Automation is a big part of DevOps, but are you practicing DevOps if you do not automate every single thing? I'd like to talk about where automation fits into DevOps, how to go about scripting "all the things" and why sometimes it is not necessary. Personal story of how one Ruby script saved me and my friends a bunch of time that could be used to do things slightly more exciting than copy/pasting to spreadsheets. Plus my quick API 101 lesson...

1. DevOpsDays DC
A house divided against
itself cannot stand.

2. How to Automate Yourself
out of a Job
judy johnson
Software Engineer
Onyx Point
@miz_j
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3. A Day in the Life...
My job titles (alphabetically):
● Member of fun committee
● ScrumMaster
● Software Engineer
● System Engineer
● Team Lead
● (other duties as assigned)
○ Customer support
○ Documentation
○ Jira
○ Meetings
○ Reporting
And when I am not at work…
● Bake cookies, cakes
● Catch up with my kids (both my daughters
are engineers)
● Enjoy nature - walk every Saturday
● Go to concerts
● Try to read actual books
● Volunteer (college, high school, middle
school, women in tech)
● Watch Hockey Games (Go Caps! Bruins!)
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I love deadlines. I like the
whooshing sound they make as
they fly by.
~ Douglas Adams

4. So… why is DevOps so important to me?
● Cooperation
● Communication
● Repeatability/Consistency
● Efficiency
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5. ...and why is Automation so Important in DevOps?
My Personal DevOps Process
● Perform Manually/Document
● Script
● Test/Peer Review
● Release
● Retrospect and start again
Every step in this process brings improvement, so even if you do not get beyond
the documentation step, you’re ahead...
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6. A quote so I can ramble on a little more...
“Life is trying things to see if they work.”
– Ray Bradbury
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7. Why automate?
● Speed
● Consistency
● Cost-savings
● Reduce human error
● Scalability
● As part of CI Process
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8. What do we automate (some examples)
● Repeatable Processes
● Testing
● Deployment Processes
● Hardware/Software Status
● Metrics/Reporting
● Boring stuff (email sorting, etc)
● For convenience (IFTTT)
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© Thanks, Allie Brosh, “Hyperbole and a Half”

9. What tools do we use?
● Ruby, Perl, Python, Java, etc
● Jenkins, Travis, Gitlab-CI, etc
● Puppet, Chef, Salt, Ansible
● Database queries
● Cron jobs
● APIs
● ...and many more
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10. Why would you *not* automate (some reasons)
● The time to automate is longer than time to perform the task and
...the task is not performed often
● Interim results and statuses need to be available
● Human intervention needed
● Security risk (e.g. plain-text passwords)
● Correct automation tools not available
● Trying to automate too much at once
● Creativity
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11. © 123RF.com
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12. Why do people fear automation
● Fear of losing a job
● Don’t trust what they can’t control
● Lack of knowledge of tools
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“Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a HAL
9000 computer."
– HAL 9000 - 2001: A Space Odyssey

13. The CLI (Command Line Interface)
and the API (Application Program Interface)
● Accessibility (screen-readers are happier with plain text)
● Easy to read and recreate/repeat
● Often too many options to fit on a readable GUI screen
...or too much output to view at once
● Return data in a format for reuse (.csv, .json, etc)
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14. CLIs
● Easy to read and recreate (pkzip)
● Can fit more into less space/time
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15. APIs
● “a set of functions and procedures allowing the creation of applications that
access the features or data of an operating system, application, or other
service.” – Wikipedia
● Get data needed from a function call rather than navigating
● Data is returned in a readable format
● Data can be manipulated before presented to the end user
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16. An API in action
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17. Some Metrics that show what we’ve gained
● Cost
● Test coverage
● Customer Satisfaction
● Defects Found
● MTTR (mean time to recover)
● Time Saved on testing
● Time to release
● Risk
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© 123RF

18. Toll house cookie slide
● 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
● 1 teaspoon baking soda
● 1 teaspoon salt
● 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
● 3/4 cup granulated sugar
● 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
● 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
● 2 large eggs
● 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE®
Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
Bake at 375 degrees for 7-9 minutes
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19. Resources
● I totally started to write a list of resources here
● But then I realized I was surrounded by amazing DevOps people
● And many of them have read – and written – so much about automation,
● So…
Look around you!
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20. Quotations
“If you automate a process that has errors, all you’ve done is automate the generation of
those errors.” – W.L.W. Borowiecki
“Any daily work task that takes 5 minutes will cost over 20 hours a year, or over half of a
work week. Even if it takes 20 hours to automate that daily 5 minute task, the automation
will break even in a year.” – Anthony J. Stieber
"I will always choose a lazy person for a difficult job. Because, he will find an easy way to do
it." – Bill Gates
“You can’t automate stupid!” – Kitt
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21. © 123RF.com
In conclusion...
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22. DevOpsDays DC
A house divided against
itself cannot stand.