I'd recommend setting up lambda/api gateway/cloudfront for a serverless application, there are lots of guides out there - you want to do something that will be relevant when you are done learning, not necessarily just something relevant now.
Ask HN: Devops side projects for a student?
11–20 of 21 posts
Re: Ask HN: Devops side projects for a student?
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, those websites all scored 0's on mozilla's scale. Hence, I thought they were opportunities. But thanks for the heads up. As for the price, I did freelancing online. When I first started, I offered really cheap services, and only a single person contacted me. But when I increased the price, I started getting more responses. Still, that notebook prop is genius. Guess I'll have to work on my "jargon mask" too ha
If you're just doing Upwork type shit, waiting for customers to come to you... it's just a commodity. So yes... when people search they say, "Well, I don't want the cheapest... those tend to be bad..." But look, Upwork is literally AIDS and will give you cancer of the herpes sores. Go to local businesses in-person, educate them... this creates demand for your services. Talk to the manager, build the relationship... t…
I've always read it's better to charge by the hour, but that you also want to have a contract with an outline/description of the project and expectations. I'm having a hard time getting past this because how in detail are you supposed to go with that so they know what you're responsible for and what will cost extra?
Re: Ask HN: Devops side projects for a student?
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're just doing Upwork type shit, waiting for customers to come to you... it's just a commodity. So yes... when people search they say, "Well, I don't want the cheapest... those tend to be bad..." But look, Upwork is literally AIDS and will give you cancer of the herpes sores. Go to local businesses in-person, educate them... this creates demand for your services. Talk to the manager, build the relationship... t…
I've always read it's better to charge by the hour, but that you also want to have a contract with an outline/description of the project and expectations. I'm having a hard time getting past this because how in detail are you supposed to go with that so they know what you're responsible for and what will cost extra?
You can add in some assumptions in the SoW / MSA / contract. Like, "Will only be responsible for work in XYZ Repo, not other Repos or 3rd Party Services." It's really whatever you want to put in there, I start with a pretty long standard list (based on the project type). "Won't customize administration tools or workflows of WordPress / Magento / ABC Platform," to, "Will utilize Foundation / AWS / blah blah blah."
You can always do work that is in a gray area, or clearly out of scope of the contract, if you want to be nice to the client. The contracts are for clients that you don't want to be nice to. They are levers you can pull to get the client back into a manageable space. If you don't give yourself a lot of levers, you're left with just "walk away" when the shit hits the fan... and typically that option doesn't include getting paid.
Even for "simple" projects now my Statements of Work are 25+ pages. Templatized as best I can, and all reviewed by a lawyer I trust. I don't sign contracts that clients send me, without stipulating that if that contract and the one I sent over are ever at odds, then the contract I sent over wins. You have to protect yourself, especially as a one-man-shop. You can't afford to get bogged down in shitty squabbles, so like with most things... "a stitch in time saves nine" here. Longer, more explicit and detailed contracts save you time.
Re: Ask HN: Devops side projects for a student?
#14I love this question! I'm a DevOps engineer who came to my role through a combination of test automation and test network management, and a keen interest in tinkering with technology stacks. I love what I do and can't recommend it enough to new graduates, who may not even know of the role.
To build a portfolio, I would suggest the following:
- Create a document describing a small tech stack:
> Outline the systems (or list of docker containers)
> Draw a network diagram showing IPs / subnet(s) info
> Describe the OS(s) and base node configuration (ssh, NFS, etc...)
> Outline the software stack (on each system), describing connections between nodes (eg. Apache web server with PHP, connecting to Postgres on port 5432)
- Create a github repo
> add the above document as the README.md file
> add a SETUP.md document (or add to the README) with steps to setup a local ansible workspace, and deploy your stack with your configuration scripts
- Set up a local (or cloud) environment with your Jenkins pipeline, and document a deployment (with screenshots) showing a working stack configured from a set of clean nodes.
- Expand on what you've made (create a new repo for each! think of them as new projects with a different set of requirements, even if they build on what you've previously done). Try to focus on one thing at a time:
> SSL everywhere
> OS hardening
> failover / clustering of the database
> failover / clustering of the web/app server
> load balancer in front of the web tier
Re: Ask HN: Devops side projects for a student?
#15DevOps is like programming: unlimited/infinite. First things that come to mind: - You can create puppet modules, Chef recipes, SaltStack formulas (not familiar with Ansible but sure as hell has similar features) - You can get certifications (Chef, Puppet, SaltStack, Ansible, etc.) - You can get DB certifications and write your experiences about master/slave configurations, etc. - Orchestration and schedulers tools, k…
He clearly didn't mean sysadmin's automation that is nowadays called "DevOps". He meant "system administration" gigs.
DevOps work is sysadmin work with the addition of junior level software engineering experience (usually bash and python).
Source: Linux|Sys|Network Admin/IT Manager who moved into DevOps.
Re: Ask HN: Devops side projects for a student?
#16[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Devops side projects for a student?
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
He clearly didn't mean sysadmin's automation that is nowadays called "DevOps". He meant "system administration" gigs.
DevOps work is sysadmin work with the addition of junior level software engineering experience (usually bash and python). Source: Linux|Sys|Network Admin/IT Manager who moved into DevOps.
Funny. Sysadmin's work always included writing missing tools, which is often
above junior programmer's level. What you say is basically DevOps being
system administration for beginners.
Re: Ask HN: Devops side projects for a student?
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
DevOps work is sysadmin work with the addition of junior level software engineering experience (usually bash and python). Source: Linux|Sys|Network Admin/IT Manager who moved into DevOps.
Funny. Sysadmin's work always included writing missing tools, which is often above junior programmer's level. What you say is basically DevOps being system administration for beginners.
I think you misunderstand me.
Yes, sysadmins have always written the glue between disparate systems, implemented monitoring, etc using bash, and now more than ever, python. But now DevOps roles are expected to (in my experience) lean closer to closer to application reliability engineers; not only must you perform admin tasks, and write tools to automate infra tasks, but you must also dive into app code at a moments notice when shit is broken.
Re: Ask HN: Devops side projects for a student?
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Funny. Sysadmin's work always included writing missing tools, which is often above junior programmer's level. What you say is basically DevOps being system administration for beginners.
I think you misunderstand me. Yes, sysadmins have always written the glue between disparate systems, implemented monitoring, etc using bash, and now more than ever, python. But now DevOps roles are expected to (in my experience) lean closer to closer to application reliability engineers; not only must you perform admin tasks, and write tools to automate infra tasks, but you must also dive into app code at a moments n…
Well, OK, but this was expected from sysadmins as well. It was always sysadmin
who is responsible that the application died, no matter the real reason. Where
do you think the idea of putting programmers on call to reduce crashes came
from?
Re: Ask HN: Devops side projects for a student?
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you misunderstand me. Yes, sysadmins have always written the glue between disparate systems, implemented monitoring, etc using bash, and now more than ever, python. But now DevOps roles are expected to (in my experience) lean closer to closer to application reliability engineers; not only must you perform admin tasks, and write tools to automate infra tasks, but you must also dive into app code at a moments n…
Well, OK, but this was expected from sysadmins as well. It was always sysadmin who is responsible that the application died, no matter the real reason. Where do you think the idea of putting programmers on call to reduce crashes came from?
> It was always sysadmin who is responsible that the application died, no matter the real reason.
Out of the last 15 years of tech experience, I've only seen this be the case in the last 3 years, where the sysadmin/Devops engineer was required to have more ownership beyond "your application is broken, I've restarted it and notified the developer".