Deep-Dive Terraform on Azure

Get started with the foundations of Infrastructure as Code and learn how Terraform can automate the deployment and management of resources on Azure. This book covers all of the software engineering practices related to Terraform and Infrastructure as Code with Azure as a cloud provider.

The book starts with an introduction to Infrastructure as Code and covers basic concepts, principles, and tools, followed by an overview of Azure and Terraform that shows you how Terraform can be used to provision and manage Azure resources. You will get started writing multiple Terraform scripts and explore its various concepts. Author Ritesh Modi takes a deep dive into Terraform and teaches you about deployment and multiple resource creation using loops. Writing a reusable script using modules is discussed as well as management and administration of secrets, sensitive data, and passwords within Terraform code. You will learn to store and version Terraform scripts and know how Terraform is used in Azure DevOps pipelines. And you will write unit and integration tests for Terraform and learn its best practices. The book also highlights and walks through the Terraform Azure Provider and shows you a simple way to create a new Terraform provider.

After reading this book, you will be able to write quality Terraform scripts that are secure by design, modular, and reusable in Azure.

WHAT WILL YOU LEARN

* Understand implementation within infrastructure and application deployments
* Provision resources in Azure using Terraform
* Use unit and integration testing
* Explore concepts such as local vs remote, importing state, workspaces, and backends

WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR

Software engineers, DevOps professionals, and technology architects

RITESH MODI works with Microsoft as Senior Engineer on the Commercial Engineering team. He has served as Microsoft Regional Director as well as Regional Lead for Microsoft certified trainers.

Ritesh is an architect, a senior evangelist, cloud architect, published author, speaker, and a known leader for his contributions in Blockchain, Ethereum, Datacenter, Azure, bots, cognitive services, DevOps, artificial intelligence, and automation. He has more than a decade of experience in building and deploying enterprise solutions for customers. He has contributed to AzureRM provider multiple times as an open source contribution. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO INFRASTRUCTURE AS CODE

CHAPTER GOAL: UNDERSTAND THE BASICS ON INFRASTRUCTURE AS CODE PARADIGM AND KNOWN ABOUT ITS ADVANTAGES, PRINCIPLES AND TOOLS. UNDERSTAND THE NEED TO CONVERT INFRASTRUCTURE INTO CODE.

NO OF PAGES: 5

SUB -TOPICS

1. Understanding Configuration Management

2. Understanding Infrastructure as code

3. Principles of Infrastructure as code

4. Benefits and applicability for cloud environments

CHAPTER 2: AZURE AND TERRAFORM

CHAPTER GOAL: GET AN OVERVIEW OF AZURE AS ENTERPRISE CLOUD PROVIDER WITH DIFFERENT PARADIGM LIKE IAAS, PAAS. DIFFERENT WAYS TO PROVISION RESOURCES IN AZURE. HOW TERRAFORM FITS WITHIN THE AZURE LANDSCAPE AND HOW IT CAN BE USED TO PROVISION AZURE RESOURCES. UNDERSTAND THE HIGH-LEVEL ARCHITECTURE AND WORKFLOW USING TERRAFORM

NO OF PAGES: 15

SUB - TOPICS

1. Overview of Azure cloud

2. Overview of Terraform configuration management

3. Terraform workflow for provisioning and de-provisioning of resources

4. Terraform architecture – providers, plugins, resources, repositories

CHAPTER 3: GETTING STARTED WITH TERRAFORM

CHAPTER GOAL: GETTING HAND DIRTY WITH TERRAFORM, WRITING MULTIPLE TERRAFORM SCRIPTS EXPLORING DIFFERENT CONCEPTS OF TERRAFORM.

NO OF PAGES: 45

SUB - TOPICS:

1. Understand Terraform CLI and using various options

2. State Management in Terraform

3. using Resources, providers, outputs

4. Terraform Data types

5. Dependency graphs in Terraform scripts

CHAPTER 4: DEEP DIVE INTO TERRAFORM

Chapter Goal: Understanding the advance features of Terraform both from component as well at script level. Write advance Terraform scripts for conditional deployments, multiple resource creation using loops.

NO OF PAGES: 45

SUB - TOPICS:

1. Backend, state and workspace management in Terraform

2. dynamic provisioning of resources

3. loops, conditional statements – for, for-each, if

4. using Terraform functions – string, collection, encoding, file

CHAPTER 5: WRITING REUSABLE MODULES IN TERRAFORM

Chapter Goal: Writing reusable Terraform scripts using modules, storing modules in repositories and consuming them in multiple scripts.

NO OF PAGES: 25

1. Basic of Modules, child and parent modules

2. Passing parameters and getting output from modules

3. Using modules from multiple scripts.

CHAPTER 6: WRITING SECURE SCRIPTS WITH TERRAFORM

CHAPTER GOAL: MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF SENSITIVE DATA, SECRETS AND PASSWORDS WITHIN TERRAFORM CODE. USAGE OF KEY VAULTS FOR STORING OF SECRETS.

NO OF PAGES: 20

1. Secure storage of credentials and sensitive information

2. Usage of Managed Identities, certificates, service principles to connect to Azure

3. Storing secrets in Azure Key vault

CHAPTER 7: REPOS, VERSIONING, CI/CD PIPELINES FOR TERRAFORM

CHAPTER GOAL: OVERVIEW OF STORING AND VERSIONING OF TERRAFORM SCRIPTS SUCH THAT EACH VERSION CAN BE USED IN ISOLATION WITHOUT CONFLICTING WITH OTHERS. USING TERRAFORM CLI IN AZURE DEVOPS PIPELINES TO AUTOMATE THE PROCESS OF DEPLOYMENT OF AZURE RESOURCES.

NO OF PAGES: 20

1. Storing Terraform scripts in Azure DevOps

2. Versioning of Terraform modules

3. CICD pipelines for deploying resources on Azure using Terraform

CHAPTER 8: WRITING UNIT AND INTEGRATION TESTS FOR TERRAFORM

CHAPTER GOAL: TESTING OF TERRAFORM SCRIPTS USING TERRATEST UTILITY. UNDERSTANDING PRINCIPLES OF UNIT AND INTEGRATING TESTING ALONGSIDE IMPLEMENTING THEM

NO OF PAGES: 20

1. Exploring TerraTest and terra-lint

2. Understanding Unit testing and writing unit tests for Terraform scripts

3. Understanding Integration testing and writing Integration tests for Terraform scripts

CHAPTER 9: TERRAFORM BEST PRACTICES

CHAPTER GOAL: UNDERSTANDING THE BEST PRACTICES OF AUTHORING, DEPLOYING AND MANAGING TERRAFORM SCRIPTS IN GENERAL AND IN AZURE

NO OF PAGES: 10

1. Understanding Terraform Folder structure and deployment structure

2. Writing testable Terraform scripts

3. Writing Maintainable code – usage of variables, no hard-coding etc