The Definitive Guide to Aws Infrastructure Automation: Craft Infrastructure-As-Code Solutions

ISBN-13: 9781484253977 / Angielski / Miękka / 2019 / 353 str.

Bradley Campbell

Spis treści

Chapter 1:  Introduction

Chapter Goal: Introduction to API-driven infrastructure and progression to infrastructure-as-code-based solutions and tooling.  

No of pages:  20

Sub -Topics

1.History of API-driven infrastructure

2.Emergence of declarative/infra-as-code solutions (state machines)

3.How businesses can derive value from these new technologies

4.How IT can derive value from these new technologies

Chapter 2:  Current Landscape

Chapter Goal:  Establish the current landscape of automation tooling for AWS solutions

No of pages: 30

Sub - Topics

1. CloudFormation 

2. CloudFormation wrappers -- Sceptre, Troposphere, Serverless.js, AWS SAM, AWS CDK

3.Terraform

4.Pulumi

5.CM Tools Masquerading as IaC Tools: Ansible, SaltStack, Chef, Puppet

Chapter 3:  Applying Software Engineering Rigor to IaC Solutions Development

Chapter Goal:  Establish a foundation for applying rigorous software engineering best practices in the development of infrastructure automation solutions

No of pages:  40

Sub - Topics:  

1.Choosing an optimal SCM (source code management) strategy (e.g. single repo, multiple repos, etc.) and why it matters

2.Software engineering concepts:  modularity, extensibility, DRY

3.Applying software engineering concepts to IaC solutions

4.Test-driven infrastructure development

5.Engineering builds for repeatability across various AWS and environmental contexts

Chapter 4: CloudFormation In-Depth

Chapter Goal:  Establish an overall understanding of CloudFormation, the tools it offers, best practices/patterns for solutions development, and coverage of a selected subset of advanced features

No of pages: 30

Sub-Topics: 

1.General concepts

2.Custom Resources

3.Stacks & Nested Stacks

4.Stack Sets

5.Best practices

Chapter 5:  An In-Depth Look at Tools that Leverage CloudFormation

No of Pages: 40

Chapter Goal:  Now that we understand CloudFormation, have a look at the wider ecosystem of tools that are built on top of CloudFormation and the benefits that they offer cloud engineers/IaC practitioners

Sub-Topics: 

1.Troposphere

2.Sceptre

3.Serverless.js

4.AWS SAM

5.AWS CDK (Cloud Development Kit)

Chapter 6: Terraform In-Depth

No of Pages: 50

Chapter Goal:  Establish a foundational understanding of Terraform, points of differentiation vis-a-vis CloudFormation, best practices, and delve into advanced concepts

1.General concepts

2.Differences from CloudFormation

3.Providers, and specifically AWS provider

4.Best practices for building code for providers, modules, etc., particularly in context of leveraging in CI/CD systems

a.Using AWS to manage remote state for AWS projects

5.Repository code structure and layouts

6.Robust module development

Chapter 7: Pulumi and the AWS CDK

Chapter Goal:  Establish a foundational understanding of Pulumi and the AWS CDK (the two tools are very similar in approach), points of differentiation relative to one another and vis-a-vis CloudFormation and Terraform, best practices, and delve into advanced concepts

No of Pages: 30

Sub-Topics:

1.General concepts

2.Comparison of Pulumi and CDK

3.Comparison of this class of tools relative to 

4.Best practices

Chapter 8:  Configuration Management Tools Masquerading as IaC

Chapter Goal:  Lightly cover this class of tools.  They should be mentioned as they offer some of the same coverage on the face but ignore many of the “first principles” (such as state management) of other IaC frameworks/tools.

No of Pages: 10

Sub-Topics: 

1.Benefits and drawbacks vs the use of dedicated IaC tooling

2.Featureset comparisons:  Ansible vs SaltStack vs Chef vs Puppet

3.A few model implementations with code and discussion

Chapter 9:  Building a Three-Tier App and Network Layout

Chapter Goal:  Implement a Three-Tier Application and Network Architecture Using CloudFormation, Troposphere, CDK, Pulumi, and Terraform

No of Pages:  60

Sub-Topics: 

1.Present overall solution architecture and talkthrough of technical aspects

2.Present CloudFormation-based solution

3.Present Troposphere-based solution

4.Present Terraform-based solution

5.Present CDK-based solution

6.Present Pulumi-based solution

7.Comparison/pros and cons of each solution

O autorze

Bradley Campbell currently consults as a principal cloud architect at Cloudreach. He has experience in software engineering, DevOps, cloud architecture, and data engineering and architecture across a variety of verticals, mostly focused in finance. Bradley holds all relevant AWS certifications and two Google Cloud certifications, and is a Jenkins Certified Engineer. His programming background is primarily centered around Python, Perl, Go, and JavaScript, although he is always keen on exploring new languages and skills to add to his toolbox. 

Blurb

Discover the pillars of AWS infrastructure automation, starting with API-driven infrastructure concepts and its immediate benefits such as increased agility, automation of the infrastructure life cycle, and flexibility in experimenting with new architectures. With this base established, the book discusses infrastructure-as-code concepts in a general form, establishing principled outcomes such as security and reproducibility. Inescapably, we delve into how these concepts enable and underpin the DevOps movement.

 

The Definitive Guide to AWS Infrastructure Automation begins by discussing services and tools that enable infrastructure-as-code solutions; first stop:  AWS's CloudFormation service. You’ll then cover the ever-expanding ecosystem of tooling emerging in this space, including CloudFormation wrappers such as Troposphere and orchestrators such as Sceptre, to completely independent third-party tools such as Terraform and Pulumi.  As a bonus, you’ll also work with AWS' newly-released CDK (Cloud Development Kit). You’ll then look at how to implement modular, robust, and extensible solutions across a few examples -- in the process building out each solution with several different tools to compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of each.

 

By the end of the journey, you will have gained a wide knowledge of both the AWS-provided and third-party ecosystem of infrastructure-as-code/provisioning tools, and the strengths and weaknesses of each. You’ll possess a mental framework for how to craft an infrastructure-as-code solution to solve future problems based on examples discussed throughout the book.  You’ll also have a demonstrable understanding of the hands-on operation of each tool, situational appropriateness of each tool, and how to leverage the tool day to day.

 

You will:

• Discover the technological and organizational benefits to infrastructure-as-code solutions
• Examine the overall landscape of infrastructure-as-code tooling and solutions available to consumers of AWS services
• See the strengths and weaknesses of these tools relative to one another as examined through hands-on implementation of several solutions
• Gain hands-on experience, best practices, and tips and tricks learned through several years’ real-world experience delivering solutions using these very tools in a wide variety of scenarios
• Engineer solid solutions that leave room for new requirements and changes without requiring needless refactoring