My Resignation Was The Most Functional Part Of Our Infrastructure This Month

My Resignation Was The Most Functional Part Of Our Infrastructure This Month

1. Introduction

The phrase “My resignation was the most functional part of our infrastructure this month” isn’t just dark humor—it’s a distress signal from the frontline of DevOps warfare. This statement encapsulates the catastrophic intersection of technical debt, misguided leadership, and the dangerous gap between cloud marketing hype and operational reality.

In the original Reddit post that inspired this article, a systems administrator described an environment collapsing under the weight of contradictory mandates: a “Cloud First” initiative executed on bargain-bin Azure B-Series VMs, security theater prioritizing branded screensavers over patch management, and the outright banning of essential tools like PsExec. Meanwhile, production systems ran on expired trial licenses while leadership demanded flawless uptime.

This scenario matters because it represents an epidemic in modern infrastructure management:

1. The Cloud Paradox: Organizations treating “cloud” as a checkbox rather than a fundamental architectural shift
2. Tooling Fundamentalism: Arbitrary restrictions on administrative tools without security alternatives
3. Resource Starvation: Underprovisioned environments guaranteed to fail under load
4. Security Theater: Prioritizing visible “compliance” over actual risk reduction

For DevOps engineers and sysadmins, these patterns create toxic work environments where infrastructure becomes a house of cards. When the inevitable collapse occurs, the engineers who warned about the risks become the scapegoats.

This guide will dissect this failure mode through three lenses:

1. The technical anti-patterns that destroy infrastructure reliability
2. Organizational dysfunction that enables these failures
3. Practical strategies for either fixing or escaping such environments

2. Understanding Infrastructure Failure Modes

The Anatomy of a Collapsing Environment

The Reddit scenario exemplifies four critical infrastructure failure modes:

Failure Mode 1: Cloud Misalignment

Problem: Treating cloud as a destination rather than an operational model. The “Cloud First” mandate deployed on B-Series VMs (Azure’s burstable instances) for production workloads demonstrates fundamental misunderstanding:

• B-Series Limitations:

  Baseline CPU Performance: 20%
  Burst Credits: Earned at 1 credit/sec (Max 2880 credits)
  Burst Consumption: 1 credit = 100% CPU for 1 minute
  

  Production systems hitting sustained 40% CPU utilization would exhaust credits in:

  2880 credits / (40% - 20%) = 2880 / 0.2 = 14400 seconds = 4 hours
  

  Result: Performance crashes when credits deplete.

Solution: Right-size instances using cloud provider calculators and load testing.

Failure Mode 2: Security Theater

Problem: Banning PsExec without implementing alternatives creates dangerous workarounds:

Security Control	Theater Version	Actual Security
Remote Execution	Ban PsExec	Implement JIT access via PAM + SSH certificate authority
Endpoint Protection	Branded screensavers	EDR with behavioral analysis

Failure Mode 3: License Denial

Running production on expired licenses risks:

• Compliance violations (up to $150,000 per violation under BSA audits)
• Security vulnerabilities (unpatchable software)

Failure Mode 4: Warning Fatigue

Ignoring disk space alerts until systems fail follows a predictable timeline:

graph LR
    A[90% Full - Email Alert] --> B[95% - PagerDuty]  
    B --> C[98% - Manual Cleanup]  
    C --> D[100% - Database Locked]  
    D --> E[2am Sev1 Incident]  

The Human Factor: Why Engineers Resign

Technical debt becomes fatal when combined with:

1. KPI Myopia: Measuring success by uptime while ignoring fragility
2. Solution Blindness: Rejecting tools that reveal problems (monitoring, logging)
3. Hero Culture: Rewarding firefighting over prevention

The resignation in our title story wasn’t failure—it was the only action that couldn’t be ignored.

3. Prerequisites for Sustainable Infrastructure

Technical Requirements

Before implementing solutions, verify foundational elements:

Hardware/Cloud Requirements

Workload Type	Minimum vCPUs	Memory	Storage Type
Development	2	4GB	Standard HDD
Production	4	8GB	Premium SSD
Data Pipeline	8+	16GB+	NVMe with RAID

License Hygiene Checklist

1. Maintain centralized license inventory:

   # Example: Find installed commercial software on Linux
   dpkg-query -W | grep -E '(trial|evaluation)'
   

2. Set renewal reminders 90 days pre-expiration
3. Never use trial software beyond PoC phase

Organizational Requirements

1. Escalation Protocol: Defined path from engineer to CTO for critical risks
2. Blame-Free Postmortems: Focused on systemic fixes, not individual punishment
3. Budget Transparency: Infrastructure costs visible to engineering leadership

4. Installation & Setup: Building Anti-Fragile Systems

Step 1: Implement Real Monitoring

Prometheus Installation:

# Create dedicated user
sudo useradd --no-create-home --shell /bin/false prometheus

# Download and install
wget https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/download/v2.47.0/prometheus-2.47.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz
tar xvf prometheus-*.tar.gz
sudo cp prometheus-*.{prometheus,promtool} /usr/local/bin/

# Configure systemd service
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/prometheus.service

prometheus.service:

