Top 10 Most Popular DevOps Tools in 2019(Chapter 2)

This article introduces the most popular DevOps tools following the chapter 1 to show you the last 5 tools list.

5. Docker
Docker has become the premier container platform since its release in 2013, and it is still continuously improving. It is one of the most important DevOps tools. Docker has set off a trend of containerization in the technology world, mainly because it makes distributed development possible and automates the deployment of applications. It isolates the application into separate containers, so the application becomes more portable and safer. Docker applications are also independent of OS and platform. Users can use Docker containers instead of virtual machines, such as VirtualBox.

What I like most about Docker is that users do n’t need to worry about dependency management. You can package all dependencies into the application's container and deliver everything as a separate unit. Then, users can easily run this application on any machine or platform.

Docker is also integrated with Jenkins and Bamboo. If you use an automated server with Docker, you can further improve the delivery workflow. In addition, Docker is also very suitable for cloud computing. In recent years, all mainstream cloud vendors, such as Alibaba Cloud, have supported Docker. Therefore, if you plan a cloud migration, then Docker can help simplify this process.

6. Kubernetes
This year, everyone is talking about Kubernetes. It is a container orchestration platform that advances containerization to the next level. It can use Docker or other alternative products. Kubernetes is still very new; the first version was only released in 2015. It was created by some Google engineers who wanted to find a solution to manage large-scale containers. With Kubernetes, users can organize containers into logical units.

If you only have a few containers, you may not need a container orchestration platform. However, when the system reaches a certain level of complexity and needs to expand resources, this is a reasonable next step. Kubernetes allows users to automate the process of managing hundreds of containers.

With Kubernetes, there is no need to bind containerized applications to a separate machine. Instead, you can deploy it to a cluster of machines, and Kubernetes will automatically distribute and schedule containers throughout the cluster.

A Kubernetes cluster contains a master and several worker nodes. The master node implements predefined rules and deploys the container to the worker node. Kubernetes is responsible for everything. For example, if it notices that a worker node is offline, it will redistribute the containers on it to other nodes.

7. Puppet Enterprise Edition
Puppet Enterprise is a cross-platform configuration management platform. It allows users to manage the infrastructure as code. Because it automates infrastructure management, users can deliver software faster and more securely. Puppet also provides developers with open source tools that can be used for small projects. However, if you are responsible for a larger infrastructure, you will find that Puppet Enterprise's additional features are valuable, such as:
Real-time report
Role-based access control
Node management

With Puppet Enterprise, you can manage multiple teams and thousands of resources. It can automatically understand the relationships in the infrastructure. It handles dependencies and handles faults intelligently. When it encounters a failed configuration, it also skips all dependent configurations. The best thing about Puppet is that it has more than 5,000 modules that can be integrated with many popular DevOps tools.

8. Ansible
Ansible is a configuration management tool, similar to Puppet and Chef. Users can use it to configure their own infrastructure and automate deployment. Compared with other similar DevOps tools, its main selling point is simplicity and ease of use. Ansible follows the same basic architecture as code (IAC) philosophy as Puppet. However, it uses super simple YAML syntax. With Ansible, users can define tasks in YAML, while Puppet has its own declarative language.

The agentless architecture is another Ansible feature that is often mentioned. Because there are no daemons or agents running in the background, Ansible is a safe and lightweight automated solution for configuration management. Similar to Puppet, Ansible also has some modules.

For a better understanding of how Ansible works in the DevOps workflow, check out this blog post in Red Hat Blod. It describes how to use Ansible to provision environments and deploy applications in the Jenkins pipeline.

9. Nagios
Nagios is the most popular free and open source DevOps monitoring tool. It can monitor the infrastructure to help users find and solve problems. With Nagios, users can log events, run interruptions, and failures. Users can also monitor trends through Nagios charts and reports. In this way, operational interruptions and errors can be predicted, and security attacks can be discovered.

Although there are many DevOps tools in infrastructure monitoring, Nagios stands out because of its rich plugin ecosystem. Because Nagios has been released for many years (released in 2002), the community surrounding it is large. In addition to plugins, the community has contributed add-on, guide articles, translations and other useful things-all for free.

Nagios provides four open source monitoring solutions:
Nagios Core
Nagios XI
Nagios Log Server
Nagios Fusion

Nagios Core is a command-line tool that provides all basic functions. Users can also choose Nagios XI, which provides a web-based GUI and monitoring wizard. Nagios provides functional comparison.

Nagios Log Server allows users to search log data and configure alarms for possible attacks. Nagios Fusion can monitor multiple networks simultaneously.

Overall, Nagios provided the DevOps team with an infrastructure monitoring solution. However, it takes a certain amount of time to build, and needs to consider compatibility with your environment.

10. Raygun
Raygun is the leading platform for error monitoring and crash reporting. Application Performance Monitoring (APM) is its most recent project. Raygun's DevOps tool helps users analyze performance issues and locate a line of code, a function or API call. The APM tool and Raygun's error management workflow can work together. For example, it automatically locates the issue with the highest priority and creates an issue.

Raygun APM can help maximize the value of other DevOps because you can always receive notification of problems. Because it automatically links errors to the source code, Raygun provides a unified source of truth to the entire team to locate errors and performance issues, and closely links development and operation and maintenance.
Which DevOps tools are suitable for your team?
Finding the best DevOps tools requires some testing and experience. It usually takes more time to build and configure open source software. Most commercial DevOps tools have free trial versions that users can test and evaluate. The final choice of tools depends on the needs and goals of the team.