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Infrastructure Automation and Orchestration

[Terraform]

Terraform is used to manage and provision infrastructure as code (IaC) across various cloud providers and on-premise systems. By defining resources declaratively, Terraform automates the creation, modification, and versioning of infrastructure.

Key Concepts:

  • Providers: Interfaces for interacting with various platforms (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure, VMware).
  • Modules: Reusable code blocks to simplify managing complex infrastructure.
  • State Management: Terraform stores the state of the infrastructure to track changes and ensure idempotency.

Topics:

  • Installation and Setup
  • Writing Terraform Configuration Files
  • Managing State Files
  • Using Terraform Modules
  • Best Practices

[Ansible]

Ansible is an open-source automation tool used for configuration management, application deployment, and task automation. It uses a simple, human-readable language called YAML to define playbooks that automate tasks across multiple systems.

Key Concepts:

  • Playbooks: Files that define the tasks to be performed on remote systems.
  • Roles: Reusable collections of tasks, variables, and files.
  • Inventory: Defines the hosts and groups of machines to be managed.

Topics:

  • Ansible Installation
  • Writing Playbooks
  • Managing Inventories
  • Using Roles and Variables
  • Automation Best Practices

Just

Just is a task runner for simplifying and automating command-line tasks. It provides a convenient way to run commonly used scripts and commands without needing to remember complex CLI syntax.

Key Concepts:

  • Justfile: A file where tasks are defined using a simple syntax.
  • Recipes: Individual tasks defined within the Justfile.

Topics:

  • Setting up a Justfile
  • Writing Recipes
  • Task Automation with Just
  • Best Practices for Task Management

Just - Command Line Task Runner

Just is a simple, command-line task runner that helps automate common tasks for managing infrastructure, Kubernetes, documentation, and GitHub workflows. It provides an intuitive way to execute tasks across different modules using predefined commands.

Modules

Infrastructure as Code Module (iac)

The iac module is responsible for managing Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tasks. It has two submodules: ansible and terraform, which allow you to automate the deployment, configuration, and provisioning of your infrastructure.

  • Submodules:
    • ansible: Executes Ansible playbooks for configuration management.
      • Example: just iac ansible playbook.yml
    • terraform: Runs Terraform commands to manage infrastructure resources.
      • Example: just iac terraform apply

Example Commands:

  • Apply Terraform configurations:
    bash
    just iac terraform apply

Kubernetes Module (k8s)

sh
just k8s apply

Documentation Module (docs)

sh
just docs dev

GitHub (github)

sh
just github ...

[CI/CD Pipeline]

Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD) pipelines automate the process of building, testing, and deploying applications. These pipelines ensure that code changes are regularly tested and deployed without manual intervention.

Key Concepts:

  • CI: Automating the process of integrating and testing code regularly.
  • CD: Automating the deployment of tested code to staging or production environments.
  • Pipelines: Workflows that define the steps for CI/CD processes, including building, testing, and deploying.

Topics:

  • Designing a CI/CD Pipeline
  • Setting Up Pipelines in GitLab CI / GitHub Actions
  • Integrating with Terraform and Ansible
  • Automated Testing and Deployment
  • Best Practices for CI/CD

GitOps

GitOps is a framework for managing infrastructure and applications using Git as the single source of truth. By adopting GitOps, infrastructure changes are made through version-controlled pull requests, and automated tools reconcile the desired state in the Git repository with the actual infrastructure.

Key Concepts:

  • Repositories: Git repositories that store declarative infrastructure definitions.
  • Reconciliation: Continuous monitoring and syncing of the actual infrastructure with the desired state defined in Git.
  • Pull Requests: Proposed infrastructure or configuration changes made via Git.

Topics:

  • Introduction to GitOps
  • Setting Up GitOps with ArgoCD or FluxCD
  • Managing Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with GitOps
  • Automating Deployments with GitOps
  • Best Practices for GitOps Workflows