DevOps & IT Infrastructure Mastery
Holistic monitoring, PowerShell automation, SQL resilience, and battle-tested IaC templates for modern sysadmins
1. Introduction
In 2025, IT infrastructure demands resilience, automation, and proactive monitoring. Whether managing hybrid environments, securing databases, or ensuring seamless post-reboot operations, DevOps engineers and sysadmins need robust tools and strategies. This guide covers holistic IT audits, PowerShell automation, SQL monitoring on Linux, and ready-to-use IaC templates.
2. Holistic IT Infrastructure Audit – Key Areas
- 1. Monitoring – Use Zabbix or Prometheus + Grafana for real-time visibility into servers, networks, and apps.
- 2. Backups – Automate with Veeam (Windows) or BorgBackup (Linux). Test restores quarterly.
- 3. Alerting – Configure thresholds in Grafana or PagerDuty to avoid alert fatigue.
- 4. Resiliency – Implement Terraform for immutable infrastructure and Ansible for drift correction.
3. PowerShell + RunOnce: Post-Reboot Automation
Automate post-restart tasks in Windows Server with this PowerShell + RunOnce template:
# Add to Registry\RunOnce
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce" -Name "PostRebootScript" -Value "powershell.exe -File C:\Scripts\PostReboot.ps1"
# Sample PostReboot.ps1
Install-WindowsUpdate -AcceptAll -AutoReboot
Sync-DomainControllers
Send-MailNotification -Status "Server patched and rebooted"Typical use cases:
- Automatic patching after security updates
- Service restart sequencing
- Post-maintenance validation checks
4. MSSQL on Linux Monitoring Stack
Monitor SQL Server on Linux using this open-source stack:
- Filebeat – Ships SQL error logs and performance metrics
- Wazuh – Correlates logs with security events (failed logins, config changes)
- Grafana – Dashboards for query latency, deadlocks, and storage trends
5. Infrastructure-as-Code Templates
Accelerate deployments with these battle-tested templates:
| Tool | Use Case | GitHub Link |
|---|---|---|
| Terraform | AWS/GCP resilient VM clusters | infra-as-code/aws-3tier |
| Ansible | Post-deployment hardening | ansible/cis-benchmark |
| Docker | SQL monitoring stack | docker/mssql-monitoring |
6. FAQ: DevOps & Infrastructure
How often should we test backups?
Weekly for critical systems (e.g., databases), monthly for others. Always test with partial/full restores.
Best alerting practices?
Follow the 3-alert rule: 1) Warning (early signs), 2) Error (action required), 3) Critical (immediate intervention). Route alerts to proper teams.
PowerShell vs. Bash for automation?
PowerShell for Windows-heavy environments (AD, Exchange), Bash for Linux/cloud-native tools. Consider Python for cross-platform scripts.
Free SQL monitoring tools?
Prometheus + SQL Exporter, Wazuh for security, and Grafana (free tier) for dashboards.
7. Summary
Modern IT infrastructure requires automation at every layer—from post-reboot scripts to cross-platform monitoring. Leverage the tools and templates shared here to build resilient, self-healing systems.
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