The cloud is a software-defined infrastructure. To manage and automate its deployment, we use the concept of Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC).
Let’s consider, for example, the use of Terraform™, which is software to translate human-readable templates into live cloud deployments. When generating structure this way, all the inputs are still required — subnet size, host OS type, memory size, disks to allocate and firewalling between subnets — but it’s easy to transition from zero to a small test environment. Consider generating all the resources to create a private network using Terraform configurations documented at http://linuxinuse.com/devopsblog/use-terraform-modules/.
To help you in your journey, this blog explores the steps for a turnkey deployment.
- Set your variables that define the build: vars.tf
- Create a new Virtual Private Container (VPC): vpc.tf
- Define the network firewall rules: securitygroup.tf
- Build a virtual machine (VM): instance.tf
- Execute post-installation scripts on a VM: cloudinit.tf
- Run Terraform plan
- Run Terraform apply
Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC): Beyond Terraform
While the Terraform configuration is readable and creates cloud resources, its ability to apply further logic via the Terraform ecosystem is limited. If your goal is to hard-code values and generate the same environment, you’re limiting your extensibility and won’t be able to answer many of your initial questions. Many resources simply cannot be built without using a cloud API™. Here is an opportunity to expand on IaC.
By itself, IaC doesn’t restrict use of a particular programming language, but the API tools provided by cloud vendors restrict the choices to Python®, PowerShell™, bash or .NET. My advice: Pick a development platform based on your support team’s skillset, understand the core competency of the API and build logic around it. Terraform is a great start. Just keep in mind that your core build can be somewhat static, but it can be expanded over time. Because development time for an IaC may be limited, go for an initial base solution with incremental changes over time.
Building logic one block at a time
The building block of all code is logic functions. To automate a setup, you want to minimize hardcoding static values and make scripts as self-supported as possible. It’s ok to use static values if you’re taking an incremental approach, but going back and instantiating those values will help you make the code usable – and reusable – by less-technical staff. Some good base functions that you can create within Azure® with Terraform utilizing API executions include:
- Using GNU™ Privacy Guard (GPG) to avoid storing cleartext passwords on disk. GPG is used to encrypt your username and password. Your IaC defines input as your GPG username and password. Automation will retrieve your credentials from the GPG store and log in to a particular subscription. This prevents cloud credentials from being stored as cleartext and solves the problem of an attacker gaining credential access by searching for your default credential store method using files named “.aws/credentials.”
- Generating storage object access tokens. Object storage containers (Amazon S3™ bucket and blob) and the files within can be accessed using time-expiring tokens to restrict access acutely. Fortunately, generating keys doesn’t have to be manual. A function input is a resource group (called VPC at AWS™), a storage account name, container name, filename and length of expiration. Automation can handle storage key retrieval to produce access tokens. You can feed the resulting token into another routine, securely send to a third party or output to screen for manual use.
- Determining the IP space of a new engagement. Your function’s input is the cloud data center location and subnet size. If your subnets are static, this input is predestined. Automation will statically map a unique class B subnet to all of your cloud provider’s data centers. Just return the next unused subnet to produce your new IP and subnet. This enables each region to have a non-overlapping and predictable IP space. Keep in mind that if you ever need to connect the two subnets, you will need new routes, network peering and firewall allowances.
- Performing targeted remote execution using cloud-native methods. Initiate non-default cloud agent installations; enable host, API, or metric logging; full-disk-encrypt endpoints; or run arbitrary code from the host’s native shell. The options continue, but the goal is to avoid human interactivity to maintain repeatability. The web console can still be useful, but what’s done by hand must be documented and repeated by hand. One notable exception to automation is that you cannot retrieve the Azure Workspaces key with the API. The key is used to assign a VM to a workspace for monitoring and patch management.
Need additional information? Contact a member of our CIFR team 24/7/365 by phone 888-RISK-411 or email CIFR.hotline@accenture.com.
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