Jason McMunn

Okay, this is a great project with a lot of potential for impact. Let's craft a comprehensive automation playbook guide, focusing on building robust and maintainable infrastructure modules, mostly Terraform wrappers, for your private cloud. It's crucial to go beyond basic functionality and address the full lifecycle and operational aspects.

Here's a breakdown of what I'd include, going beyond your initial suggestions, along with the value each component brings:

I. Foundational Principles & Goals

• 1. Automation Philosophy:

  • Value: Establishes a shared understanding of why we automate, guiding all decisions.

  • Content: Define principles like:

    • Idempotency: Ensure scripts can be run multiple times without unintended side effects.

    • Declarative vs. Imperative: Prioritize declarative approaches (Terraform) wherever possible.

    • Infrastructure as Code (IaC) First: Treat infrastructure definitions as code.

    • Version Control: All configurations and scripts are version-controlled.

    • Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD): Integrate automation into the deployment pipeline.

    • Testability: Every component of the pipeline is testable.

• 2. Target Audience & Scope:

  • Value: Defines the "who" and "what" to avoid scope creep.

  • Content:

    • Who will use these modules? (Dev teams, Ops teams, etc.)

    • What infrastructure components will be covered? (Compute, networking, storage, etc.)

    • What level of abstraction is required? (e.g., high-level services or lower-level resources)

    • What is in and out of scope for each module?

• 3. Quality, Cost, Capacity, Documentation Goals:

  • Value: Sets concrete targets that are used to make decisions later on.

  • Content:

    • Quality: Define metrics such as Mean Time To Recover, Failure Rate, Bug Counts, Security Violations, Compliance issues.

    • Cost: Specify cost visibility goals and potential metrics such as actual vs budgeted costs, and cost per resource unit.

    • Capacity: Define metrics such as resource utilization rates, latency of provisioning and decommissioning, and time to scale.

    • Documentation: Establish the minimum acceptable level for documentation and requirements for keeping up to date.

II. Module Development & Guidelines

• 4. Terraform Module Structure:

  • Value: Ensures consistency and promotes reusability.

  • Content: Define a standardized structure:

    • main.tf (core logic)

    • variables.tf (inputs)

    • outputs.tf (outputs)

    • versions.tf (provider versions)

    • README.md (documentation)

    • examples/ (usage examples)

    • tests/ (automated tests)

• 5. Terraform Module Standards & Best Practices:

  • Value: Ensures code quality and security.

  • Content:

    • Use descriptive variable names, with defaults set whenever possible.

    • Utilize resource tagging for management and cost tracking.

    • Set resource lifecycle configurations to prevent accidental destruction and encourage non-destructive updates whenever possible.

    • Enforce consistent formatting with terraform fmt.

    • Use version pinning to lock provider versions.

    • Separate configuration and state for different deployments (use Terraform workspaces or separate backends)

    • Use remote state management.

    • Keep module logic modular, simple, and focused on a single concern.

    • Avoid storing secrets directly in configuration files or modules; use secrets management tools (HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager) and data sources.

    • Implement secure defaults (e.g., encryption, secure access controls)

• 6. Third-Party Module Considerations:

  • Value: Mitigates risk and ensures consistent quality when using third party modules.

  • Content:

    • Module Selection Criteria:

      • Maturity, number of downloads, stars, and reviews.

      • Regular maintenance and updates from the provider.

      • Support for your cloud environment.

      • Customization capabilities.

      • Community support.

    • Vendor Lock-in: Carefully evaluate vendor lock-in when selecting modules.

    • Wrapper Strategy:

      • Create thin wrappers around third-party modules to enable custom configuration and modifications when needed.

      • Implement a custom error handling.

      • Expose only necessary configurable variables.

      • Add specific documentation.

• 7. Home Grown Module Considerations:
  * Value: Encourages teams to work together and develop maintainable modules.
  * Content:
  * Code reviews: Ensure that team code is reviewed and meets the coding standards outlined above.
  * Naming conventions: Ensure that naming standards align with third-party modules to facilitate integration.
  * Design documentation: Ensure that any home grown modules are documented with architectural and design decisions.
  * Peer reviews: Team should be encouraged to review each other's modules prior to deployment.

III. Testing & Validation

• 8. Unit Testing:

  • Value: Ensures module functionality at the unit level.

  • Content:

    • Use tools like terraform validate and tftest to validate module configurations.

    • Write tests to check resource configuration, variable constraints, and output values.

