Session talk presented at Innosoft 2022.11.11 University of Sevilla. Presented the concept of Infrastructure as Core and its practical approach using Hashicorp Terraform a a tool to provision in the cloud. Examples with AWS are provided in a Guthub repository.

1. Infrastructure as Code
with
2022.11.11

2. Dr. Pedro J. Molina
@pmolinam

3. Agenda
▪ Infrastructure as Code
▪ Immutable Infrastructure
▪ Cloud Providers and AWS
▪ Terraform
▪ Installation & Software Prerequisites
▪ Resources & Dependencies
▪ Execution Plans
▪ Industrial examples
▪ Best practices
▪ Exercises on AWS + Terraform

4. Get the material
1. Go to: https://github.com/metadevpro/terraform-aws-training
2. Clone the code examples:
git clone git@github.com:metadevpro/terraform-aws-training.git
3. Get credentials for an AWS account

5. Infrastructure as Code
Engineering Practice to define Infrastructure as code and configuration.
Main Properties:
▪ Repeatable
▪ Can be Versioned (with standard source code tools like git or hg)
▪ Robust
▪ Can be Automated

6. Immutable Infrastructure
Traditional Approach: PatchingServers
▪ Few items
▪ Named as pets
▪ Manual patching
▪ State unknown over time
▪ Improved by Ansible or Chef for automation
New Approachon scale: Immutable Infrastructure
▪ No patching. Managed as bacteria
▪ Destroy and recreate
▪ Well know-state
▪ Apply all security patches for better safety

7. Cloud Providers
Main Players
Amazon Web Services
Microsoft Azure
Google Cloud

8. Amazon Web Services
The first provider: inventors of the cloud (EC2, S3)
Leading innovationon cloud: AWS Lambda,Fargate, etc.
Very complete offeringof services.
Many Data-Centersaround the world.
Price competitive. Leaders and growingyear by year.

9. Terraform
https://www.terraform.io
Leading tool for manage Infrastructure as Code.
▪ Open Source
▪ Created by Hashi Corporation https://www.hashicorp.com
▪ Custom language to define infrastructure: HCL

10. Installation & Prereqs
Download & Install:
▪ Terraform from: https://www.terraform.io/downloads.html
▪ Copy local & include it in PATH
▪ AWS-CLI: https://aws.amazon.com/en/cli
▪ Visual Studio Code (editor) https://code.visualstudio.com
▪ Install Extension for Terraform
▪ Bash Shell (git shell, Cmder, or Conemu in Windows)
▪ PuTTY (ssh client for Windows) https://www.putty.org

11. Installation Cross-check
$ terraform -version
Terraform v0.14.7
$ aws --version
aws-cli/1.16.193 Python/3.6.0 Windows/10 botocore/1.12.183

12. Hashi Configuration Language (HCL)
Terraform uses *.tf files.
Simple Configuration DSL to describeResources and Desired State.
Similar to JSON syntax, but rich in expressiveness.
Samples:
resource "aws_instance" "web" {
ami = "ami-a1b2c3d4"
instance_type = "t2.micro"
}
resource "heroku_app" "app1" {
name = "my-cool-app"
region = "us"
config_vars = {
FOOBAR = "baz"
}
buildpacks = [
"heroku/go", "heroku/node"
]
}

13. Terraform: Resources
A Resource represent aconcrete (vendor-specific) Cloud Service we can
manipulate.
Resources has a well-knowtype with properties we must configure.
Resources are exposed and managed byProviders.
Examples:
aws-instance Represents a machine in AWS EC2 Service.
azurerm_virtual_machine Represents a virtual machine in Azure.
google_compute_instance Represents a virtual machine in Google Cloud.

14. Terraform: Providers
A Provider is a driver implementing the communication and automation
for an specific Cloud Provider.
Each provider expose more or less Resource types dependingon the offeringof
the CloudVendor, and the supportof the current Provider version.
Examples: Google,Github or Digital Ocean
See list of providers here: https://registry.terraform.io/browse/providers

15. Terraform: Configure Provider
provider.tf
# Configure the AWS Provider
provider "aws" {
region = "eu-west-3" # Paris
}
$ terraform init

16. Terraform: Input Variables
variables.tf
variable "author" {
description = "Operator’s name. Used as prefix."
type = string
default = "jessica"
}
$ terraform apply -var author=alice
Types:
▪ string
▪ number
▪ bool
▪ list
▪ map
▪ null

17. Terraform: Variables Interpolation
Variables can beinterpolated
Name = "${var.author}_machine1"
https://www.terraform.io/docs/configuration/expressions.html
https://www.terraform.io/docs/configuration/functions.html

18. Terraform: Output Variables
output.tf
output "instance_public_ip" {
value = aws_instance.machine01.public_ip
}

19. Sample one
Exercise 01
Create afirst Virtual Machine
▪ Setup credentials access to AWS
▪ Deploy on AWS in Paris Data Center
▪ Prefix with your name to avoid collisions
▪ Retrieve output public IP
▪ Use SSH Key to connect to the machine
$ ssh –i paris-keys.pem ec2-user@<ip>
ec-instance security-group

20. Terraform: Dependences
▪ Resources has dependences
▪ Forming a directed graph of resources
▪ Provision should follow a given order
▪ Deprovisining the reverse order
ec-instance
public-ip
esb-storage
vpc
dns
security group
load-balancing-group
rds-aurora-db
$ terraform graph http://www.webgraphviz.com/

21. Terraform: Desired State
Desired State: The ideal state described by the configuration (immutable).
Current State: The actual state in the infrastructure. Changes over time.
Services can be down. Provisioning can fail or lack or permissions.
Differences: The plan to add/remove/changes resources to achieve the
Desired State based in the Current State.

