Want to stand out in tech? Master the stuff most people ignore....

When I first started in tech, I thought the people who stood out had 10+ years of experience.
But over time, I noticed something different: the people who grow the fastest aren’t the ones who know every new tool they’re the ones who never skipped the fundamentals.

The truth is, most beginners rush past the basics. They chase frameworks, languages, and “hot skills,” but can’t explain how files move, how code is tracked, or how networks actually work. That gap shows up quickly in real projects and interviews.

If you want to level up your career faster, focus here first:

* Command Line Basics → navigating, managing files, running noscripts. It makes you way faster than click-hunting through GUIs.
* Git & Version Control → not optional. Every serious project lives on GitHub. Your repos are proof you can build.
* Networking 101 → IPs, DNS, ports, firewalls. Whether it’s AWS, Python, or DevOps, everything depends on it.
* Databases → CRUD, joins, indexes. Even a little SQL knowledge puts you ahead of “tutorial coders.”
* APIs → apps talk to each other through APIs. Learn how to send/receive data. It unlocks everything from web apps to automation.
* Cloud Essentials → EC2, S3, IAM, VPC. Even beginner-level cloud knowledge gives you an edge.
* Problem-Solving Mindset → syntax is easy. What makes you valuable is breaking down problems and figuring things out.

Frameworks and tools will keep changing. But fundamentals? They compound forever.

Curious which of these you’ve been focusing on lately?

https://redd.it/1np95k2
@r_devops

Keeping SPF record under the ten lookup limit

How do you keep your SPF record under the ten lookup limit when you add new vendors ?

https://redd.it/1np9ce5
@r_devops

Backstage Scaffolder

Hey everyone,

I'm working with Scaffolder templates and specifically trying to streamline the experience for creating new repositories (e.g., in GitLab).

The Challenge: The RepoUrlPicker field is fantastic for importing existing repositories, as it allows users to pick from a list of what's already there. However, for templates that are solely designed to create a brand new repository, this feature becomes problematic:

1. User Confusion: Users might accidentally select an existing repo, leading to template execution failures (as the publish action tries to create something that already exists).
2. Unnecessary UI: The dropdown for existing repos just adds visual clutter when the template's purpose is clear: "create something new."

What I'd ideally like:

Option 1: A `RepoUrlPicker` with an option to hide existing repos. Something like `ui:options: { showExistingRepos: false }`.
Option 2: A separate, simplified "RepoGroupPicker" or similar. This would only allow selecting a group/namespace (like platform/my-team for GitLab) and then combine that with a simple text input for the new repository name. This would be combined with a simple string parameter for the new repo name in template.yaml.

The current alternative involves either using a static enum (which is not scalable) or writing a custom frontend field extension to strip out the unwanted functionality (which feels like a lot of work for a common use case).

Has anyone else felt this pain point or found a neat workaround? Is this something that could be considered for a future enhancement to the RepoUrlPicker or Scaffolder fields in general?

Any thoughts or experiences are highly appreciated!

Thanks!

https://redd.it/1npbgwj
@r_devops

IT or Computer Science

I'm 16 year old with skills of: Linux, Bash, Git, GitHub, Networking, AWS, Terraform, Ansible, Docker, and now learning Kubernetes.

I also have certs of AWS CCP and AWS SAA.

My goal is to become DevOps & Cloud. Based on me, which would u recommend, IT or Computer Science?

https://redd.it/1npd0s3
@r_devops

Hetzner doesn't offer Managed databases (PostgreSQL) on CCX23. What Can I do?

Hello everyone, I'm sorry I'm not very familiar with DevOps, so excuse me if I don't know what I'm talking about.

I need to host a Laravel app, with a PostgreSQL database, Redis, and Grafana for monitoring.

So far, I've come to understand that my low-cost robust options are limited (max 25$ per month), and it seems that if I want a good performance for my application with a low response time, I should go with CCX23 (dedicated CPU).

My understanding is that I can allocate 10-12 GB of RAM for the app, and the rest for Grafana and Redis.

But Hetzner doesn't offer managed databases with the Hetzner Cloud VPS.

Are there any better options to host this App, and its database effectively in order to avoid any resource-related issues in the first year of the application (first year most likely ending in 500 users at an RPS of 200, 70% of which are reads).

I will be implementing caching and many other strategies with OPcache, Gzip... but I just want to host this application effectively for now.

https://redd.it/1npeylo
@r_devops

The $7 Trillion Delusion: Was Sam Altman the First Real Case of ChatGPT Psychosis?

SS: Super interesting and semi-satirical article that just popped up in my feed, makes me wonder what happend to this entire 7 trillion ordeal. I think its very very relevant to ask and understand how the people in charge interact with AI. The article touches on many current issues surrounding the psychological and by extension societal impact of AI, and I think it has multiple points that will spark an interesting discussion. The article brings a new angle to this topic and connects some very interesting dots about the AI bubble and how AI delusions might be affecting decisions. https://medium.com/@adan.nygaard/the-7-trillion-delusion-was-sam-altman-the-first-real-case-of-chatgpt-psychosis-949b6d89ec55

https://redd.it/1npha6u
@r_devops

Good DevOps projects for practice?

