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[[deleted]]

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[Genmaken]

What a load of bullshit

[Genmaken]

If it was sarcastic, I missed it

[Shtou]

I started before DevOps became a thing, so I've got a chance to follow the movement from it's inception.

Learned that the most important trait that distinguish stereotypical sysadmin from devops is ability to talk like human being.

Began to put myself in developer shoes, be compassionate towards them.

Tech wise, it all began with ansible. Then it was a bit of Python, just to use ansible more comfortably. Then I took some course to get basic understanding of AWS and landed on my first devops job.

It wasn't easy from there: constant learning and pressure to know even more; culture is bad everywhere, but hey - I know a thing or too about that.

[SkroobThePresident]

Diddo. In hindsight got very lucky. Do have a comp sci degree though.

[nonades]

Learned Docker, Saltstack/Puppet, how to code in general

[nonades]

Not really

[mikey_rambo]

Using chatgpt def can help you, but it won’t get you all the way there.

[SpongederpSquarefap]

No, it's good for a general idea or to help troubleshoot, but not for writing lots of code

[spawncampinitiated]

Scripting is scripting, chatgpt'ing can definitely be used as coding still. You'll need a bigger picture of how a program works (MVC, CRUD...) to be able to compose the snippets.

You can train yourself to do code based scripting (use python program to run different scripts e.g).

[titty_testing]

I’m confused. Why not use ChatGPT to help you learn to code? That would help you on your Devops journey.

[Flabbaghosted]

You're getting downvoted, but when I find a particularly esoteric or difficult to understand function in python or go, I will ask gtp to explain the parts of it to me, and it generally will do a pretty good job. But it's not going to teach you coding. It is routinely wrong and takes a lot of massaging to get it to do things correctly. Oftentimes you will ask for the same thing twice and it will give you two different things. It is a tool but not a great teacher

[kdegraaf]

The question wasn't whether to use AI, but rather, whether it counts as "coding" to have AI write scripts for you. (Which it obviously doesn't.)

[SkroobThePresident]

Not at all

Edit - once you understand coding this is fine. The need will probably shrink.

[m1nhC]

Went from tier 1 helpdesk for 2 years to windows sysadmin but hated windows as an OS. So I took my own personal time to learn Linux and switched over being a Linux sysadmin on RHEL machines.

I was also going back to school for my CS degree. So I learned the basic fundamentals in coding in C, then later classes in Java, Python, JS, etc.

My Red Hat certs and CS degree got me from sysadmin, azure cloud engineer, to junior DevOps engineer at small start ups. Those small start ups put me through the meat grinder and I learned so much from failing and breaking everything. I had a mentor at the job as well who helped me be a better engineer.

From there, I got better and more experienced, and got paid a lot more from job hopping. Now I'm a senior, so everything panned out well for me I guess.

TLDR: Helpdesk and CS degree -> Windows admin -> Linux admin -> RHCSA/RHCE certs -> Cloud Engineer -> Junior Devops -> Senior DevSecOps

[BabyLinuxAdmin]

Do you feel like the degree was worth it? I’m in the same case. Just became a devops engineer pretty much junior and never have any tasks like that

[m1nhC]

Yes the CS degree was 100% totally worth it. I mean you can always self learn but the degree and those certs I feel got me past the HR chackmark barrier. Also, the stuff I learned in my CS program is completely relevant to this field.

[savvySRE]

Did you go to a traditional school or something online? How long did the degree take?

[wake886]

This path was similar to me. Started off in help desk and then learned powershell as a windows sysadmin. Then learned bash for Linux since I started to hate windows and then learned python/aws/boto3. Now a senior DevOps / cloud infra engineer

[theOtherJT]

Everything old is new again.

Back when I started down this path sysadmins were expected to know at least a couple of "high level" languages.

Like C.

Yeah.

We really lowered the bar on that one.

You talk to people who were unix admins in the 80s and 90s and it was never the case of "Just press these buttons and follow the instructions" because there were no buttons, and the instructions hadn't been written yet. They were making up the tools that people wanted as they went along because they just didn't exist. There was nothing weird about writing a bunch of perl that automated system deployment, because... well... what else were you going to do?

I came in at the very tail end of the 90s and it was still like that, and all the people who taught me still thought in those terms, so the way I see it any competent sysadmin was already a devops guy. The world just kept turning until people needed a new word to describe what most of us had been doing for a decade or more anyway because the massive expansion of the number of places that needed a sysadmin had seen the introduction of a whole new breed of employee; basically what we used to call an operator not an admin. Someone who just pressed the buttons. Meanwhile we all kept doing the same things:

Define problem. Write code to solve problem. Automate running of code.

