What is Infrastructure as Code(IaC)?

DEEPU MON K P | January 17, 2023

The process of provisioning and managing infrastructure that is defined by code as opposed to doing so manually is known as "Infrastructure as Code." IaC relieves developers of the majority of provisioning effort so that they can just run a script to get their infrastructure ready. This ensures infrastructure installation is not delayed and system administrators do not have to deal with endless manual steps.

IaC environment creation is described in the following steps:

In a language specific to the domain, a developer defines the configuration parameters (DSL).
A master server, a management API, or a code repository receives the instruction files.
The IaC platform builds and configures the infrastructure as directed by the developer.

Users don't need to configure an environment each time they wish to build, test, or deploy software with Infrastructure as Code. Manifest files are used to store all infrastructure parameters. Manifests are simple to share, reuse, change, and duplicate, just like any other code file. Infrastructure development, testing, staging, and deployment are accelerated and made more reliable via manifests. The configuration files are codified by developers, who then save them in version control. Pull requests and code review methods can verify that changes made to a file are correct.

The Best Practices for Infrastructure as Code

Implementing infrastructure automation will necessitate multiple adjustments and restructuring, making the process rather taxing for your company. Follow the infrastructure as code best practices listed below if you want to bypass most of the restrictions and make it less severe!

With Your IaC, use CI/CD and Quality Control for the Repository.

This will enable you to keep the code's quality high and receive quick feedback from your DevOps team members or engineers (after the changes were applied). We can build the actual tests thanks to test frameworks like Terratest for Terraform, and the earlier you try to cover everything with them, the more benefits you will receive and the less likely it is that unanticipated infrastructure issues would arise. The application faults are unavoidable in this situation, but at least you can feel more secure with your infrastructure.

Construct Your Infrastructure Using Modular Code.

A growing trend in software development is the use of microservices architecture, which involves creating smaller, modular bits of code that may be distributed separately from the rest of a product's components. IaC can benefit from the same idea. Your infrastructure can be divided up into many stacks or modules, which can then be automatically combined.

This strategy has the following advantages:

First, you may exert more control over which portions of your infrastructure code are accessible to whom. For instance, you might employ junior engineers that lack knowledge or experience in specific areas of your infrastructure configuration. You can restrict access to these components while the junior engineers are still learning by modularizing your infrastructure code.

Additionally, the amount of configuration changes that can be made is automatically constrained by modular infrastructure. Bugs are easy to find and your team may be more agile with smaller adjustments.

A configuration template should be utilized if you're utilizing IaC to enable a microservices architecture to ensure consistency as your infrastructure grows to become a sizable server cluster.

In the future, this will be quite helpful for setting up the servers and defining how they should communicate.

Test, integrate, and deploy continuously

Processes for continuous testing, integration, and deployment are excellent for keeping track of all potential changes to your infrastructure code. Your infrastructure configurations should be extensively tested to make sure there are no problems after deployment. There should be a variety of tests run depending on your demands. You can program automated tests to run each time your configuration code is modified. Your infrastructure's security should likewise be regularly verified and monitored. A new technique called DevSecOps involves security experts collaborating with developers to continually integrate threat detection and security testing throughout the software development life cycle rather than just adding it at the end.

Maintain version control

These configuration files will be version-controlled. Because all configuration details are written in code, any changes to the codebase can be managed, tracked, and reconciled. Just like with application code, source control tools like Git, Mercurial, Subversion, or others should be used to maintain versions of your IaC codebase. Not only will this provide an audit trail for code changes, it will also provide the ability to collaborate, peer-review, and test IaC code before it goes live. Code branching and merging best practices should also be used to further increase developer collaboration and ensure that updates to your IaC code are properly managed.

IaC tools

Infrastructure as code tools are proliferating on the market as businesses embrace the IaC revolution with enthusiasm. Therefore, the key is selecting the appropriate cloud infrastructure automation technology for your company.

Terraform

HashiCorp's Terraform is an open-source infrastructure-as-configuration technology. HashiCorp Configuration Language, or optionally JSON, is a declarative configuration language that users use to define and provide data center architecture.

Ansible

Ansible is a different well-known tool in the DevOps community. It is a configuration management solution that enables automated infrastructure provisioning. Linux servers dominated the network scene in the early stages of network architecture. Ansible started off offering Linux environments infrastructure automation solutions, but it has now expanded to support Windows, IBM OSS, virtualization platforms, containers, etc.

Ansible uses push mode to send change instructions to network nodes, which completes deployments rapidly. It's straightforward to instal and use because to the agentless master architecture. The Ansible community is smaller than those of Puppet and other CM technologies, yet it provides excellent assistance. It works well in transient contexts.

Infrastructure as Code Challenges

Although there are many advantages to IaC, there are also some difficulties that must be overcome before the implementation process can begin.

Configuration drift

No matter how frequently or consistently you configure your servers, drifts in configuration may eventually happen. This is why, once your IaC workflow has been built, you should make sure there is no outside intervention. You must make sure that any changes to your infrastructure are made in accordance with your established maintenance workflow. The idea that your infrastructure should remain exactly as defined and that, if a change is necessary, a whole new set is provisioned and completely replaces the outdated one is known as the infrastructure immutability principle.

Potential duplication of errors

Even though the IaC implementation and machine construction processes mainly rely on automation, several steps of the overall process still need to be completed by hand. One of those steps is writing the parent code, and wherever there is human labor involved, error is always a possibility. even in a setting where QA inspections are frequent and reliable.

As a result of automation, these mistakes may happen on numerous machines and may amount to numerous security breaches. Keep in mind that practically cloud vulnerabilities result from configuration errors. We strongly advise double-checking the code that creates your IaC architecture to make sure you are always safe. Processes for rigorous audits and severe, incredibly consistent testing can accomplish this. However,Often, these extra efforts result in higher overheads.

Conclusion

Infrastructure as Code is steadily but surely becoming standard practice for businesses that want automation and quicker turnaround times. Only a streamlined process and an enhanced development environment will allow for the speedier creation of applications. However, developing the best IaC solutions for your particular IT infrastructure shouldn't be undertaken carelessly, with limited resources, or without proper advice. But after you've properly configured your IaC environment, your development process will start producing results straight away. Sanesquare Technologies are providing best IaC Practice throughout the world,contact us for more details.

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