- Infrastructure as code is the practice of provisioning and managing infrastructure using code and software development techniques like version control. This allows infrastructure changes to be tested and deployed in a consistent, repeatable way. - AWS services like CloudFormation, OpsWorks, and CodeDeploy allow defining infrastructure as code templates and automating the deployment of applications and infrastructure changes across environments like development, testing, and production. - CloudFormation templates define AWS resources and their dependencies and can be used to create matching environments in different stages. OpsWorks and CodeDeploy help manage application deployments and ongoing configuration of running systems.

1. © 2016, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. All rights reserved.© 2016, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. All rights reserved.
Chalk Talk: GPSCT312
Succeeding at
Infrastructure-as-Code
Chris Munns, Andres Michel, Ronald Sunarno, Aaron Richmond, Imran Mahmood
Amazon Web Services
November 2016

2. How do you define
Infrastructure as Code?

3. Infrastructure as Code is a practice in
which infrastructure is provisioned and
managed using code and software
development techniques, such as
version control and continuous
integration and delivery.

4. Why Infrastructure as Code?
• Faster development cycles
• Increasing need for “Immutable” architectures
• Predictable and reproducible environments are a norm
• Managing instances can become cumbersome and
requires convoluted processes in enterprises
• Automation is a must have element in any application
• Microservices are becoming the new standard for
application architectures, driving a number of trends

5. “It’s all software”
AWS Resources
Operating System and Host Configuration
Application Configuration

6. AWS Resources
Operating System and
Host Configuration
Application
Configuration

7. AWS Resources
Operating System and
Host Configuration
Application
Configuration
Infrastructure Resource Management

8. AWS Resources
Operating System and
Host Configuration
Application
Configuration
Infrastructure Resource Management
Host Configuration Management

9. AWS Resources
Operating System and
Host Configuration
Application
Configuration
Infrastructure Resource Management
Host Configuration Management
Application Deployment

10. AWS Resources
Operating System and
Host Configuration
Application
Configuration
AWS CloudFormation
AWS OpsWorks
AWS CodeDeploy

11. AWS Resources
Operating System and
Host Configuration
Application
Configuration
Amazon VPC
Amazon EC2
IAM
Amazon RDS
Amazon S3
AWS CodePipeline
…
Windows Registry
Linux Networking
OpenSSH
LDAP
AD Domain Registration
Centralized logging
System metrics
Deployment agents
Host monitoring
…
Application dependencies
Application configuration
Service registration
Management scripts
Database credentials
…
AWS CloudFormation
AWS OpsWorks
AWS CodeDeploy

12. Demo – Infrastructure as Code

13. Demo Architecture

14. Q&A

15. How do you currently
provision infrastructure for
your customers?

16. Create templates of your infrastructure
CloudFormation provisions AWS resources
based on dependency needs
Version control/replicate/update templates like
code
Integrates with development, CI/CD,
management tools
Launched in 2010
AWS
CloudFormation

17. Template CloudFormation Stack
JSON formatted file
Parameter definition
Resource creation
Configuration actions
Configured AWS resources
Comprehensive service support
Service event aware
Customizable
Framework
Stack creation
Stack updates
Error detection and rollback
CloudFormation – Components & Technology

18. Template Anatomy
{
"Description" : "Create an EC2 instance.”,
"Parameters" : {
"UserKeyName" : {
"Description" : "The EC2 Key Pair to allow SSH access to the instance",
"Type" : "String"
}
},
"Resources" : {
"Ec2Instance" : {
"Type" : "AWS::EC2::Instance",
"Properties" : {
"KeyName" : { “Ref” : “UserKeyName”},
"ImageId" : "ami-75g0061f”,
“InstanceType” : “m1.medium”
}
}
}
}

19. How do you bootstrap your
instances?

20. Option 1: Use EC2 UserData, which is available as a property of AWS::EC2::Instance
resources
Bootstrapping Applications & Handling Updates
"Resources" : {
"Ec2Instance" : {
"Type" : "AWS::EC2::Instance",
"Properties" : {
"KeyName" : { "Ref" : "KeyName" },
"SecurityGroups" : [ { "Ref" : "InstanceSecurityGroup" } ],
"ImageId" : { "Fn::FindInMap" : [ "RegionMap", { "Ref" : "AWS::Region" }, "AMI" ]},
"UserData" : { "Fn::Base64" : { "Fn::Join" : ["",[
"#!/bin/bash -ex","n",
"yum -y install gcc-c++ make","n",
"yum -y install mysql-devel sqlite-devel","n",
"yum -y install ruby-rdoc rubygems ruby-mysql ruby-devel","n",
"gem install --no-ri --no-rdoc rails","n",
"gem install --no-ri --no-rdoc mysql","n",
"gem install --no-ri --no-rdoc sqlite3","n",
"rails new myapp","n",
"cd myapp","n",
"rails server -d","n"]]}}
}
}

