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The Scaling IQ Test: When Dev and Admin Collide

Learn how to bridge the gap between IT operations and development teams to ensure reliable, high-performance, and scalable web applications. Discover the key points to discuss in an IT/Dev meeting, including topics like web.config, load balancing, performance bottlenecks, network diagrams, production logs, and disaster recovery.

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The Scaling IQ Test: When Dev and Admin Collide

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  1. The Scaling IQ Test: When Dev and Admin Collide Richard Campbell Strangeloop Networks

  2. Richard Campbell • Background • After thirty years, done every job in the computer industry you’ve ever heard of • Currently • Co-Founder and Product Evangelist for Strangeloop Networks • Co-Host of .NET Rocks! • Host of RunAs Radio

  3. The IT/Dev Meeting • Every web application has this meeting eventually • Sooner is always better • The goal is to trade information • What IT needs to know about the app • What Dev needs to know about the operating environment

  4. The IT/Dev Meeting • Who needs to be in the room? • The architect/senior dev • Seniors devs that know the features in detail • IT personnel that will operate the application • Senior personnel that know the entire network

  5. The IT/Dev Meeting • When does the meeting need to happen? • When the application is being designed (collected as requirements) • While the application is being developed • After the application is deployed • After the application has crashed horribly • When the application is too slow

  6. The IT/Dev Meeting • Starting the meeting • What are the priorities • Reliability • Performance • Scalability • Accuracy • Put them in order, every site has different priorities

  7. The IT/Dev Meeting • What IT Needs to Know • What’s in the web.config file (a great starting point) • What load balancing strategies will work for the application • Any known performance bottlenecks

  8. Web.Config • <authorization> • None (Anonymous) • Windows (Active Directory, Basic, etc) • Forms-Based

  9. Web.Config • <appSettings> • Global connection strings, paths etc • Make sure they’re being used! • Remove dead strings • These can be critical in failover/disaster recovery scenarios

  10. Web.Config • <customErrors> • Decide on how errors should be displayed to the customer (internal or external) • Defaults are really not enough • You can create separate pages for each error (handle 404 page not found differently from 500 internal server error)

  11. Web.Config • <sessionState> • In-process vs. out-of-process • More dependencies • Affects options around load balancing

  12. Load Balancing • Find out what load balancing will work with the application • In-process session requires “sticky” load balancing • You only get to load balance the first request • Talk through server failure effects

  13. Performance Bottlenecks • Discuss known performance issues • Night time processing that conflicts with existing work • Administrators work that significant impacts performance of regular users • What parts of the application are more scalable than others?

  14. Things Dev Need to Know The Network Diagram (in detail!) How to get at production log data What redundacy/failover/disaster recovery options there are

  15. The Network Diagram How developers see it

  16. The Network Diagram Closer to reality

  17. Production Logs • Production logs are the truth of what happened with the application • Providing developers with production logs gives them a chance to help out • Provide access to the backups of the logs • Saying “I’ll give them to you when you ask” is not enough • You’re looking for proactive analysis

  18. Disaster Recovery • All DR strategies require at least some coding support • SQL Server failover still needs to have queries retried to be seamless • What happens between the time a server fails and the load balancing strategy detects it? • Is losing request acceptable in your scenario?

  19. Disaster Recovery • Switching to a backup site • Are DNS changes needed? • What references within the application need to be changed? • What does a switch-back look like? • Practice practice practice! • Don’t let your first failover test with an application be a real failure!

  20. After the Meeting • What follow ups are there for management? • You’ve probably made some business-related decisions, make sure you have buy-in • When do we need to meet again? • Preferably before the next disaster

  21. The Cooperative Firefight • IT is invariably on the front lines of an application failure • But when should development be brought in? • Post-mortem is often not enough

  22. The Cooperative Firefight • Make a strategy to involve development during the firefight • They often have deep insight into how the application works and so can understand why it might fail • Just make sure they’re educated to not make the problem worse • This is NOT a time for fixing code

  23. Summary Have the meeting early Repeat as necessary Each group must learn from the other Assist and seek assistance during a firefight

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