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DevOps Glossary
Comprehensive DevOps Terminology Reference
Definitions, acronyms, and concepts explained
A
Agile - Iterative software development methodology focusing on collaboration and rapid delivery
Ansible - Agentless configuration management and automation tool
API (Application Programming Interface) - Set of protocols for building and integrating software
APM (Application Performance Monitoring) - Tools for monitoring application performance and user experience
Artifact - Build output (binary, container image, package) produced by CI/CD pipeline
Auto-scaling - Automatically adjusting compute resources based on demand
Availability - Percentage of time a system is operational and accessible
AWS (Amazon Web Services) - Cloud computing platform by Amazon
Azure - Cloud computing platform by Microsoft
B
Backup - Copy of data for recovery purposes
Bare Metal - Physical server without virtualization
Bash - Unix shell and command language
Blue-Green Deployment - Deployment strategy with two identical environments
Boto3 - AWS SDK for Python
C
Canary Deployment - Gradual rollout to subset of users
CD (Continuous Deployment) - Automated deployment to production
CI (Continuous Integration) - Automated building and testing of code changes
CI/CD - Combined practice of continuous integration and continuous deployment
CLI (Command Line Interface) - Text-based interface for interacting with software
Cloud Native - Applications designed specifically for cloud environments
Cluster - Group of servers working together
ConfigMap - Kubernetes object for storing configuration data
Container - Lightweight, standalone executable package including code and dependencies
Container Registry - Repository for storing container images
CronJob - Kubernetes object for scheduled tasks
D
DaemonSet - Kubernetes object ensuring pod runs on all nodes
Database - Organized collection of structured data
Deployment - Kubernetes object managing pod replicas
DevOps - Culture combining development and operations practices
Docker - Platform for developing, shipping, and running containers
Docker Compose - Tool for defining multi-container Docker applications
Dockerfile - Text file with instructions to build Docker image
DNS (Domain Name System) - System translating domain names to IP addresses
E
EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) - AWS virtual server service
ECS (Elastic Container Service) - AWS container orchestration service
EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service) - AWS managed Kubernetes service
Elasticsearch - Distributed search and analytics engine
Endpoint - URL where API or service can be accessed
Environment Variable - Dynamic value affecting process behavior
Ephemeral - Temporary, non-persistent
F
Failover - Automatic switching to backup system when primary fails
GitFlow - Git branching model for managing releases
Grafana - Open-source analytics and monitoring platform
gRPC - High-performance RPC framework
H
HA (High Availability) - System designed to remain operational with minimal downtime
Helm - Package manager for Kubernetes
HPA (Horizontal Pod Autoscaler) - Kubernetes autoscaling based on metrics
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) - Protocol for transmitting web data
HTTPS - Secure version of HTTP using encryption
I
IaC (Infrastructure as Code) - Managing infrastructure through code
IAM (Identity and Access Management) - System controlling access to resources
Idempotent - Operation producing same result regardless of repetition
Image - Template for creating containers
Ingress - Kubernetes object managing external access to services
Instance - Running virtual machine or container
J
Jaeger - Distributed tracing system
Jenkins - Open-source automation server for CI/CD
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) - Lightweight data interchange format
JWT (JSON Web Token) - Compact token format for authentication
K
K8s - Abbreviation for Kubernetes (K + 8 letters + s)
Kibana - Visualization tool for Elasticsearch data
kubectl - Command-line tool for Kubernetes
Kubernetes - Container orchestration platform
L
Lambda - AWS serverless compute service
Latency - Time delay between request and response
Load Balancer - Distributes traffic across multiple servers
Logging - Recording application and system events
Loki - Log aggregation system by Grafana Labs
M
Microservices - Architecture style with small, independent services
