A platform engineer or site reliability engineer (SRE) keeps the VAST cluster reliable, observable, and automated as part of a larger infrastructure platform. Instead of clicking through the VAST Web UI, they manage the cluster as code using the VMS REST API, API tokens, and the Terraform provider. They connect cluster metrics, alarms, and logs to the organization's monitoring stack, integrate the cluster into the data center network with BGP and DNS, secure management access with SSO, and use client-level metrics to troubleshoot performance issues before they become incidents.
Common Platform Engineer/SRE Tasks
Use the VAST REST API: Automate cluster configuration and operations through the VMS API.
VAST Cluster APIs: Manage the Your VAST Cluster using API endpoints.
Manage VMS API tokens: Create, rotate, and revoke tokens for scripts and automation pipelines.
Containers/K8s: Deploy, manage and migrate containers.
Export metrics to Prometheus: Scrape cluster metrics into Prometheus for dashboards and alerting.
Send alarms to a syslog server: Forward cluster alarms to your centralized logging or SIEM.
Analyze client metrics: Identify the clients and workloads driving cluster load.
Configure Layer 3 BGP connections: Integrate the cluster with routed data center networks.
Configure the cluster DNS service: Distribute client connections across virtual IPs using DNS.
Configure SSO authentication in VMS: Connect VMS to your identity provider for management access.
Configure Call Home settings: Send cluster health data to VAST Support for proactive monitoring.