Now, this is a story all about how ZS got flipped-turned upside down And I'd like to take a minute Just sit right back, I'll tell you how we used Chef on the Microsoft stack. Come hear the rap on how ZS Associates, a Global Sales and Marketing Data Firm, massively accelerated their change velocity and eradicated manual config errors by implementing Chef on Azure. Hear about ZS’s cool end-to-end provisioning process that uses Powershell and Chef to automate deploy, config and test with one button. Join 10th Magnitude Senior Consultant John Smyth, 10th Magnitude Consultant and Arrested DevOps Podcast co-host Trevor Hess and ZS Associates Software Engineering Lead-Applications Mahesh Velaga, who will take you through the implementation verse by verse. Trevor, by the way, will literally be rapping--with props to Will Smith. https://youtu.be/6EQTbrw4OyM

1. The Chef Prince of
Azure
HOW 10TH MAGNITUDE USED CHEF TO FLIP-TURN ZS
ASSOCIATES INTO MICROSOFT AZURE ROYALTY
John Smyth, Trevor Hess, Mahesh Velaga

2. INTRODUCTIONS
2
Mahesh Velaga,
ZS Associates
Trevor Hess
10th Magnitude
John Smyth
10th Magnitude

3. 3

4. CONTACT US
John Smyth
Is too old for Twitter
Trevor Hess
@trevorghess
Mahesh Velaga
@mahesh_velaga
4

5. OVERVIEW
From Business as Usual to Infrastructure as Code
 Technical
 Cultural
 Business
5

6. ABOUT ZS ASSOCIATES
6
ZS is the world’s largest firm focused exclusively on
delivering impact through high-performance sales and
marketing solutions
SALES + MARKETING
SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE
Automate key business processes
3,200 PROFESSIONALS
21 OFFICES
WORLDWIDE
ZS is the world’s largest firm focused exclusively on delivering impact
through high-performance sales and marketing solutions
30
+ YEARS OF INDUSTRY
& DOMAIN EXPERTISE
Quota
Management
Compensation
Management & Reporting
MBO
Planning
Territory
Management
Activity &
Call Planning

7. ABOUT 10TH MAGNITUDE
7
Microsoft Azure
Migration
Web, Media and Mobile Application
Development
DevOps and Azure-
Enabled Automation
Managed Applications
and Infrastructure
10th Magnitude was born in the cloud, and offers corporate customers
multiple, interconnected paths to Azure success:

8. ONE CONFIG ERROR AND THE BOSS
GOT SCARED
The Problem
8

9. THE SERVER CONFIGURATION PROCESS
Lengthy
 Provision process time of 3 days
Manual
 Half a day of manual server provisioning and validation
Prone to Human Error
 Process involved different systems and people working
independently from one another
Lacked an Overall Framework
 Lacked consistency and organization and ability for version
control
9

10. PUT CHEF IN THERE!
The Journey to Infrastructure as Code
10

11. OUR APPROACH
11
Define the Pattern Teach the PatternUse the Pattern
Observe the
Pattern

12. OUR APPROACH
12
Define the Pattern Use the Pattern Teach the Pattern
Observe the
Pattern
• Define the appropriate toolset
• Define the development workflow
• Define the object structure
• Define the cookbook structure

13. OUR APPROACH
13
Define the Pattern Use the Pattern Teach the Pattern
Observe the
Pattern
• Set up Chef Server, source control,
base images, boxes, etc.
• Create CI Workflows
• Develop base cookbooks using the
development workflow and CI
process end-to-end

14. OUR APPROACH
14
Define the Pattern Use the Pattern Teach the Pattern
Observe the
Pattern
• Pair with customer resources on
cookbook creation
• Provide guidance on TDD
cookbook development,
Continuous Integration, etc.
• Lead code reviews

15. OUR APPROACH
15
Define the Pattern Use the Pattern Teach the Pattern
Observe the
Pattern
• Be available as SME to customer
• Observe and assist in creation of
tests, cookbooks, and
documentation upon request
• Participate in code reviews

16. METHODOLOGY
Test-Driven Development
 Red: Write failing test
 Green: Make the test pass
 Refactor: Optimize the code
Continuous Delivery
 Using Continuous Integration and tests to validate commits
and ensure stable product at all times
16