Monitoring - Continuous observation of system health and performance
mTLS (Mutual TLS) - Two-way authentication using TLS
N
Namespace - Kubernetes virtual cluster for resource isolation
NAT (Network Address Translation) - Remapping IP addresses
Network Policy - Kubernetes rules controlling pod communication
Node - Worker machine in Kubernetes cluster
NoSQL - Non-relational database
O
Observability - Ability to understand system state from outputs
Orchestration - Automated configuration and coordination of systems
P
PaaS (Platform as a Service) - Cloud platform for application deployment
Persistent Volume - Kubernetes storage that persists beyond pod lifecycle
Pipeline - Automated workflow for CI/CD
Pod - Smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes
PostgreSQL - Open-source relational database
Prometheus - Open-source monitoring and alerting system
Proxy - Intermediary server between client and server
R
RBAC (Role-Based Access Control) - Access control based on user roles
RDS (Relational Database Service) - AWS managed database service
Redis - In-memory data store
Registry - Repository for storing artifacts
Replica - Copy of data or service for redundancy
ReplicaSet - Kubernetes object maintaining pod replicas
REST (Representational State Transfer) - Architectural style for APIs
Rolling Update - Gradual replacement of instances with new version
Rollback - Reverting to previous version
S
S3 (Simple Storage Service) - AWS object storage service
SaaS (Software as a Service) - Software delivered over internet
Scaling - Adjusting resources to meet demand
Secret - Kubernetes object for sensitive data
Service - Kubernetes abstraction for accessing pods
Service Mesh - Infrastructure layer for service-to-service communication
SLA (Service Level Agreement) - Contract defining service expectations
SLI (Service Level Indicator) - Metric measuring service level
SLO (Service Level Objective) - Target value for SLI
SSH (Secure Shell) - Protocol for secure remote access
SSL/TLS - Protocols for secure communication
StatefulSet - Kubernetes object for stateful applications
T
Terraform - Infrastructure as Code tool
Throughput - Amount of data processed in time period
TLS (Transport Layer Security) - Cryptographic protocol for secure communication
Tracing - Tracking request flow through distributed system
V
VCS (Version Control System) - System tracking code changes
Virtual Machine - Emulated computer system
Volume - Storage attached to container or pod
VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) - Isolated cloud network
VPN (Virtual Private Network) - Secure connection over public network
W
Webhook - HTTP callback triggered by event
Worker Node - Node running application workloads in Kubernetes
Y
YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language) - Human-readable data serialization format
Common Acronyms
- ACR - Azure Container Registry
- AKS - Azure Kubernetes Service
- ALB - Application Load Balancer
- AMI - Amazon Machine Image
- ASG - Auto Scaling Group
- CDN - Content Delivery Network
- CIDR - Classless Inter-Domain Routing
- CLI - Command Line Interface
- CRD - Custom Resource Definition
- CRUD - Create, Read, Update, Delete
- DDoS - Distributed Denial of Service
- DR - Disaster Recovery
- ELB - Elastic Load Balancer
- ELK - Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana
- FQDN - Fully Qualified Domain Name
- GCP - Google Cloud Platform
- GUI - Graphical User Interface
- IOPS - Input/Output Operations Per Second
- IP - Internet Protocol
- LB - Load Balancer
- NLB - Network Load Balancer
- NFS - Network File System
- OOM - Out of Memory
- OS - Operating System
- PV - Persistent Volume
- PVC - Persistent Volume Claim
- QoS - Quality of Service
- RAM - Random Access Memory
- RDS - Relational Database Service
- RPO - Recovery Point Objective
- RTO - Recovery Time Objective
- SAN - Storage Area Network
- SDK - Software Development Kit
- SG - Security Group
- SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
- SNMP - Simple Network Management Protocol
- SQL - Structured Query Language
- SRE - Site Reliability Engineering
- TCP - Transmission Control Protocol
- TTL - Time To Live
- UDP - User Datagram Protocol
- UI - User Interface
- URI - Uniform Resource Identifier
- URL - Uniform Resource Locator
- UUID - Universally Unique Identifier
- VM - Virtual Machine
- VPC - Virtual Private Cloud
🎓 DevOps Glossary Complete