So I'm looking for any open source DevOps project that is fully functional but lacks all DevOps tools (pipelines, K8s files, docker files, ...). I want to use the given project as a way to demonstrate my knowledge of these tools by adding them to build the app further from CI to monitoring.

https://redd.it/1npktxx
@r_devops

SQL Indexing for Real-World Performance: What Every DevOps Engineer Should Know

As DevOps engineers, we often focus on CI/CD, automation, and infrastructure — but database performance can become a hidden bottleneck in production.

I recently made a beginner-friendly breakdown of SQL indexing that keeps it simple, visual, and practical:

Heap tables – what happens when no clustered index exists

Clustered indexes – how data is physically ordered and retrieved

Non-clustered indexes – when to use them and how they reference the table

Stored Procedure Lookups – real performance examples that show why indexing matters in production


👉 The goal: make indexing easy to understand for people who don’t live inside SQL every day, but still need to keep systems running fast and reliable.

Video link here: https://youtu.be/cDiCp64V-uQ?si=qCKHn0hyGd_ID5MM

Would love to hear how you approach database optimization in your DevOps workflow (monitoring, tuning, automation, etc.)

https://redd.it/1npnqut
@r_devops

Struggling with API misconfigurations in prod

Our team keeps running into API problems once code hits production; things like:

* Incorrect auth settings
* Debug endpoints left open
* Tokens that don’t get updated

A lot of it seems to come from drift between what’s in code and what’s actually deployed.

We’ve tried linting rules and CI/CD checks, but some issues still slip through.

For those of you managing complex stacks, what approaches have helped you catch or prevent API misconfigurations without slowing down your release cycle?

https://redd.it/1npsm3j
@r_devops

Dockerhub is down

TL;DR:
Docker Hub is partially down (mainly auth + registry + web). They know the issue and are working on it. Just hang tight, avoid huge CI bursts, and retry periodically.

What’s happening:

The trouble affects Docker Hub Registry, authentication, and web services.

Their status page says they’ve identified the cause and are working on a fix. 

What you can try now:

Retry operations (pulls/login) periodically- sometimes the errors are intermittent.

Use image digests instead of tags (some users report those are still working).

If you have a mirror or pull-through cache (e.g. via a private registry), consider using it.

Monitor Docker’s status page closely for updates.

P.S If you found this update helpful, consider checking out The Dev Dex.

https://redd.it/1nptobe
@r_devops

Should backend-to-database connections use SSL if proxy already has SSL?

If my backend is running behind a reverse proxy (e.g., Traefik/Nginx) that already has SSL/TLS enabled for client traffic, do I still need to enable SSL/TLS on the database connection between the backend and the database server considering when in Docker-compose or K8s the database is running on internal network therefore not exposed to the outside traffic?

https://redd.it/1nq0ixi
@r_devops

Uk salary expectations

I'm currently looking to change jobs due to an impending return to office mandate. I've been proactively applying for roles for around 3 months and am struggling to find anything. Are my salary expectations too high?

I'm currently on ~£65k with 2 yrs DevOps, 2 yrs Platform Engineering and 15 yrs in infra roles prior to that. Ideally looking for a remote role on at least a matching salary. The main thing I want rn is stability. Feedback from the one interview I've had so far is that there were some knowledge "gaps" based on my salary expectations. Have rates dropped over the last 2 years or do I just need to brush up?

https://redd.it/1nq0e77
@r_devops

Deployed MERN app on AWS EC2 – Frontend works, but backend not accessible externally

Hi everyone,

I’m learning AWS by deploying a **MERN full-stack project** on an **EC2 Linux instance**, but I’m stuck with the backend. Here’s what I’ve done so far:

1. Launched an **AWS EC2 instance** (Linux) and connected via SSH.
2. Installed **Node.js** (same version as local).
3. Cloned both frontend and backend repos.
4. **Frontend setup:**
* `npm install` → `npm run build`
* Installed **Nginx**, enabled service
* Copied build files to `/var/www/html`
* Opened inbound rules for ports **80, 443, 7777**
* Frontend works fine on public IP
5. **Backend setup:**
* `npm install` → `npm start`
* Works fine with `curl` [`http://localhost:7777/`](http://localhost:7777/) and `curl` [`http://13.60.42.60:7777/`](http://13.60.42.60:7777/) inside EC2
* But when I try [`http://13.60.42.60:7777/`](http://13.60.42.60:7777/) in my browser (local machine), it doesn’t load
* Tried running with **PM2** → still the same issue

# What I expected

My backend should be reachable at [`http://13.60.42.60:7777/`](http://13.60.42.60:7777/) from my local machine.

# What actually happens

* Works locally inside EC2 with `curl`
* Not accessible externally from browser

I’ve repeated this process 3 times with the same result.

Does anyone know what I might be missing? Could it be related to binding `localhost` vs [`0.0.0.0`](http://0.0.0.0), security groups, or something else?

