INFRA Activation Code
Ann Iacobucci
Infrastructure as code (IaC) is the process of managing and provisioning computer data center resources through machine-readable definition files, rather than physical hardware configuration or interactive configuration tools.[1]The IT infrastructure managed by this process comprises both physical equipment, such as bare-metal servers, as well as virtual machines, and associated configuration resources.The definitions may be in a version control system.The code in the definition files may use either scripts or declarative definitions, rather than maintaining the code through manual processes, but IaC more often employs declarative approaches.
The value of IaC can be broken down into three measurable categories: cost, speed, and risk.[citation needed] Cost reduction aims at helping not only the enterprise financially, but also in terms of people and effort, meaning that by removing the manual component, people are able to refocus their efforts on other enterprise tasks.[citation needed] Infrastructure automation enables speed through faster execution when configuring your infrastructure and aims at providing visibility to help other teams across the enterprise work quickly and more efficiently. Automation removes the risk associated with human error, like manual misconfiguration; removing this can decrease downtime and increase reliability. These outcomes and attributes help the enterprise move towards implementing a culture of DevOps, the combined working of development and operations.[5]
There are generally two approaches to IaC: declarative (functional) vs. imperative (procedural). The difference between the declarative and the imperative approach is essentially 'what' versus 'how' . The declarative approach focuses on what the eventual target configuration should be; the imperative focuses on how the infrastructure is to be changed to meet this.[6] The declarative approach defines the desired state and the system executes what needs to happen to achieve that desired state. Imperative defines specific commands that need to be executed in the appropriate order to end with the desired conclusion.[7]
All continuous configuration automation (CCA) tools can be thought of as an extension of traditional IaC frameworks. They leverage IaC to change, configure, and automate infrastructure, and they also provide visibility, efficiency and flexibility in how infrastructure is managed.[3] These additional attributes provide enterprise-level security and compliance.
IaC can be a key attribute of enabling best practices in DevOps. Developers become more involved in defining configuration and Ops teams get involved earlier in the development process.[13] Tools that utilize IaC bring visibility to the state and configuration of servers and ultimately provide the visibility to users within the enterprise, aiming to bring teams together to maximize their efforts.[14] Automation in general aims to take the confusion and error-prone aspect of manual processes and make it more efficient, and productive. Allowing for better software and applications to be created with flexibility, less downtime, and an overall cost-effective way for the company. IaC is intended to reduce the complexity that kills efficiency out of manual configuration. Automation and collaboration are considered central points in DevOps; infrastructure automation tools are often included as components of a DevOps toolchain.[15]
The 2020 Cloud Threat Report released by Unit 42 (the threat intelligence unit of cybersecurity provider Palo Alto Networks) identified around 200,000 potential vulnerabilities in infrastructure as code templates.[16]
With IaC, configuration files are created that contain your infrastructure specifications, which makes it easier to edit and distribute configurations. It also ensures that you provision the same environment every time. By codifying and documenting your configuration specifications, IaC aids configuration management and helps you to avoid undocumented, ad-hoc configuration changes.
Version control is an important part of IaC, and your configuration files should be under source control just like any other software source code file. Deploying your infrastructure as code also means that you can divide your infrastructure into modular components that can then be combined in different ways through automation.
Many IaC tools use a declarative approach and will automatically provision the desired infrastructure. If you make changes to the desired state, a declarative IaC tool will apply those changes for you. An imperative tool will require you to figure out how those changes should be applied.
DevOps best practices are also applied to infrastructure in IaC. Infrastructure can go through the same CI/CD pipeline as an application does during software development, applying the same testing and version control to the infrastructure code.
Infrastructure as code (IaC) uses DevOps methodology and versioning with a descriptive model to define and deploy infrastructure, such as networks, virtual machines, load balancers, and connection topologies. Just as the same source code always generates the same binary, an IaC model generates the same environment every time it deploys.
IaC is a key DevOps practice and a component of continuous delivery. With IaC, DevOps teams can work together with a unified set of practices and tools to deliver applications and their supporting infrastructure rapidly and reliably at scale.
IaC avoids manual configuration and enforces consistency by representing desired environment states via well-documented code in formats such as JSON. Infrastructure deployments with IaC are repeatable and prevent runtime issues caused by configuration drift or missing dependencies. Release pipelines execute the environment descriptions and version configuration models to configure target environments. To make changes, the team edits the source, not the target.
IaC helps DevOps teams test applications in production-like environments early in the development cycle. Teams can provision multiple test environments reliably on demand. The cloud dynamically provisions and tears down environments based on IaC definitions. The infrastructure code itself can be validated and tested to prevent common deployment issues.
IaC should use declarative definition files if possible. A definition file describes the components and configuration that an environment requires, but not necessarily how to achieve that configuration. For example, the file might define a required server version and configuration, but not specify the server installation and configuration process. This abstraction allows for greater flexibility to use optimized techniques the infrastructure provider supplies. Declarative definitions also help reduce the technical debt of maintaining imperative code, such as deployment scripts, that can accrue over time.
Infrastructure as code is the process of managing and provisioning computer data centers through machine-readable definition files, rather than physical hardware configuration or interactive configuration tools.
Historically, managing IT infrastructure was a manual process. People would physically put servers in place and configure them. Only after the machines were configured to the correct setting required by the OS and applications would those people deploy the application. Unsurprisingly, this manual process would often result in several problems.
The first significant benefit IaC provides is speed. Infrastructure as code enables you to quickly set up your complete infrastructure by running a script. You can do that for every environment, from development to production, passing through staging, QA, and more. IaC can make the entire software development lifecycle more efficient.
This one is quick and easy. Since you can version IaC configuration files like any source code file, you have full traceability of the changes each configuration suffered. No more guessing games about who did what and when.
A fundamental principle of DevOps is to treat infrastructure the same way developers treat code. Application code has a defined format and syntax. If the code is not written according to the rules of the programming language, applications cannot be created. Code is stored in a version management or source control system that logs a history of code development, changes, and bug fixes. When code is compiled or built into applications, we expect a consistent application to be created, and the build is repeatable and reliable.
Practicing infrastructure as code means applying the same rigor of application code development to infrastructure provisioning. All configurations should be defined in a declarative way and stored in a source control system such as AWS CodeCommit, the same as application code. Infrastructure provisioning, orchestration, and deployment should also support the use of the infrastructure as code.
In contrast, AWS provides a DevOps-focused way of creating and maintaining infrastructure. Similar to the way software developers write application code, AWS provides services that enable the creation, deployment and maintenance of infrastructure in a programmatic, descriptive, and declarative way. These services provide rigor, clarity, and reliability. The AWS services discussed in this paper are core to a DevOps methodology and form the underpinnings of numerous higher-level AWS DevOps principles and practices.
I'm deploying an infrastructure with CDK for the first time, and in most of the tutorials I see on the internet, the Lambda code stays in the same repository of the infra, when you create the infra, you just import in code.fromAsset("lib/lambda-code") as example.
More and more of infrastructure as code is tool assisted. Rather than writingeverything by hand, we use automated tooling which generates the raw infrastructureas code from a higher level, more succinct definition. This is necessary because thenumber of different resource types, the number of potential settings on those resourcetypes, and the complicated relationships between those resource types have increased exponentially.
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