Simplified administration via a LowOps platform - the Cloudogu EcoSystem

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When planning and developing software, a number of software tools are often used for support, such as project management systems, version management systems or quality management systems. The administration and maintenance of this toolchain requires time and know-how, two scarce resources. In 2023, McKinsey stated in a study that there will be a shortage of 140,000 IT specialists in the public sector in Germany alone by 2030. In this blog post, I will show you how you can simplify IT administration in your organization with the Cloudogu EcoSystem, making it both less time-consuming and accessible to people without IT skills.

Minimize the administration effort with the Cloudogu EcoSystem

The Cloudogu EcoSystem is a LowOps operating platform that allows you to quickly and easily set up and operate a toolchain of different software. LowOps is a concept that reduces the effort required to operate software systems or platforms through automation, standardization and generalization. Further information on the architecture of the Cloudogu EcoSystem can be found here.

In the article Minimizing administration effort, we compare the installation and maintenance effort of different approaches. We show that the Cloudogu EcoSystem uses the LowOps approach to significantly reduce the administration effort, software maintenance and servicing for operation compared to conventional methods.

In the following, I will demonstrate that the Cloudogu EcoSystem not only reduces the administration effort. The installation and maintenance of the Cloudogu EcoSystem is possible for people with basic IT knowledge.

Administration by mouse click: The Admin-Dogu

In conventional systems, administrators have to connect to the server on which the application is running in order to manage software. This process can be time-consuming and tedious. Without IT knowledge, stopping or restarting an application is prone to errors. One solution that we provide you with for the administration of the Cloudogu EcoSystem is the Admin-Dogu. The Admin-Dogu is a tool for managing and maintaining the applications that run in the Cloudogu EcoSystem. You can access the Admin-Dogu directly via the Cloudogu EcoSystem menu, which you can also use to access all other applications. This means you no longer need server access via the console to manage the applications. It currently offers various features: start or stop applications with just a click of the mouse via a simply designed interface or get help with troubleshooting and support.

Application management: Administration of the Cloudogu EcoSystem applications

The Admin-Dogu of the Cloudogu EcoSystem offers you a simple interface that you can use to manage the applications in the Cloudogu EcoSystem without in-depth knowledge. It shows you an overview of all applications that are currently installed and their current status. The status indicates whether an application is currently running successfully. You can start or stop the applications directly using buttons.

To reduce the susceptibility to errors, you can only ever perform actions in the Admin-Dogu that do not affect the stability of the system. For example, it is not possible to stop an application that is necessary for the operation of the Cloudogu EcoSystem. This means you can be sure that any actions you perform will not bring the entire system to a standstill.

Maintenance: troubleshooting assistance and support

Even with the best systems, faults can occur. These are either resolved directly by the IT administrators themselves or by the manufacturer’s support team. If an error occurs in one of your applications, it can be difficult without the Cloudogu EcoSystem to provide the right information for troubleshooting or support: On the one hand, log files of applications are not stored uniformly, so you either have to know where the files are located or search for them; on the other hand, different authorizations may be required to access the files of the applications.

In the Admin-Dogu you can download log files at any time via the interface. Anyone with authorization can download log files here without having to laboriously search for the right log files on a server in the data structure of an application. The Admin-Dogu also offers you the option of creating a so-called “support package” via the user interface, in which all information from the Cloudogu EcoSystem that may be required for support is compiled (see Support package function). This allows a support case to be processed quickly: The required information can be supplied by anyone without the IT knowledge otherwise required and our support team is able to get straight down to troubleshooting without having to keep requesting new information and files. Additionally, it is possible to put the Cloudogu EcoSystem into a so-called “debug mode” via the user interface. Debug mode allows you to increase the level of detail of the logged information. This means that more information can be stored in the log files when the problem is reproduced, which can also help with troubleshooting.

Outlook: The Admin-Dogu is being continuously developed

As you can see, the Admin-Dogu offers you great support in administration: It enables you to carry out large parts of the administrative work even without technical knowledge, does not require any knowledge of storage locations for log files in applications and enables you to change the log level of all applications centrally. However, as there are many other admin tasks that can be simplified and accelerated, the Admin-Dogu is continuously being developed further. You can find more detailed information on the Admin-Dogu in our Documentation of the Admin-Dogu.

Simple implementation of backups

In addition to maintaining software systems, performing regular backups is another task that is often carried out in IT administration. Backups are your insurance, as they ensure that a defined state can be restored if the productive system is lost.

The Backup & Restore-Dogu: Automatically create backups with just a few clicks

The Cloudogu EcoSystem offers you an easy way to create backups on a regular basis with the Backup & Restore-Dogu. As with the Admin-Dogu, you don’t need a great deal of IT knowledge for this, as you can configure the execution of backups with just a few clicks. Only the storage location for backups needs to be set up manually via the console.

In the Backup & Restore dialog, you can specify whether a backup should be carried out at regular intervals, in addition to carrying out a backup directly. In this case, you do not need to worry about creating a backup; the Cloudogu EcoSystem will create it at the interval you specify.

If a new backup is created regularly, the backups that have already been created should be cleaned up regularly. It makes little sense to keep thousands of old backups if you only need the latest backup when you need to restore the system. The Backup & Restore dialog offers you common strategies that you can implement with just one click.

Restore: Simple restoration of the system via the interface

If you need to restore your entire system, you only need a few resources from your IT administration to set up the system again. The Backup & Restore-Dogu offers you the option of importing a previously created backup directly into the Cloudogu EcoSystem with a single click. All applications running in the Cloudogu EcoSystem are automatically updated.

With the Cloudogu EcoSystem, you do not need special solutions for individual applications. As long as these applications are running in the Cloudogu EcoSystem, you are offered a simple automatic backup and restore solution. You can find more information about Backup & Restore-Dogu in our Documentation for the Backup & Restore Dogu.

Standardized installation and upgrades via the console

When using different applications, each installation and upgrade may require a different installation and upgrade process. Installing and upgrading applications is time-consuming and requires know-how. In addition, when upgrading an application manually, there is always the risk that it will not work straight away or that data will be lost. The Cloudogu EcoSystem encapsulates each application, which means that both installations and upgrades can be carried out in a standardized manner. You only need one command for each installation and upgrade, which you can execute directly on your instance. In addition, we test upgrades extensively before release, so you can be sure that an application upgrade will not cause any problems.

Conclusion

The use of the Cloudogu EcoSystem offers many functionalities that ensure simple and fast administration. Many functions such as starting and stopping applications or performing backups can be carried out directly with just a few clicks on the Cloudogu EcoSystem interface. Functions such as upgrading an application still require server access, but are standardized and simplified to such an extent that they also require less time and know-how. Many tasks can therefore be carried out by people without in-depth IT training, taking the pressure off your IT administration.

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