log data.

Key Knowledge Areas:

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• ...

• ...