    • Create test cases for different scenarios (e.g., happy path, error conditions).

• 9. Integration Testing:

  • Value: Validates the interaction between modules and the cloud environment.

  • Content:

    • Use a dedicated test environment.

    • Deploy the module and verify resources are created correctly, and functionality works as expected.

    • Test upgrades and destructive changes.

• 10. Compliance and Security Testing:

  • Value: Ensures compliance with security policies and standards.

  • Content:

    • Implement security checks with tools such as tfsec.

    • Validate resource configuration against your security policy.

    • Perform vulnerability scans and penetration testing in test environments.

IV. Deployment & Operationalization

• 11. CI/CD Pipeline:

  • Value: Automates the module testing and deployment process.

  • Content:

    • Use a version control system (e.g., Git) for module source.

    • Automate code checks, tests, and vulnerability scanning as part of the CI process.

    • Implement a staging environment to test before deployment to production.

    • Use Infrastructure as Code deployment tools such as Terraform Cloud or Atlantis.

    • Trigger deployments when changes are made to the module source.

• 12. Versioning & Rollbacks:

  • Value: Allows for easier tracking and management of changes.

  • Content:

    • Use semantic versioning.

    • Store module code in a versioned system (e.g., git tags)

    • Implement automated rollback procedures.

    • Document changes and release notes.

• 13. Monitoring & Logging:

  • Value: Provides visibility into module performance and stability.

  • Content:

    • Log all operations and audit trails

    • Monitor module deployments and infrastructure state.

    • Alert on issues and failures.

    • Use appropriate monitoring tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana).

• 14. Documentation & Training:

  • Value: Provides usage guides and training materials to onboard new users and support existing users.

  • Content:

    • Maintain a central repository of module documentation.

    • Document all variables, outputs, and usage examples.

    • Provide training materials and workshops for module consumers.

    • Provide troubleshooting documentation.

V. Iteration & Maintenance

• 15. Regular Review & Improvement:

  • Value: Continuously improves modules based on feedback and usage.

  • Content:

    • Collect feedback from module users.

    • Regularly review module design and implementation.

    • Reassess resource needs.

    • Make updates based on bug fixes, security patches, and new requirements.

• 16. Module Deprecation & Retirement:

  • Value: Avoids clutter and provides a clear roadmap when legacy modules should be phased out.

  • Content:

    • Define a process for module deprecation.

    • Provide a migration path for using newer modules.

    • Remove deprecated modules from the repository after a suitable period.

VI. Example Implementation

Here is how an example implementation might look like for a module that deploys a virtual machine.

• Module Structure: Following the structure outlined in point #4.

• Module Standards: Follow the standards outlined in point #5 including things like using descriptive variable names, tagging standards, version pinning.

• Third-Party Modules For the VM module the underlying implementation will be based on a third-party vendor but all parameters will be exposed as variables in the variables.tf file. All custom logic will be defined in the wrapper to provide a standard experience across all vendors.

• Home Grown Modules: Use the module design from point #7 to implement custom logic such as custom metrics tracking or application installs.

• Testing: Implemented tests as outlined in point #8 and #9 including unit tests and integration tests.

• CI/CD: Follow guidelines outlined in point #11 to implement continuous testing and deployment using an automation pipeline.

• Versioning: Follow the guidelines in point #12 to use semantic versioning and store all code in a versioned system.

• Monitoring: Follow the guidelines in point #13 to ensure that all VMs can be monitored including any internal applications.

• Documentation: Use the README.md file to document the module as outlined in point #14 to provide useful and helpful documentation.

Value Summary

• Consistency: Standardized structure and practices for all modules.

• Reusability: Modules are designed to be shared and reused across teams.

• Quality: Testing and validation ensures reliable functionality.

• Security: Modules are implemented with security in mind.

• Maintainability: Easier to update and enhance modules.

• Efficiency: Faster development and deployment time.

• Reduced Risk: Clear guidelines and processes.

• Cost Management: Improved resource utilization, clear cost tracking and visibility.

Next Steps

1. Prioritize: Identify the most critical modules and begin implementing this playbook.

2. Pilot: Test your playbook with a small group before rolling it out to all teams.

3. Iterate: Refine your playbook based on feedback and real-world experience.

By establishing this comprehensive automation playbook, you'll empower your teams to build a robust, maintainable, and cost-effective private cloud infrastructure. Let me know if you'd like to delve into any of these components further!

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