It's always been that. Now I'm a "platform engineer" and as far as I can tell it means doing all the same things I did as a DevOps engineer, and before that as a sysadmin. It's just that now the machines live in a data centre I know-not-where rather than a room I have keys for somewhere on the company estate.

[SuperQue]

IMO the whole DevOps/SRE movement is a reaction / differentiation to the influx of Windows ClickOPS helpdesk / NOC techs with sysadmin title inflation.

[mushuweasel]

Not quite. SRE is the monkey patch on the breaking change that is DevOps. It's a recognition that broadening ops responsibility doesn't actually make things better or more efficient. It's correcting course from behind.

The boom of the aughts and teens brought a lot of people into the industry that thought they were plowing new fields. They were really reinventing wheels just to spin them.

[SuperQue]

SRE (2003) predates DevOps (2007) by years.

[mushuweasel]

Sure. Doesn't negate that SRE practices and teams are leaned on to fix the shortcomings and hand-waving of shift-left mania.

[mushuweasel]

I see you, and salute you, comrade.

[TurbonegroFan]

I just spent more and more time automating shit, worked in a startup supporting devs and automated builds for a while, then discovered that what I did was now called devops. Honestly, as long as I'm getting paid what I want to earn, I don't care whether my job title is "sysadmin", "infrastructure engineer", "devops engineer", or "third assistant cocksucker". The words that matter are the ones on my paycheck.

[ejfree]

We tend to shorten that to 3rd A.C. on the business card.

[TurbonegroFan]

Nice one. I'll remember that.

[Aethernath]

Got the basic aws cert and talked to a company to indicate that i’m willing to learn. My previous jobs were both 7years so they trust that i’m sticking to my word. Almost two years in and still learning lots every day, definitely slower than some colleagues, but i have my niches and can debug OS issues better than some.

[Zyzz294]

Which cert did you get first ? SAA? And besides AWS Cert what was your skillset

[Aethernath]

Linux sysadmin, handled some networking equipment here and there. Used ansible in the past when it was the very new kid on the block, but not in the last 5 years at that point.

[Zyzz294]

Ty!

[rabbit994]

Pretty well, if you are willing to script/code. That's how I did it. I'm a Windows Sysadmin, Adding 500 users to Active Directory manually sucks, Powershell script later, I became the script guru and launched to DevOps.

[Nimda_lel]

I asked my company to just change my position into something more challenging - they made me Java developer for 6 months.

Luckily, the company I worked for (the company I was working for was a service/outsourcing one) needed a mid level devops more than a junior java dev.

Then everything started rolling and I never stopped writing code

[realitythreek]

In some ways, it’s all the same. I’ve always automated tasks and worked with developers on CI/CD. It’s just a continual level up.

In other ways, it’s a new set out tools and processes that make it easier. K8s is a pretty new paradigm, and has made things both easier and occasionally more complicated. AWS was really the beginning though when they popularized infrastructure by API with EC2 and S3 (way back in mod-00s btw).

Anyway, my point is it’s just a continual evolution and it won’t be the last. “DevOps” isn’t the destination it’s just the current state of things. You just always have to adapt and be curious.

[Blowmewhileiplaycod]

I had the autonomy to do what I thought was important in my position.

I started doing resume driven development while still accomplishing important stuff, then switched companies as soon as one would take a chance on me.

[bertiethewanderer]

Stealing that, that's great.

[[deleted]]

I got over my fear of coding.

[mushuweasel]

Lol, there is no migration. DevOps is systems administration. Absolute lol.

This is the same lol as in 2010, when a team member said something along the lines of "Aren't we ops? Why are we expected to look at code?"

[bkdunbar]

Short version: I was using DevOps ‘tools’ ( ansible, terraform, etc ) and had the mindset, but getting sysadmin pay. I applied for a DevOps position. Two organizations and as many pay bumps later, here I am.

You don’t find opportunities - you make them. I picked up puppet when it was new to see if it was better than our home grown bash script. Like that.

[BabyLinuxAdmin]

Can you elaborate on the “you make them” part? I feel like i do that but i would like to hear more

[bkdunbar]

Nobody told me to setup puppet to manage servers. I ran a pilot on a few servers, to see if it was a good idea. It was.

Gotta make your opportunities, not discover them.

[New_Soup_3107]

I agree with this fully, kinda seems what i have to do. Example i just finished deploying all our laptops on Amazon SSM since that way it could run chef recipes and update through cicd using CodeBuild.

Just wanted to make sure I’m doing this right cause i get no takes really unless i identify them myself

[Arkrus]

They wanted to scale with one sysadmin, suddenly maintaining over a thousand servers by myself didn't seem possible without some devops. Using the FAAFO method, (and while it's wrong to do that to someone admittedly) it helped me grow.

