This document discusses DevOps tools and use cases for database administrators (DBAs). It introduces DevOps and explains why DBAs should care about automation and DevOps practices. It outlines use cases like standardizing operations through automation and enabling continuous integration in development. Specific tools covered include Git for version control, Puppet for configuration management, and Ansible for automation. The document advocates that DBAs adopt DevOps practices to gain agility, free up time, and help developers and the business.

1. DevOps for DBAs
use cases and tools
Björn Rost

2. Björn Rost
about me
•Consultant
•Oracle Database HA & Performance
•Solaris and Linux DevOps & automation
•Oracle ACE Director
•(ex) president of RAC SIG
•OTN EMEA tour organizer
© 2016 Pythian 2

3. ABOUT PYTHIAN
Pythian’s 400+ IT professionals
help companies adopt
and manage disruptive
technologies to better compete
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4. © 2016 Pythian. Confidential 4
Systems currently
managed by Pythian
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2015
Resumes
Reviewed:
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Behavioral
Interviews
Conducted:
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Tests
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Job Offers
Made: 189
Accepted:
174

6. AGENDA
• what is DevOps and why do I care?
• use cases for DevOps
• standardize and automate operations
• agility with CI in development
• tools
• git: version control
• puppet: provisioning
• ansible: automation © 2016 Pythian 6

7. what is DevOps
and why do I care?

8. DevOps
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DevOps is a culture, movement or practice that emphasizes the
collaboration and communication of both software developers
and other information-technology (IT) professionals while
automating the process of software delivery and infrastructure
changes. It aims at establishing a culture and environment where
building, testing, and releasing software can happen rapidly,
frequently, and more reliably.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DevOps
8

9. why should *I* care
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10. another reason to care
The 10 Highest-Paying Tech Jobs Right Now
1. Software Architect – $116,267*
2. Data Scientist – $109,399
3. Devops Engineer – $106,045
4. Software Engineer – $98,304
5. Java Developer – $98,304
6. Mobile Developer – $96,133
7. Frontend Developer – $92,133
8. Software Developer – $87,185
9. Database Admin – $87,025
10. .Net Developer – $83,936
source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathryndill/2016/04/22/the-highest-paying-tech-jobs-right-now
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11. • devs, biz demands more agile
• cloud shows what’s possible
• need to manage more with less
• data keeps increasing in value
• move to virtualization and cloud
• tools are becoming available
• “self-managing” rdbms
• free up time for interesting tasks
• standardization makes sense
• baby steps towards “the cloud”
internal driversexternal drivers
11© 2016 Pythian

12. DevOps use cases

13. standardize and
automate
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14. •avoid snowflake systems
•re-use experience and test results
•self-service instead of repeating
tasks
•avoid human errors
•maturity model
automate to standardize
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15. manual
documented
command line
and templates
fully scripted
orchestrated APIs
automation maturity model
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16. •software (and cluster) installation
•database creation
•updates and patching
•backup (and recovery)
•space management
•create and refresh dev/test/QA
•DataGuard setup
•manage users and privs
typical DBA tasks
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17. provisioning
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18. © 2016 Pythian
•roll out standardized systems
•big push for virtualization
•migrate bare-metal env to 100s of VMs
•full system restores
•prereqs
•disk provisioning
•GI and rdbms installaion
•patching
•env customization
provisioning examples
18

19. automate
restore tests
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20. rapid cloning
for CI
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21. develop
buildtests
• de-facto standard method today
• sometimes called agile
• automatically build and deploy
code to dev/test/QA
• run unit tests
• fix broken tests as needed
• repeat
test driven development
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22. •rather easy and standard to do
•build, test, throw away and repeat
•easy for idempotency
•but what about DML and DDL?
•creating an object in the DB?
•updating a certain object
•testing DDL changes
TDD for software
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23. •manually clone (rman or dp)
•scripted creation of small DBs for
functional tests
•flashback database
•dNFS clonedb
•quick cloning of VMs
•cloning of PDBs
•oracle cloud DBaaS APIs
© 2016 Pythian
CI clone or reset the database
23