[Unit]
Description=Prometheus
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=prometheus
Group=prometheus
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/prometheus \
  --config.file=/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml \
  --storage.tsdb.path=/var/lib/prometheus/data \
  --web.listen-address=0.0.0.0:9090

Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Step 2: Enforce Security Baselines

SSH Hardening with Ansible:

- name: Harden SSH configuration
  hosts: all
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: Install latest OpenSSH
      apt:
        name: openssh-server
        state: latest
        update_cache: yes

    - name: Configure sshd
      template:
        src: sshd_config.j2
        dest: /etc/ssh/sshd_config
        validate: /usr/sbin/sshd -t -f %s
      notify: restart ssh

  handlers:
    - name: restart ssh
      service:
        name: sshd
        state: restarted

sshd_config.j2:

# Disable legacy protocols
Protocol 2

# Key authentication only
PasswordAuthentication no

# Restrict root
PermitRootLogin no

# Timeout settings
LoginGraceTime 60
ClientAliveInterval 300
ClientAliveCountMax 2

Step 3: Automate Capacity Planning

Disk Usage Forecasting with Python:

import pandas as pd
from prophet import Prophet

# Get historical data
df = pd.read_csv('disk_usage.csv')
df['ds'] = pd.to_datetime(df['timestamp'])
df['y'] = df['usage_percent']

# Train model
model = Prophet(interval_width=0.95)
model.fit(df)

# Predict 30 days ahead
future = model.make_future_dataframe(periods=30)
forecast = model.predict(future)

# Alert if crossing 85% within 2 weeks
critical_date = forecast[(forecast['yhat_upper'] > 85) & 
                         (forecast['ds'] < pd.Timestamp.now() + pd.Timedelta(days=14))]
if not critical_date.empty:
    trigger_alert()

5. Configuration & Optimization

Security Hardening Checklist

Category	Weak Practice	Hardened Practice
Authentication	Password logins	SSH keys + MFA
Network	Open firewall ports	Zero Trust with Tailscale
Compliance	Annual audits	Continuous CIS scanning

Performance Optimization Matrix

Resource	Danger Zone	Optimization Strategy
CPU	>75% sustained	Horizontal scaling + load tests
Memory	>90% utilization	Tune JVM/application caches
Disk	>85% capacity	Archiving + auto-expansion
Network	>70% bandwidth	QoS policies + CDN

Cost-Control Without Compromise

Azure B-Series Alternative:

# Find VM series with consistent performance
az vm list-skus --location eastus --size Standard_D --all | grep 'name\|capacity'

Sample Output:

"name": "Standard_D2s_v3"
"capacity": {
  "defaultCapacity": 2,
  "maximum": 64,
  "minimum": 1
}

6. Usage & Operations

Daily Maintenance Protocol

1. Morning Checks:

   # Check system health
   uptime
   dmesg | tail -20
   
   # Verify backups
   restic -r /backup check
   

2. Incident Response Flow:

graph TD
    A[Alert Received] --> B{Triage Impact}
    B -->|Critical| C[Assemble War Room]
    B -->|Minor| D[Assign Owner]
    C --> E[Communicate ETAs]
    E --> F[Implement Fix]
    F --> G[Postmortem <48hrs]

Backup Implementation

Restic Backup Script:

#!/bin/bash

# Initialize repo (first run only)
restic -r /backup init

# Daily backup
restic -r /backup backup \
  /etc \
  /var/lib/postgresql \
  --exclude="*.tmp"

# Retention policy (keep 7 daily, 4 weekly, 12 monthly)
restic -r /backup forget \
  --keep-daily 7 \
  --keep-weekly 4 \
  --keep-monthly 12 \
  --prune

7. Troubleshooting

Common Issues and Solutions

Problem: B-Series VM performance collapse
Diagnosis:

# Check CPU credits (Azure)
az vm list-usage --location $LOCATION --query "[?localName=='Standard BS Family']"

# Live monitoring
vmstat -S M 1 10

Solution:

• Migrate to D-Series VMs
• Implement auto-scaling

Problem: Banned Tools (PsExec)
Alternative:

# JIT access via PowerShell Remoting
Enter-PSSession -ComputerName $TARGET -Credential $ADMIN

# With audit logging
Register-PSSessionConfiguration -Name "Restricted" -AccessMode Remote

8. Conclusion

The resignation story that opens this article represents more than individual frustration—it’s a case study in how infrastructure becomes weaponized against its maintainers. The path forward requires equal parts technical rigor and organizational courage:

1. Technical Excellence:
   • Replace manual heroics with automated safeguards
   • Treat monitoring as oxygen, not optional
2. Organizational Courage:
   • Frame risks in business terms (e.g., “Unlicensed software risks $150k fines”)
   • Escalate through channels until acknowledged

For those trapped in similar environments: Document everything. Propose solutions with cost/risk analysis. When ignored, your resignation isn’t failure—it’s the ultimate alert that management chose to ignore.

Further Resources

1. Google SRE Book - The Bible of sustainable operations
2. PostgreSQL Administration Guide - Essential for DBAs
3. Linux Hardening Guide - Actionable security steps
4. Azure Architecture Center - Cloud design patterns

The most functional infrastructure isn’t the one that never fails—it’s the one where failures lead to learning, not scapegoating. Build accordingly.