DevOps

Tracy Ragan's opinion piece  “21st-Century DevOps-an End to  the 20th-Century Practice of Writing  Static Build and Deploy Scripts" in the  June 2013 issue told us repeatedly  that she doesn't hold with scripts.  She hints once or twice that a model-  driven approach would be better; it  would have been great if she'd told us  how that would work!  -S.  Tracy Ragan replies: Defining how  a DevOps Mode/-Driven Framework is  implemented is a comp/ete article in  itself that cannot be answered easily       in a few short sentences. However,  there are solid examples in both the  commercial and open-source markets  that have model-driven solutions  that are worth looking into. Take  a look at how Chef from Opscode  uses "recipes" for defining standard  server configurations. On the build  management side, take a look at  /Vleister from Open/\/lake Software  and how it uses "Build Services” for  creating standard models for compiling  more than 200 different languages.  ln the deployment world, CA Release  Automation (previously No/io) uses  standard models for performing  application-level dep/oyments, similar to  IBM 's Rational Application Framework  for managing Websphere deploys.  ln essence, to deliver a A/Iode/-Driven  Framework, you establish solutions  and processes that can separate the  build, test or deploy logic from the  "hard-coded" references to fi/enames,  directories and so on. That information  is delivered through man/'fest files,  target files or other containers, which  are then passed into the logic. /n other  words, the "how" and "what" are  kept apart until an action needs to  occur. You may end up with many files  containing the "what", but only a few  containers that include the "how". The  logic thereby becomes reusable and      easily managed. By having only a few  containers that manage the "how",  you end up with a highly repeatable  and transparent process for moving  code from development to production  with the ability of reporting on details  that scripts cannot produce. Thanks for  the feedback.  Electronic Vs. Paper  So, it has been some time since you  guys have done a paper copy of LJ.  Up until the time you stopped printing  LJ, I had read every issue since issue  1, usually within a month or two of it  coming out.  Now that you have gone digital, I  am now well over a year behind.  So, clearly reading stuff on a tablet  or otherwise for me doesn't work. I  do it for smaller articles, but not for  something the size of LJ.  You seriously need to consider a  paper copy again-there are those  of us who would happily pay more  for a paper copy. You could do it in a  limited run at a break-even or slightly  higher cost production.  Nuts and Volts magazine has figured  out how to do this, so why can't you?  -Jeff Regan