--- layout: handbook-page-toc title: "Infrastructure" --- ## On this page {:.no_toc .hidden-md .hidden-lg} - TOC {:toc .hidden-md .hidden-lg} ## Mission The **Infrastructure Department** is responsible for the **availability**, **reliability**, **performance**, and **scalability** of all user-facing services (most notably **GitLab.com**, the largest production GitLab Installation on the planet). Other departments and teams contribute greatly to these attributes of our service as well. In these cases it is the responsibility of the Infrastructure Department to close the feedback loop with monitoring and metrics to drive accountability. ## Vision We are a blend of operations gearheads and software crafters whose highest priority is the protection of the integrity and reliability of the operational environments that support GitLab.com. We support apply sound engineering principles, a healthy dose of operational discipline, and the selection of technologies to build mature automation that safeguards the operational environment while driving changes through it. We aim to make GitLab.com ready for mission-critical customer workloads, and we strive for excellence every day by living and breathing [**GitLab's values**](/handbook/values/) as our guiding operating principles in every decision we make and every action we take. ## Design The [**Infrastructure Library**](library/) contains documents that outline our thinking about the problems we are solving and represents the ***current state*** for any topic, playing a significant role in how we produce technical solutions to meet the challenges we face. **Blueprints** scope out our initial thinking about specific problems and issues we are working on. **Designs** outline the specific architecture and implementation. ## OKRs GitLab uses **Objectives and Key Results** (OKRs) as *[quarterly goals](/company/okrs/) to execute our strategy to make sure [said] goals are clearly defined and aligned throughout the organization*. We capture the objectives in [epics](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-com/gl-infra/-/epics?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&state=opened&label_name[]=okr%3A%3Ao). ## Issue Tracker The [infrastructure issue tracker](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gl-infra/infrastructure/issues) is the backlog for the infrastructure team and tracks all the work our [teams](/teams) are doing–unrelated to an ongoing change or incident. ## Meetings GitLab is a widely distributed company, and we aim to work asynchronously most of the time. There are times, however, when we must get *together* to discuss topics in real time, and thus, we do have some meetings scheduled. Meetings start on time and end on time—or earlier. Our team [calendar](https://calendar.google.com/calendar?cid=Z2l0bGFiLmNvbV9vamk2ZGtpMWZyYzhnOHFxOWZldXUxanRkMEBncm91cC5jYWxlbmRhci5nb29nbGUuY29t) is shared with the company. Every scheduled team meeting _must_ have a Google Doc agenda attached to the invite. The agendas should be long-running and organized by date. Each meeting's agenda is set and reviewed before the start of each meeting. Everyone invited to the meeting should have edit rights to add agenda items before the start of the meeting and to take notes during the meeting. ##### Infrastructure Call The Infrastructure Call is one of many channels to share and distribute Infrastructure-related information relevant to the entire company and beyond. The meeting is organized by the Director of Infrastructure. ##### Design and Automation (DNA) Design and Automation (DNA) is a **purely technical meeting** for Infrastructure ICs to discuss technical topics. The agenda is driven by design documents from the [library](library/), although discussion on other technically relevant topics is welcome. Project status discussions are strictly out of bounds in this (the only exception being the resolution of technical dependencies). While open discussions are welcome, it is strongly recommended that blueprints and designs are used as the source of agenda items. This allows everyone gain the required context–before the meeting starts–for an engaging conversation. During discussions, it is ok to point shortcomings for a given design. This is one way in which we expand our angle of vision and learn. In general, however, **make it a point to provide alternatives**. ##### Staff Meetings Each team in Infrastructure has a weekly Staff meeting, where relevant team issues are discussed. These meetings are organized by Infrastructure Managers for their respective teams. ##### mStaff Infrastructure mStaff is a loose denomination for the group of people who report directly to the Director of Engineering, Infrastructure. This is a group composed of both managers and individual contributors, and they are responsible for the overall direction of Infrastructure and the achievement of our goals: The **[Infrastructure mStaff Board](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gl-infra/infrastructure/-/boards/1240891)** collects issues for all managers (including the Director) and mStaff-level individual contributors (e.g., the Infrastructure Operations Analyst and Distinguished Engineer). The weekly mStaff brings together Infrastructure's management team for a weekly sync to prepare for the week and address issues that require attention. The meeting is organized by the Director of Infrastructure. ## Teams The Infrastructure Department is comprised of three teams: * [**Reliability**](team/reliability/) teams, which operate all user-facing GitLab service. * [**Delivery**](team/delivery/), which focuses on GitLab's delivery of software releases to GitLab.com and the public at large * [**Scalability**](team/scalability/), which focuses on GitLab'nd GitLab.com at scale For details on the Department's structure, see the [**Infrastructure Teams Handbook section**](team/). Additionally, [**Infrastructure's mStaff**](mstaff/) is the loose denomination for the group of people who report directly to the Director of Engineering, Infrastructure, a group composed of both managers and individual contributors responsible for the overall direction of Infrastructure. The **[Infrastructure mStaff Board](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gl-infra/infrastructure/-/boards/1240891)** collects issues for all managers (including the Director) and mStaff-level individual contributors (e.g., the Infrastructure Operations Analyst and Distinguished Engineer). <%= partial "handbook/engineering/infrastructure/_common_links.html" %>