Thanks in advance! 🙏

https://redd.it/1nq125z
@r_devops

Free Course Complete GitHub Actions Course — From Beginner to Pro!

Hi folks! —

I just released the latest course in my DevOps Beginner to Pro series, this one focused on GitHub Actions!

Video: https://youtu.be/Xwpi0ITkL3U
Companion Repo: https://github.com/sidpalas/devops-directive-github-actions-course/tree/main

The course covers:
- History and motivation for Continuous Integration
- Why GitHub Actions?
- Core platform features
- Advanced platform features
- Consuming GitHub Actions Marketplace actions
- Authoring first-party actions
- Common automation workflows
- Improving the developer experience
- Best practices for using GitHub Actions
- An end-to-end capstone project

Check it out and let me know what you think!

https://redd.it/1nq86lx
@r_devops

Built a EC2 & VM price comparator to save my own sanity

I work as a cloud engineer for a big bank firm in Europe, my job basically consists on conducting proof of concepts for any new tools that we have to implement in our infrastructure so I spent all of my time deploying EKS/AKS clusters and EC2/VMs instances here an there.

I basically got tired of juggling to find the cheapest but still capable EC2 type in the CLI for each test while keeping performance decent. So I built a small site that lets me quickly compare EC2 instance families and prices side-by-side. I did not expect to make it public to be honest, but I thought it could help a fellow devops colleage struggling like I was at the beginning.

It’s minimal—no logo, no cookie banner—, let me know if you guys want any new functionality, I will try to implement it asap when I have some free time. There is also an AMI and VM image search tool. Reserved prices and savings plan are next on the roadmap, let me know what you think. cloudpylon.com


ps: It is deployed on a 3 dollar hetzner server so it might feel a bit slow at times :)

https://redd.it/1nq8tk5
@r_devops

European Pulic Clouds

Hey everyone! Is anyone working with a european public cloud at your company already? My company is currently considering StackIT and Telecom Cloud, bith are German. What are your experiences with the respective european cloud providers so far in the corporate context?

Edit: public instead of pulic

https://redd.it/1nqah5j
@r_devops

Deploy to production with just docker compose up

Hey,

Working on lots of small projects at a startup, I kept running into the same issue: deploying to production is either overkill (Kubernetes) or a hassle (managing your own VPS/EC2).

All I wanted was: if it runs locally with Docker Compose, it should run in production the same way. No new CLIs, no servers to babysit.

So I built a service where you can literally do:

$ docker compose up -d

… and your stack is live in the cloud.

Would love feedback from the community, am I the only one to have this problem?

https://wip.cx

https://redd.it/1nqc29w
@r_devops

Immutable Infrastructure DevOps: Why You Should Replace, Not Patch

https://lukasniessen.medium.com/immutable-infrastructure-devops-why-you-should-replace-not-patch-e9a2cf71785e

https://redd.it/1nqg0i9
@r_devops

Why does every startup think they need to build their own incident management system?

Just joined a new company and they're super proud of their "custom incident response workflow" that's basically a Python noscript that creates Slack channels and a Notion page. Founder keeps talking about how "we're not like other companies, our incidents are different."

They're not different. Same dance every time service goes down, someone manually pages people, we all jump into a channel and start debugging while trying to remember if we updated the status page.

Previous engineer who built this thing left 6 months ago and nobody really understands how it works. Last week it created 15 incident channels for the same outage because of some edge case nobody thought of.

Every startup goes through this phase where they think incident management is their unique problem that needs a custom solution. Meanwhile we're burning engineering time maintaining this janky noscript instead of just buying something that works.

Anyone else dealt with this NIH syndrome around incident tooling? How do you convince leadership that some problems are worth paying someone else to solve?

https://redd.it/1nqigf2
@r_devops

The spam in this sub is unreal

Two posts today, sock puppet SEO accounts. Poster with a lame premise, commenter in to suggest a solution.

Cant remember what the first one was (they deleted their post), but the second was Atlassian - https://www.reddit.com/r/devops/s/M5DUQGRrtj

Mods, please take note and stop this nonsense.

https://redd.it/1nqm5v5
@r_devops

What certs/qualifications can I get as a Backend/DevOps to be more qualified and hirable?

hey, 23 year old male with a degree in CS I have a lot of experience that puts me in a really good place where I live I make 10 times more than what juniors make and I make 6-7 times what seniors make but I'm not good enough to get a sponsorship and go to a country that gives me decent livable money while I get more experiences so I can actually be something eventually

so the goal now is to get a job in North American, Australia, EU whatever just whatever country, I know if I go to the EU I will be making a lot less money that what I'm making now but it will be more than full time companies salary here and I will be finally able to advance my career and skills in an office job more than contracting

so what I need now it some advice, should I go into DevOps or focus on being a Backend dev? what certs or what should I do to make myself hirable? I need to leave here asap because its either slave salaries or no advancements in my career.

should I get a masters?

https://redd.it/1nqo56i
@r_devops