21. Option 2: AWS CloudFormation provides helper scripts for deployment within your EC2
instances
Metadata Key — AWS::CloudFormation::Init
Cfn-init reads this metadata key and installs the packages listed in this key (e.g.,
httpd, mysql, and php). Cfn-init also retrieves and expands files listed as sources.
cfn-hup
cfn-signal
cfn-get-
metadata
Amazon EC2AWS CloudFormation
cfn-init
Bootstrapping Applications & Handling Updates

22. How do you design a
deployment pipeline?

23. CloudFormation in a DevOps pipeline
AWS
CloudFormationIssue Tracker
App Developers
DevOps Engineers,
Infrastructure Developers,
Systems Engineers
Dev Env Code Repo
App Pkgs,
CloudFormation
Templates, Etc.
CI Server
Test
Staging
ProdCode Review
"Infra-as-Code"
App Code
& Templates

24. How about multiple
environments?

25. Template File
Defining Stack
The entire infrastructure can be
represented in an AWS
CloudFormation template.
Many Stacks & Environments from One Template

26. Template File
Defining Stack
The entire infrastructure can be
represented in an AWS
CloudFormation template.
Use the version
control system of
your choice to
store and track
changes to this
template
Many Stacks & Environments from One Template
Git
Perforce
SVN
…

27. Template File
Defining Stack
Git
Perforce
SVN
…
Dev
Test
Prod
The entire infrastructure can be
represented in an AWS
CloudFormation template.
Use the version
control system of
your choice to
store and track
changes to this
template
Build out multiple
environments, such
as for Development,
Test, Production and
even DR using the
same template
Many Stacks & Environments from One Template

28. How do I deploy my
application?

29. AWS CodeDeploy
Automates code deployments to any instance
Handles the complexity of updating your applications
Avoid downtime during application deployment
Deploy to Amazon EC2 or on-premises servers, in
any language and on any operating system

30. Amazon EC2
How CodeDeploy works
3
Amazon S3
1 Deployable Assets and
AppSpec file
AWS CodeDeploy
Deployment Logic and
Metadata
2
4

31. How do I manage the
application once provisioned?

32. Ongoing Management
• Updates/patches?
• New software?
• New configurations?
• New code deploys?
• Pool specific changes?
• Environment specific changes?
• Run commands across all hosts?
• Be on top of all running resources?

33. Could we do this with
CloudFormation?

34. Could we do this with AWS CloudFormation?
Sure! But potentially tricky to do at scale:
• Try changing a vhost configuration on every web
server across multiple environments (dev, stage,
prod)
• Install a package on certain hosts, but not others to
test out newer versions
• Need to change LDAP config on every running
Amazon EC2 Linux host, but they are across 25
different AWS CloudFormation templates?

35. Why do you need OpsWorks?
 Model and group your applications
 Manage the lifecycle of your instances
 Control Access Management
 Monitor the health of your resources
 Analyze logging information
 Mitigate operational problems

36. Configure your instances using AWS OpsWorks
 Uses Chef to configure the software on the instances
 Chef provides a Ruby DSL abstraction for common OS operations
 Associates predefined scripts (i.e., Chef cookbooks) with your instances
 Applies cookbooks configuration changes using lifecycle events

37. Model your applications using
AWS OpsWorks

41. Resource organization

42. A stack represents
the cloud
infrastructure and
applications that
you want to
manage together.
A layer defines
how to set up and
configure a set of
instances and
related resources.
Then deploy your
app to specific
instances and
customize the
deployment with
Chef recipes.
Decide how to
scale: manually,
with 24/7
instances, or
automatically, with
load-based or
time-based
instances.
AWS OpsWorks

43. AWS OpsWorks Instance Lifecycle
Setup Configure Deploy Undeploy Shutdown
Agent on each instance understands a set
of commands that are triggered by
OpsWorks. The agent then runs Chef.

44. Thank you!

45. Remember to complete
your evaluations!