GitLab / Support Team

In this video Senior Support Engineer Brie Carranza interviews Senior Support Engineer Manuel Grabowski, with intention of sharing Manu's thoughts and ideas with the world! ✨

Mentioned projects/tools/posts:

- Support dotfiles: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support/toolbox/dotfiles
- PM/TW finder: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support/toolbox/dotfiles/-/merge_requests/31
- Emoji adder: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support/toolbox/dotfiles/-/merge_requests/36

- Copy as Markdown: https://github.com/notlmn/copy-as-markdown
- Format Link: https://github.com/hnakamur/FormatLink-Chrome

- Automating the Support Team Contributions label: https://gitlab.com/manuelgrabowski/log/-/issues/7

- Staff Engineer's Path book club: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL05JrBw4t0Kp7yMHav5Gwt9_BkOXO90hM

- Team-Tracking project: https://gitlab.com/manuelgrabowski/team-tracking/-/issues/27

- lolcat: https://github.com/busyloop/lolcat
- keychain: https://www.funtoo.org/Funtoo:Keychain
- autossh: https://linux.die.net/man/1/autossh
- diff-so-fancy: https://github.com/so-fancy/diff-so-fancy
- thefuck: https://github.com/nvbn/thefuck


00:00 - Intro
00:57 - What do you do here?
02:03 - How did you get here?
05:33 - Advice that Now-Manu would give Then-Manu
11:05 - What tools or processes would you wish more people knew or used?
14:55 - Any sacrifices you're making that are not visible?
21:00 - How do you make sure that you don't burnout?
23:07 - How do you handle a ticket where you have no idea what to do?
27:34 - What's a change you helped implement that you are excited about?
30:40 - What's a change that was difficult to implement but worth it in the end?
34:40 - Staff Engineer's Path book club – what stuck?
38:33 - What fun projects have you been working on?
43:00 - Team-Tracking learnings
48:05 - Fun Questions: Favorite GitLab feature?
50:08 - Fun Questions: How much do you love Kubernetes?
51:55 - Fun Questions: Favorite CLI tool?
55:35 - Closing remarks

In this video Support Engineer Bruno Freitas interviews Senior Support Engineer Brie Carranza, with intention of sharing Brie's tips and strategies with the world!

In this video call with Anton and Alvin, we look at how to integrate Google Workspace as a SAML identity Provider into a GitLab.com Group.

We also set up Group Links and test how it works.

Documentation links:

- Setting up Google Workspace as your Identity Provider:
https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/group/saml_sso/#set-up-google-workspace

- SAML debugging tools
https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/group/saml_sso/troubleshooting.html#saml-debugging-tools

- Setting up SAML Group Sync
https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/group/saml_sso/group_sync.html

Command to generate SHA1 fingerprint from downloaded Google Workspace cert:

openssl x509 -noout -fingerprint -sha1 -inform pem -in "GoogleIDPCertificate-domain.com.pem"

Ask me anything session with Senior Support Engineers.
https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support/support-team-meta/-/issues/4954

Ask me anything session with Senior Support Engineers.

Adding a UX improvement to the LDAP group sync button https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/389647

MR https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/merge_requests/112119

See https://docs.google.com/document/d/18_jSEx9Wnzm2H7xd7xuQi3cEsFO7ER6inbNBitEKd-A/edit#bookmark=id.h2af88o1hfon for notes

Working on a Pajamas MR - Support coding office hours

See https://docs.google.com/document/d/18_jSEx9Wnzm2H7xd7xuQi3cEsFO7ER6inbNBitEKd-A/edit#bookmark=id.nvff0q1zkhe6 for notes

2022 version of a video originally made by Lee Matos.

Link to presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10SpbXwBy5f_zQ42RJexOuquRQ7CcsFcL4dKwev6ErIc/edit?usp=sharing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frDamZjCbkI

https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support/support-team-meta/-/issues/4673

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A cool tool created by Anton Starovoytov that helps people on CMOC duty more efficient.

GitLab Staff Support Engineer Cynthia Ng talks about the importance of tracking your own work throughout the year, and some methods for doing that easily.

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Staff Support Engineers discuss questions about their role asked by others on the Support team.
Panelists - Cynthia "Arty" Ng, William Chandler, Drew Blessing
Facilitator - Keelan Lang

https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support/support-team-meta/-/issues/4247

This is a demo of what the next iteration of Support-Resources looks like. I'm using the Cloud Sandbox to create a Terraform projects (from predefined templates) that then automatically provisions resources within my personal GCP project.