24. the outcome
•automatic unit tests now include data changes
•DDL changes for deployment are also unit-tested
•DDL deployments are run from scripts
•index adds etc by DBAs are fed back into dev codebase and test systems
•unit tests complete in minutes, giving instant feedback to developers
•less errors
•more confidence in deployments
•deployment automation meaning no stressful manual tasks for DBAs
•enormous benefits in agility and reduced time for feature-to-production
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25. DevOps tools
a very quick intro

26. version control
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27. •init/clone
•commit
•branch
•push/pull
git
version control
•no “central” repo required
•push and pull criss-cross
•git is not github or gitlab etc
•but they can be very useful
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28. golden images vs
config mgmt
28© 2016 Pythian

29. • define end state of system
• checks current state and corrects
if necessary
• runs against different OS and
versions
• allows to pick and choose single
modules
• always need to change some
configs after cloning anyway
• how do you keep image up-to-
date?
• how do you push updates to
cloned VMs? (throw-away and
reclone not feasible for databases)
• not always supported for all sw
• what if you want to change VM
technology or move to cloud?
golden imagesconfig mgmt
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30. state and
idempotency
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31. useradd demo
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[root@ol ~]# groupadd -g 54321 oinstall
groupadd: group 'oinstall' already exists
[root@ol ~]# useradd -u 54321 oracle
useradd: user 'oracle' already exists
31

32. defining state (ansible example)
brost$ cat create_user.yaml
---
- hosts: all
gather_facts: no
remote_user: root
tasks:
- name: ensure oinstall group exists
group: name=oinstall gid=54321 state=present
- name: ensure oracle user exists with correct groups
user: name=oracle uid=54321 group=oinstall shell=/bin/bash
32© 2016 Pythian

33. running this ansible playbook
brost$ ansible-playbook -i hosts create_user.yaml
PLAY [all] *********************************************************************
TASK [ensure oinstall group exists] ********************************************
ok: [blog-demo.pythian.com]
TASK [ensure oracle user exists with correct groups] ***************************
ok: [blog-demo.pythian.com]
PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
blog-demo.pythian.com : ok=2 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0
33© 2016 Pythian

34. puppet
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35. puppet
config management
•describe the end-state of your system(s) in pseudo-code
•server/client based model
•agent will (by default) check and run every 30 minutes
•has great support for modularization and re-usability
•extends to hierarchical config management
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36. puppet
architecture
•puppetmaster hold configuration
•text files
•hiera
•ENC and many types of databases
•clients actions
1. scompile and end “facts”
2. request their config from puppetmaster
3. implement changes if needed
4. send back the report of the run
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37. simplest puppet code example
group { 'oinstall':
ensure => 'present',
gid => '54321',
}
user { 'oracle':
ensure => 'present',
gid => '54321',
shell => '/bin/bash',
uid => '54321',
requires => Group['oinstall'],
}
37© 2016 Pythian

38. • excellent to force strict configs
• integration with provisioning
tools
• support into CMDBs
• modularization
• loads of great, supported
modules on puppetforge
• requires server/client
infrastructure
• running one-off scripts or tasks
is cumbersome
• jobs can run several minutes
• hard(er) to scale
conspros
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39. ansible
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40. ansible
config management made really easy
•no agent or infrastructure needed
•needs no client install, only Python must be available
•utilizes ssh for communications
•public-key auth highly recommended
•uses yaml to express configuration
•yaml is somewhere in between json and xml
•includes many modules
•and can be extended
•can run against one target at a time or a list or group of targets
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41. quick and dirty ansible demo
a playbook for rlsqlplus
•install a 3rd party rpm
•to avoid risk of internet connectivity, I downloaded this and copy to VM
•copy a wordfile to the server
•this is also a static file that gets copied
•setup an alias called rlsqlplus in .bash_profile
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42. no need to reinvent the wheel
•git repo with oracle playbooks
•install SI and RAC
•patch and upgrade
•execute arbitrary SQL
ready ansible playbooks
https://github.com/oravirt/ansible-oracle
https://github.com/oravirt/ansible-oracle-modules
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43. •elevate your DBA skills with
automation
•free up your time for interesting stuff
•look for ways to help devs&biz
•version control everything
•don’t repeat manual tasks more than
twice
•get started with ansible
summary
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44. THANK YOU
@brost
rost@pythian.com
44© 2016 Pythian