17. TOOLS
 Enterprise Chef 11
 Vagrant
 Git
 Berkshelf
 Minitest
 Foodcritic
 TeamCity
 PowerShell
 Editor of Choice
(choose vim)
 Chef-vault
 VirtualBox
17

18. WORKFLOW
1. Local Development with Vagrant
 Write tests (mini tests)
 Write Chef recipes
 Test locally with Vagrant
 Iterate
2. CI/CD on Code Check In
 Lint the code with Food Critic
 Converge and test Cookbook on Vsphere
 Converge and test Cookbook on Azure
 Upload to Chef server
18

19. 19
Developer tests
with local suite
PushChange Start_here
Upon git check
in…
Bump version
number and
upload to git.
foodcritic lint
berks install—
get
dependencies
berks upload—
upload to chefci
Cookbook CI Pipeline
Azure Tests
Converge_node.rb:
• Reserve test VM by moving to Azure Chef
environment
• Converge with knife:
• Cookbook recipes
• Run minitest
• Remove the test VM from Chef and
destroy the VM
Converge_node.rb:
• “Reserve” test VM by moving Vsphere to
Chef Environment
• Converge with knife:
• Cookbook recipes
• Run minitest
• Remove the test VM from Chef and
destroy the VM
Vsphere Tests
Tag and Upload
Create a
tagged branch
in git for this
version
berks
upload—install
cookbook to
zssd Chef Org
zschefci Chef: zssd
Test nodes
only
Test
VM
Test
VM
Staging
QA
Dev
Productio
n

20. STEP ONE: CREATE THE VM WITH
POWERSHELL
Azure
 Create the Virtual Machine
 Create the cloud service, if
required
 Map appropriate endpoints
 Join the domain
 Bootstrap Chef and converge
 Install Chef Client
 Create the node and client
 Update chef vault for client key
 Set the runlist
 Force chef run(s)
VSphere
 Create the Virtual Machine
 Select the appropriate datastore
 Customize the (sysprepped) OS
 Set memory and CPU, depending
on VM type
 Set port group and adapter type
 Join the domain
 Move to appropriate OU
 Add drives, depending on VM type
 Setup WinRM
 Bootstrap Chef and converge
 Install Chef Client
 Create the node and client
 Update chef vault for the client key
 Set the runlist
 Force chef run(s)
20

21. STEP TWO: CONVERGE THE WEB
SERVER WITH CHEF
 Base OS Configuration
 Install and configure ZS standard third
party software (monitoring, antivirus,
etc)
 Install and configure IIS dependencies
 Install and configure IIS for ZS web
sites and services
21
 Enterprise Chef 11
 Windows Cookbook
 IIS Cookbook
 Webpi cookbook
 ms_dotnet4 cookbook
 Minitest-handler
cookbook

22. FLIP-TURNED UPSIDE DOWN
The Transformation
22

23. TECHNICAL
Fully automated server provisioning
 From days to less than an hour
 Consistent versioned deployment
 Consistent Azure and VSphere configuration
Infrastructure as Code
 Chef Framework
 Versioning
23

24. CULTURAL
 Infrastructure as Code (Don’t touch the servers)
 Evolving towards a blue-green deployment
model
24

25. BUSINESS
 Accelerated their Azure migration
 Frees up IT talent for other projects related to
business generation
 More reliable and dependable infrastructure
 More rapid deployment of resources
25

26. VIEW FROM THE THRONE
What we learned
26

27. CODE REVIEWS, ALL TOGETHER NOW!
 Establish standards
 Learning Experience
 Sharing Ideas
 Just do it!
27

28. BIG PICTURE
 Chef isn’t just something you buy, it’s
something you do
 Chef doesn’t transform your organization—
YOU do*
*with Chef
28

29. BIG PICTURE
 Not everything needs to be a revolution
 Evolve your infrastructure
29

30. GO FORTH AND GET WORK DONE!
30

31. CONTACT US
www.10thmangitude.com
www.zsassociates.com
John Smyth
jsmyth@10thmagnitude.com
Trevor Hess
thess@10thmagnitude.com
@trevorghess
Mahesh Velaga
mahesh.velaga@zsassociates.com
31