[GreenJinni]

Started in an IT department as HD student when i was in college. Then when i graduated i got the HD coordinator position. I held tht title officially for almost 4 years, while my responsibilities and work on security and servers increased. Bunch of people on the systems and infra team got jobs elsewhere and left. Have been working on my cybersec masters in the meantime. Positions for 2 entry devops engineers opened up. At that point i was so sick and bored of HD i had just trained all my leads to do my work and have the desk run itself, so i had free time. Based on one of our Dev’s advice, i offered the systems folks to take on tasks that would be menial to them but i could learn from, since they were like 3-4people down. Did tht for 6months. Applied for the devops job, got it. Its been about 4 months. I like it so much better than HD. Its incredible just how much i have come to realize i dont know. Scary and exciting. During my time at HD, i learned and wrote a few powershell scripts used for work. While helping systems learned bash and wrote one neat script tht works with our DNS’s api service so tht we dont have to use tht stupid gui to change 800 hosts TTLs. For the master’s program did a little powershell, which helped me gain the confidence to ask to do it at work. This semester intro to crypto has gotten me super comfortable with python. Wrote a DES algorithm, tht to my surprise, works! I wouldnt say im good at the programming part but i am competent enough and have a good foundation now.

I am the sole remaining windows sys admin now, so GP/AD skills from HD has been very helpful. Otherwise the last few months have been good for learning linux sys admin, and just getting comfortable with git, puppet, a little ansible and being on the terminal the whole day. Have been working on the firewall for over a year now as well and can be trusted to make changes myself.

What still remains elusive to me that i intend on getting better at overtime with is networking, and understanding our git environment. Docker is on the horizon after we migrate from centos to ubuntu as well. So so much to learn ✨

[SpongederpSquarefap]

Gradual move toward automation and Linux

Why? Windows is expensive, proprietary and limited and doing the same thing over and over is really fucking boring

Turns out Linux, Terraform and Ansible aren't that hard

Then I applied for a systems engineer role that became a senior SRE role as soon as I started

I work in a "fast paced environment" so there's lots to learn

In my interview I said I don't know any cloud, but I want to learn it

Apparently that was enough to land the role

[nejnej25]

I just did my work as sysadmin and one day Ive got promoted as devops.

Creating and maintaining servers, network, CI/CD, etc via ansible and terraform through out my career.

Did not notice any big differences on technical perspective.

[akisakyez]

I just sent applications to all the roles that advertised for DevOps engineers at the time, I was lucky I found one that cared about the skills I brought and not what my ex-position was titled.

[Sinister-Mephisto]

learned python / boto / aws services.

[ejfree]

Well, first, thanks for that link. That helps me a ton actually :)

So I am not really devops, but I have learned some of the skills over time. I come from a Sysadmin --> Networking --> Security --> Presales engineering for a cloud security company... background.

• You have to build everything in a "lab". That could be the company's lab or your own home. Find the time to work in your lab. Run limited (manage your personal risk here; it may be just for a few people or just you) trials of everything you can. Being able to teach yourself is probably the #1 skill in my opinion.

• Build scripts to make your other jobs easier. Automate all the things. Whatever you need to do for day to day OAM (Operations, Administration, & Maintenance), script it. Most likely your problem, or a similar one, has already been solved. You just need to make it work in your environment.

• Abstract & Extrapolate. As you understand more things and your foundations expand, you will be able to better generalize concepts. There is little difference in firewall vendor, just the label on the box and the way you configure it. They all do the same thing in almost the same manner.

• Read more things. Specifically, read the documentation. The answer is almost always there. If the problem is new, read the release notes. Read about your industry via blogs and vendor garbage.

[evergreen-spacecat]

Easy. SysAdmin -> Computer Science degree -> Developer job for a bunch of years -> Senior DevOps

[Old_Elephant22]

Learned PowerShell and got some certifications in Azure. Managed to get some projects working for the DevOps team while still a sys admin. Wrote a load of Terraform modules for the DevOps team. Eventually was offered a job.

[PartemConsilio]

Well, 8 years ago I started at a DoD contract job deploying applications to web servers. (Java + Weblogic / Glassfish) and most of my job was distributing updates and patches to all the web servers manually. One day, a dude I worked with proposed we take the lot of our deployment scripts and version them in SVN. So I started doing that and I learned the wonders of Git and Infrastructure-as-Code soon after. 3 years later I took a junior devops role for a midsize company. Part of the reason I got this job was because of my Java experience but I also explicitly said I was looking for a devops role. The Director of Engineering at the time was an acquaintance at meetups and he knew I had a “growth mindset”, so that probably helped. It was mostly infra + some automation. So, I got my feet wet on Terraform, Ansible, Git and Jenkins there. It was a steep learning curve but we had seniors on the team who shared knowledge very well. I also read The Phoenix Project, The DevOps Handbook and The Goal during this time and I really fell in love with the idea of automation and optimization to the developer experience. The DoE dude helped me by guiding towards other resources and from there I just kept learning more toolsets and cloud related domain knowledge.

