Tech November Newsletter

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Tech November Newsletter


Poll for Possible DevBlogs​

Please head over to this thread to read and vote about the possibility of DevBlogs that focus on specifics aspects of our infrastructure.

Tech Team CM+ Structure​

The structure of the tech team has always been a little awkward. The amount of work and access required for people to successfully complete their projects does not really follow the standard eGO progression.

To help with this, we are making tech more of an “engineering department” that has multiple Community Managers, each focusing on a different aspect within tech. That way each person has access to the tools and information they need to get their projects complete.

The current structure is shown in the diagram to the right, and if you wish to learn more, checkout the Gitlab Handbook here. We’ll be using this handbook as a guide for a lot of our organizational and policy references.
pasted image 0.png

Kubernetes and Infrastructure Changes​

This past month, we spent a majority of our time getting a Kubernetes cluster up and running on one of our dev boxes.

Now let’s pause for a second… We just used a lot of very technical words in one sentence, so let’s break it down a little. Kubernetes (pronounced koo-ber-nettys or abbreviated as K8s) is an automated containerized application manager. But what is a “containerized application?” Well, it’s basically what we’ve been working on for the past couple years. Any references to “Docker,” or “restarting a container,” etc. references these containerized applications. We’re now at the point where the majority of our applications and services are, as we say, containerized, therefore we can start working on getting a proper automated release system implemented (that’s where K8s comes in).

We have spent some time creating automated scripts to allow us to create Virtual Machines with the proper configuration for hosting. The biggest challenge was networking (BGP routing is not fun to configure, just ask Facebook/Meta) but we now have a basic system setup that allowed us to create proof-of-concepts for our forum, the discord bot, and a TF2 server. However, there is a lot more research and development that needs to take place before we can begin migrating our servers to it.

October Report​

This section goes over what we have accomplished since last month’s newsletter, specifically what we were able to achieve under the October Roadmap. You can read the previous month’s newsletter here. Note: In the following months this will be in a different format as we are redoing the roadmap to be in terms of priority.

Website
-A lot of work went into finding and updating missing awards that were not included in the initial release of the award system. Expect these awards to update on your profile when the next update is pushed.
-There have been some updates to the Award System that are awaiting testing and release.
-Progress was made on improving the Application system, but as it stands, MAUL is a higher priority. However, this might change.
-Aesthetic changes are still planned, but on hold until the above items are released.

Discord
-MAUL Bot 2.0 is completed and will be released once the database is created and populated.
-Additional bots were worked on by members of the tech team, but the priority still sits with MAUL bot.

Infrastructure
-Last month, we embarked on setting up a Kubernetes cluster to begin testing for future migration of servers and services (more information above). We were successfully able to set up networking as well as spin up a development forum, discord bot, and TF2 server.
-A large majority of our time is going into research, learning, planning, and making proof-of-concepts to ensure we don’t step into this very large venture unprepared.

Software
-For now, we won’t be continuing with this section, since it is far too much to cover plugin updates for each game. This information will be provided in change logs of server updates on a server-by-server basis.

Internal/Generic
-We saw the promotion of @Gabe to a community manager position to lead as our SRE (Site Reliability Engineer), which you can read more about here. The basic responsibilities are quality assurance and enforcement of our procedures.

November Roadmap​

The Roadmap is being changed from a series of bullet points under specific areas, such as “Website”, to our global priority list that tech will be working to achieve.


Urgent
-Completion of Phase 2 of the award system and updating the award database to include all awards. This also includes fixing all automated awards (such as the yearly or DS awards).
-Release MAUL bot 2.0 for discord.
-Now that base Kubernetes is set up, we need to start testing, troubleshooting, and making more proof-of-concept applications to further our grasp of the system.

High
-Resume work on MAUL 3 (yes, it actually exists).
-General bug fixes and performance improvements to our servers and plugins.
-Create documentation and organize internal GitLab for easier use and teamwork.

Medium
-Development of admin bot for Discord.
-General cleanup of forums, headers, and info pages.
-Development and experimentation with new plugins, features, and game servers.

Gitlab Statistics (October 1 -> November 1)​

Projects: 1,380 -> 1,404 (+28)
Groups (folders): 144 -> 144 (0)
Created Issues: 3,173 -> 3,265 (+77)
Merge Requests: 6,465 -> 6,590 (+238)
Total Pipelines (automated tasks): 33,286 -> 34,177 (+891)
Successful Pipelines: 28,793 -> 29,581 (+799)​
Failed Pipelines: 3,850 -> 3,940 (+90)​
Pipelines Cancelled: 519 -> 529 (+10)​
Pipelines Skipped: 124 -> 127 (+3)​


Closing​

As always, if you have any questions, ideas, or feedback, please feel free to reach out to any member of leadership.

Thanks,
EdgeGamers Tech

Writing: @crc1225 | Art: @Gabe | Editing: @Andrew + Jynx Jynx | Feedback from Member Relations

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Check EdgeGamers out on Social Media:
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
 
this is awesome for people like me. it's definitely a good read and something im interested in. first time seeing this was today, but i know there's been threads in the past, i've just missed them.

a+
 

Tech November Newsletter


Poll for Possible DevBlogs​

Please head over to this thread to read and vote about the possibility of DevBlogs that focus on specifics aspects of our infrastructure.

