Site Reliability Engineering Foundation


The SRE Foundation Learning Path provides a comprehensive introduction to Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), equipping participants with the fundamental knowledge and practical skills needed to enhance system reliability and efficiency. The course covers the evolution and core principles of SRE, emphasizing a culture of blameless postmortems, risk management, and the balance between innovation and reliability. Participants will explore key concepts such as Service Level Indicators (SLIs), Service Level Objectives (SLOs), error budgets, incident management, monitoring, logging, and observability. Additionally, the curriculum introduces automation techniques, operational tooling, capacity planning, and performance optimization strategies. Through hands-on labs, case studies, and real-world projects, learners will gain practical experience in designing, deploying, and maintaining production environments, ensuring they are well-prepared to apply SRE practices in their organizations.



What You Will Learn

  • Introduction to SRE: Understand the evolution, core principles, and culture of Site Reliability Engineering—including blameless postmortems, risk tolerance, and balancing innovation with reliability.
  • Fundamental SRE Concepts: Learn the essentials of SLIs, SLOs, error budgets, and effective incident management strategies.
  • Monitoring, Logging, and Observability: Gain insights into setting up robust monitoring systems, defining key metrics, implementing logging best practices, and using observability tools to track system performance.
  • Automation & Operational Tooling: Explore automation techniques and familiarize yourself with the toolchain for monitoring, alerting, and incident management.
  • Performance & Capacity Planning: Master the fundamentals of capacity planning, performance testing, and system optimization to ensure scalability and efficiency.
  • Hands-On Projects: Engage in real-world projects and capstone exercises that simulate a full SRE workflow—from incident response and automated remediation to detailed postmortem analysis.

Business Benefits

  • Enhanced Reliability: Implement best practices that boost system uptime and resilience, reducing costly downtime.
  • Efficient Incident Management: Leverage proactive monitoring and automated responses to resolve issues faster and improve service quality.
  • Optimized Performance: Utilize capacity planning and performance testing strategies to scale systems efficiently and cut operational costs.
  • Streamlined Operations: Automate routine tasks and standardize tooling to increase operational efficiency and resource allocation.
  • Collaborative Culture: Foster continuous improvement and teamwork through effective documentation, cross-functional projects, and shared learning.
  • Competitive Advantage: Stay ahead by adopting cutting-edge SRE practices that drive innovation and maintain high service reliability.

Skills Learned

  • SRE Fundamentals: Grasp the core principles, history, and cultural aspects that define Site Reliability Engineering.
  • SLIs, SLOs, & Error Budgeting: Develop expertise in defining and monitoring service level indicators and objectives, as well as managing error budgets.
  • Incident Management: Build practical skills in incident response, escalation procedures, and conducting effective postmortem analyses.
  • Monitoring & Observability: Learn to implement robust monitoring systems, apply logging best practices, and utilize observability tools for proactive system insights.
  • Automation & Tooling: Gain proficiency in using automation strategies and essential operational tools to streamline SRE processes.
  • Performance & Capacity Planning: Acquire the ability to assess system capacity, conduct performance tests, and optimize system performance.
  • Hands-On Project Experience: Develop real-world experience through projects that simulate full SRE workflows in a production-like environment.
  • Documentation & Collaboration: Enhance your skills in creating comprehensive reports and working effectively within cross-functional teams.


Syllabus

1. Introduction to Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)

  • Overview and History

    Understand the evolution of SRE, its core principles, and the role SREs play in modern organizations.

  • SRE Culture and Mindset

    Learn about blameless postmortems, risk tolerance, and the balance between innovation and reliability.

2. Fundamental SRE Concepts

  • SLIs, SLOs, and Error Budgets

    Introduce Service Level Indicators (SLIs), Service Level Objectives (SLOs), and error budgeting concepts.

  • Basic Incident Management

    Learn the fundamentals of incident response, escalation procedures, and creating effective postmortems.

3. Monitoring, Logging, and Observability

  • Monitoring Essentials

    Understand the importance of monitoring, key metrics, and setting up alerts.

  • Logging and Observability

    Explore logging best practices and the basics of observability tools to track system performance.

4. Automation and Operational Tooling

  • Introduction to Automation

    Gain an overview of automation tools and techniques to reduce manual intervention.

  • Toolchain Overview

    Familiarize yourself with common SRE tools for monitoring, alerting, and incident management.

5. Performance and Capacity Planning Basics

  • Capacity Planning Fundamentals

    Learn methods for assessing system capacity and planning for growth.

  • Performance Testing and Optimization

    Explore basic strategies for performance testing and identifying system bottlenecks.

6. Hands-On Projects and Real-World Scenarios

  • Engage in projects that combine key SRE principles, such as simulating a full incident response cycle—from setting up monitoring and alerting to automating remediation and performing detailed postmortem analysis.



Hands-On Labs

1. Incident Response and Blameless Postmortems

  • Set up a basic monitoring and alerting system using Prometheus and Grafana.

  • Trigger simulated incidents (service downtime, performance degradation).

  • Practice incident identification, triage, escalation, and resolution.

  • Conduct a blameless postmortem, focusing on root-cause analysis and actionable improvements.

2. Defining SLIs, SLOs, and Error Budgets

  • Identify and select meaningful SLIs for application reliability (latency, error rate, availability).

  • Define realistic SLO targets based on user experience.

  • Calculate error budgets and develop strategies for budget management.

3. Observability Implementation

  • Deploy and configure ELK stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) or Grafana Loki for centralized logging.

  • Instrument a sample application to expose metrics and tracing.

  • Create dashboards and automated alerts to proactively monitor performance and health.

4. Automation for Operational Efficiency

  • Automate routine operational tasks such as service restarts, configuration changes, and resource provisioning using tools like Ansible, Terraform, or scripting.

  • Implement automated incident response using alert-driven automation or self-healing techniques.

5. Capacity Planning and Performance Optimization

  • Conduct capacity analysis using historical performance data.

  • Plan resource scaling strategies to meet projected demand.

  • Perform performance testing using JMeter or similar tools to identify bottlenecks.

6. Comprehensive Production Environment Management

  • Deploy and maintain a small-scale production application (e.g., a web application or microservices app).

  • Define and manage SLIs, SLOs, and error budgets continuously.

  • Set up comprehensive observability, monitoring, and automated alerting.

  • Automate capacity planning, incident management, and operational tasks.

  • Perform regular performance and reliability evaluations and optimization.