22. Terraform: State Management
Terraform uses:
▪ terraform.tfstate file to store last state know of a given infrastructure and
▪ terraform.tfstate.backup file to store the previous version.
There is service provide by Terraform athttps://app.terraform.io
to store the state in a shared central repository to be shared in a team.
For example: to prevent two provisionoperations at the same time.

23. Terraform: Basic Commands
terraforminit
terraformfmt
terraformvalidate
terraformplan
terraformapply
terraformdestroy

24. Terraform: Execution Plans
Sample:
An execution plan has been generated and is shown below.
Resource actions are indicated with the following symbols:
+ create
Terraform will perform the following actions:
# aws_instance.machine01 will be created
+ resource "aws_instance" "machine01" {
+ ami = "ami-007fae589fdf6e955"
+ arn = (known after apply)
+ associate_public_ip_address = true
+ get_password_data = false
+ instance_type = "t2.micro"
+ ipv6_addresses = (known after apply)
+ key_name = "paris-keys"
+ security_groups = (known after apply)
+ source_dest_check = true
+ subnet_id = (known after apply)
…

25. Create a static Web-site
Exercise 02
Create astatic web-site withS3
▪ Create a public bucket
▪ Upload html files and make it public
▪ Use the provided URL to access the web-site
S3-bucket iam-policy

26. Remote provisioners
Exercise 03
Provision aMachine
▪ Apply software updates: sudo yum update -y
▪ Install Docker
▪ Launch a container for a web app
aws-instance security-group
provision 1
provision 2

27. Terraform: Modules
Modules
▪ allows to create reusable
assets to be share between
projects
▪ Hides complexity(VPC creation
example)
▪ Registry for publicModules
https://registry.terraform.io/modules
/terraform-aws-
modules/vpc/aws/2.21.0
module "vpc" {
source = "git@github.com:terraform-
aws-modules/terraform-aws-vpc.git"
name = "${var.vpc_name}"
cidr = "172.29.208.0/20"
private_subnets = [
"172.29.208.0/24",
"172.29.209.0/24",
"172.29.210.0/24" ]
enable_nat_gateway = true
}

28. Terraform: Industrial Examples
Samples
1. E2E Tests scenarios for an Online University using Azure
in Spain
2. Dev/Staging/Prod environments for a mobile fintech app
in UK using AWS
3. Setup a private CI server in the cloud with Teamcity

29. Example
SQL Server
DBS
DB0 Security
AuditLog
MasterData
Environment QA
$ terraform apply
$ terraform destroy

30. Immutable Infrastructure
AWS
VPC 10.10.0.0/16
Subnet no-internet
10.10.51.0/24
Subnet db
10.10.21.0/24
Subnet private
10.10.1.0/24
Subnet public
10.10.11.0/24
Avaliability Zone 1 eu-west-2a Avaliability Zone 2 eu-west-2b
Router VPN Gateway
Customer
Gateway
VPN
Connection
Subnet no-internet
10.10.52.0/24
Subnet db
10.10.22.0/24
Subnet private
10.10.2.0/24
Subnet public
10.10.12.0/24
db
rabbitmq
services
nginx
services
db
rabbitmq
nginx
batch batch
3rd-party
Avaliability Zone 3 eu-west-2c
Subnet no-internet
10.10.53.0/24
Subnet db
10.10.23.0/24
Subnet private
10.10.3.0/24
Subnet public
10.10.13.0/24
services
db
rabbitmq
nginx
batch

31. Private CI Server
Exercise 04
Provision aPrivateTeamcityforContinuous Integration
▪ On the Cloud
▪ Usable for free for private projects till 100 projects
aws-instance
docker-compose
teamcity
security-group

32. Best Practices
▪Build your Terraform Scripts incrementally
▪Test them frequently
▪Encapsulate repeated blocks as modules
▪Incorporate existing infrastructure with terraformimport
▪Use variables to parametrize regions, AMIs, environment
prefix, etc.
▪Do notstore sensible credentials in repositories (inject later
as ENV vars)
▪Use provisioners (non declarative) as a last resort (prefer
packed images AMI) See Packer https://packer.io

33. Alternatives
Pulumi
https://www.pulumi.com
Infrastructure as Code. Imperative(uses JS), not declarative.
Compatible with (reuse) Terraformprovisioners.
AWSCloud Formation
https://aws.amazon.com/es/cloudformation
Provides templates(JSON/YAML based) to create resourcesin AWS. AWS only.
Azure Resource Manager
https://docs.microsoft.com/es-es/azure/azure-resource-manager/templates/overview
Similartemplate approach to Cloud Formation for Azure only (JSON based).

34. https://metadev.pro
@metad3v