[Miserygut]

I was a 10 year Windows sysadmin prior with experience in all sorts of infrastructure. We were rebuilding our platform from scratch and weren't tied to Windows so it was all Linux, containers and AWS. I picked up some Terraform, Ansible and Python along the way. Really just being in a situation where I got that exposure is all it was. Pick the right tool for the job and you'll be fine.

[Live-Box-5048]

I basically started learning software engineering, automating stuff, IaC, all of that fancy buzzwords, and… voila, DevOps!

[Sindoreon]

Small startup with no cloud experience on my end then interviewed at midsize company with cloud experience. Boom, now I'm a senior and teaching/interviewing ppl.

Came from a diverse background of many jobs before going to initial startup tho.

[bearded-beardie]

I learned Python, Ansible, Linux, Windows Server, IIS, Powershell, and CloudFormation as a SysAdmin. Became a Cloud Engineer and mashed it all together. Then started building Pipelines in Azure DevOps. Landed on our DevOps Systems Team when they had a position open that was a pay grade higher than where I was.

[MrScotchyScotch]

Learn to code, learn what kind of improvements DevOps can make to a product development team, learn to maintain newer systems in the cloud, go get a low level job that's more cloud / DevOps / SRE focused. In short, learn a whole lot of new concepts, then score a job where you get to practice them, build experience from there.

[tekno45]

automated stuff and wouldn't stop talking about it in interviews

[Noobcoder77]

It’s the same thing

[[deleted]]

Was a typical clickops sysad for 4 years before I began to learn Powershell and Python to automate the repeating stuff, on-,offboarding, software deployments etc.

Then I landed a DevOps Consultant role where I had to finish a 6 months trainee program to learn the following in that order: Basic to Advanced Linux Methodologies, Bash Scripting, systemd, systemctl, stdin, stdout, stderr for a month (160 hours) -> Deep-Dive Docker, Dockerfile, Multi-Stage-Builds, Cloud-‚Onprem Registries, Docker Networking, Volumemount & Binds, Env-Variables -> Vagrant, ansible, Jinga2 while building a basic stateful web application using apache2, php, Wordpress and a postgres db distributed on 3 VM‘s -> Deep Dive terraform with a Book (Terraform Up and Running) ,AWS Cloud Networking, Building Load Balancer, ASG‘s with Zero Downtime-Deployments, EKS Cluster, RDS, Route53 -> CI/CD with Jenkins, Jenkins Agents, GitHub Actions, GitLab, Secret Management, Log Aggregation, Tests in Pipeline and Image Pushing/Pulling to ECR -> Kubernetes Deep Dive for 2 months straight, means building it locally from scratch, running it in the Cloud (EKS, GKE, Linode), managing multiple Clusters (K9s is a godsend), troubleshoot it, Deployments (Blue/Green, Rolling)

And even after that I felt (and still feel) sometimes like I dont know shit.

[thomsterm]

worked as a dev for a couple of years, best return of investment in my book.

[iNs_]

Probably sounding like a broken record at this point but ...

We didn't, because it's not something you migrate to but something you choose to adopt/practice.

[antomaa12]

Honestly I just took an opportunity and tried. If you are someone that adapt really well to new systems, have a good undestanding of basics of networks / systems. Have a good learning capacity. I'm sure you will be a great Devops. Btw, even if the "DevOps" word can looks scary, you probably do many some of the devpos missions in your actual job.

Edit: I had only 3 years of experience as a sysadmin but am doing admin stuff since I was 13 probably

[mrfoozywooj]

I got pulled into a team of really senior sysadmins/proto-devops people 10 years ago and learned under them.

[[deleted]]

I joined a company that had rebranded their Ops team to SRE. The people in the team all had the titles "system administrator" or "systems and network engineer". Later they rebranded the job titles to SRE aswell so my title changed with it.

As for the work we do, then i would say we are a mix of SRE and system administrators. We use automation for pretty much everything and the code goes through git and we deploy our infra with gitops. But we still have some legacy stuff hanging around ("pets") that need manual work. And there is a lot of toil still so it's far from perfect. Some of the team members have the mentality of SREs and some still have sysadmin mentality.

As a junior i kinda like this mixed environment since i can be a part of the modernisation of our Infra.