Infrastructure as Code

Preface

Infrastructure and software development teams are increasingly building and managing infrastructure using automated tools that have been described as “infrastructure as code.” These tools expect users to define their servers, networking, and other elements of an infrastructure in files modeled after software source code. The tools then compile and interpret these files to decide what action to take.

This class of tool has grown naturally with the DevOps movement.¹ The DevOps movement is mainly about culture and collaboration between software developers and software operations people. Tooling that manages infrastructure based on a software development paradigm has helped bring these communities together.

Managing infrastructure as code is very different from classic infrastructure management. I’ve met many teams who have struggled to work out how to make this shift. But ideas, patterns, and practices for using these tools effectively have been scattered across conference talks, blog posts, and articles. I’ve been waiting for someone to write a book to pull these ideas together into a single place. I haven’t seen any sign of this, so finally took matters into my own hands. You’re now reading the results of this effort!

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and to Love the Cloud

I set up my first server, a dialup BBS,² in 1992. This led to Unix system administration and then to building and running hosted software systems (before we called it SaaS, aka “Software as a Service”) ...