More info about the Cloud Sandbox: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/infrastructure-standards/realms/sandbox/

Link to the performed workarounds: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/business-technology/engineering/infrastructure/issue-tracker/-/issues/86#note_755209745

TIMESTAMPS

About Sandbox Cloud - 00:00
The Support-Resources-Template initial set-up - 01:28
Applying the 2 Sandbox workarounds - 06:08
The Service Account workaround - 07:29
The DNS subdomain and managed zone workaround - 09:36
Running the Terraform Dry-run stage and starting the Apply - 13:08
Successful completion of Terraform Apply and starting Terraform Destroy - 17:23
Info about the design of the Support Templates in Sandbox Cloud - 18:12

The goal of this meeting was to answer questions about becoming and being a Senior Support Engineer

Details: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support/support-team-meta/-/issues/3886

Facilitator: Bo Carbonell

Seniors answering questions:

* Ben Prescott EMEA
* Katrin Leinweber EMEA
* Harish Ramachandran AMER
* Katrin Leinweber EMEA
* Ronald van Zon EMEA

The goal of this meeting was to answer questions about becoming and being a Senior Support Engineer

Details: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support/support-team-meta/-/issues/3886

Facilitator: Alvin Gounder

Seniors answering questions:

* Anton Smith, New Zealand, APAC
* Cynthia ”Arty” Ng, Canada, AMER
* Greg Myers, USA, AMER
* Alexander Strachan, Australia, APAC

The goal of this meeting was to answer questions about becoming and being a Senior Support Engineer

Details: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support/support-team-meta/-/issues/3886

Facilitator: Bruno Freitas

Seniors answering questions:

* Vlad Stoianovici, Romania, EMEA
* Katrin Leinweber, Germany, EMEA
* Ben Prescott, UK, EMEA
* Ronald van Zon, Netherlands, EMEA

Viewer access to the doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wx9ZqGbSr28FRvrNK1oAsoe6tM6XLyIE3BBG3AjN9Hg/edit?usp=sharing (Talk to your manager for questions, doc won't be maintained)

A short video that helps to walk through the feedback and what changes were made:


Issue: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support/support-team-meta/-/issues/3681

Pairing session where we demo how we can provision Gitlab Reference Architectures automatically (by using GET as a module) from Support-Resources

Support-resources: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support/support-resources

Gitlab Environment Toolkit - https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/quality/gitlab-environment-toolkit

1K Reference Architecture in GET - https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/quality/gitlab-environment-toolkit-configs/quality/-/blob/main/1k/terraform/environment.tf

Gitlab Reference Architectures - https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/administration/reference_architectures/

GitLab DevOps Platform 5 min Demo

DevOps tools shouldn’t create more problems than they solve. As DevOps initiatives mature, brittle toolchains built from point solutions break down, increasing cost, reducing visibility, and creating friction instead of value. Unlike DIY toolchains, a true DevOps platform let's teams iterate faster and innovate together. The goal is to remove complexity and risk providing everything you need to deliver higher quality, more secure software faster, with less risk and lower cost..

Get in touch with Sales: http://bit.ly/2IygR7z

Hi, this is Vlad from Gitlab Support and in this clip Rocky and I create a couple of GKE clusters and and inspect the Gitlab deployment from one of those clusters.

Pre reqs: kubectl, helm, gcloud

Commands used (similar to):

helm upgrade --install gitlab gitlab/gitlab --timeout 600s --set global.hosts.domain=vlad-gke-gitlab62.sr.gitlab.support --set global.hosts.externalIP=34.91.218.78 --set certmanager-issuer.email=vlad@example.com --version 4.11.2

kubectl get secrets sh.helm.release.v1.gitlab.v1 -o jsonpath='{.data.release}' | base64 -D | base64 -D | gzip -d | jq

Here's a clip where Silvester and I do the same thing manually: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcJqIggsJ5E

We provision a K8s cluster in GKE and then set up a static IP and a DNS entry to eventually install Gitlab on said cluster, with Helm

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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1p5j77fF6Nz5y_UkQCNoxg02YM0V87jW9VcM4ccyOJs8/edit#slide=id.g29a70c6c35_0_68


NRT vs. FRT -- suspending AMER NRT SLA for two weeks - https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support/support-team-meta/-/issues/3367
Improving the AMER Crew Slack channel - https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support/support-team-meta/-/issues/3366
Splitting to an AMER-E and AMER-W crew - https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support/support-team-meta/-/issues/3331
Async crew collaboration & review for challenging tickets - https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support/support-team-meta/-/issues/3368

Slides with Links: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1fmxQgsRJYloZ7CbdP6CUss5rGH8fNBv-o3lNjNjOvpM/edit#slide=id.gccfad98455_0_3

Recording of GitLab Support AMER deep dive on Gitaly Cluster

UNCUT VERSION. WE SAID WE WERE GONNA EDIT SOME STUFF OUT BUT WE DIDN'T JUST FOR YOU!!! See behind the curtain!

