Talk about my experiences (and failures) helping companies move to AWS and adopt microservices architecture. Heavy focus on the people aspect with some tech to set the scene.

1. Cobus Bernard
Sr Developer Advocate
Amazon Web Services
Lesson learnt adopting microservices
@cobusbernard
cobusbernard

2. © 2020, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates.© 2020, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates.
Agenda
Background to situation
Technical Challenges
People challenges
Learnings
Dad Joke

3. © 2020, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates.
About me
• Developer for 15 years
• AWS Customer for 8 years
@cobusbernard
cobusbernard
cobusbernard
CobusCloud
{ af-south-1 }

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Lesson #1:
Standardising the builds

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Lesson #2:
Infrastructure enablement

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If you build it…
You must maintain it

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resource "aws_ecs_task_definition" ”my_service" {
family = ”my_service"
container_definitions = <<DEFINITION
[
{
"cpu": 128,
"environment": [{
"name": "SECRET","value": "KEY"
}],
"essential": true,
"image": ”cobus:lockdown_beard",
"memory": 128, "name": ”my_service"
}]
DEFINITION
}

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# The template file for the IAM policy
...
resource "aws_iam_role" ”my_service" {
name = ”my_service_role"
assume_role_policy =
"${file("templates/my_service_iam_role_policy.json")}"
}
resource "aws_iam_role_policy" ”my_service" {
name = ”my_service_policy"
role = "${aws_iam_role.my_ service.id}"
policy = "${data.template_file.my_service_policy
.rendered}"
}

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resource "aws_ecs_service" "my_service" {
name = "my_service"
cluster = aws_ecs_cluster.foo.id
task_definition = aws_ecs_task_definition.my_ecs.arn
desired_count = var.desired_count
iam_role = aws_iam_role.my_service.arn
load_balancer {
target_group_arn = aws_lb_target_group.my_service.arn
container_name = "my_service"
container_port = 8080
}
}

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resource "aws_sqs_queue" "myservice" {
name = "${var.service-name}-queue"
delay_seconds = 90
max_message_size = 2048
message_retention_seconds = 86400
receive_wait_time_seconds = 10
}

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Lesson #3:
Configs & Secrets

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AWS
KMS
Dev
Encryption
Key
Service
Encryption
Key
Value Dev Encrypted Service
Encrypted

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data "aws_kms_secrets" "db_credentials" {
secret {
name = "db_username"
payload = "AQECAHgaPa0_ReallyLongStringHere_AS#SG=="
context = {
service = "my_service"
}
}
secret {
name = "db_password"
payload = "AQECAHg_ItIsStillGoing..._AS#SG=="
}
}

26. © 2020, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates.© 2020, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates.
resource "aws_rds_cluster" "my_service" {
# ... other configuration ...
main_username =
data.aws_kms_secrets.db_credentials
.plaintext["db_username"]
main_password =
data.aws_kms_secrets.db_credentials
.plaintext["db_password"]
}

27. © 2020, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates.© 2020, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates.
module "config_db_url" {
source = "git@github.com/Acme/tf-modules/config"
name = "db_url"
value = var.db_url
}
module "config_db_username" {
source = "git@github.com/Acme/tf-modules/secret"
name = "db_username"
value = var.db_secret
}

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Lesson #4:
People don’t like change

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Real tears

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Lesson #5:
People like constant change even
less

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upgrade:
@echo 'Preparing to upgrade the Makefile and common
Terraform files...’
@read -p "Press enter to continue"
@mkdir _upgrade
@git clone git@github.com:<my-org>/terraform.git _upgra
@echo "Upgrading common.tf..."
@rm -f common.tf
@mv _upgrade/framework/common.tf ./
@echo "Upgrading environment var files..."
@rm -f framework/*
@mv _upgrade/framework/*.tfvars framework/

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@echo "Upgrading Makefile..."
@rm -f Makefile
@mv _upgrade/Makefile ./
@echo "Upgrading remotes.tf.sample..."
@rm -f remotes.tf.sample
@mv _upgrade/framework/remotes.tf.sample ./
@echo "Cleaning up"
@rm -rf _upgrade

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Lesson #6:
Make the right choice,
the easy choice

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module "service" {
source = "git@github.com/Acme/tf-modules/service"
name = "ordering"
instance_size = var.service_instance_size
instance_count = var.service_instance_count
}

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module "config_db_url" {
source = "git@github.com/Acme/tf-modules/config"
name = "db_url"
value = var.db_url
}
module "config_db_username" {
source = "git@github.com/Acme/tf-modules/secret"
name = "db_username"
value = var.db_secret
}

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Lesson #7:
What you think is an achievement
might not matter to business

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Lesson #8:
Some people won’t change

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Lesson #9:
Should probably not have split the
monolith

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Monolith
Does everything
Monoliths are OK

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Promised Dad Joke:
What didYoda say when he
saw himself in 4k?

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HDMI…

53. Thank you!
© 2020, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Cobus Bernard
Sr Developer Advocate
Amazon Web Services
@cobusbernard
cobusbernard
cobusbernard
CobusCloud