Tech Team CM+ Structure​

The structure of the tech team has always been a little awkward. The amount of work and access required for people to successfully complete their projects does not really follow the standard eGO progression.

To help with this, we are making tech more of an “engineering department” that has multiple Community Managers, each focusing on a different aspect within tech. That way each person has access to the tools and information they need to get their projects complete.

The current structure is shown in the diagram to the right, and if you wish to learn more, checkout the Gitlab Handbook here. We’ll be using this handbook as a guide for a lot of our organizational and policy references.
View attachment 8649

Kubernetes and Infrastructure Changes​

This past month, we spent a majority of our time getting a Kubernetes cluster up and running on one of our dev boxes.

Now let’s pause for a second… We just used a lot of very technical words in one sentence, so let’s break it down a little. Kubernetes (pronounced koo-ber-nettys or abbreviated as K8s) is an automated containerized application manager. But what is a “containerized application?” Well, it’s basically what we’ve been working on for the past couple years. Any references to “Docker,” or “restarting a container,” etc. references these containerized applications. We’re now at the point where the majority of our applications and services are, as we say, containerized, therefore we can start working on getting a proper automated release system implemented (that’s where K8s comes in).

We have spent some time creating automated scripts to allow us to create Virtual Machines with the proper configuration for hosting. The biggest challenge was networking (BGP routing is not fun to configure, just ask Facebook/Meta) but we now have a basic system setup that allowed us to create proof-of-concepts for our forum, the discord bot, and a TF2 server. However, there is a lot more research and development that needs to take place before we can begin migrating our servers to it.

October Report​

This section goes over what we have accomplished since last month’s newsletter, specifically what we were able to achieve under the October Roadmap. You can read the previous month’s newsletter here. Note: In the following months this will be in a different format as we are redoing the roadmap to be in terms of priority.

Website
-A lot of work went into finding and updating missing awards that were not included in the initial release of the award system. Expect these awards to update on your profile when the next update is pushed.
-There have been some updates to the Award System that are awaiting testing and release.
-Progress was made on improving the Application system, but as it stands, MAUL is a higher priority. However, this might change.
-Aesthetic changes are still planned, but on hold until the above items are released.

Discord
-MAUL Bot 2.0 is completed and will be released once the database is created and populated.
-Additional bots were worked on by members of the tech team, but the priority still sits with MAUL bot.

Infrastructure
-Last month, we embarked on setting up a Kubernetes cluster to begin testing for future migration of servers and services (more information above). We were successfully able to set up networking as well as spin up a development forum, discord bot, and TF2 server.
-A large majority of our time is going into research, learning, planning, and making proof-of-concepts to ensure we don’t step into this very large venture unprepared.

Software
-For now, we won’t be continuing with this section, since it is far too much to cover plugin updates for each game. This information will be provided in change logs of server updates on a server-by-server basis.

Internal/Generic
-We saw the promotion of @Gabe to a community manager position to lead as our SRE (Site Reliability Engineer), which you can read more about here. The basic responsibilities are quality assurance and enforcement of our procedures.

November Roadmap​

The Roadmap is being changed from a series of bullet points under specific areas, such as “Website”, to our global priority list that tech will be working to achieve.


Urgent
-Completion of Phase 2 of the award system and updating the award database to include all awards. This also includes fixing all automated awards (such as the yearly or DS awards).
-Release MAUL bot 2.0 for discord.
-Now that base Kubernetes is set up, we need to start testing, troubleshooting, and making more proof-of-concept applications to further our grasp of the system.

High
-Resume work on MAUL 3 (yes, it actually exists).
-General bug fixes and performance improvements to our servers and plugins.
-Create documentation and organize internal GitLab for easier use and teamwork.

Medium
-Development of admin bot for Discord.
-General cleanup of forums, headers, and info pages.
-Development and experimentation with new plugins, features, and game servers.

Gitlab Statistics (October 1 -> November 1)​

Projects: 1,380 -> 1,404 (+28)
Groups (folders): 144 -> 144 (0)
Created Issues: 3,173 -> 3,265 (+77)
Merge Requests: 6,465 -> 6,590 (+238)
Total Pipelines (automated tasks): 33,286 -> 34,177 (+891)​
Successful Pipelines: 28,793 -> 29,581 (+799)​
Failed Pipelines: 3,850 -> 3,940 (+90)​
Pipelines Cancelled: 519 -> 529 (+10)​
Pipelines Skipped: 124 -> 127 (+3)​



Closing​

As always, if you have any questions, ideas, or feedback, please feel free to reach out to any member of leadership.

Thanks,
EdgeGamers Tech

Writing: @crc1225 | Art: @Gabe | Editing: @Andrew + Jynx Jynx | Feedback from Member Relations

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Check EdgeGamers out on Social Media:
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
Good read guys.
 
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