Slide deck here for people who want to read along and click links: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1FwYrv3XbFP3ky55f92LT3W4hfUpGHkX7GiUORM4LyUQ/edit#slide=id.gc34cacb08d_0_0


GitLab Epic: https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-com/support/-/epics/130

This video introduces custom Zendesk features created by the GitLab Support Ops team to give Support Engineers a nice way to be able to schedule their ticket work according to the needs of each individual ticket and customer.

Brief introduction to the new reminders app in Zendesk for people who will be testing it out prior to deploying it in production.

The abrupt cut at the end was a bad joke so you missed nothing beyond a send off :P BE WELL and thanks for engaging!



Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nXcCT1SUfmsSSAm6lYznG_caN0P3739hZhMFexjGbvI/edit#slide=id.gb04bf98d9d_1_438

Deck: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Q3gJrEd-rioit6qNdopZJRqal5oqlw3WjPIqlZOLJzA/edit?usp=sharing

Crew as defined in our handbook: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/support/workflows/meeting-service-level-objectives.html#support-response-crew

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Id4dZCdrtk-i34OVumOpOieve4OCHxkLcs3-8QHYWY4/edit#slide=id.g29a70c6c35_0_68

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nXcCT1SUfmsSSAm6lYznG_caN0P3739hZhMFexjGbvI


Issue: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support/support-team-meta/-/issues/2803

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15QNXLjNv90sHvgacSK3TZ1V-5uKz0GnrkyuBM-myx_w/edit#slide=id.g29a70c6c35_0_68


Issue for comments: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support/support-team-meta/-/issues/2803

Link to the slide deck in this presentation if you like to read: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1scCpQVoUbWgiU4vljXNSQ2AR9bag4aVyZNGT57VD3oI/edit#slide=id.ga42daef6d7_0_5


Link to the template if you want to see more specifics: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t0b5A534Mb7ADbihZE0HwPKLwX6IaGQssZdn5UDhInI/edit#

Intermediate Support Engineer Performance Factor Worksheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xgP0BVierRfWYlnzR33KfeVNSq2oLTBezMlNYT0NM58/edit#gid=395345394

Senior Support Engineer Performance Factor Worksheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/166OuQVtUchuNrJb3EJgAljkMWJufYQdvgu_NDGnRptU/edit#gid=395345394

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xgP0BVierRfWYlnzR33KfeVNSq2oLTBezMlNYT0NM58/edit#gid=395345394

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Walkthrough of what an strace of a typical request in Puma looks like, and a quick comparison on how Unicorn is different.

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcY5pPUq35U
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tThs8QeP2qY
Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgJH4wpR5OE

A walkthrough of straces of two Gitaly requests.

0:00 FindCommit - a typical Gitaly RPC
8:04 UserCommitFiles - complex Gitaly-Ruby RPC
12:08 Gitaly InfoRefs cache invalidation
15:26 GitalyRuby requests to main Gitaly process
20:10 Pre-receive hooks
28:55 Update hooks
34:00 Post-receive hooks
37:39 Regenerate InfoRefs cache

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcY5pPUq35U
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tThs8QeP2qY
Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-GkU7Mmqy4

Start of a series describing how to use Strace to understand how programs work internally.

0:00 Intro
0:28 What is strace
1:50 When not to use strace
3:08 Tracing 'ls -la'
5:25 execve
7:33 open
9:00 stat
9:48 mmap
14:18 mprotect
21:05 Summary

Strace man page: https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/strace.1.html

Brendan Gregg article on performance impacts of strace: http://www.brendangregg.com/blog/2014-05-11/strace-wow-much-syscall.html

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tThs8QeP2qY
Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-GkU7Mmqy4
Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgJH4wpR5OE

Walkthrough on using Strace to understand how Git interacts with the filesystem.

0:00 Intro
1:00 Tracing 'git status'
10:20 Tracing 'git commit'

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcY5pPUq35U
Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-GkU7Mmqy4
Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgJH4wpR5OE

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https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com/-/issues/7831

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An exploration into how Puma timeouts are configured in GitLab and how its threading model differs from Unicorn.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pp31QmWZvYq_aFVGgkpee_hxlt5iQq_mMsOxFm_gaWc/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zELoftrommhRdnEOAocE6jea6w7KngUDjTUQBlMCNAU/edit?usp=sharing

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APAC Support team go through the new features in 12.3, sharing knowledge for the wider Support team